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?

Wow, I bet your parents' wedding was fun 😬

A German friend told me his granddad was in the SS, so I'm guessing there's a fair chance he met Hitler too, at some kind of parade or something.

My step grandparents were friends with Desmond Tutu

My parents were friends with the last of the Bloomsbury group so my sister and I spent weekend afternoons playing at Charleston whilst they spent time talking and photographing Duncan Grant in what I recall was quite chaotic but beautiful surroundings.

The gardens were safer and wonderful.

Mum At school with Arthur Scargil ( lazy apparently) & Dad with Michael Parkinson.
She also knew Jenny Murray’s Mum.

My grandad was a driver for John Wayne when he was filming a movie in Ireland in the 50's

My Nan once had the Krays knock on her door! She was a young mum of a couple of children at the time. They told her they knew my grandad was working nights, they wanted to make sure she was ok and assured her that she would get no bother.
She had not known them previously, wasn’t aware they knew her but thanked them and assured them she was ok. Never saw them again but never did get any trouble!

My grandfather's db dated Vivienne Westwood I was told.

@Lifelover16yep. He lived in Bloxwich, Walsall with his mum until she passed away. She was a bit of a dragon by all accounts.

My late fil vaguely knew the Krays but mostly their mum Vi. Wasn’t involved with any criminal activity though.

Do you mean Midge Ure? Or John Foxx when he was singing with Ultravox? Or (both Midge & Jim Kerr being Scottish), was the band Simple Minds not Ultravox ...??!

When I was very young, I remember my paternal gran making a comment about Bette Davis, as though she actually knew her. Long after she died, someone told us she'd been a lady's maid to Tallulah Bankhead.
I would love to know how true that was and there's no one I could ask.
She was very unassuming and never spoke about her life before marriage, so who knows?

My Dad grew up living very near Ronnie Corbett. They were both part of a group of kids who played together. No insights!

Wow! Fascinating stories everyone. Thank you so much.
Quite the who's who our relatives and friends rubbed shoulders with.
Keep wracking your brains for any more gems. This is great!

I took Midge Ure from this, Midge being a nickname for Jim (Mij).

My GPs knew a couple of huge names from back in the day. One was even in our family tree. Not saying who as MN is pretty much insane 🫩

Oh I've just remembered another one. My dad (who sadly died when I was very small) worked with Crick and Watson on DNA and my parents were in the Eagle pub in Cambridge when they came in to tell everyone about the discovery. My mother was 'cross' that they were being so noisy !

My husband’s uncle taught Osama bin Laden English.

Not me but my close friend’s grandmother was close friends with Audrey Hepburn. Just after WW2 they were both studying ballet in London together. Audrey had moved from a dance school in Belgium and my friend’s grandmother was the daughter of a Swiss diplomat, so they were both the foreign dancers in the same school in West London. They later performed together in the West End and shared a flat and remained close friends throughout their lives. Audrey eventually moved to Switzerland and lived down the road from my friend’s grandmother so they were reunited and friends up until Audrey’s death.

My grandmother was friends with Joan Clarke. She was my Uncle’s godmother and used to take him out to tea. We only realised who “Aunty Joan” was when the film came out.

I didn't know my paternal grandparents as they died before I was born but they met when they were going out with other people in London. My grandmother was going out with Fred Astaire as she was a dancer in a show he was doing with his sister in London (1920s I think) and my grandfather was going out with the sister. They met at the theatre when he was going to meet Fred's sister, fell in love and they both dumped the Astaires. Possibly a mistake!!

When I took my now husband to meet my gran, she pulled out a story about how she was once a guest of Mobutu, President of Zaire. She did love despots.

MY exMiL used to exchange Christmas cards with Jane Hawking (Steven's wife). ExH remembers them coming to dinner when he was a child.

Please take the chance. I don't think confiding that your great-uncle's grandfather-in-law was Charlie Chaplin (say) would immediately reveal that you are Jane Smith of 1 Anytown Lane, Anytown AN1 1ZZ.

My grandad had met one of the Kray twins and George Best (separate occasions lol) and now I’m an adult I understand he was actually a bit dogey. Very very sweet to me, literally doted on me, but definitely involved in crime on reflection. Not just from this, but there were lots of other signs. Dads side of the family, my mum’s dad was straight edged as they come.