# 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:** 8
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/141 "2015-06-07T00:35:15Z")
Woody Harrelson’s father, Charles, was convicted of murdering a federal judge and was serving a life sentence when he died in 2007. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/142 "2015-06-07T01:50:17Z")
The _three_ Jewish characters played by Charleton Heston? Two easy and one nobody can name: Moses, Ben Hur, and Marine Maj. Matt Lewis in **55 Days at Peking** : based on John Twiggs “Handsome Jack” Myers, son of Conferedate General Abraham Myers (after whom Fort Myers Florida is named), and who also inspired the character of Capt. Jerome in **The Wind and the Lion** ---
**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 7, 2015, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/143 "2015-06-07T02:15:24Z")
Steven Stills auditioned for a part in **The Monkees** , but was turned down because the producers felt he wouldn’t photograph well on camera. They asked Stills if he could suggest anyone else, and Stills mentioned a friend of his, Peter Tork. Finance guru Suze Orman once shared an apartment with Judy Jacklin, who was dating (and later married) John Belushi. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/144 "2015-06-07T03:19:11Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > As a teenager, Bill Clinton met JFK in the Whitehouse Historical note: In 1888, approximately, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s parents visited the White House with their son, then about six years old. They met President Grover Cleveland, who faced his eventual successor and said, “My boy, I have a strange wish for you. It is that you will never be President of the United States.” Little Franklin said, “Why, Mr. President?” “Because it is a job that will make you very unhappy.” The little boy looked up at the big, heavyset man and said, “But **you** don’t look unhappy, Mr. President.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2015, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/145 "2015-06-07T07:22:44Z")
A very young Theodore Roosevelt watched Abraham Lincoln’s funeral procession as it passed through New York City. (There’s a photo of this: [Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln in the same photo – Pieces of History](http://blogs.archives.gov/prologue/?p=2445.)) About the same time, a very young Woodrow Wilson watched Confederate President Jefferson Davis being marched to prison by Union guards in Augusta, GA. ([http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/wilson/section1.rhtml](http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/wilson/section1.rhtml)) ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/146 "2015-06-08T09:34:47Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Redd Foxx, from Sanford and Son, met Malcom X while both were dishwashers in a New York restaurant. They went in business together, selling suits stolen from a dry cleaner and marijuana. Red Foxx’s real name was - Sanford. First name John. Who like Fred was also from St. Louis. And the woman who played Aunt Esther, Fred’s bible toting enemy, was played by LaWanda Page and her and John were actually best friends going back to high school. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/147 "2015-06-08T19:44:37Z")
Children’s author Roald Dahl, who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was a pilot for the UK during WW2 but had to stop due to health issues. After that he was assigned to Washington DC where his job was to spy on the US government by seducing influential women. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/148 "2015-06-08T21:11:38Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Children’s author Roald Dahl, who wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, was a pilot for the UK during WW2 but had to stop due to health issues. After that he was assigned to Washington DC where his job was to spy on the US government by seducing influential women. Is that how he met Patricia Neal? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2015, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/149 "2015-06-08T21:27:38Z")
60’s supermodel [Veruschka’s](https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/51732914@N04/6982257168/) father was killed by the Nazis for his involvement in the July 20 Plot. She then spent the remainder of the war in a concentration camp. (An actual instance of the “skinny fashion model/concentration camp inmate” joke) ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2015, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/150 "2015-06-09T05:16:52Z")
Somehow I think there’s a grain of truth in the notion that fashion models are so skinny because their prototype was a Holocaust survivor… ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2015, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/151 "2015-06-09T14:31:39Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > Is that how he met Patricia Neal? :eek: No he met her after the war when she was in London doing a play. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2015, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/152 "2015-06-09T17:48:36Z")
> [@TreacherousCretin](#): > > Nitpick: Dennis retitled CM’s song as “Never Learn Not To Love.” Now then: > > 1- That song, written by Chuck Manson, was released on the Beach Boys album **20/20**. > 2- Jim Gordon played drums on that album. Years later, suffering from schizophrenia, he murdered his mother. Despite his obvious insanity, legal technicalities mandated his conviction for murder. > 3- Same album features the song “I Can Hear Music,” co-written by Phil Spector. > 4- Also the song “Cotton Fields”, written by Leadbelly. > > All of which makes 20/20 perhaps the only pop album with direct associations to four convicted murderers. …that we know of… ---
**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 10, 2015, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/153 "2015-06-10T19:13:54Z")
Jackie Gleason tried to borrow $200 from a stranger in Tulsa to take a train back to NY. He told the guy he was an actor but the guy did not believe him. The guy only believed him after they went to a local theater and saw a movie with Gleason in it. Gleason paid the $200 back after he arrived in NYC. ---
**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 10, 2015, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/154 "2015-06-10T19:54:00Z")
Bob Hope once won a “Walk Like Charlie Chaplin” contest. It’s long been stated that Charlie Chaplin himself once lost one, but this is likely apocryphal. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/155 "2015-06-11T02:49:16Z")
I was watching a series on ancient Rome and one of the presenters was Peter Weller, of Robocop fame. He recently earned a PHD in Italian Renaissance art history from UCLA, a masters from Syracuse, and has worked for the History Channel on several projects. ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/156 "2015-06-11T13:18:04Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > Bob Hope once won a “Walk Like Charlie Chaplin” contest. > > It’s long been stated that Charlie Chaplin himself once lost one, but this is likely apocryphal. Graham Greene once came second in a ‘write a short story in the style of Graham Greene’ contest. His brother came first. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/157 "2015-06-11T13:36:02Z")
> [@beagledave](#): > > She not only had a forceful personality, but the Sound of Music switched the personalities. The real Captain von Trapp was pretty easy going. The “Captain” part wasn’t just some honorific title like say “Colonel” Sanders… Capt. von Trapp was a reasonably successful U-boat captain during World War One in the Mediterranean, sinking nearly 45,000 tons of shipping. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/158 "2015-06-11T13:37:32Z")
> [@Sefton](#): > > Kirk Douglas’s birth name was Issur Danielovitch Demsky. So does that technically make Michael Douglas “Michael (Mikhail?) Kirkovich Demsky”? ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/159 "2015-06-11T14:18:16Z")
> [@Nonsuch](#): > > Bob Hope once won a “Walk Like Charlie Chaplin” contest. > > It’s long been stated that Charlie Chaplin himself once lost one, but this is likely apocryphal. Chaplin came in third in a Charlie Chaplin \* look-alike \* contest. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2015, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392/160 "2015-06-11T14:19:26Z")
> [@bump](#): > > So does that technically make Michael Douglas “Michael (Mikhail?) Kirkovich Demsky”? No; I think Douglas’ father changed his name legally. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-but-interesting-celebrity-trivia/721392.md?page=9)