I guess it’s just the “international” part that trips me up. I doubt if most people outside the U.S. would recognize 50 American names. I mean, off the top of your head, name 50 Spaniards. I think “most famous in America” is a much better measure. Only very few people are truly famous internationally, and again, they tend to be Hollywood actors, pop stars, and sports stars.
I see that no one has nominated someone for Utah: Roseanne Barr.
Someone upthread also mentioned a sure winner for Connecticut: George W. Bush.
I’m not sure which of these might be most famous, but my guess that currently it would be Phil Jackson. Sacajawea might top him for being on a coin, but I doubt she is well known outside the US.
Sacajawea, guide to Louis and Clark
Warren Christopher, Secretary of State
Angie Dickenson, actress
Louis L’Amour, author
Phil Jackson, basketball coach
Roger Maris, baseball player
Lawrence Welk, bandleader
Hey, can we throw Ronnie James Dio up on the NH list? He’s arguably more famous than Franklin Pierce, and frankly I’d rather have him represent the Granite State than Dan Brown.
To give the non-US perspective, my picks for the disputed states would be:
Alabama / Helen Keller (by miles)
Arkansas / Bill Clinton
California / Marilyn Monroe (that was a tough pick)
Georgia / Martin Luther King
Illinois / Ronald Reagan
Maryland / Frank Zappa
New Hampshire / Dan Brown (sorry!)
New Jersey / Frank Sinatra
New Mexico / Demi Moore currently. Geronimo is a recognisable name, but I don’t know anything* about* him.
North Carolina / Billy Graham
Ohio / Thomas Edison (more sticking power than Spielberg)
Oklahoma / Brad Pitt
Oregon / Matt Groening
Tennessee / Davy Crockett
Texas / Eisenhower.
I’d never heard of that Alaskan dude. In fact, of a list of famous Alaskans the only one I’d heard of at all was Valerie Plame - she been proposed yet?
Yeah, I’d agree. My suggestion had come from musing on the thread in CS on celebrities who deserve one-name monikers, so she popped into my head as an icon. Mr. Ford’s also well-known for one name, though it’s a last name for once!
I again nominate Sarah Palin for Idaho, which remains unfilled on the list.
For fun, and to add another entry to the territories list, I’m looking over folks born in Puerto Rico. These are some names that jumped out at me:
Roberto Alomar
Hector “Macho” Camacho
Roberto Clemente
Benicio del Toro
José Feliciano
José Ferrer
Luis Guzmán
Raúl Juliá
Rita Moreno
Juan “Chi-Chi” Rodríguez
Holly Woodlawn
Benicio del Toro is currently famous, but I think Feliciano, Ferrer, Juliá, and Moreno have had longer-lasting name recognition. I’m not too familiar with sports, but even I recognized the athletes’ names above, which might indicate they’re perhaps better known? (Holly Woodlawn’s listed simply because I had no idea that one of Warhol’s best known superstars was from PR.)
Sorry to harp on this, but it’s my state :). Is Dan Brown more recognizable than Adam Sandler? I think in terms of books sold and number of movie-goers to Sandler’s movies, they’ve gotta be pretty close. And I think actors’ names are more widely known than authors’.
Brown vs Sandler would be a tough call. Sandler wasn’t on the list when I made my choice though! Sandler may have more staying power - he’s done more stuff (and, though I’m not at all a fan - better quality)
As a non-US person I would say that Phil Jackson could be just as unknown outside the US as Sacajawea. My guess from that list would be Angie Dickinson as I don’t think I had heard of any of the others when I lived in the UK. But maybe people younger than I would not have heard of her either.
Well, Arnold W seemed to think so! . But going down that list …
never heard of Hank Aaron or Hank Williams
vaguely recognised Jimmy Buffett but I think I was confusing him with Warren
Capote/Cole/Cox/Parks - know them, but I don’t think they make it. Helen Keller, after all, is pretty much unique for what she was and did. There have been other writers, singers, actors and activists.
Rice - the closest call, but I doubt if she’ll remain famous after she retires/dies, which tips the scales.
Then I don’t understand your definition of fame. If more people recognize the name of a singer than a blind person, that makes them more famous, in my book. Uniqueness doesn’t enter into it for me.
I will let Aspidistra defend his criteria (or choice of words), but I agree with his assessment of who is likely to be perceived as the most famous outside the US. Or, at least, most famous in the UK as I cannot claim to speak for the rest of the world. I suspect fewer than 25% of people in the UK could tell you who most of the others were, possibly excepting Courtney Cox (even though I have heard of her, I have no idea what she looks like and could not name a single thing she has been in). And Nat King Cole just because of the 70+ crowd, but his fame is diminishing.
As an ex-Alabamian my vote may not solve the “fame” issue as seen from an outsider’s point of view. That said, I would rank your list in terms of “international recognition” thusly:
Truman Capote
Condoleezza Rice
Nat King Cole
Hank Williams
Jimmy Buffett
Hank Aaron
Courteney Cox
Rosa Parks
I would place Helen Keller after Condoleezza.
Maybe you could do an Alabama Fame poll to see how Dopers would rank them.
For another US Territory, NFL All-Star Junior Seau is almost certainly the most famous person from American Samoa.
I haven’t been able to find anyone recognizable from Guam, the Northern Marianas, or the American Virgin Islands. (There are some baseball players from the Virgin Islands, but the only one I had really heard of was Horace Clarke, and that only because he played for the Yankees.)
. But going down that list …