AndyC's "Learned Something Pretty Cool" thread got me thinking...
Speaking of actors that are from the same city as you...
Two years ago Ashton Kutcher, who is also from Cedar Rapids, Iowa and lived much of his life here like I have, was at a local bar with a former girlfriend. (too bad it wasn't Demi!)
As a matter of fact, I didn't even know who he was at the time.
I never watched "That 70's Show" back then and only learned who he was because my girlfriend who was there with me at the time told me so.
She was like "OMG that's Ashton Kutcher!" and I'm like, "Who?"
I still hear from people that he comes back here to visit his family who lives outside of town and that he still will hang out at a few local bars now & then.
He & I also worked at General Mills at the same time.
You can verify that he worked there on his IMDB listing.
We both worked there in 1997...I believe he worked the first shift...I worked the 3rd.
And yes, I have also swept up Cheerio dust...among other things there.
I hated that job. (it was a temp job)
You had to wear a hairnet, steel-toed boots, earplugs, safety glasses and a cheap hard hat.
Because of all that stuff I had to wear I felt like I was going into battle and I wrote s**t on my hard hat like, "Born To Kill" and "War Is Hell". I also drew a peace symbol in black magic marker on it.
I remember I had watched "Full Metal Jacket" right before I got that job.
Other actors who're from Cedar Rapids, Iowa include Ron Livingston (Office Space, Band Of Brothers), Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax from Deep Space 9) and Elijah Wood (Frodo)
What famous actors and actresses are from your hometown?
Post Edited (09-16-04 18:45)
Tom Everret Scott was born in my home town of East Bridgewater (in fact my parents, aunts and uncles on both sides are all known there even today for they grew up there too). It is a small town where everyone knows everyone...fortunately, my parents moved me out of there to the next town over, which was more a small city. East Bridgewater is about 30 minutes south of Boston.
Anyway, my aunt (just 5 years older than me) was friends with him, and he has been over to the house for a few parties they threw...this was before his fame of course. Other than that, I don't know any famous people in East bridgewater...Brockton (where I grew up from age 12 on) well, know that's a different story. Supposedly many famous or infamous actors/actresses started in the Brockton high theatre group (we have a huge high school, and great theatre venue that is rented out to other performing troops). I only know off-hand a soap star named Kristen Alfonso that is on Days of Our Lives..but only cuz my mother watches that soap and pointed it out. Me I didn't go to brockton High....I went to TRADE school...lol.
The only "actor" from Lebanon, MO, was the guy I mentioned, Garry Newton. There was two Garry Newtons on IMBD, but neither listed SNL as a credit.
As far as personalities from Lebanon are talk radio host Jim Bohannon, Lawrence Welk regular Larry Hooper (or as Freberg called him Larry Looper), pin-up girl April Dawn Meents (went to the same church as me) and playwrite Lanford Wilson.
I work in Springfield which begat Brad Pitt, Kathleen Turner, Don Davis (of Twin Peaks), Sterling Macer, and going way back Pearl White.
I'm from Winona Minnesota, which I've heard is Winona Ryder's hometown. Might be an urban legend, I don't know. It's not like I ever met her or anything ;)
None to my knowledge, but horror director Jaume Balagueró (Darkness, The Nameless) was born in the same city as me, Lleida.
Apart from the one I mentioned, I can't think of any actors from my hometown who made it into a major movie. In terms of famous people, Elmira, Ontario mostly produces NHL hockey players. Any of the actors I know of stick mostly to stage work.
There is a kid in one of the smaller nearby towns who played one of the kids in Pushing Tin. I've interviewed him a couple of times about dance competitions.
Apart from that, the only name that springs to mind is Neve Campbell, who is from Guelph, a city 20 minutes down the road.
Um, I don't really know. I've moved around a lot so it's hard to say what my 'hometown' is, but I also pay very little attention to celebrities' personal lives so I wouldn't know or care where anyone was from
I've said in a post before that I went to school with Billy Bob Thornton, a real dork in high school. He was in Arkansas last year filming a movie while we were having our 30 year high school reunion, but he didn't show.
