What famous people have your 30-something friends never heard of?
Asked by
Kardamom (
33292
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June 6th, 2017
I have friends in lots of different age groups. Of my two closest friends, one is ten years younger than me, and the other one is ten years older than me. I have work friends that are in their 30’s, 40’s, 50’s and 60’s.
Last week I was working with two of the 30-somethings and we were talking about movies we liked, and actors we liked. The first actor I mentioned was Michael Caine. Both of my friends looked at me, clueless. I then named several movies that starred Michael Caine. Blank looks. Finally, I said, “I bet you’ve seen him in some of the Batman movies.” I finally had to bring up a picture on my phone. One of the 30-somethings said she sort of recognized his face, but had never heard the name. The other one didn’t recognize him, nor had she heard of him. Sigh…
Then I asked them if they had heard of Peter O’Toole, another favorite of mine. Nope. So I found a picture of him in Lawrence of Arabia. They had both heard of that movie, but they did not know who Peter O’Toole was, nor did they recognize him. Sigh…
I’ve had this same situation with 30-somethings regarding bands too, such as The Mamas and the Papas, The Byrds, and The Everly Brothers. Oy!
Which famous people have your 30-something friends never heard of?
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17 Answers
Peter Sellers. We had a movie night for six years. We watched Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, and The Pink Panther series. Blank looks if you mention his name.
@SavoirFaire Oh no! I love Peter Sellers and all those movies.
I haven’t any friends under forty.
Red Skeleton. I was talking about him at work and they had never heard of him.
None of the prize-winning authors and newspaper writers I worked with at the NY Herald Tribune in the early ‘60s, including Jimmy Breslin, Dick Shaap, Judith Crist, Tom Wolfe (The Right Stuff) and Charles Portia (True Grit) Also cartoonist Walt Kelly (Pogo).
I was with my sister and her boyfriend on Christmas eve and I was talking about how George Michael just died. He said he heard of George Michael but didn’t know his music. We streamed some George Michael and Wham music and he’d never head it before. It was the music I listened to when I was in my late teens and early twenties.
I think of this when all these people are dying now. Young people barely know who these celebrities are. It reminds me of when I was little and we’d hear that someone died and it would be someone my mother knew well, but I barely knew their name. I do remember when Ed Sullivan died, because my grandmother would watch the Ed Sullivan Show.
It’s just “their time”, that’s all.
Just as you and I have never heard of present-day “celebrities” Iska Lawrence, Kayla Itsines, or Jordyn Woods, many younger people today know exactly who they are (such as it is), but have no idea who Neil Armstrong, Sir Laurence Olivier or Dr. Jonas Salk were.
Due to YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, blogs, and all of that other bullshit, you and I now have a decent chance of becoming famous too.
(sigh)
OK, I’m done..
Probably 98% of colonial “famous” people.
I don’t know who most of the current younger celebrities are, either.
I could probably name tons that few of you buggers will have heard of & they’d all be mainstream legends too…
Ayrton Senna
Johan Cruyff
George Best
Nigel Benn
Zinedine Zidane
Jonny Wilkinson
Ronnie O Sullivan
Diego Maradona
Frankie Dettori
Rory Mcilroy
Lewis Hamilton
Wayne Rooney
Andy Murray
Chris Froome…
Dick Bong and Scott Crossfield. Maybe even Joshua L. Chamberlain.
When she was 27 (she’s 30 or 31 now), my singing teacher didn’t know who Susan B. Anthony was.
She’s a strong supporter of women’s rights, so when I told her Anthony was the leader in procuring the right to vote for women, she really appreciated it.
I agree with @PullMyFinger My daughter is 29 but has always been a classic rock fan along with all the pop music of her era. She was playing Led Zeppelin tunes on her electric guitar at age 15.
She knows most rock bands/singers from the 50’s through the 90’s, scads of actors and actresses and actually, it is I whom she often mentions names of people I am clueless about, some from my generation as well.
Just depends on individual interests.
I’m 26 and most of my friends are in their 40’s and 50’s. But when I was in college I developed a friendship with a guy in his 30’s who didn’t know who Jimmy Stewart was. I showed a scene of “It’s A Wonderful Life” from YouTube and he said “Oh I always thought that was Cary Grant!”
He also hadn’t seen any Alfred Hitchcock films either. We watched Vertigo and Rear Window back to back in his dorm, after that he became a major fan of Jimmy Stewart and Alfred Hitchcock.
Lots probably don’t know Adam West.
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