Pop Culture Trivia

What Did These Famous People Do Before They Became Famous?

Mick Jagger: Porter in a mental hospital.

Rod Stewart: Dug graves

Sylvester Stalone: Cleaned lion cages

Ozzy Osbourne: Laborer in a slaughterhouse.

Cyndi Lauper: Cleaned out dog kennels.

Jeffrey Archer, UK Politician and writer: Deck chair attendant

Mickey Rouke: Cinema usher. He was fired after he got into a brawl with one of the other workers

Elvis: Worked at the Precision Tool Company in Memphis, but was fired when his boss discovered that he was only 15 years old

Red Buttons: Bellboy

Who Were They Before They Became Famous?

Bob Dylan: Robert Zimmerman

Sigourney Weaver: Susan Weaver. She took the name "Sigourney" from a character in the novel, "The Great Gatsby."

Rock Hudson: Roy Scherer. Took his name from the Rock of Gibraltar and the Hudson River

Oprah Winfrey: Oprah was always her name, but it was supposed to be Orpah, after the biblical character. The midwife spelled it wrong.

Nicolas Cage: Nicholas Coppola. He changed his name to disassociate himself with his famous uncle, film director Francis Ford Coppola. "Cage" was taken from the comic book character "Luke Cage."

Red Buttons: Aaron Chwatt. He got the name from his hair color and the 48 buttons on his bellboy uniform.

Luke Perry: Coy Luther Perry. He changed it to Luke after his favorite movie, Cool Hand Luke.

Bette Davis: Ruth Davis

Gary Cooper: Frank Cooper. His agent persuaded him to change to Gary after the agent's home town, Gary, Indiana.

Doris Day: Doris Von Kappelhoff. Her band leader, Barney Rapp, suggested she change it. She used to sing the song "Day After Day" for him.

Audrey Hepburn: Edda van Hemstra Hepburn-Ruston, born in Brussels.

Cameo Roles

Stephen King played the minister at a funeral in the 1989 movie of his book, Pet Cemetery.

Steven Spielberg played the clerk who took John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd's money at the end of the Blues Brothers.

Pablo Picasso was part of a crowd scene in Jean Cocteau's 1962 movie, The Testament of Orpheus.

Ed Koch, mayor of New York City, played himself in The Muppets Take Manhattan.

What Parts Did They Play Before They Became Famous?

Tom Selleck played Jed Andrews in US soap, The Young & The Restless.

Davy Jones played Ena Sharples grandson, Colin Lomax in an episode of the UK soap opera, Coronation, in 1961.

Kevin Kline was the character, Woody Reed in the US soap, Search For Tomorrow.

Tom Berenger played in US soap 'One Life to Live'. His character, Tom Siegel, fell in love with a nun. He died after falling down some stairs.

Tommy Lee Jones played in 'One Life to Live'. He spent four years on the soap opera.

Elaine Paige began her career in UK soap Crossroads. She had a small part as Caroline Winthrop in the late 1960s.

Malcolm McDowell also played in Crossroads as Crispin Ryder.

Untimely Deaths

Cass Elliot of The Mamas and Papas died of a heart attach after a performance at the London Palladium in 1974. Urban legend has it that she choked on a ham sandwich. Speaking at a press conference after finding her, the police noted that they found a partially eaten ham sandwich and speculated that she choked on it. However, the coroner's autopsy determined that no food was found in her trachea and that she had died in her sleep of a heart failure.

Shortly after he recorded "Three Steps to Heaven," Eddie Cochran was killed in a car crash in Wiltshire, England. The song became a posthumous number one hit single in the UK.

Buddy Holly, along with his fellow musicians The Big Bopper and Richie Valens were all killed in the same plane crash in 1959. Apparently, they took the flight instead of a bus because Holly wanted to get a good night's sleep before their next gig.

Other Random Interesting Stuff

On the TV series WKRP in Cincinnati, the character Les Nessman always wore a bandaid, either on his skin or clothes. Just before the first episode, he banged his head on a cabinet and had to wear a bandage. They were going to write it into the script, but didn't. The next week he still had a bandaid, but a smaller one. The third week he still wore a bandaid and there was nothing in the script about it. So they decided to make it part of his character.

Gilligan of Gilligan's Island had a first name, Willy. It was used only once in the never-aired pilot show.

Alfred Hitchcock had no belly button. It was removed when he was sewn up after surgery.

Isaac Asimov is the only author to have a book in every category of the Dewey-decimal system.

Max Von Sydow plays Jesus Christ in "The Greatest Story Ever Told" and Satan in "Needful Things." He is the only actor to play both parts.

Colonel Sanders was the second most recognized public figure in the world in 1979. After he wore a white suit to a social function and two women commented to him that he stood out among everyone because of the suit, he wore it every day of his life after that.

Kurt Vonnegut and Dr. Seuss went to college together. They were even in the same fraternity. Dr. Seuss decorated the fraternity house walls with drawings of his strange characters.

Lon Chaney's learned his great skill as a silent film actor as the result of both his parents being deaf-mutes. He learned to communicate by expressive pantomime.