Most enigmatic celebrities?

Brendad Ickson

Bernadette Peters.

R2 Why Bernadette Peters? Interesting choice

James Dean

[quote] Brendad Ickson

Datalounge Law #1: In any thread about celebrities, someone will mention Brenda Dickson, regardless of whether she's relevant, in order to misspell her name and thus demonstrate "insider" status.

Hope Sandoval.

But Brendad really is enigmatic R4!

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, she’s a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside a tub of Gelson’s potato salad.

Michelle Pfieffer.

R7 Really? Why her?

I disagree with myself now. I think she’s more unknowable to a degree rather than mysterious. Different qualities.

[quote]Datalounge Law #1: In any thread about celebrities, someone will mention Brenda Dickson, regardless of whether she's relevant, in order to misspell her name and thus demonstrate "insider" status.

Vicki Sleestak

Angelina Jolie

Jack Nicholson

Bernadette Peters keeps a low profile. She's kept a lot of her personal life private. When she was in Gypsy, she'd start mentioning her mother a lot, alluding to her being a bit like a stage mother, but would never elaborate much. That's about as much as anyone seems to know about her.

Sade!

That’s a good one.

Eva Green

Almost anyone who does very little press, like Daniel Day-Lewis, The Weeknd, and Frank Ocean.

There are a few exceptions to this. Taylor Swift rarely grants interviews, but since she talks so much (apparently) about her personal life in her songs she seems very much an open book. Same with Beyoncé, who has refused interviews for nearly ten years, but we know so much about her already from her Destiny's Child years she still feels like an open book.

The Olsen twins keep a very low profile, but they're so constantly talked about because they seem so weird and unhappy (and were so hideously overexposed as children) that I feel like I know them anyway.

Daniel Day Lewis.

Delphine Seyrig

I own this thread.

The enigma, the riddle, the mystery of . . . Jared Leto!

What about me ?

French film stars of a certain vintage qualify: Huppert, Binoche, Denueve. We only know the basic facts about their private lives.

R23 If only Depardieu would have followed their examples.

Kate Bush

Morrissey

Bernard Sumner

Marc Bolan

Matt Dillon. I feel I know only the barest sketch of the man, compared to most other celebrity performers.

George Harrison

Despite all the tabloid scandals, there's something about Helen Lawson that is unknowable.

Robert Redford

Norah Jones never has any whiff of scandal or personal life plastered all over the pages. She just works hard and lives a low-key, under the radar, humble lifestyle. Check out the living room, and her all decked out in a Golden Girls t-shirt and garden hat:

nothing beats stoical soccer Captain Jordan ‘hendo’ Henderson refusing ever to drop his guard even around his own team of many years. getting chivalrously walked to his doorstep every night silently nodding and never inviting his teammates in just for a 10min coffee. he really said trust no bitch keep them on their tippytoes

Mrs Hendo: lüv why don't you ever invite your workmates inside? for a cuppa or some scran

Hendo: there's not enough yoghurt to share

Mrs Hendo: there's 12 litres though?

Hendo: yes exactly?

R30 I wonder that too.

I agree with Dylan and Sade. Bob has put lots of effort into cultivating his mystique, not sure if Sade has.

I’d add Enya and Kate Moss as famous people who don’t speak publicly, hardly ever.

And to me - Obama, who’s had very wide public exposure and lots of public speaking, including about his personal life, but whose internal emotions have always seemed intensely private.

I repeat, Hope Sandoval. Name one thing you know about her.

[quote] Hope Sandoval. Name one thing you know about her

I don’t know who that is. I’ll guess an artist of some kind?

She's so mysterious that people don't even know who she is.

Pickles Garbo

Miranda Richardson has worked steadily for almost 40 years now and in that time she's said little to reporters besides "I like falconry."

[quote]I repeat, Hope Sandoval. Name one thing you know about her.

Nobody cares...she's not a "celebrity," any more than any of her flash-in-the-pan musical peers from the 90s.

Robert Smith deserves a mention, though.

Julia Roberts

R40 No, he doesn't.

Adam Duritz - only because he’s dated so many famous women, but he seems very low-profile.

So DL has a Hope Sandoval troll in 2022...now I've seen everything. What next? A Juliana Hatfield troll?

