Evidently not a hard-core movie buff.
Dick Shawn - lots of movies in the 60's-80's including (of course)
Mad, Mad ...
Edie Adams - gorgeous blonde who portrayed Marilyn Monroe on stage, was married to Ernie Kovacs
"Rochester" - Jack Benny's foil ("Yassir, Mr. Benny") and appeared in - guess what?
William Demarest - Uncle Charley in "
My Three Sons" and appeared in a hundred or so films
Norman Fell - "Mr. Roper" on
Three's Company, appeared in
Ocean's 11,
The Graduate and other films
Sterling Holloway - the voice of "Winnie the Pooh", appeared in hundreds of movies, short films and TV shows
Ed. Everett Horton - appeared in
Arsenic and Old Lace, did work with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
Carl Reiner - perhaps the most famous on the list, starred with Mel Brooks on
The Steve Allen Show, played Alan Brady on
The Dick van Dyke Show, has 12 Emmys and has directed and produced hundreds of TV shows and movies
Evidently I don't watch 'hard core' movies.
i'm none the wiser from that list, as I said 'famous' in the States maybe. I saw as little of Jack Benny as I could manage, '..3 sons' 'n '3's a crowd' were never on my watch list. Voice of Winnie the Pooh is a claim to 'fame'? Bit parts in old movies likewise?
Didn't watch Steve Allen or Dick van Dyke, neither were or are exponents of what entertains me comedy wise, I call the 'corny' card on 'em, sorry.
Okay: I've Googled them for pictures.
1. Dick Shawn: Never seen him before that I remember.
2.Edie Adams: No bells at all.
3.'Rochester': Yes, remember him, vaguely
4. William Demerest: Vaguely familiar as a bit player
5. Norman Fell: Yes, he was a secondary character in just about everything wasn't he? Name never rang a bell though.
6. Sterling Holloway: Nup, no bells rung, but I'm not a devotee of old movies.
7. Ed. E. Horton: Vaguely familiar as a bit player.
8.Carl Reiner: Okay know the face but if it doesn't instantly connect to a name then I don't deem it 'famous'. Sorry.
Too hard a marker???
Well, here's a Noo Yawker who was a household name and 'famous' for his Tonight Show in OZ that I bet you never heard of.
No bells yet??
He worked as
Don Lane.
Still nuthin'??
Well, 'famous' is relative isn't it?
He was recruited to fill in for 3 weeks on a terminally bombing Tonight Show type program when we were still experimenting with the genre. For some reason the TV powerbrokers thought the host had to be American but we detested the couple who hosted it and they fled the country in embarrassment. Lane filled in until they could find another 'name' but the ratings went skyward from week one so they kept him. For decades. He was known as the 'lanky yankee' and could sing, dance, do just about anything, a true all rounder entertainer who couldn't get a break in the States.
He bucked the trend here as we weren't US type humour fans in those days but he 'got' Australian ways and humour somehow and became 2nd only to Graham Kennedy, of whom you also never heard, as royalty of 'Tonight' TV. He died here a Naturalised Aussie Citizen.
Yet he doesn't even rate a picture in IMDb.
Point is, had his head appeared in Mad..World, would he count as famous?? Would here, but there?