Jim Kirk served aboard the USS Republic and the Farragut, and perhaps other Starfleet vessels, before assuming command of the Enterprise.
U.S. Admiral David Farragut, born the son of a slaveowning family in Tennessee, had a very long and distinguished naval career but is primarily remembered today for saying “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” at the Battle of Mobile Bay.
The captain of the ironclad USS Tecumseh, sunk at the 1864 Battle of Mobile Bay by a mine (torpedo), drowned when he courteously paused to permit the pilot of his ship to leave the turret first.
Dennis Wilson, the Beach Boys’ troubled drummer, drowned while diving from his boat, near Marina del Rey.
Dennis Wilson ‘hosted’ several members of the Manson family at his home on Sunset Blvd. and introduced Charles Manson to Doris Day’s son Terry Melcher who lived with Candice Bergen in a rented house on Cielo Dr. which would later be rented by Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate.
While the lead performer of eponymous band *Marilyn Manson *is (obviously) the most well known, each of the various musicians who played in the band over the course of its history have adopted similar pseudonyms combining the names of both a serial killer and a renowned beauty. For example, original members Daisy Berkowitz and Madonna Wayne Gacy.
In the 1996 movie EVITA a line was changed from the song RAINBOW TOUR as it appeared in the play:
was changed to
due to the fact Eva Duarte Peron was being played by, of course, Madonna.
“The Golden Touch” was the last short cartoon specifically directed by Walt Disney.
Walt Kelly worked on Disney’s Fantasia before starting his career writing and illustrating Pogo.
American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino starred as Celie on Broadway and the touring company versions of the musical The Color Purple.
Purple became associated with royalty in ancient times because only the very rich could afford the dye. Alexander the Great, the Ptolemic kings of Egypt and Roman emperors all wore purple robes.
Phoenicia’s (Tyre’s) trade in the eastern Mediterranean was founded on purple dye made from sea snails of the genus Murex.
Lydia of Philippi, mentioned in Acts, was a “seller of purple” (i.e. snail dye), though the lady with the Battle of Waterloo, Washington Crossing the Delaware, or the Wreck of the Hesperustattooswas a different person altogether.
“Wreck of the Hesperus” is a track on George Harrison’s hit album Cloud Nine, produced by Electric Light Orchestra frontman Jeff Lynne. A recording session for Harrison and Lynne to cut a B-side track for “This Is Love”, another track from Cloud Nine, quickly wound up involving Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, and Bob Dylan, and evolved into The Traveling Wilburys project.
NASCAR legend Richard Petty provides the voice of “The King” (aka Strip Weathers) in Pixar’s movie “Cars.” Petty’s real wife provides the voice of “Mrs. The King.”
“The Little King” (“le petit roi” in French) was a comic strip penned by “New Yorker” cartoonist Otto Soglow.
Louis XIV, greatest French King of them all (well, according to him in any case) suffered from horrendous haemorrhoids.
While working at a video store, Quentin Tarantino committed a malapropism and referred to Louis Malle’s “Au Revoir, Les Enfants” as “Reservoir Dogs.” That funny title stuck with him, and he used it as the title of the first movie he directed himself.
Tarantino has referred to actress Uma Thurman as his “muse,” and she starred in his two Kill Bill movies. Both have said the relationship is platonic.
Penn Gilette of Penn and Teller was a big fan of Uma Thurman when she was just breaking in, and mentioned her at least once in everything he wrote until she became a star.