# When did "behind the scenes" people become famous? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 24, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739 "2015-08-24T16:55:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![installLSC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/54ee81/32.png) [@installLSC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/installLSC)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/1 "2015-08-24T16:55:32Z")
These days, it seems name creative talent like Aaron Sorkin and Matthew Weiner are as famous as the actors on their shows. Who were the first writers/directors/producers to become famous among the general public, both in movies and on TV? (Let’s exclude people who acted besides doing behind the scenes stuff). ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/2 "2015-08-24T16:58:33Z")
Off the top of my head - Quinn Martin? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/3 "2015-08-24T16:58:39Z")
George Melies for a start. He did appear in some of his films, but he was never really a star and many of his films did not feature him. Heck, the Lumiere Brothers may have beaten him. I’m not sure how famous Edwin S. Porter was in his time, but certainly D.W. Griffith qualifies. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/4 "2015-08-24T17:21:21Z")
D. W. Griffith was the first name that came to me, as well – in other words, pretty much as soon as the medium developed. In the early days of TV there were people like Pat Weaver, who invented both the Today and Tonight shows (among other things) and Fred Friendly, who invented ways to get stuff on the air, who were pretty well known by the general public. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/5 "2015-08-24T17:24:29Z")
There was that William Shakespeare guy. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/6 "2015-08-24T18:16:59Z")
Wasn’t Frank Capra pretty well-known back in the days of IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT and YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU and MEET JOHN DOE and IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE and MISTER SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON and MISTER DEEDS GOES TO TOWN and so on? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/7 "2015-08-24T18:21:19Z")
Didn’t it take time for the actors to pass the creators in notoriety? A better question might be who was the first actor to surpass the creator’s celebrity. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/8 "2015-08-24T18:36:56Z")
The internet is when this really surged, at least to me. Joss Whedon, Chris Carter, Ronald Moore. These were show-runners and creators of shows and all the sudden, people discussed them online. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/9 "2015-08-24T18:39:44Z")
Irwin Allen? He was famous for such TV shows as _The Time Tunnel_, _Land of the Giants_, _Lost In Space_, and _Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea_. He also produced the films _The Swarm_, _The Towering Inferno_, and _The Poseidon Adventure_. He was famous for producing cheesy sci-fi fare and his name was synonymous with the term “disaster flick”. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/10 "2015-08-24T18:40:46Z")
Piss off, I work for Mel Brooks. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/11 "2015-08-24T18:46:41Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Didn’t it take time for the actors to pass the creators in notoriety? A better question might be who was the first actor to surpass the creator’s celebrity. [Florence Lawrence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Lawrence). She was the first film actor/actress to be given public credit. I’m not sure if Broncho Billy Anderson was credited before her (and he was also a producer), but Lawrence certainly was the first to be promoted as a star. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/12 "2015-08-24T18:56:43Z")
No mention of Alfred Hitchcock? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/13 "2015-08-24T19:00:12Z")
[Augustin Daly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin_Daly). Playwright and theater manager, and the creator of the cliche of tying someone to the railroad tracks. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/14 "2015-08-24T20:41:10Z")
Phil Spector? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/15 "2015-08-24T21:54:36Z")
There were Dickens, Handel, Mozart, Vivaldi, and many many more. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/16 "2015-08-24T22:22:41Z")
Cecil B. DeMille arguably had broad name-recognition, even among people who hadn’t seen his films. I gather his name became somewhat synonymous with big epic productions. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/17 "2015-08-24T22:42:29Z")
Samuel Goldwyn picked up a measure of fame in his own right, and more by dint of getting name-checked whenever The Goldwyn Girls got touted. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/18 "2015-08-24T22:54:28Z")
Hal Roach, director of Our Gang and a bunch of silents. He’s the only person I know of who has met both Mark Twain and David Letterman. Alfred Hitchcock was probably the first director who could be recognized on the street by average citizens. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/19 "2015-08-24T23:23:31Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Joss Whedon, Chris Carter, Ronald Moore. These were show-runners and creators of shows and all the sudden, people discussed them online. It was long before them. Irwin Allen and Quinn Martin have been mentioned. But you also had others like Steve Bochco, Norman Lear, Gene Roddenberry, Aaron Spelling. These people didn’t appear on camera but you recognized that their shows had a distinctive style. And the networks promoted the fact that these creators were behind a new series. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2015, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/20 "2015-08-24T23:33:37Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > There was that William Shakespeare guy. Not to mention Sophocles, Euripides, etc. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739.md?page=2)