Do you have a family member or friend who is famous?

I tend to generate it.

My paternal grandmother was a Shepard. Her people were Americans although she was born in Canada. This is the Shepard family she came from - cousins of Elliott Fitch Shepard, who married a Vanderbilt. And Gram didn't let anyone forget it. She was haughty, stylish, smart, a classical singer, and a wonderful gossip. She knew where all the family bodies were buried, so to speak, and she loved me unconditionally. I loved her to bits.

I am Mrs. Norman Maine.

This could be a good thread.

My great-grandfather was a pretty famous mobster. (I don't think I should say what his name is. A key character in the movie The Untouchables was based on him.) He started in Al Capone's crew, and Capone was best man at my great-grandparents' wedding. Eventually my great-grandfather became head of the Chicago mob.

He died (natural causes in 1972) when I was very young, so I barely remember him. But my dad said that when he was growing up, his family was treated like royalty in Chicago. My grandfather wasn't in the mob, but owned nightclubs that were mob-adjacent.

I told this story before on DL. One night, Frank Sinatra was singing at one of my grandpa's clubs. My mom was sick, so my dad took me as his date. I was 5 years old. My mom got me all dolled up (I'm a female). Sinatra, who was probably told I'd be there by my grandpa, came into the audience and took me on stage. Held me while singing "Nancy with the Laughing Face."

I still remember how good he smelled. He told the audience that I was his new fiancé (he had recently divorced Mia Farrow). Next day, a ton of roses arrived at our house for me and my mom, with a note from Sinatra thanking my parents for allowing him to take me on stage.

My parents weren't involved in the mob (my dad is a lawyer and my mom isn't Italian), but special stuff like described above would happen from time to time. We went to Vegas once, and the whole town opened up like an oyster. We went to a private concert given by Ray Charles, the best seats at any venue, etc.

Every once in a while, friends of my grandpa would be killed or disappear under mysterious circumstances. The FBI would harass my grandfather a lot, even though he wasn't in the Mob. In the late 70s, they threatened to deport my grandpa to Italy.

I asked my dad how accurate The Sopranos was. He said pretty accurate, but the main characters and their wives weren't nearly as stupid/crass as most mobsters and their families are.

^ great post above.

I'm R5--Another funny thing that would happen is that we'd get gifts of meat a lot--huge packages of ribeyes and strip steaks. Platters of deli meat. I remember my mom rolling her eyes, and calling her friends to see if they wanted any meat.

And we'd have to go to picnics and holiday parties for all the Italian clubs my grandpa belonged to. All the kids would be showered with gifts at these things, which was great. But the people were so foreign to me. I love that scene in Goodfellas where Lorraine Bracco goes to a "hostess party" and says of the mob wives: "They didn't look good. They had bad skin and wore double knits." That's exactly what the women were like!

And at picnics, there was always a woman in charge of food at each picnic table. My aunt was in charge of our table's food. They'd spend days cooking enormous Italian feasts and haul the food to the picnic. If you ate food at any other table, you would insult the woman who made your table's food. It was nuts.

I have a relative through marriage whose father was famous. His story was told on film a few years ago. One of the actors in the film won an Oscar for his performance. I was very happy for my relative and my cousins that her father was recognized.

There were certain elements in the film that the director or writers embellished. One scene had my relative's mother cook a very American meal of meat loaf and potatoes. Her mother was a lovely person, but she never cooked a meal in her life, having grown up with cooks and having one most of her adult life.

Yes, I have a couple childhood friends that are semi famous musicians. I've smoked the weed of lots of cool music artists in green rooms.

My first cousin is a relatively well-known actress, has been in several movies and a very famous tv show. She is very nice and a down to earth person. Very unlike most of the actors/actresses I have met.

My husband’s oldest and best friend is a writer/director/producer who has a cult following and always has amazing industry gossip. I love asking him who is nice and who is an asshole and his stories never disappoint

Your great grandfather was The Waiter, R5?

R11. Yep

R5 I remember you telling that Sinatra story previously and I just love it. Thanks for sharing, very fun to read your posts.

Agreed R13. That’s insight we rarely get and it is appreciated.

I don't have much. I teach on the two stages where Tony Shalhoub made his theatre debuts as a boy. I have a friend who had a good role in an Oscar Best Picture.

I have an aunt Helen who works in theater.

Hi R5 again...my dad dated Tony Accardo’s daughter in high school. Accardo was another leading mobster. My dad told me that Accardo’s son was gay. The symbiotic relationship between the gays and the mob is really interesting.

The mob owned a lot of the gay bars back then—50s and 60s. My grandpa owned one on the Southside. So the mob was fairly accepting of gay people and their bars were safe havens from police raids. Always thought it would make an interesting movie.

