Seeing Sandy Dennis’s name on another thread I got to thinking, there are a lot of talented people that should be all rights be a lot more famous than they were based on their talents.
Perhaps it was their own fault, through use of drugs, or just the times (someone with a similar style got more of the breaks) or for whatever reason, they achieved some fame but you feel they should’ve got more attention than they did.
To me Sandy Dennis is one of these actresses.
Three more I can think of are
Jo Stafford
Ann Sothern
Jay Mohr (though he’s still around with his new TV show Gary Unmarried so he might become more famous
This isn’t in the field of entertainment, but one day I watched a documentary on the life and work of African-American scientist Percy Julian and immediately thought “this guy should definitely be more well known than he is.”
Like Jackie Robinson, not only was he extremely talented in his field but he managed to do all sorts of amazing things while in the middle of a race war. That’s pretty f’n spectacular if you ask me. Yet, I’d never heard of him until I saw the documentary.
Antonio Meucci, the inventor of the telephone. Check it out here. Evidently, if he would have had an extra $10, we never might have heard of A. G. Bell. Amazing.
The reason Jo Stafford and Ann Sothern aren’t better known is because they didn’t have as big a second career in movies and TV as Doris Day and Lucille Ball.
Some I can think of who aren’t better remembered:
Judy Holliday, brilliant comic actress who died at the peak of her career.
Lesley Ann Warren, her best work was on stage, not seen by enough people.
Angela Lansbury, deserves to be remembered for more than Murder She Wrote
Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of Perry Mason, who also wrote under more than a half-dozen different pen names
Dropping from fame quickly, we have Arthur Godfrey, who once had THREE prime time shows at once, in addition to a daily network radio show. He was the Regis Philbin of his era.
Just a couple of days ago I caught a silent film on TV and was very impressed by the performance of the lead actor, who seemed very natural and real (did I mention this was a silent film?). I didn’t recognize his face or name, so I did a little research. I almost wish I hadn’t because what I found out about James Murray wasn’t very cheerful, although it adds some poignancy to The Crowd.
How old are you? Jackie Robinson was one of the most famous ball players (among other things) of all time. It’s hard to believe that there are people who never heard of him.
(For a second, I read that as Sandy Denny and almost agreed with you.)
Sandy Dennis won an Oscar and made the cover of Time magazine as an up-and-coming star sometime around 1967 so I think it’s arguable that she didn’t get a lot of attention at least early in her career. As for why she didn’t maintain that level of fame much longer, I think a lot of it had to do with the perception (perhaps inaccurate and unfair) that she always played whiny neurotic characters who cried too much. Filmgoers found her on-screen persona too annoying.
As for others who qualify under this thread topic, as a female singer-songwriter, Laura Nyro hit the scene about two years too soon. As a result, she missed out on the success that Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon had as performers.
I was just reading an article today about General Edward King. He was the commander of the forces that defended Bataan during WWII. He fought very well but was in an unwinnable situation and had to eventually surrender. But he’s been forgotten - most people just remember Jonathan Wainwright.
Lanois is pretty well known in Canada as an artist, but most of his Big Important work is as a producer (Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree, etc.), so it’s not surprising that he’s more well-known to musicians than to the public.
Thanks for posting that, I’m embarrassed to say I’d not heard of Julian - I’m a chemist and thought I was familiar with the early steroid / pill story.
You can take you pick of scientists, really, who aren’t as famous as maybe they should be. There is little recognition in the mainstream media for even the mightiest scientists. I guess that’s another thread.
A few SF authors who don’t seem to get as much attention as they might:
David Zindell wrote the best first novel I’ve read in SF - Neverness. There was a thread on here recently about Neal Stephenson’s latest book Anathem, which is awesome. *Neverness *is very similar in theme, and better. He then went on to write stuff that was, to be fair, not quite in the same league. It’s still a cut above most SF though, and I never seem to see his name bandied about on here or elsewhere. Interesting fact is that Zindell attended a writing course taught by Gene Wolfe, and you can see the influence of the Master in Neverness (Is Gene Wolfe as famous as he should be? Probably, these days).
Paul Park is another SF writer who, like Zindell, wrote a spell-binding debut novel(s). The Starbridge chronicles were hugely ambitious, and consequently flawed in places, but still very very impressive. His subsequent books have been critically acclaimed, but I get the impression that he is under the radar of most SF fans.