Did your grandparents ever mention unexpectedly famous people they had known?

[2catsandhappy]

As a young girl, whenever the WW2 came on tv, my late Nan would tell us that she knew Violette Szabo from when Violette was in London.
It meant nothing to me then, only in later years did the name mean anything.
No idea if Violette was a child or an adult. I presume adult as Nan was an adult in London. I have the vaguest idea they were sometime neighbours.
Anybody else had an unexpected name crop up in conversation with grandparents?

My grandparents lived in London, so had the obligatory Krays stories, plus a host of other neer do wells. Nan thought we had a much better class of villain back then and despaired of modern day thugs. Pretty sure those getting hit with protection rackets didn't find them more polite.

My Mum nursed loads of famous people including Spike Milligan. She was also nanny / nurse on the set of “Born Free” and looked after Virginia McKenna and Bill Travers’ children.

My Grandma was friends with Ted Heath, grew up in Broadstairs

My Nan used to talk about Ma Venables; I asked if she was any relation to Terry and apparently it was his mum.
My Aunt says she went out with Alvin Stardust before he was famous.

My Grandfather dealt in second hand clothes, furs, jewellery, hats etc amongst other things and bought many of Noel Coward's old suits from him to sell on. He used to send postcards to my grandfather when collections were ready.

Not famous as such, but my maternal grandfather was a member of the IRA and knew/associated with a lot of the “big names”. My paternal grandfather served in the British military for a long time, and also knew some soldiers who became quite well known/high ranking.

Very local reference, but the best I can do: my DM recently mentioned casually that she had been friends with the chap who saw the roman ghosts walk through the cellar in York.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/yorkshire/treasurers-house-york/ghosts-of-treasurers-house#rt-and-of-course-theres-the-romans

One Christmas my grandad told us he went to school with cliff richard. All nonchalant and us all sat there like WTF with mistletoe and wine blasting in the background. Said they were in the choir and everything together.

My step-gran, long gone now, went to school with Archibald Leach aka Cary Grant.

I know a few - but a relative was the driver to the kray twins - infamous rather than famous tbf.

Tom Finney used to eat his sandwiches in my Great Aunty Mary's shed

Your Nan must have been from the Midlands?

My MiL only very recently told us she crossed the Atlantic on the SS America with Helen Keller. Apparently the boat was met by crowds of reporters and the minor starlet who shared my MiL's table for dinner thought they were there for her, but in fact they were all there for Helen Keller!

We were so glad to hear the story - she's in her late 90s and we had never known.

Her sister dated David Niven during the war, which is also quite cool.

You simply cannot stop there!

Molesworth.

As any fule no.

My grandfather's cousin was a Hollywood film director. There's a highly inaccurate biopic of him where he's played by Ian McKellen. The biography its based on is much more accurate. Most of what I know on a more personal level is from older cousins as I'm very much one of the younger grandchildren and GPs passed away in the 1970s.

Not quite on a par, but Duncan Bannatyne used to live in the flat below my gran when he was primary school age. He used to go and get her a few bits of shopping on a Saturday morning for a small fee.

My great uncle was an actor and he knew Vanessa Redgrave well.

My Dad was a bit of a petrol head in his younger days. Stopped at a local garage to fill up with petrol and got into conversation with a man who was having problems with his car. My Dad offered to tow it back to the man’s house to have a look at it, and got it going. The man had lots of other cars too, which excited my Dad, and he would often pop over to see Jim to talk about cars. Watching Top of the Pops once, Ultravox came on, and Dad recognised his car friend. Bless him, he had no idea his new mate was famous.

I've met Alvin Stardust's ex wife Liza Goddard. Lovely lady

My grandad was mates with John stones (footballer) grandad they worked the pit together

FIL loves to tell everybody that he used to play football in the park with Michael Palin and Howard Wilkinson.

My late grandmother was a babysitter for Michael Parkinson the chatshow host. My dad saw Laurel and Hardy in a UK theatre tour as a kid in the 40's

My grandad was best friends with Dave Stuart’s dad and uncle so my mam grew up with him. The uncle lived next door to my grandparents and he used to visit all the time. My dad shouted at him for touching his motorbike

Not a grandparent but I was a private secretary for a wonderful former Hollywood golden age actress (well into her 80s). She was a bit of a one hit wonder - albeit a v big hit - and she once casually mentioned that Marlon Brando had taken her on a date after pursuing her for a while… and on another occasion just dropped into conversation that she’d been at a dinner party sitting opposite a quiet, pretty blonde woman. Only when someone made the woman properly laugh did her face light up and she realised it was Marilyn Monroe. She said she would literally turn “Marilyn” on and off like a switch.

My Dad dropped into conversation that he knew Stephen Hawking.