Born near I was born:
Robbie Merrill & Sully Erna of Gobsmack (same city)
Misha Collins (within 30 miles)
Lisa Edelstein ("")
…and everyone else famous born in the Boston area
Benedict Arnold
Katherine Hepburn
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Valerie Plame was born in Anchorage.
Well, I was born in Ecuador, which narrows the field considerably.
Mike Judge (Office Space, King of the Hill - !!!)
Pancho Segura (top tennis player in the 50s)
Gerardo (“Rico Suave” singer)
They were all born in Guayaquil and I was born in Quito.
I was born in Knoxville, TN. I only lived there as a baby.
Quentin Tarantino
Jack Hanna (Interesting as I spent a lot of time in Columbus, OH as well)
Randy Orton (pro wrestler)
Herta Muller - Nobel Prize winner, 2009
Johnny Weissmuller - Olympic medalist (swimming) & Tarzan
Bela Lugosi - Count Dracula
All born around Timisoara, Romania. Are they famous enough?
I did not know that. Thought maybe I had a couple in Jewel Kilcher and Carlos Boozer, but both came from elsewhere.
In the same town
Valerie Singleton
Henry Bessemer
Close by and where I grew up
Lewis Hamilton
If you’re from the UK, you don’t need any help with two of those. Without Bessemer, the industrial revolution would have been very difficult.
I was born at Fort Bragg but couldn’t locate anybody else “famous” from there, so I went to nearby Fayetteville to find
Cortland Finnegan – defensive back for the Titans and one of my favorite players on the home team
Randy Boone – who’s mostly famous for being kin to some other Boones of note, and who was born a month after I was.
I didn’t live in Fayetteville long, and when I checked the Alabama towns I did live in until I was in college, I didn’t see anybody all that special although there are quite a few from Montgomery.
You could fill a small book with the famous people from Nashville, where I live now.
Well, I live in London, so… I’ll narrow it down to film stars from within a mile or so:
Boris Karloff (born just off Peckham Rye)
Charlie Chaplin (East Street, Walworth)
Michael Caine (born in Rotherhithe, grew up in Camberwell)
As was Giants WR Steve Smith and MLB pitcher Curt Schilling.
My birthplace:
Jessica Alba
Mark McGwire
Tom Waits
Nobody you probably ever heard of.
According to Wikipedia, the three most famous people born near me are:
*Jean Arthur - a moderately known actress back in the thirties
*Angelica Costello aka Venus - a porno actress I’ve never heard of
*John Henry Hopkins, Jr - the guy that wrote the Christmas carol “We Three Kings”
Bobby Orr, Terry Crisp, and Gary Sabourin. All hockey players, and all three competed in the 1970 Stanley Cup Finals. Orr for Boston; Crisp and Sabourin for St. Louis. Orr’s overtime winner in Game 4, winning the first Stanley Cup for Boston since 1941, is one of the most famous pictures in hockey history.
In addition, former Premier of Ontario Ernie Eves wasn’t born in Parry Sound, but moved there as a teenager and represented the area as a Member of Provinical Parliament for 20 years.
Here are quite a few (in no particular order)–Morgan Freeman, Shannen Doherty, Cybill Shepherd, Kathy Bates, Abe Fortas, William Sanderson, Ginnifer Goodwin, Lisa Marie Presley, Justin Timberlake, Aretha Franklin, Hellpaso.
How well know are the three people I listed?
John Wooden
David Letterman
John Dillinger
Greenville SC
Jesse Jackson
Shoeless Joe Jackson
Andie MacDowell
Charles Townes
Douglas Adams
Olivia Newton-John
John Maynard Keynes
In order I’d say Dillinger was/is more famous than Letterman, unless his fame is fading due to more Most Wanted types having eclipsed his exploits. Movies keep that from happening, though.
I bet Letterman is known by more people than Wooden.
Most basketball fans (and others aware of major coaches) would know of Wooden.
More people would recognize Letterman’s picture and voice, I suspect.
Ok we’ve already had 2 Clevelanders so I’ll move it down south to Akron…
LeBron James
Tom Batiuk (Funky Winkerbean, Crankshaft)
Chrissie Hynde