# Who's the closest to a real life Forrest Gump - being a piece of multiple major events? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 8, 2016, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-closest-to-a-real-life-forrest-gump-being-a-piece-of-multiple-major-events/751579 "2016-04-08T18:37:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-closest-to-a-real-life-forrest-gump-being-a-piece-of-multiple-major-events/751579/21 "2016-04-11T18:09:55Z")
Milton Friedman ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-closest-to-a-real-life-forrest-gump-being-a-piece-of-multiple-major-events/751579/22 "2016-04-11T18:14:21Z")
> [@choie](#): > > George Plimpton could be included, IMHO. Not including his family’s accomplishments, Plimpton had a remarkably rich life and wide circle of famous friends: > > \ > > I know I’m leaving stuff out, but gosh, isn’t this enough? This guy seriously led an amazing, varied life–he seemed up for anything. Of course, I have to post this song: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/RYBwGbCNoUI/hqdefault.jpg "Jonathan Coulton - A Talk with George") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYBwGbCNoUI) ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-closest-to-a-real-life-forrest-gump-being-a-piece-of-multiple-major-events/751579/23 "2016-04-11T18:30:02Z")
The Titanic had two sister ships, the Britannic and the Olympic. Violet Jessop survived the sinkings of the first two and was on the Olympic when its hull was breached by another ship but it somehow didn’t sink. [The Woman Who Survived All Three Disasters Aboard the Sister Ships: the Titanic, Britannic, and Olympic](http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/01/woman-survived-sinking-titanic-britannic-collision-olympic/) ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-closest-to-a-real-life-forrest-gump-being-a-piece-of-multiple-major-events/751579/24 "2016-04-11T19:56:32Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > The Titanic had two sister ships, the Britannic and the Olympic. Violet Jessop survived the sinkings of the first two and was on the Olympic when its hull was breached by another ship but it somehow didn’t sink. [The Woman Who Survived All Three Disasters Aboard the Sister Ships: the Titanic, Britannic, and Olympic](http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2014/01/woman-survived-sinking-titanic-britannic-collision-olympic/) “The ship is unsinkable!!!” Ship sinks “Well it couldn’t possibly happen twice to two unsinkable ships!!” Ship sinks “Third times the charm!!” ship hits another ship. “Oh come on people what the hell???!!!” :mad:🙂 ---
**Author:** ![choie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/choie/32/7829_2.png) [@choie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/choie)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-closest-to-a-real-life-forrest-gump-being-a-piece-of-multiple-major-events/751579/25 "2016-04-11T20:16:48Z")
[quote=“BrassyPhrase, post:22, topic:751579”] Of course, I have to post this song: [/QUOTE] 😃 I was thinking of adding that. I think the song contains some of Jonathan Coulton’s most moving lyrics. It’s one of his favorites of his own songs, too. _Don’t live another day unless you make it count. There’s someone else that you’re supposed to be. Something deep inside of you still wants out And shame on you if you don’t set it free._ He wrote that for a contest to honor Plimpton’s memory by creating a statue. Not surprisingly, it won $400. Coulton had actually met Plimpton at a party at _The Paris Review_ some years earlier, courtesy of his friend John Hodgeman. ---
**Author:** ![SaharaTea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-closest-to-a-real-life-forrest-gump-being-a-piece-of-multiple-major-events/751579/26 "2016-04-11T20:26:00Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > He is said to have refused a later presidential invitation with the comment “No, I’m not going, and they’d better not ask me, because there is a certain fatality about presidential functions when I am present.” > > Frankly, we might have been better off if Harding would have been shot at the dedication of the Lincoln memorial. Someone needs to photoshop Robert Todd Lincoln into the grassy knoll near Kennedy’s assassination, and then the jinx will be complete. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2016, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-closest-to-a-real-life-forrest-gump-being-a-piece-of-multiple-major-events/751579/27 "2016-04-11T21:26:21Z")
Jim Leavelle was a young sailor stationed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Twenty-odd years later he was out of the military, acting as a detective, and assigned to escort Lee Harvey Oswald through a throng of reporters when Jack Ruby ran up and shot him. You can see him in pictures it he white hat and white suit. And he’s still alive, to boot! ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2016, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-closest-to-a-real-life-forrest-gump-being-a-piece-of-multiple-major-events/751579/28 "2016-04-12T01:52:47Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Rosie Greer was a former NFL lineman who was acting as a bodyguard for RFK’s wife on the night of the assassination. He heard the shots being fired and arrived in time to take the gun out of Sirhan Sirhan’s hand. He became an actor and then converted to Christianity and became a minister. As a minister he met with OJ Simpson during his trial. The guard assigned to the room they were in claimed he heard Simpson yell a confession to Greer. It was ruled inadmissible due to ministerial privilege. You left out “singer on a profoundly influential children’s album” (he sang “It’s All Right to Cry” on _Free to Be You and Me_). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2016, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-closest-to-a-real-life-forrest-gump-being-a-piece-of-multiple-major-events/751579/29 "2016-04-12T02:49:23Z")
Alan Page played on Notre Dame’s national championship football team, four Chicago Bears Super Bowl teams, and was an Associate Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. Whizzer White was student body president at the University of Colorado, a Rhodes Scholar, an All-American football halfback, was the highest paid player in the NFL during his time, and led the league in rushing twice. His pro career was cut short when he joined the US Navy during World War II, where he was an intelligence officer and wrote the report on the sinking of John F. Kennedy’s PT-109. After the war he graduated magnum cum laude from the Yale Law School, and became a law clerk for Chief Justice of the United States Fred Vinson. He worked for the John F. Kennedy Presidential campaign, and became Deputy United States Attorney General. He was appointed to the US Supreme Court by President Kennedy. In 1993 he administered the oath of office to Vice President Al Gore. The NFL awards the Whizzer White award annually to the player who does most for his community. In 1976, the mother of Michael McCrary sued a day care facility for refusing to allow her black son to attend the facility. The case was finally heard before the Supreme Court, and White joined the minority in arguing against the integration of the day care facility. In 2000, Michael McCrary, then playing for the Baltimore Ravens, won the Whizzer White Award. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2016, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-closest-to-a-real-life-forrest-gump-being-a-piece-of-multiple-major-events/751579/30 "2016-04-12T04:36:27Z")
Not a thread winner by any means, but an interesting bit of trivia on the subject: When Evel Knievel was trying to make a name for himself as a daredevil, he arranged to jump the fountains at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, and hired John Derek to produce a film of the jump. To keep his costs down, Derek employed his wife as a camera operator. The famous footage of Knievel’s crash was shot by actress Linda Evans. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2016, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-closest-to-a-real-life-forrest-gump-being-a-piece-of-multiple-major-events/751579/31 "2016-04-12T04:45:39Z")
Thomas Francis Meagher was a Young Irelander involved in the 1848 revolution. He was sentenced to death but then sent to Tasmania. There he escaped and found his way to America, where he eventually became a Union brigadier general during the Civil War. After the war he was appointed the acting governor of Montana territory. He possibly drowned under mysterious circumstances after falling from a steamboat. He supposedly brought the tricolor to Ireland. > [@hogarth](#): > > I’m always impressed by Talleyrand who worked for the Catholic Church, Louis XVI, the French Revolutionary government, Napoleon, Louis XVIII, and Louis-Philippe. Joseph Fouché also: Oratorian novice, anticlerical revolutionary, Thermidorian, Directory official, Napoleon, Louis XVIII, Napoleon again, Louis again, then exile. > [@SaharaTea](#): > > Someone needs to photoshop Robert Todd Lincoln into the grassy knoll near Kennedy’s assassination, and then the jinx will be complete. 🙂 Pretty off-topic, but I always thought it interesting that acclaimed actor Woody Harrelson’s father claimed to be involved in the assassination at one time (claim possible made while high). He was a contract killer. He almost certainly was the first person in the 20th century to kill a judge. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-the-closest-to-a-real-life-forrest-gump-being-a-piece-of-multiple-major-events/751579.md?page=1)