# Obscure but interesting celebrity trivia. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 1, 2015, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392 "2015-06-01T22:16:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/61 "2015-06-03T11:12:49Z")
Phil Collins was one of the extras in the crowd scene during the stage show in the film “A Hard Day’s Night.” ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/62 "2015-06-03T12:02:24Z")
Rose Wilder Lane probably rewrote the Little House on the Prairie books to conform more to her tastes. She did not start any political party. She is considered to be one of the three most important American women to advocate libertarianism, so she’s approximately one of the dozen most important Americans in creating the modern-day American notion of libertarianism. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/63 "2015-06-03T12:41:52Z")
Olivia Newton-John is the grandchild of Noble prize winner Max Born. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/64 "2015-06-03T13:18:59Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Ringo Starr’s wife Barbara Bach’s sister is married to Joe Walsh, making Joe and Ringo brothers-in-law. And Mick Fleetwood’s ex-wife Jenny Boyd is the sister of Patti Boyd Harrison Clapton, making Mick the ex-brother-in-law of both George Harrison and Eric Clapton. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/65 "2015-06-03T13:27:44Z")
Bill Wyman once dated a young girl while his son dated the girl’s mother. Had both couples gotten married then his son would also be his father in law. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/66 "2015-06-03T14:15:30Z")
Stripper Gypsy Rose Lee became a major celebrity in the 40s and has the musical **Gypsy** written about her, which shows how she took over the family vaudeville act when her sister June left the act. June is not mentioned again in the play. However, the real June because a successful Broadway and Hollywood actress under the name June Havoc. ---
**Author:** ![Nonsuch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonsuch/32/2922_2.png) [@Nonsuch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nonsuch)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/67 "2015-06-03T15:09:39Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > [Jack Nicholson grew up thinking that his mother was his sister.](http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/11/jack-nicholsons-supposed-sister-was-actually-his-mother/) [So did Eric Clapton.](http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/06/until-he-was-nine-eric-clapton-thought-his-mother-was-his-sister/) Self-appointed national moralist William Bennett once went on a blind date with Janis Joplin. Musical satirist Tom Lehrer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim once attended summer camp together. Lehrer also claims to have invented the Jell-O Shot. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/68 "2015-06-03T17:01:45Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Bill Wyman once dated a young girl while his son dated the girl’s mother. Had both couples gotten married then his son would also be his father in law. Bill and Mandy eventually did get married. And if Bill’s Son and Mandy’s Mother had a child together, Bill Wyman would have become his own grandfather. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/69 "2015-06-03T18:20:31Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > [Jack Nicholson grew up thinking that his mother was his sister.](http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/11/jack-nicholsons-supposed-sister-was-actually-his-mother/) > [@Nonsuch](#): > > [So did Eric Clapton.](http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/06/until-he-was-nine-eric-clapton-thought-his-mother-was-his-sister/) [So did Bobby Darin.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Darin) ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/70 "2015-06-03T18:40:51Z")
Gloria Steinhem hated the novel American Psycho for it’s misogynistic pornographic content. and was vocally opposed to the original leading man Leonardo DiCaprio thinking that the legions of adoring female fans would get the wrong message. So they instead ended up casting Christian Bale. 3 years later Steinhem became his step mother. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/71 "2015-06-03T20:35:06Z")
Ok, got one more. This isn’t exactly news and pops up often in this kind of threads, but I’m a big Papa Nez fan and have to mention it: Michael Nesmith’s mother Bette invented liquid paper. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/72 "2015-06-03T20:42:35Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Ross Bagdasarian, under his stage name “David Seville,” created the singing group the Chipmunks (and sang all three parts on their original songs). He was a cousin of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright William Saroyan. A few years earlier, the two of them co-wrote “Come on-a My House,” which made Saroyan the only person to win a Pulitzer Prize and also have a #1 single. He also sang “Witch Doctor”. In fact, it was his experimentation with sped up voices on that song that led to the Chipmunks. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/73 "2015-06-03T21:26:27Z")
Wally Cox and Marlon Brando were college roommates, and remained good friends. Anni-Frid Lyngstad, of ABBA, is a Nazi _lebensborn_ project child. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/74 "2015-06-03T21:51:33Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Swoosie Kurtz’s father was Frank Kurtz, an officer in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II. After surviving an attack on Clark Field in the Philippines (concurrent with the one at Pearl Harbor), Kurtz escaped to Australia and cobbled together a B-17 from parts of two damaged airplanes. He named his plane “The Swoose”, after a bird in a popular song who was half swan and half goose. Swoosie is named after the airplane. That one’s awesome. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/75 "2015-06-03T22:11:04Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Anni-Frid Lyngstad, of ABBA, is a Nazi _lebensborn_ project child. Was that project running near Narvik, in Norway, in early 1945? Or was she the result of a hook-up between a young local girl and and a soldier far from home? I rather suspect the latter. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/76 "2015-06-04T06:04:13Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Wally Cox and Marlon Brando were college roommates, and remained good friends. Long time ago, don’t remember where I read it, Brando and Cox were very close, and Brando was “devastated” by Cox’s death. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/77 "2015-06-04T06:43:51Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > Hal Roach, director of the _Little Rascals_ comedies, has met both Mark Twain (who once spoke at his school) and David Letterman (he was on the NBC show once as a guest. The kicker on this is that Twain and Roach are both buried in the same cemetery, in Elmira, NY. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/78 "2015-06-04T08:05:07Z")
Various sources online say that all of these people are examples of ones who grew up thinking that their mother was their older sister and were thus raised by their maternal grandparents, who pretended to be their parents: 1. Bobby Darin 2. Jack Nicholson 3. Eric Clapton 4. Ted Bundy 5. Paul Nurse 6. Merle Oberon 7. David Campbell 8. Bayard Rustin 9. Catherine Cookson ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/79 "2015-06-04T08:08:49Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Various sources online say that all of these people are examples of ones who grew up thinking that their mother was their older sister and were thus raised by their maternal grandparents, who pretended to be their parents: > > 1. Bobby Darin > 2. Jack Nicholson > 3. Eric Clapton > 4. Ted Bundy > 5. Paul Nurse > 6. Merle Oberon > 7. David Campbell > 8. Bayard Rustin > 9. Catherine Cookson That’s really fucking sad. And disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/80 "2015-06-04T08:44:46Z")
Well, maybe not so sad. Remember, the grandparents are people who didn’t throw their pregnant daughter out of the house. They’re not people who demanded that the baby be adopted and never spoken of again. They’re not people who let the daughter and baby grow up in their house and then spent the rest of their life telling them both how they were an eternal shame to the family. These are people who knew that the only way that they could avoid shame to the family and yet raise the child within the family was to create this elaborate pretense. These are people who loved and wanted to protect their child and grandchild, even if it required a complicated set of lies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392.md?page=5)