# What Famous People Come From Your Home Town? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 1, 2007, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259 "2007-05-01T03:43:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![LVgeogeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b19c9b/32.png) [@LVgeogeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVgeogeek)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/81 "2007-05-02T07:07:11Z")
Famous people born in Omaha, Nebraska Fred Astaire; dancer, actor Max Baer; boxer Marlon Brando; actor Warren Buffett; investor Montgomery Clift; actor Bob Gibson; baseball player Gerald Rudolph Ford; U.S. president Susette La Flesche; artist Francis La Flesche; ethnologist Malcolm X; civil rights advocate Dorothy McGuire; actress Nick Nolte; actor Inga Swenson; actress Paul Williams; singer, composer, actor Julie Wilson; singer, actress From elsewhere about my home state: Johnny Carson; entertainer, tv host, Norfolk Grace Abbott; social worker, Grand Island Bil Baird; puppeteer, Grand Island Henry Fonda; actor, Grand Island Grover Cleveland Alexander; baseball pitcher, Saint Paul Darryl F. Zanuck; film producer, Wahoo George Beadle; geneticist, Wahoo Dick Cavett; TV entertainer, Gibbon James Coburn; actor, Laurel Sandy Dennis; actress, Hastings Mignon Eberhart; author, Lincoln Roscoe Pound; educator, legal scholar, Lincoln Don Wilson; announcer, Lincoln Harold Edgerton; inventor, Fremont Ruth Etting; singer, actress, David City Jay W. Forrester; inventor, Climax Hoot Gibson; actor, Tememah Howard Hanson; composer, conductor, Wahoo Leland Hayward; producer, Nebraska City David Janssen; actor, Naponee Frank W. Leahy; football coach, O’Neill Irish McCalla; actress, Pawnee City Red Cloud; Indian rights advocate, leader Mari Sandoz; author, Sheridan Cty Standing Bear; Indian rights advocate, leader Robert Taylor; actor, Filley ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/82 "2007-05-02T11:47:31Z")
[QUOTE=GorillaMan] No love for George Formby? [/QUOTE] I just came back to the thread to add him. ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/83 "2007-05-02T11:54:24Z")
Although I don’t believe he was born there, John Howard Paine lived in East Hampton, NY. He’s most famous for a little ditty he penned, whose refrain is “Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home.” The house he lived in is called “Home Sweet Home,” and is open to the public, so stop on by! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/84 "2007-05-02T12:06:46Z")
The following came from my hometown: John Maynard Keynes Sir George Thomson Richard Attenborough Frank Ramsey Ronald Searle Douglas Adams Christopher Cockerell Dame Margaret Cole Phillipa Pearce Oliver Cromwell (20 miles away) Sir John Cheke Douglas Hartree and not forgetting Thomas Hobson, now immortalised in “Hobson’s Choice”! ---
**Author:** ![Dazzling\_White\_Diamonds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/41988e/32.png) [@Dazzling\_White\_Diamonds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dazzling_White_Diamonds)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/85 "2007-05-02T12:55:38Z")
[QUOTE=Leaffan] No Google help allowed! Guess my home town; and then comprise your own list of people who have come from your own home town. Max Webster - 70s - 80s rock band Dino Ciccarelli - 80s - 90s hockey player Mike Weir - Current pro golfer James Doohan - Beam me up, Scotty! Kerry Fraser - NHL Referee Chris Hadfield - Astronaut Tony McKegney - 70s -80s hockey player Harry Neale - CBC Hockey Commentator Pat Verbeek - 80s -90s hockey player [/QUOTE] D’oh! I missed the part about guessing your hometown. Jimmy Doohan did it for me - Vancouver? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/86 "2007-05-02T12:59:20Z")
I have two home towns. For the first, a bunch of Navarrese kings, mostly. We’ve had famous visitors (including Sinatra, Ava Gardner and some dude who wrote some book) and one famous clergyman at the cathedral, none of which were born in town. Kind of funny whenever I meet someone from Japan and they ask about the clergyman, it’s happened a surprising number of times. For the second, Juda Levi and Benjamín de Tudela are the two that get named most frequently, along with Sancho VII of Navarra and Miguel Servet (discoverer of blood circulation, he mapped the small circuit going heart-lungs-heart and hypothesized a second circuit for the rest of the body; Henry verified Servet’s report and his hypothesis; he was actually born in Saragossa but went to school in my hometown and always signed as being from it). ---
**Author:** ![StuffLikeThatThere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@StuffLikeThatThere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StuffLikeThatThere)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/87 "2007-05-02T13:22:01Z")
No one. But my aunt went to high school with the Smucker boys (the jelly people) and Bobby Knight. ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/88 "2007-05-02T15:57:41Z")
Not sure about “born there,” but notible residents of Ipswich MA include: John Updike (author of some note. His A&P story was about a supermarket in town that is now a CVS pharmacy) Dick Berggren (FOX Sports NASCAR TV reporter, and publisher of Speedway Illustrated) ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/89 "2007-05-02T17:10:28Z")