[quote]We went to a private concert given by Ray Charles.

They told him he was in Harlem at a friend's club.

[quote]I have an aunt Helen who works in theater.

Her last name wouldn't be LAWSON by any chance, would it?

No. All of my family members are infamous.

A cousin was a major league baseball player. He was hot and had a lot of women. No, I'm not naming names.

[quote]My grandpa owned one on the Southside. So the mob was fairly accepting of gay people and their bars were safe havens from police raids.

That's very interesting - I would not have guessed that.

R7 you know that meat wasn't beef, don't you?

[quote]That's very interesting - I would not have guessed that.

What R27. And pass up free blowjobs and ass?

I am Helen Lawson's love child with Rudy Valentino. Seriously.

Why yes, R19. I remember her smelling of booze, stale cigarettes and gasoline, she called Helenesque.

In elementary school I carpooled with another girl to school. One day the girl and I were having this exact same conversation. I told her my family is related to Robert E. Lee and Robert E. Lee was related to George Washington by marriage, and so therefore George Washington was related to ME!

The girl turned to her mom and said, “And who am I related to that’s famous?”

Without missing a beat her extremely religious mother answered, “Adam and Eve.”

R5 Are you a hot looking guy?

One of my Dad's cousins is a granddaughter of Puccini.

I have a relative who had a taste of fame. He was never A-list, but there was time he definitely would have been recognized by the younger crowd. Women threw themselves at him. Since he was straight, you might think he would find this to be paradise, but he was greatly unsettled by it, because they didn't really know him. He did not sleep with any of them. And people came up with weird tales about him. For instance, a woman approached him and said "My friend told me that the two of you met and argued a lot but spent a passionate summer together in New Jersey." A slight problem with that story though: He had never been to New Jersey!

The funny thing about fame is that it is so rare that no one bothers to teach you about it in school, about what to do if you become famous and what pitfalls to avoid. And it really is funny how fleeting it can be. I mean, we all know that and can all think of examples, but when you see it up close, it's just amazing to see how quickly it comes and goes.

My husband is pretty famous and discussed a lot here on DL, usually with disdain.

DLers are mean

R31, are you Simon Halls?

R31 Are you Don Lemon's pale husband?

A straight guy refusing to sleep with women because he doesn't know them well....r30 must be a science fiction writer.

My great Aunts son dated Whitey Houston in the mid 80s when he was a model and she was a model/singer he went on to own a famous celeb heavy LA restaurant. Because my Grandmother and her sister were estranged (his mom left her first daughter to run off with his dad and had him, abashed first child so it was a huge deal in the family, they stopped speaking to her over it) we never met him but my 2nd cousin secretly kept in touch with her (his aunt) so he’d tell us how well off her son was and how Whitney was gorgeous but he knew even then she liked women but her religion and worse off religious mother made her deeply closeted.

I bet R31 is married to Matt Bomer. I've only ever said nice things about Matt.

A famous movie actor . His paternal grandmother and my paternal grandfather are brother and sister. I guess that makes me a cousin of the 2nd variety to this famous actor. We have never met and like us have virtually no interaction with paternal side of our respective families

R37 Are you Tyrone Guthrie?

My paternal grandfather wasn’t necessarily famous, but he invented some boat part. He made millions and rubbed elbows with big names in the 40s and 50s. My dad grew up in Greenwich, CT. My grandpa was loaded. He did business with Fred Trump at one point and Fred screwed him over money wise. Not sure what happened, but my dad hated the Trump family until the day he died.

My great uncle played Major League Baseball for a very short time in the 1910s. He had to retire and became a big executive with the old Cape Cod league. He helped implement night baseball and was an integral part of integration and the Cape acid league was one of the first to accept black players.

My mom was from Knoxville, TN and all her family were landowners in the East Tennessee area and a lot of towns are named after her family.

Also, I’m a direct descendant of William the Conqueror. And yes, I do have a bad temper.

Well, infamous.

Growing up we weren't allowed to tell anyone "or they'll make us leave the neighborhood."

My parents ran a bar in Pittsburgh and knew some guys who played for the Pirates and the Steelers (back when the Pirates were good, lol)

Whitey Houston? Lol - the Helen Lawson troll needs to sit the fuck down! So not funny - was never funny, and this person needs to seek help.

^Please tell your cousin Neely I hope the nuthouse is nice.

Adolf Hitler, R40? His great nephews? Long Island, NY? One of you is gay, I read, and so perhaps a DLer?

I've mentioned it several times on DL, but I was great friends with a certain famous opera singer in college. He was a total slut, but very funny. We grew apart and now his career has crashed and burned (gave it away?). That'll teach him for not responding to my friends request on Facebook.