R35 as a big lifelong fan of Hope Sandoval, I know very little. From her interviews and her songwriting, I have gleaned that growing up she was a latchkey kid and an early school dropout (she stopped going at around age 14, and no-one noticed); she had family members (male siblings/cousins possibly?) into gangs & drugs, which spooked her as a sensitive young girl; she has always admired and followed folk music, and has an affinity for late 1960s-70s psychedelic culture and for folklore, particularly coming out of the U.K.. She also has ostensibly experienced past relationships in which she felt used and abandoned, and has a deep disdain for the LA/Hollywood/American culture of fame.

And from following her since I myself was a kid and she was a young woman, that’s about all I can say I might know (and I’m not even sure about that).

^^^oh, and I think she’s a cat person. But I’m only guessing based on a couple of her album covers, and her personality....

R45, Hope Sandoval's predecessor in Opal, Kendra Smith, is so mysterious and reclusive she makes Hope seem like a fame whore.

But as already mentioned, there are tons of "cult" musicians who are mysterious or reclusive. A much more famous musician who cultivates her mystery is Kate Bush.

I wish more would be enigmatic. The more I see of celebrities the less I generally like them. I wish Hollywood stars could go back to having the inaccessible mystique of the golden age. I wonder if the fact that everyone is an open book is why the Hollywood star is kinda dead these days.

Madonna BEFORE instagram.

Mary Kay Place. She's been more than gainfully employed as an actress for decades. But, she works and then seemingly evaporates into the ether until it's time for her to work again. Where's she go? What's she do? Where does she even so much as live?

My goofy crush for a bit has been Jennifer Coolidge. It's all silliness with that. Stiffler's mom pulling a Shelly Winters in "The White Lotus" did something to me and I mean no harm. Much like Mary Kay Place she seems to just work but unlike Mary Kay Place she actually does p.r. by herself and goes to her work's premiers by herself and then just disappears. No fellow at the ready. No nothing. That intrigues me.

That fellow who sounds like a two bit Michael Jackson imitator when he sings? My spellchecker will mess it up. "The Weekend." He's made a mint off his atonal high tenor and homely looks. But he disappears too. Odd thing that.

No one knows the real me.

[quote]Bob has put lots of effort into cultivating his mystique

Jakob stated in an interview that Bob, when recognized, had his kids cross the street and walk with strangers in order to keep their privacy intact.

If only a few more celebs would take this approach...

Gene Hackman has always seemed enigmatic to me, both as a screen presence and as a celebrity.

I find Ryan Gosling mysterious.

For me it’s Tommy Lee Jones. He’s funny and warm when he does DVD commentaries and is an impossible, monosyllabic jerk in interviews. Both he and Harrison Ford seem to take a lot of pride in viewing acting as their job, and are then monumentally, mortally offended that they’re expected to do publicity that might, God forbid, let people see who they really are.

Neither is stupid, so if it’s asking too much that they should turn on the charm a little in what they feel are their off hours, when doing publicity IS half the damn job, they need to either admit they suck at half of what they do for the big the bucks, or quit.

David Lynch

Keanu Reeves.

The only time we ever hear about his private life is when a story about him being nice to somebody makes the rounds, so everybody likes him. But nobody really has any idea of how he lives or who he loves, and it's all really amazing if you think about it. He's been around forever, and is about the only big name celebrity to genuinely keep his private life private.

I am the most misunderstood.

Prince before he died for the most part. Even Larry King couldn't take that away from him.

One of the celebrities mentioned here (I can't say the name because he's a (financial) client of ours and it would be a huge no-no to even hint) is in our Flyoverstan town a couple of times a year.

At any rate, there's been a bunch of postings on our local nextdoor.com page with people saying, 'You know, I just saw XX XXX guy who just looked just exactly like XYZ buying a bag of chips at Walmart', and all the responses are, 'Yeah, what would that person be doing around here?' and nobody thinks it might actually have been him- and it was.

So maybe a lot of these people are hiding in plain sight.

John Cusack, always liked him a lot since the 80s, but doesn't reveal too much about himself all these years, a mystery, he intrigues me still today...

R62 he’s a mean drunk misogynist. Joan got all the decency.

Bjork

PJ Harvey

Jackie Kennedy always kept an allure

Bridget Fonda

R57 Robert Redford (as mentioned) is likely the most major star to fall into that category.

Jennifer Jason Leigh doesn't live life publicly, and I don't think she ever did. Perhaps not the most enigmatic, but she's on my list, anyway.

And while it's obviously not an answer that belongs on this list, I'm surprised no one has responded with "Julianne Moore. Seriously."