Fred Rogers aka “Mr Rogers” George A Romero Heinz Family, the ketchup moguls Andrew Carnegie Dennis Miller Jimmy Stewart Dan Marino Michael Keaton Rachel Carson, author of “Silent Spring” Michael Chabon, director Zillions of sports legends… Sharon Stone Jeff Goldblum George Westinghouse Andrew Mellon, the banker ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/90 "2007-05-02T17:26:12Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] Football Player **Joe Theisman** Mystery Writer **Stephanie Plum** (although she rarely mentions our town in her NJ-based mysteries) Mystery Writer **Troy Soos** (who played Little League in my town) Also, NYC Commisioner and author of “How the Other Half Lives” **Jacob Riis** (who has a park in NYC named after him) lived in my town and worked as a laborer in the clay pits, making bricks. [/QUOTE] South River? No one of note grew up in my hometown that I know of. A couple of noteables in the town I currently live in. Lets just say its not safe to be a chauffeur. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/91 "2007-05-02T17:40:17Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] Natives: Billy Sunday, evangelist Peter Schickele, composer and scholar of P.D.Q. Bach Jake Johannsen, comedian Residents: George Washington Carver, agricultural scientist Michael Gartner, publisher-broadcasting exec Bob Bartley, editor-publisher Nick Nolte, actor Dan Gable, Olympic wrestler-coach Jane Smiley, novelist [/QUOTE] Answer: Ames, Iowa (from the Mesquakie for “Nobody Gives Two Shits”). Bob Bartley lived in the frat house across the street from my dad at Iowa State in 1957 and later went on to edit The Wall Street Journal. Michael Gartner used to edit the local paper _and_ be president of NBC News at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/92 "2007-05-02T17:41:47Z")
> [@](#): > > Quote: > Originally Posted by CalMeacham > Football Player Joe Theisman > > Mystery Writer Stephanie Plum (although she rarely mentions our town in her NJ-based mysteries) > > Mystery Writer Troy Soos (who played Little League in my town) > > Also, NYC Commisioner and author of “How the Other Half Lives” Jacob Riis (who has a park in NYC named after him) lived in my town and worked as a laborer in the clay pits, making bricks. > > South River? > > No one of note grew up in my hometown that I know of. > > A couple of noteables in the town I currently live in. Lets just say its not safe to be a chauffeur. Yeah, and I screwed up – Stephanie Plum was the character **Janet Evanovich** is the author (who’s moved from NH, I understand, and is now in Florida IIRC). There are a couple of other football players of note from my hometown, but I never followed football closely. Drew Pearson, Troy Hill, “Scotty” Scarzinsky. ---
**Author:** ![Walkabout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walkabout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walkabout)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/93 "2007-05-02T17:52:18Z")
The only one I know of that was born here is: Don Knotts. ---
**Author:** ![Walkabout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walkabout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walkabout)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/94 "2007-05-02T17:53:55Z")
[QUOTE=IntelSoldier] Fred Rogers aka “Mr Rogers” George A Romero Heinz Family, the ketchup moguls Andrew Carnegie Dennis Miller Jimmy Stewart Dan Marino Michael Keaton Rachel Carson, author of “Silent Spring” Michael Chabon, director Zillions of sports legends… Sharon Stone Jeff Goldblum George Westinghouse Andrew Mellon, the banker [/QUOTE] Gotta be Pittsburgh. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/95 "2007-05-02T18:25:17Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] Yeah, and I screwed up – Stephanie Plum was the character **Janet Evanovich** is the author (who’s moved from NH, I understand, and is now in Florida IIRC). There are a couple of other football players of note from my hometown, but I never followed football closely. Drew Pearson, Troy Hill, “Scotty” Scarzinsky. [/QUOTE] Don’t worry, it went right past me. I knew it from Theisman. ---
**Author:** ![Lionne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Lionne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lionne)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/96 "2007-05-02T18:40:09Z")
Without google, I only know of one famous person from my hometown: **Denis Leary** Anyone want to take a guess? ---
**Author:** ![sparklemotion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@sparklemotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparklemotion)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/97 "2007-05-02T20:21:09Z")
[QUOTE=lieu] Steve Martin Ann Richards Shannon Elizabeth Jennifer Love Hewitt Gee, they could have been a family. [/QUOTE] Waco, and I had no idea Steve Martin was born there! I’m from Houston, so I’m not even going to bother, but I’ll tell you that I took dance classes from Patrick Swayze’s mother, and have met him a few times, and no man should be able to move that gracefully. Like an angel in pantyhose. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/98 "2007-05-02T20:31:02Z")
[QUOTE=LunaV] Without google, I only know of one famous person from my hometown: **Denis Leary** Anyone want to take a guess? [/QUOTE] Boston? Nah. That’s too easy. ---
**Author:** ![Hoshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bbce88/32.png) [@Hoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoshi)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/99 "2007-05-02T21:09:08Z")
Billy Bob Thornton…also Frank Bonner…and I don’t know if this counts or not, but Jerry Van Dyke has a farm here. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2007, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259/100 "2007-05-02T21:26:28Z")
Um. Really not many people. The Monster Raving Loony Party used to be based in a pub in my town, but it’s not any more. The “London nailbomber” also grew up down my road and went to my school. That’s it I think! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-famous-people-come-from-your-home-town/402259.md?page=6)