I also know Rick Dial who played the owner of the lawn mower shop where Carl in Sling Blade works. Rick has also been in the Generals Daughter, Second Hand Lions, and The Apostle. Robert Duvall seems to like Rick quite a lot and has gotten him parts. Rick prefers to run his local furniture store to acting full time. He said in a local interview that he was using the acting money to send his daughter to college.
Frank Bonner who played Herb on WKRP in Cincinnati, also grew up in my hometown. Two of my older brothers knew him as children. We were at the local drive in back in the 70"s an one of my brothers who had not seen Frank in years was surprised when he appeared in The Equinox. His real name in Frank Boers, Jr.
Not too many famous people from around here.
Seems that Bruce Willis and Demi used to have a beach house here at Atlantic Beach (near where The Mutilator/Fall Break was filmed). Dunno who got the house in the divorce.
Sandra Bullock went to Eastern Carolina University (ECU) near here.
As for close encounters with the famous; I met Gene Hackman when I still worked for the NCDOT Ferry System here. He was taking a trip to Ocracoke Island (opening scene of Butcher's Wife) which takes about 2 and a half hours. Spoke to him briefly, but he was quite introverted. Which hell I would have been as well if I was on vacation.
Was at University in the same college as Michael Wincott - went to the same parties and pubbed every Thursday night...does that count?
Nobody from my actual home town, so far as I know, but it is sort of nowheresville and quite small.
I live out in the country, but there are several towns within a two hour drive which have harbored famous people. My mom works with Kevin Sorbo's aunt. Sam Arkoff is from Fort Dodge, IA. And of course, there's not-far-away Minneapolis (Husker Du, Bob Dylan, Terry Gilliam, etc.)
I live in Connecticut and there are a few famous people from here. Offhand I believe David Letterman lives in CT, and I seem to recall someone once saying that Rodney Dangerfield also lives here and could sometimes be seen walking his dog.
The person I think of most though is Ellen Muth (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0616091/), who was in Dolores Claiborne as the younger version of Jennifer Jason Leigh's character and who now stars in the Showtime series Dead Like Me. Her father owns or manages the place where I have my glasses made and last time I was there, her brother waited on me. I met her briefly after DC came out when she was signing pictures at a video store within walkin distance of my house. Also, last year, I swear I walked by her in a local mall. I was too surprised to say anything until it was too late and she'd disappeared. Her brother confirmed that she was home visiting her family around the same time, so I'm pretty sure it was her. Now I wish I'd said something...
I live in Cincinnati. We've only got a couple from here and you may have never heard of them. Some girl named Carmen Electra (Tara Patrick). A couple of guys; one is a guy named....ummmm George.....Clooney, that's it, and a director of some sort....Steven Speilberg.
I'm sure there are others but those are the biggest names.
As for musicians, we have Bootsy Collins (lordy be, da funk's on me) and Peter Frampton.
:-)
JohnL, Ellen Muth is great.
She has such a strange beauty around her. I have a feeling she'll eventually be a star.
I don't know whether he lives here, but when I was at work, this older gentleman came in with this younger woman to my place of employment, and we got to talking, and he said he was an actor, and my unverbalized reesponse was: "Yeah! Pull the other one, while you're at it." But, I looked his name up on the Web, and he really was an actor. His name is Patrick Cranshaw, his favorite role is Blue in "Old School," but, when I remembered who he was, I remember him as Sheriff Bob from a couple of the "Air Bud" films. I also remembered him as the bank clerk held up by Jimmy Stewart in "Bandolero," if anybody has seen that one. He
has an extensive list of credits dating back to the '60's, where he was the bank clerk held up by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in "Bonnie and Clyde." Anyway, to make a long story short, he seemed pleased that someone finally recognized him, and I got his autograph. A real nice gentleman.
Lee Marvin use to live in my Hometown... I even had a chance to meet him as a kid but like a dumb ass, I refused because I didn't recognize his name. Now, had my mother's friend told me that he was the actor from the Dirty dozen, I would have been excited to meet him.
Oh yeah, Linda Rondstat is also from here but she's more of a singer than anything.