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?

I was thinking Danny the Champion of the World?

My grandmother knew the actress Jean Simmons. They were related. Cousins I think.

This is just amazing! You think you know your family and then they have had a whole life you can't even guess at.
Please don't stop now MNrs. Next time you see your Granny or Great Uncle Bob, just ask, 'Don't suppose you ever met anyone famous did you?

These verbal heirlooms need to be shared!

I feel like the only person that hasn’t met Guy Gibson 😆

My aunt lived next door to Michael Crawford's grandmother (I think that's right, it was an older female relation anyway). He used to come and visit and my aunt thought he was lovely.

These are all incredible!

My grandma was friends with Ivana Trump’s mother and met Ivana a number of times when she traveling back to the Czech Republic. This was when she was married to Donald Trump in the 80s.

My Mum was a barmaid at a nightclub in the mid sixties and her Manager was Jimmy Savile!

Not grandparents, but my Dad did a carpentry job in Steve Backley’s house when I was about 5. He took me with him one day when he had to quickly pop in and measure something and I met Steve and his lovely Weimaraner called Arnie

My Dad was friends with Jack Charlton in his youth…

My great Aunt was a ladies maid for Queen Alexandra and often told us the story of the day she accidentally dusted the young Mary of Teck who became Queen Mary . She met Queen Victoria who was a couple of years from Dying and that point too . She loved Queen Alexandra.

German here - my mum worked for as a PA/secretary in a company whose owner married a widowed lady with a small boy. The boy later became a household name as an actor.

Every time he was on TV she said "he was such an awful behaved and spoilt boy, a nightmare when he decided to visit his step dad in the office". The family lived in a property on the same place where also the company's office was so it wasn't unusual for her to see him.

My granny was friends with Olivia De Havilland. I am not exactly sure how, but Gran worked for Sir Geoffrey De Havilland for a few years who was her cousin so I have always assumed that was the connection. There are piles of onion skin airmail letters from her with equal references to all sorts of famous movie stars and the mundane day to day, all exchanged between a golden age movie star and a lady from Hampshire. I assume my Gran’s letters are in some sort of Olivia De Havilland archive somewhere as it was a pretty lively correspondence over decades.

How lovely. She must have known her sister Joan Fontaine too, I assume, although I gather the sisters didn't really get on.

My Grandad was friends with the actor who played Uncle Tom on The Archers.

I've already managed to identify someone on here because of what they've written (not some I know personally but I have professionsl knowledge about the famous person that allowed me to identify their relative).

My granny lived in the flat under his in Fountainbridge. She was friends with his cousin in the same stair.

Your granny and my nana perhaps knew each other !

My maternal great grandparents were friends with Muhatma Ghandi and his wife.

Keith Moon is a distant cousin of mine! Never met him though.

My Grandad worked on Live - aid and would regularly spend time with Celebs. I would question him for hours about Freddie & Bowie!! I used to be obsessed with Father Ted and he brought me on set to meet them all once, best day ever

My DF when he was a student got a summer job as a roadie for the Who, my student jobs in comparison were very mundane!

Not RTFT but I’m most envious of the early PP who had Sooty as a neighbour.

That made me laugh- sounds like a euphemism 😁

My sadly now late ex father in law did the electrics/sound for a Rolling Stones gig at Nottingham University then went for a drink with them afterwards - it was just before they became famous.

The best thing though was he only met my father once who by then was very frail. He described as a 4 year old cycling down to the sea near Chatham where he lived and as one did as a 4 year old and watching the D-Day Invasion fleet assemble - actually I now realise Follow Up Force L, at which point my father piped up 'I was on one of those ships!'

Which means that my oldest sons grandfathers met at D-Day.............

He & my ex mother in law are lovely, its their daughter that wasnt

I have made a few family trees for friends and acquaintances.

Quite a few people mentioned here already are connected to one or other of my friends.

Monty proposed to a teenager when he was 30 odd. She found him dreary, especially on a beach walk when he sketched out tank plans. I did a tree for a relative of the teenager.

An old boss of mine worked for Harold Macmillan; he was an office boy when Kipling was still on the books.

Kipling interviewed and wrote about a British dentist who worked in Kabul with the Amir. I made a tree for a descendant of the dentist.

One of Chopin's favourite pupils was related to the dentist as well.

The friend connected to Monty also had a link to an actor in at least one Chaplin film.

My aunt was at college with Joan Plowright.