# Which President would be most famous if he wasn't President? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 17, 2013, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-president-would-be-most-famous-if-he-wasnt-president/655919 "2013-04-17T07:46:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-president-would-be-most-famous-if-he-wasnt-president/655919/61 "2013-05-02T16:53:32Z")
> [@bienville](#): > > … > Although he was never a mega-star in his movie career, his movie career _plus_ being Governor of California would at least merit him fame as a curiosity. Last week when Jonathan Winters died, I posted a youtube clip on Facebook as a memorial. The clip that I used was Jonathan Winters roasting Ronald Reagan at a Dean Martin Roast- no one knew he’d one day be President. > > … Reagan would be Wikipedia-notable but might not be a household name. Maybe Al Gore would have become known primarily as a technology planner and environmental activist. I agree with others who say that presidents who were high ranking military officers would have a claim to fame in just being that, including Washington, Grant, and Eisenhower. Presidents who were closely related to other ones might be famous even without becoming President, the two Adams and the two Bushes specifically, as long as they had some independent claim to fame. The relationship would bolster the fame. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-president-would-be-most-famous-if-he-wasnt-president/655919/62 "2013-05-02T18:13:23Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Why Nixon? Most Veeps don’t get remembered. Except he was. I didn’t become aware of politics in general until 1964, but Nixon was in the limelight then, and remained so even before his 1968 run for the Presidency. He may have been the closest human relation to the cockroach, but if he’d lost in 1968, he would have continued to be famous for some time. He just had a way of keeping himself in the middle of things. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2013, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-president-would-be-most-famous-if-he-wasnt-president/655919/63 "2013-05-02T18:52:01Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > In the episode where George H W Bush appears, Homer leaves out two cardboard cutouts yelling, “these are your sons Jeb and George Jr”. Apparently no one in the Simpsons production crew had heard of George W Bush at the time. There’s more than one George, Jr?!? :eek: :dubious: 😕 ---
**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:** [May 2, 2013, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-president-would-be-most-famous-if-he-wasnt-president/655919/64 "2013-05-02T19:20:18Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > There’s more than one George, Jr?!? Nitpicking but there isn’t even one George Bush Junior. The first President Bush is George Herbert Walker Bush. His son is George Walker Bush. (There’s also a George Prescott Bush in the family.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-president-would-be-most-famous-if-he-wasnt-president/655919.md?page=3)