[QUOTE=light strand]
Yup. What gave it away?
[/QUOTE]
It took me four days to hitch-hike from Saginaw.
[QUOTE=The Chao Goes Mu]
Danny Thomas
Gloria Steinem
Jamie Farr
Katie Holmes
Dare to guess?
[/QUOTE]
Toledo, Ohio.
The only famous person I know of that came from my hometown (a suburb of Cleveland) is Halle Berry. We went to the same high school. If you expand to Cleveland itself there are folks like Paul Newman, Tracy Chapman, Arsenio Hall and Sean Young. Lots of NFL players too.
[QUOTE=The Chao Goes Mu]
Danny Thomas
Gloria Steinem
Jamie Farr
Katie Holmes
Dare to guess?
[/QUOTE]
Since Farr and Thomas were of Lebanese ancestry I’ll guess Beirut, Iowa.
[QUOTE=Leaffan]
Since no one’s guessing, my home town is …
Bah
Bahhh
Bahhhhhh!!!
Sarnia, Ontario. (Pretty exciting, I know)
(I was born in Motherwell, Scotland, but grew up in Sarnia.)
[/QUOTE]
I actually knew that but started reading through the thread first before answering. I spent a co-op term in Sarnia. I got it off the first 2 in your list. While I’m here here’s a couple I can think of off the top of my head:
David Morrell (Rambo author)
Lennox Lewis (not born here but grew up here)
William Lyon McKenzie King (I hope I got that right and don’t lose my citizenship)
That’s all I can think of right now.
Off the top of my head:
Neil Peart - drummer, Rush
Martin Short - comedian, actor
Eugene Levy - comedian, actor
Ray Materick - musician
the legendary '70s group Crowbar was based there, and moved just outside the city to Ancaster, where their house, “Bad Manors” is immortalized.
With some help:
Kathleen Robertson
Angela Featherstone
Rick Roberts
Robert Beatty
Douglas Dumbrille
(I’ve never heard of any of these celebrities.)
Hamilton, Ontario.
Carson City, NV:
Darrell Rasner (Yankee - I went to high school with him. His mom is trying to help me get a house as she’s a realtor).
Kevin Federline lived here for a while, apparently. I take comfort in the fact that he was not, apparently, born here, nor did he spend his adult years here.
~Tasha
Wigan, Greater Manchester, England:
Sir Ian McKellan,
Richard Ashcroft (and the rest of The Verve)
Lived here for a time:
Arnold Schwarzenegger,
George Orwell (from where one of his most famous books comes from).
The Farrelly brothers.
[QUOTE=Argent Towers]
Also, his favorite acoustic guitar has “FUCK FASCISM” carved into it. I love that little punk-esque touch.
[/QUOTE]
Seems to me to be a harkback to Woody Guthrie’s “This Machine Kills Fascists”. I’d hardly call him punk.
[QUOTE=scotandrsn]
Seems to me to be a harkback to Woody Guthrie’s “This Machine Kills Fascists”. I’d hardly call him punk.
[/QUOTE]
The spirit is, anyway.
[QUOTE=scotandrsn]
Seems to me to be a harkback to Woody Guthrie’s “This Machine Kills Fascists”. I’d hardly call him punk.
[/QUOTE]
Hey, while Woody Guthrie wasn’t born there, my hometown is famous for being the town that turned Woody Guthrie into a Communist! 
Steve Martin
Ann Richards
Shannon Elizabeth
Jennifer Love Hewitt
Gee, they could have been a family.
Gerald Ford
Marlon Brando
My particular municipality within the greater St. Louis area:
Kevin Kline
Marlin Perkins
James Franciscus (The guy from the Planet of the Apes sequel)
and the most famous: Erin Daniels. She lived down the street from me and we dated in High School, so she’s the most famous as far as I’m concerned. 
I know there must be more famous people from the city I was born. But all I can think of right now is Tanya Harding and Mark Lindsay.
And I can only think of two from the suburb in the East Bay where we moved to and I lived from age five to age 19 – Kristy Yamaguchi and Dennis Eckersley.
[QUOTE=Dominic Mulligan]
Wigan, Greater Manchester, England:
Sir Ian McKellan,
Richard Ashcroft (and the rest of The Verve)
Lived here for a time:
Arnold Schwarzenegger,
George Orwell (from where one of his most famous books comes from).
[/QUOTE]
No love for George Formby?
Woolstock, Iowa (pop. 220) is sometimes proud to be known as the birthplace of George Reeves, TV’s Superman.
It’s caused a lot of tension in town though. His birthplace is falling down. The owner won’t put any money into it and he won’t sell it for what it’s worth. A local group tried some fund-raising to restore the house, but the effort was a failure.
Most of the townsfolk just don’t care. George only lived here for a short time, never came back (why would he?), and none of his relatives are here. The people who own the Superman logo won’t let anyone use it without paying a huge fee, and there’s already a Superman tourist site in Metropolis, Illinois.
How many birthplaces of famous people born in the early 1900’s still exist? Probably not very many.
Tom Robbins
He was actually born a few towns over, but his family moved to my hometown (Burnsville, NC) when he was around 7. I think his family moved to Virginia only a few years later, so they weren’t there for very long.
[QUOTE=ZipperJJ]
Citing my ACTUAL hometown and not Cleveland or Akron…
I was very proud to see that not only did we have an honest-to-goodness astronaut, Ron Sega (I had known about him) but he also has a Wikipedia entry!
But digging further I see we also have Seattle Seahawk Rob Sims and female boxer Vonda Ward!! I never knew that - She is awesome!
I will also give a shout out to my man Dan Letterle who I actually know and actually went to school with. He is not very famous YET but we’d all just feel awful if I left him off this list and he became famous in the future, eh? 
[/QUOTE]
Macedonia? Northfield?
The three I always remember without looking:
Tim Conway
Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson - We were classmates and buddies as kids, but now he’s a recluse. His wife was a classmate as well - her dad was the school superintendent. They were both nice kids.
Doug Kenney, founder of National Lampoon
OK, so then I peeked in Wikipedia Their list:
I knew Ted Batchelor (he was nuts) and Charlie Hartsock’s brother.
I recently discovered Capt. Lou Albano (the wrestler guy) was born and apparently still lives in the small town I grew up in. I never heard that when I lived there.