My maternal grandfather and Antony Armstrong-Jones' mother were cousins so I'm a distant cousin to Princess Margaret's descendants. Never met them.

Grew up near the Gates family (as in Bill) and went to school/church with them for years.

Once worked a box office job with Brendan Fraser when he was still in school.

Friends with a lot of famous people in the opera world due to my husband's career

R30, you're right. Unless you have smart people with your best interests in mind, there are so many pitfalls to fame. Once saw Donna Summer on the Today Show. When asked what advice she'd give to someone starting out in the business, she answered, make sure you have a good lawyer and a good accountant.

R5, you're great-grandfather was a nice-looking man when younger.

I knew a little girl who thought she was famous. Now she is.

My great-great-great-great-grandfather was Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin.

r49 Why couldn't he have invented something useful -- like ACTUAL gin?

R50 you owe that cotton T-shirt you're wearing to him!

I went to school with Nicolas Fairford

[quote] A cousin was a major league baseball player. He was hot and had a lot of women. No, I'm not naming names.

We can see why, given how unique and salacious that information is!!

My uncle used to play for Barbara Mandrell’s band and would appear on her TV show

Well, I [bold]did[/bold]...

My partner of 25 years. Before we met, he was in a band often named as an influence by the 90s musicians- his videos played mostly on 120 Minutes, rather than regular programming. Nirvana recorded one of their songs, and, later, it was used in a car commercial. He wasn't the lead singer, but he wrote a lot of their songs, and still does some recording/writing, but no longer tours. He's gay, and there were no male groupies, and he doesn't drink, or do any drugs, save cannabis, so he's still coherent, and managed to not be HIV+. He's kind of a homebody now, but when bands come to town, they look him up.

[quote]Before we met, he was in a band often named as an influence by the 90s musicians

The Archies? Did he write Sugar, Sugar?

The one-hit Wonders!

R56, someone from the Meat Puppets?

[Quote]Grew up near the Gates family (as in Bill) and went to school/church with them for years.

The Bill Gates of Microsoft or his father, if he was Sr.? I have a hard time picturing Bill & Melinda "attending church" in Redmond and being "neighborly."

This is when Bill Gates of Microsoft was a boy living in Laurelhurst - 60s to mid 70s. His parents were Bill Sr. and Mary. Little sister was Libby. Forgotten big sister's name as she was a lot older than I.

Thanks, r61.

If r5 could come back with more stories...!

More locally famous, but my grandfather was mayor of a small city when I was a kid. We all got to ride on a parade float in the city's very popular annual festival. When he died a few years ago there were a lot of op-eds and articles speaking about his accomplishments as mayor, which was cool to see.

Queen Desideria of Sweden, née Désirée Clary, apparently traced her direct male ancestry back to the parish where my ancestors came from, and they were also called Clary.

Hey, assholes, what's up with the blind items? Jesus Christ, if I could curb stomp each one of you, I would.

Growing up in the late 60's my best friend's father was a famous NFL quarterback. When they played home games, I would often accompany my friend and his mother and brother to the game, and we would hang out in the locker room after the game waiting for his dad. I thought it was cool being around these athletes as they were showering and changing, with reporters and B-list celebrities all around. I even got to go to the filming of a car commercial featuring my friend's dad.

I've mentioned this friend in other posts when we discussed "first times with another guy" and told how my friend's dad would always walk around the house half dressed. My friend's older brother was a teenage jock who emulated his dad and was also often shirtless in the garage lifting weights with this dad. I was always a bit afraid of the father (he was known for his bad temper around the house) until my friend, then maybe 10, mentioned very matter-of-factly that his dad taught him how to French kiss. (My friend then showed me how.) Like any clueless kid, I didn't question it - didn't think it was wrong - until years later when I put 2 and 2 together and realized my friend's relationship with his dad had a sexual element. My friend turned out straight and is now a married born-again Christian in Arizona (where his dad moved when he retired from professional football).

R66, whoa.

Whoa indeed...

Bump

My dad was well-known as an aerospace/nuclear engineer during the Cold War; he designed missiles and armaments. It was generally not a fun life for kids. There was a period when I was in elementary school where I had Pinkerton detectives accompany me to school because of threats. The whole family had to learn to ride in a car which was being pursued and was taking evasive action. I can’t count the number of times I called home and was greeted by an agency operator who informed me our number had been changed, and asked me a series of questions to verify my identity before patching me through to my mom. My brother committed suicide when he was 14, probably because of stress. I was spit on by adults going through protestors. My dad had to be occasionally helicoptered out of work or home for security reasons, and we had armed guards at home. I learned to shoot when I was in elementary school. Other kids thought it was wonderful...we thought it was being in prison.

