Einstein
Dustin Hoffman. Don’t know why he popped into my mind.
Pete Postlethwaite. I wonder why.
Kevin Spacey - because of user name
me too
me too
Agreed! I just meant, a fairly predictable answer–not the kind that makes people say “Well! What an interesting person to choose! This Ulf the Unwashed character must be really quite perceptive and intelligent, not to mention creative!” --Which is the purpose. Right?!
Is that a whoosh?
Brad Pitt.
Courtney Cox
Don’t know why.
Barack Obama.
Morgan Freeman. Shawshank Redemption was on last night, and I guess I haven’t thought about anyone famous since then?!
That would be an incidental benefit, I suppose - but I think the OP was going for honest answers.
Another person who thought of Albert Einstein. I think he’s the winner in this poll so far.
He was the first person I thought of too. But he did come up in conversation with a friend earlier today.
Years ago, in an EFL class with very varied races, I asked the same question and all but one said Michael Jackson (written down on paper). I think they might have been going for someone that everyone else might have heard of, but it was still interesting that he was the one they chose.
Saw the thread title, looked at the name of the OP.
Anyway, my famous person is John Belushi.
Another “I don’t know why”.
J. Edgar Hoover
I’m a big Tiger Woods fan. He tees off for the first time this year in about 10 minutes (he’s playing in Abu Dhabi), and I’ve been waiting for this for a week. His round tonight was supposed to be outside the live coverage window, so I thought all I would see is highlights at 4AM, but this morning the Golf Channel announced they were going to move their coverage up by six hours, so we’ll get to see his entire round live, and in prime time, at least to start. So I’ve been really anxiously waiting for that all day.
And while waiting for that to start, I was watching “The Last Word” with Lawrence O’Donnell, who was talking non-stop about Obama.
So, which name popped into my head when I saw your subject line?
Of course… George Washington.
Another Michael Jackson here. I think I know why I thought of him: years ago I read about people dreaming about famous people and was never aware that I had. Over the next week I had several dreams with famous people in (or perhaps I remembered the dreams I had of famous people). The one I can still remember was an amazing baroque confection that began with sittiing next to Jackson at a science fiction convention and progressed through getting lost in hotel corridors to seeing, through a large window, ranks of zombies on the street outside. Who naturally broke into the Thriller dance 
I thought of Tom Hanks – no special reason. Had I read the question an hour earlier or later, I might have said Joe Paterno, George Washington, Billy Joel, or any of literally hundreds of other choices.
ETA: After posting, I started reading responses. I got to Post 8 and saw IvoryTowerDenizen had named the same person, and in the same apparent spirit of randomness.
Because of this board, the first thought that popped in to my head earlier today was Kevin Bacon. I was at work so I didn’t post it, but tonight I was going over the thread list and saw this subject. First thought again: Kevin Bacon.
I don’t even like him that much. It’s this board and it’s bacon obsession, swear to God.