My top 3 Black American Pop Culture Heroes
Esther Rolle
Diana Ross
Michael Jackson
I have read the thread because after several days I’d only come up with one. However, the OP reminded me of the sports world. I don’t follow sports, but I do admire one particular figure for his off-court work. So my two choices are Lin-Manuel Miranda and LeBron James.
Carl Sagan
Steven Spielberg
Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks
Kareem Abdul Jabar
Bruce Springsteen
- Bill Watterson
- Jon Stewart
- John Oliver
Terry Pratchett, Billy Bragg, Ursula Le Guin
Carrie Fisher
Douglas Adams
Dolly Parton
(Jees, that’d be a great dinner party!)
Close runners-up:
Terry Pratchett
Bowie
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Audrey Hepburn
I have one or dozens and dozens. So I’ll just offer up the one.
Alecia Beth Moore (P!nk)
I adore her.
Stan Lee, Charles M. Schulz, John Lennon
Slash
Henry Rollins
Cal Ripken, Jr.
J.R.R. Tolkien
Jeff Lynne
George Lucas
First three in my head:
Neil Gaiman
Terry Pratchett
Joss Whedon
But not Joss Whedon anymore, so strike him and add
David Fincher
Bill Nye
Felicia Day
Terry Pratchett
Before reading the thread, Terry Pratchett and for some reason Robert Smith of the Cure were the names that popped into my head, but I couldn’t come up with a definite third.
After reading the thread, Ursula Le Guin would take that spot.
Neko Case
Christopher Lee
Bruce Dickinson
A few years ago I might have swapped one of these out for Joss Whedon. Now, not so much.
Haven’t read the thread.
Brian Wilson, for who he was in the 60’s.
Jeff Bridges.
David Lindley.
My first thought was “People who stood up to the movie studios!”
Like Olivia de Havilland…
Olivia de Havilland’s legal victory over Warner Brothers in 1943 set a new precedent for labor relations in Hollywood. Not an isolated piece of litigation, the resulting law now is referred to by her name. It was the culmination of long struggle for actors in the studio system for representation and fair treatment under the law.
And these guys…
The Time Studio Ghibli Stood Up To Harvey Weinstein With A Katana
And when I thought that I should round out my three with a musician, I immediately thought of Frank.
No, not Stallone. Zappa!
Jiimmy Stewart
Johnny Cash
Magic Johnson
Really depends on how you’re defining terms.
Hero? Pop culture?
The first 3 that come to mind are
Jimmy Carter
Malala Yousafzai
X González
My first thought for “pop culture heroes” was to name fictional heroes in pop culture, e.g., Spider-Man or something, but I gather that’s not what you mean.
Also, define “heroes”… I’ll take that simply to mean, LIVING people I hold in high esteem, who do things I admire or enjoy that I cannot do myself but at some level, wish I could or would.
In that case, off the top of my head, three such people:
Jacob deGrom - elite baseball pitcher for the NY Mets
Brandon Sanderson - prolific author of Fantasy/SF whose work I generally enjoy enormously
Neil deGrasse Tyson - first living scientist and “science communicator” I can think of.
If “heroes” included people who have passed on, the latter context would have a LOT more names from me… Stephen Jay Gould, Oliver Sacks, Carl Sagan, just to name a few.