R63 "PJ Harvey". Not mysterious enough. We know she supports fox hunting in UK cause it's the part of their "culture"

Rachel McAdams

Jeff Goldblum

Gary Cole

Mylene Farmer

R47 I don’t think Bush “cultivates” mystery, she just refuses to provide banal detail in interviews and on social media. She lives a normal life and only does interviews when she has a new album out.

It’s strange that we consider Madonna and the Kardashians as “normal,” as they post every detail about their lives, but those artists who choose to live as normal people and avoid the spotlight, like Bush and JD Salinger are considered weird.

Bush said early on in her career that she works slowly and doing interviews takes a lot of time from her work. I’d rather she work on her music and share it with us then read about her vaginal steaming or whatever.

Celebrities aren’t as fascinating as they think they are.

R68 she’s right.

R74 So you wouldn't mind dirty old Brits chasing you on horses if there were slim chances of you dying or being injured? Dumbass.

R75 well given that I’m rural British, that very scenario has in fact happened to me, and left no lasting damage. So there you have it.

R74 Just torn apart apart by a pack of dogs. Barely a scratch…

David Souter.

Good one, R78

R60, does your client have family in that Flyoverstan town? I know at least 1 celeb mentioned in this thread has a farm in Minnesota that he shares with his brother's family.

[quote]So maybe a lot of these people are hiding in plain sight.

Until the papz find you.

I saw Bob Dylan in concert a little over 10 years ago. I had floor seats so I could see him really well and he smiled the entire show and seemed so happy.

Smiley, cheerful Bob Dylan wasn't what I was expecting.

My favorite strange Bob Dylan story:

[quote] Back in 2009, police in Long Branch, New Jersey received a call about a loner walking from street to street, a scruffy man walking in the rain. Duly dispatched, police found a dishevelled man in casual clothes claiming to be Bob Dylan. Officer Kirstie Buble refused to believe his claims, until the man was driven back to his hotel and claimed his passport. She told ABC News: “I’ve seen pictures of Bob Dylan from a long time ago and he didn’t look like Bob Dylan to me at all. He was wearing black sweatpants tucked into black rain boots, and two raincoats with the hood pulled down over his head.” So, what was he looking for? Bob Dylan claimed to be going for an innocent walk, but fans have long held that the location - mere yards away from Bruce Springsteen's former home - isn't a coincidence. The property is where The Boss is said to have penned songs such as 'Born To Run' and 'Thunder Road', a place where he cemented his legend. It came during a spree of fan worship from Bob Dylan, who visited the childhood homes of Neil Young and John Lennon around the same time.

R80 - Yes, they do. No, it's not Minnesota.

There are a number of celebs that disappear to nowheresville towns regularly because of having relatives and friends there.

R81 - The 'Papz' are generally so fucking stupid and lazy they couldn't find their ass with both hands and a searchlight. That's why they do that for a living.

Jeff Daniels.

Bernadette Peters was up at the top of this thread, and she represents a type of celebrity that can seem enigmatic. She started in the business as a little kid. The smart ones who don’t fuck up or burn out before adult success share certain qualities that set them apart from other famous people.

Most importantly, they see their careers as a job. Period. Although they may talk about the creative process and art, their orientation is that it’s a business proposition. Their work as kids paid the family bills and as adults their fame pays their bills. This tends to cut down on the diva behavior and attention seeking that many stars live on.

It’s not that she’s enigmatic, she’s practical. The lack of pretense and always being ‘ON’ can come off as being overly private. Jodie Foster is similar. Worked from the time she was a little kid. No public persona.

Bob Dylan loves to go biking in the Netherlands, because the Dutch are generally very blasé about celebrities.

Jorge Lucas

Daryl Hannah

Kim Kardashian

- what do we REAALLY know?

Chrissy Teigen

Regina Hall

I would add Anna Wintour to the list. She's a celeb by default, but you don't see her out except for work related events. There aren't any sideboard items in the Daily Fail about her 'dazzling' in some designer dress as she emerges from some overpriced eatery in Paris.

Brenda Dickson. She's from a bygone era of glamour & sophistication, & you never know what's really going on in that head of hers.

R94 is trying to talk about a vintage actress, I think? Can’t tell, the spelling of the name is unfamiliar to me. Doesn’t look right.

Frank Ocean

Prince Rainier and his beautiful wife, who've really gone to ground. Haven't been seen for ages.