We knew them when.
Famous people have to be from somewhere.
It feels like they're aliens and are unreachable.
But they're real and they have origins in some unlikely places.
Most towns, schools, etc, have a few people they can say... walked these streets.
Redditor VirindiPuppetDT wanted to hear about who is your town's claim to fame.
"Who is the most famous person from your hometown?"
I'm not sure who is from my humble beginnings. Just me.
Purple Neighbor
Prince GIFGiphy"Prince."
PowerfulSeat7975
"My dad used to live in Carver. I didn't find out until he moved how close he lived to Paisley Park."
Wax_Mommy
The Neighborhood
"I'll just go with two of my favorites. Michael Keaton and Fred Rogers. I lived a couple of miles from his house and went to high school next door to WGED (where he taped)."
"Our smoking area was on QED's side of the school and he'd come over and chat with us sometimes."
"It was embarrassing standing there with a cigarette in my hand while talking to him. (It didn't bother any of us to smoke in front of the Brothers) I still live in the same neighborhood and it's a catholic school, hence the Brothers."
citsonga_cixelsyd
Walk On
"I’m from NYC, so about a million people. But for my neighborhood, it’s 100% Christopher Walken."
DrVonPretzel
"The King of New York."
Demitrius
"Never knew he was a professional tap dancer!"
catincal
"Could've knocked me over with a feather when someone told me that after I saw some video short he was in dancing and then the movie America's Sweethearts."
LadyBug_0570
The Writer
"Stephen King."
Cockatiel_Animations
"Says he's from Portland, ME... pretty sure Bangor is known for him though. Especially since Derry is based off the city. I'm technically not from Bangor either, I'm from Clifton, ME."
Cockatiel_Animations
"Bangor represent!"
Junior-Lie4342
Normies
John Waters Smile GIF by Locarno Film FestivalGiphy"Michael Phelps for the normies, John Waters for everyone else."
sanibelle98
"John Waters is the best. Dude donated to a museum and asked them to name the bathrooms after him."
dismayhurta
John Waters. Saint. I want a bathroom named after me.
From Nowhere
Oh Yeah Lol GIF by Focus FeaturesGiphy" Brad Pitt. Springfield MO."
NitramXb
"I always wondered how somebody from the middle of nowhere ends up a Hollywood movie star. There's literally zero opportunities for that so how the hell."
PlzRemasterSOCOM2
Just Smile
"Michael J Fox, Burnaby BC. I grew up in Vancouver and heard many stories from friends, back in the day, of him being drinking in clubs, sitting alone, with a dumb happy smile on his face. I never ran into him, but was always on the look-out! lol. I've always had a special spot in my heart for him."
Ubba-Ga
Love Her
"Carrie from Portlandia went to my high school but there’s like 4 towns that claim her because her family moved around the local area a few times."
MadisonPearGarden
"I went to a barbecue at her house in Portland once. It was before Portlandia when she was that woman from Sleater Kinney."
mackelnuts
"I love she is known more for Portlandia than her music. Oddly, I think she might appreciate this."
TheDeadlySquid
On a brighter note...
"Jerry Springer…was our mayor…"
vajayjaybird
"He actually paid a sex worker with a bad check, and she took him to court for the bad check. He was RE-elected after this happened. I feel sad for all of us. On a brighter note... Sarah Jessica Parker, born near, but lived here for her school years George Clooney, which is not true he was actually raised in Kentucky. But his father was a newscaster in Cincinnati which is why he gets tied here."
"Nick Lachey. Doris Day. Steven Spielberg, moved from here when he was very little."
KPinCVG
In the Zone
Season 3 Episode 24 GIF by Paramount+Giphy"Rod Serling. The dude who created that odd show called Twilight Zone. A character mentions the name of my hometown in one of the episodes."
Love Him
"Martin Short."
GloomyCamel6050
Have you seen his Larry David? I thought this was the man himself for over half a decade, and finally looked at the comment section. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PbZdhl5NI6Y"
doned_mest_up
"Or Eugene Levy. The community centre my grandparents would go to would have a contest for a date with Eugene Levy."
Gaslitfromwithin
The VP
"Mike Pence. My dad 'borrowed' his car when he was a teenager. Not much to tell. My dad was friends with one of Mike's younger brothers and used to take it on joyrides in the middle of the night. One night Mikes brother didn't wanna go so my dad went anyway and got caught."
Bucketofbolts559
Breaker High
"Ryan Gosling."
cjpotter82
"My friend went to high school with him in Burlington. Was annoyed about how the teachers bent over backwards to accommodate his Breaker High shooting schedule and to this day will not watch a film he is in lol."
1_art_please
"I grew up near Burlington and would see him and his Breaker High friends at the theatre often. My friend had a crush on him. Another friend of mine helped her dad paint Ryan's bedroom as a kid too."
TheDrunkyBrewster
Bad Religion
stan marsh pictures GIF by South Park Giphy"L. Ron Hubbard. Unfortunately."
BadDiscoJanet
"Agreed. He brought a horrible plague with Scientology. However, Battlefield Earth was an incredible novel. One of my favorites, in fact."
JonSmith12345
Founders
"Probably Les Schwab, the founder of Les Schwab Tires. It's a large chain in the western states, started in tiny little Prineville, OR."
rock-hound
"They would do February Beef Month (?) when I was growing up and in Eugene there was a local bicycle shop that would do February Tofu Month with a purchase of new wheels. Always loved it."
weareborgunicons
"I work for the company and the new owners have left us alone for the most part on the store level. Store quality really depends on the management team that's running it. I've seen clean orderly stores that put a big emphasis on customer service & quality of work and others that are just shit shows."
_lentes
Lead me back...
"Taylor Dayne? She sat in front of me in French class."
M_Looka
"Man her songs were so underrated."
Fomalhot
"I'd forgotten about her! To the YouTube."
LaComtesseGonflable
Creepy
Crow Killer Blues GIF by Rob ZombieGiphy"Rob Zombie."
drycleaningisntdry
"The 1st time I ever heard him talk he was faking a trash English accent and for the next 10 years I thought he was British."
Fomalhot
For the Music
"Cliff Burton is probably the most famous. The high school even has a music scholarship which his parents fund with then royalties they receive in his name."
leftshoesnug
"As a newborn until age 5 I lived in Castro Valley, from 60-65, and my parents had friends named Burton. I just wrote my sister to see if they were the same Burtons. I’m not a big Metallica fan, and never realized he was from there."
Emergency_Market_324
People come from everywhere. Good to know anyone, from anywhere can be anything.
Do any celebrities come from where you grew up? Let us know in the comments below.