I attended a couple of different high schools, one junior high, and three elementary schools. Out of all that, the only two I can think of who come close to being famous would be:
[ul]
[li]Skip Holtz, Lou Holtz’s son. While Lou was coach at the University of Arkansas, Skip attended Woodland Junior High and Fayetteville High in Fayetteville, AR. Same age and grade as me. I’m not sure he graduated from FHS, however; Lou might have left UofA before his senior year. In any case, he’s been Lou’s offensive coordinator at Notre Dame and now at South Carolina, with a stint as head coach at UConn in between.[/li][li]A girl from Harrisburg High School in Harrisburg, AR, who went on to be a Miss Tennessee and was a second runner-up in the Miss America pageant. You’d never have guessed it when she was in high school. It should tell you where she ranked in perceived attractiveness that she was the drum major in the band instead of a cheerleader or majorette.[/li][/ul]
There have no doubt been other Fayetteville grads who’ve gone on to great things, but I don’t know of any of them offhand. I’d be shocked if anyone of any consequence ever graduated from Harrisburg High (yours truly excepted, of course).
Since we seem to have graduated (you should pardon the expression) to including our colleges, I can add to the list:
[ul]
[li]Mary Steenburgen (only there for one term before she was told that she wasn’t going to learn anything about acting there so she might as well go ahead and move to New York)[/li][li]William Ragsdale, star of the movie Fright Night and the TV series Herman’s Head and My Brother’s Keeper. Bill was a senior when I was a freshman. Didn’t know him really, but saw him MC a couple of student talent shows.[/li][li]Natalie Canerday, who’s appeared in a couple of Billy Bob Thornton projects, One False Move and of course Sling Blade, where she played the little boy’s mother. She’s also been in Biloxi Blues in a blink-and-you-miss-it part, October Sky and a handful of other films. I’m pretty sure Natalie started a year ahead of me, but graduated the same year I did. We had classes together and ran in some of the same circles (I took a couple of theatre courses).[/li][li]Metropolitan Opera conductor Sarah Caldwell[/li][li]TV gardening show host P. Allen Smith was a senior my freshman year.[/li][li]Dr. Harry Meyer, who developed the vaccine for german measles[/li][/ul]
Not much, but not terrible for a school that graduates fewer than 300 a year.
The high school I went to is only 9 years old. Nobody from it is famous…yet. I’m sure someone will end up being a psycho killer or a slum lord or something.
I went to two different high schools, and so far the only celebrity I know of is Debbie Gibson. We went to the same high school in New York but she graduated before I got there. Amy Fisher went to one of our rival high schools.
I found a website with celebrities from the same town but there’s no mention of where they went to school or how long they lived there:
Ed Begley (and Ed Begley Jr.) - (Actors)
Gregg Burge - (Dancer/Choreographer)
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield - (inventors of Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream)
I’m still to find celebrities from the high school I went to in Florida.
Just remembered – a recent graduate of my high school was Jason Nastke, mayor of my hometown of Kinderhook, New York. He’s the youngest elected mayor in America, at age 20 (he was 18 or 19 when elected). He’s been on some talk shows and was even a trivia question on Hollywood Squares. He was a senior when I was a frosh.
Former major leaguer Tony Sauders went to my high school his freshman year. I met him for the first time since 1989 a few days ago, something I talked about in another thread.
A friend of mine went to high school with Edward Norton, the actor. In fact, Norton’s grandfather James Rouse was a famous land developer who masterminded the building of my hometown of Columbia, MD (also Norton’s hometown, natch).
The Farrelly brothers went to my high school… not while I was there, but they did. And for the record, that is not Cumberland High in “Something About Mary”, though it looks like a lovely school.
One of the girls who was 2 years ahead of me in high school became a Rockette and, later, one of Dean Martin’s Golddiggers. Dunno what happened to her after that.
Gus Grissom went to my college, as did Orville Redenbocker.
I don’t know of any famous people that went to my primary high school, but Billy Joel attended Hicksville High school in Hicksville, NY, and I attended night school there. Does that count?
Christine Cavanaugh was a year ahead of me in high school.
“Who?” you ask.
Christine is a voice actress who has done tons of stuff for Nickelodeon. At the moment, she’s the voice of Chucky on the Rugrats. She was also the voice of Babe the pig in the first film. And she’s done guest appearances on various shows including Cheers and the X-files. (She played Luke Skywalker’s mother.)
So, my claim to fame (slim as it is) was that I played opposite Christine in a production of The Man Who Came to Dinner.
Jim Henson of The Muppets fame went to my high school, so there. I can’t find any on-line cite for this but it was always affirmed by staff & faculty during my years in high school. Additionally, checking out his on line biography it does say he lived in University Park a.k.a. Hyattsville which places him at ground zero. That’s good enough for me
