When Abbie Hoffman’s Steal This Book was financially profitable, he remarked: “It’s embarrassing when you try to overthrow the government and you wind up on the Best Seller’s List.” A Rolling Stone magazine article indicated that Hoffman had stolen/plagiarized most of the research for the book from Izak Haber.
Dustin Hoffman said he based his portrayal of the piratical title character in the movie Hook in part on conservative pundit and author William F. Buckley.
Young George Harrison’s favorite comedian was an eccentric gent who called himself Lord Buckley. Years after the Lord’s death, George wrote the song "Crackerbox Palace, " which was the name of Lord Buckley’s house.
George Harrison was found to have “subconsciously” plagiarized his hit song “My Sweet Lord” from the earlier Chiffon’s song “He’s So Fine”.
(Aside - I have always thought that this was a pretty weak case, there is barely any resemblance IMHO)
John Ryan of the Bronx, who worked under the stage name Jack Lord, was CIA agent Felix Leiter in Sean Connery’s first James Bond movie,*** Dr. No***
British actress Keira Knightley will play Cathy Ryan in Jack Ryan, the newest movie based on Tom Clancy’s espionage/militaria novels. Chris Pine, perhaps best known recently for playing James T. Kirk, will play the title role. The movie will be released on Christmas Day.
Cathy Rigby was the top-scoring American gymnast at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, and later was the first American woman to win a medal at a World Gymnastics Championships. In 1974, she began an acting career of sorts, mostly specializing in playing Peter Pan in live productions of the Mary Martin Broadway musical, a role she continues to perform today.
James L. Barrie was apparently famously known for being impotent. At least once in his presence Peter Pan was introduced as the story of “the boy who wouldn’t grow up, by the man who couldn’t go up.”
Mystery writer P.D. James, who is still a practicing Anglican, was inspired to write Children of Men after looking around her church and seeing that there were only a dwindling number of elderly people who attended services each week.
The title of the Cormac McCarthy novel and Tommy Lee Jones film No Country for Old Men comes from a line in William Butler Yeats’ poem “Sailing to Byzantium”.
As Loach observes, in threads like this, a gorgeous wife or girlfriend is almost always taken as proof that a guy is gay!
By the logic employed here, Rob Halford is probably the straightest guy on Earth (see, he’s so secure in his heterosexuality that he doesn’t need to prove it by sleeping with girls!).
I’ll assume the previous was meant for another thread. Back in play:
Jack Butler Yeats, brother of William, was a successful artist, painting landscapes and scenes of Ireland.
Author (William) Wilkie Collins’s first published book was Memoirs of the Life of William Collins, Esq., R.A., a tribute to his father,Royal Academician landscape artist William Collins.
1940 Republican Presidential candidate Wendell Lewis Willkie was born Lewis Wendell Willkie. His first and middle names were transposed accidentally when he was industed into the army in 1913. He went with it.
According to recollections by newspaper publisher Gardner Cowles, Wendell L. Willkie’s visit to China involved a bizarre episode in which Soong May-ling, wife of Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek allegedly seduced Willkie. Cowles claimed she planned to use China’s wealth to help Willkie become President in 1944. Cowles’ story was never substantiated.
The sisters of Mme. Chiang (Soong May-Ling), Soong Ching-Ling and Soong Ai-Ling, respectively married Sun Yat-Sen, founder of the Republic of China, and H.H. Kung, China’s richest man and Sun’s finance minister.
Datsun was first called Datson, meaning the a smaller version of the already existing “Dat.” Whe Nissan bought the brand, the “son” was changed to “sun,” since “son” could also mean “loss.” “Sun” is also a reference to the rising sun symbol of Japan.
Dat Nguyen, the son of Vietnamese “boat people,” was born in a refugee camp in Arkansas. He was a stellar linebacker for the Texas A &M Aggies, and became the first Vietnamese player in the NFL, after he was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys.
Current Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel, “Johnny Football”, who runs coach Kevin Sumlin’s “Air Raid” offense, is the only freshman ever to win the Heisman Trophy.
The earliest surviving Air Force One (although it was not called that at the time) was President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s refit C-54 Sacred Cow, which included an elevator just big enough for FDR and his wheelchair to be raised into and lowered out of the aircraft.