[quote]Antony Armstrong-Jones' mother

She did not come off well in "The Crown."

I went to school for a year with a boy who is in a somewhat popular supernaturally-themed comedy show. I looked up his profile page and see that he's shaved seven years off his birthdate, when I know we're the same age -- ha!

I am friends with an indie, portland based singer/songwriter- with an enigmatic reputation and critically acclaimed. Not mainstream famous but she has met many a-listers in the music and film industry.

Has an eating disorder

Seems closeted lez

Very insecure

My aunt’s brother (so my dad’s brother’s brother-in-law, to put it another way) is a pretty famous comic book writer. He’s had gigs doing major arcs for several DC and Marvel titles over the years, and he worked closely with Todd McFarlane when McFarlane was first starting out and getting famous. He’s also had one of the characters/titles he created himself turned into a SyFy channel series that just ended and it has a huge cult following. You wouldn’t know him if you passed him walking down the street, he’s a very unassuming, regular nice guy, but at ComicCons and in the nerd world he’s like a revered rock star. It’s very weird, but also very cool. He lives in a small town in a regular, middle-class house, but that house is so chock full of cool stuff that it’s mind-blowing.

"Growing up in the late 60's my best friend's father was a famous NFL quarterback."

Fran Tarkenton?

My cousin whom I've never met was in the Untouchables as well, also American Graffiti, and other films. Never met because my grandmother's sister moved to LA long ago while the rest of her family mostly stayed in the Midwest. This particular cousin resembles my brother to a T. He's a grandchild of the sister so same age as the rest of us grand kids, and he's into the outdoors as are the rest of us.

I believe his father was an animator for Disney, though I don't know for sure - don't have the receipts. The people in my family who submitted DNA to 23 & me, etc. - I haven't - all checked the box so as NOT to connect with their DNA matches... a little streak of misanthropy in the genes it seems.

I do. Funny you don't get much gossip. She was on a TV series (there she had some gossip because it ran for a bunch of years.)

Now she does films and the one thing I've learned is the stars don't talk to the rest of the cast much. Whenever I ask what was so and so like she says she didn't really ever talk to him except on camera.

Well, I slept with a sweet man who slept with a rich, Ustinovian man who slept with a machinating show-biz man who slept with a weedy young man named David Jones — except he later adopted a stage name "Bowie".

(the sweet man told me that the weedy, young man stole that stage name from a 1950s Walt Disney TV western show)

^ That's true

My brother is the shah of Iran. Don’t tell anybody though.

Not anymore, r80

[quote]when I was a kid. We all got to ride on a parade float in the city's very popular annual festival.

Were you doing the pageant girl wave while wishing you had a tiara?

I have a friend who was lead singer in a group that was a one hit wonder of a song that all of you know. Very down to earth guy with a great voice. Too bad that he wasn’t able to recapture his fame....although the residuals from that one song have paid him well. This one is sports related. My cousin was in the summer Olympic Games and the team he played with won a bronze medal. Then four years later his team was again in the Olympic Games again and this time they won gold. My cousin is a very laid back person but I at least thought that he would have the medals somewhere to be seen. Nope, had them in a drawer in his den and I had to ask him to show them to me. They were a lot bigger and heavier than I thought they’d be.

My mother went out with the singer from the southern rock band that sang “Black Betty Ram A Dam”.

At UCLA, my sister dated Lew Alcindor (now known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). She didn't marry him, though, as interracial marriage was still controversial in the late 1960s.

A guy I knew was one of the first Billy Elliots on the West End and has remained close to Elton. I watched him exchange lewd birthday greetings texts with Sir Elton on his birthday. I imagine Sir Elton probably spoke to him the same way when he was underage. Tsk tsk.

[quote] My mother went out with the singer from the southern rock band that sang “Black Betty Ram A Dam”.

That's so random that I believe it.

It was Black Betty Bam-ba-lam. The band’s name was Ram Jam.

[R88] Thanks, I was too lazy to look it up. He was a cute short man with freckles who is now in real estate. We had Thanksgiving together one year.

R56 Wipers? Meat Puppets? The Vaselines?

To R5 and others who liked his post.....thanks for sharing your memories, it reminded me of a book I read recently called "Smalltime" by Russell Shorto.

The writer is a well known historian, but writes about how his grandfather was quite well known as being part of the mob. Definitely worth checking out.

R71 - the portrayal in the crown was accurate. And she and my grandfather were birds of a feather. That whole branch of the family is full of social climbing bitches.

That's a fascinating story R70; it sounds like an episode from "The Americans." So how did people know who your father was? I don't think I could name a leading scientist in today's 24/7 cable news/internet environment; how did people know his role & what he did? Your story sounds very interesting - I'm intrigued how something like that would've been widely known by the public.