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You can do a lot with less than the normal complement of fingers — including becoming a guitar legend! Here are five famous examples of people achieving fame despite missing some digits!
1. Jerry Garcia
Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia lost two-thirds of his right middle finger as a child, while steadying wood his father was chopping. (A similar scene was shown in The Royal Tenenbaums to explain Margot’s prosthetic finger.) Despite the accident, Garcia went on to play a mean guitar, and often showed off his missing finger in a sort of salute to fans. Today the Barley Mill Pub (a virtual museum of Dead memorabilia) in Portland, Oregon features an illustration of Garcia’s right hand, encouraging us all to keep on truckin’ regardless of life’s little wood-chopping accidents.
2. James Doohan (Scotty on Star Trek)
James Doohan landed at Normandy on D-Day as part of the Royal Canadian Army. After taking out two snipers, Doohan was hit by six rounds from a Bren light machine gun fired by a sentry (in other words, friendly fire). He took four bullets in one leg, one in the chest (stopped by a silver cigarette case), and the final round amputated his right middle finger. Trek fans who haven’t noticed the missing finger have a good excuse: special stunt hands were used in closeups whenever Scotty operated the transporter.
3. Django Reinhardt
Jean Baptiste “Django” Reinhardt played banjo, guitar, and violin starting in childhood, but his fame as a performer didn’t come until after he lost the use of several fingers. At age 18, Django was severely injured in a fire — he and his wife sold paper and celluloid flowers, which likely fed the fire that consumed their caravan one night. His right leg was paralyzed and the fourth and fifth fingers of his left hand (the hand he used to fret the guitar) were badly burned and remained partially paralyzed for the rest of his life. Django painfully relearned the guitar, developing a new playing style to work around his bad fingers — becoming a jazz legend in the process.
4. Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath)
The blokes from Black Sabbath were genuinely working-class, holding tough industrial jobs in Birmingham, England. Guitarist Tony Iommi was working his last day at a sheet metal factory when an industrial accident severed the tips of the middle and ring fingers on his right hand — because he’s left-handed, the right hand was what he used to fret the guitar. Iommi was heartbroken, but after hearing about Django’s recovery, Iommi became inspired. First he tried learning to play guitar right-handed — no dice — then he re-strung his guitar with extra-light strings and fashioned prosthetic fingertips from plastic covered in leather. Using his “Iron Man” (okay, “Plastic Man”) style artificially enhanced fingers, Iommi rocked on.
5. Jesse James
Although accounts differ, some historians believe that infamous outlaw Jesse James was missing the tip of his left middle finger. (Some think it was a different finger, or that there was no missing finger at all. But anyway….) It’s unclear exactly how the fingertip was lost, but it’s a good bet that a gun was involved. After Robert Ford killed Jesse James in 1882, a photo showing the body had James’s left hand concealed under his right, causing some to believe that the photo was fake and Jesse James lived on. An exhumation in 1995 proved that the body was indeed Jesse James, but no mention was made of his missing finger. Pictured at right: Jesse and his brother Frank James.
If you enjoyed this list, check out Neatorama’s Missing Body Parts of 10 Famous People which includes a great story about Saint Catherine of Siena’s finger!
So, he’s fictional, but Peter Pettigrew is missing a finger in the Harry Potter series.
posted by Mej on 2-1-2008 at 2:52 pm
How about Gary Burghoff (Radar from MASH). You’d never know it because he hides it all the time.
posted by beth on 2-1-2008 at 2:58 pm
As a professional musician, I’m pretty obsessive about keeping all my fingers intact, nevertheless I had a very bad accident several years back (running with scissors is ALWAYS a bad idea!) and part of my finger is still numb where I severed the nerve – but I can still play the piano so I don’t care.
My father – a Brooklyn NY native, lost his first finger in a childhood accident – and somehow developed the nickname of “Tough Jack” which served him well on the then rough streets of NY! I always found it amusing that people assumed my sweet, sweet, VERY law abiding, extremely honorable father was at one time involved with the mafia simply because he was missing a finger.
posted by Renee Walker on 2-1-2008 at 4:35 pm
Just to be a pain, I think but am not certain that J. Garcia’s grandpa actually did the digit chopping. If anyone cares :)
Stuff like that makes me feel really, really lame for not being so good at guitar. I’ve played for like, 14 years and have all 10 fingers in good working order, and I still sound nowhere near as good as those with fewer fings.
posted by Molly W. on 2-1-2008 at 7:45 pm
current president of Brazil Lula is missing a finger
posted by conchero on 2-2-2008 at 12:22 am
The old thrill comedian Harold Lloyd was missing fingers on one hand because of a stunt that went wrong. He compensated on-screen with a flesh-colored glove.
posted by Tim on 2-2-2008 at 9:22 am
Make-up master Dick Smith (The Godfather, Altered States to name just a few)lost his entire left pinky half way through his career, yet he still managed to managed to create some of the most memorable cinematic characters.
posted by Mathias on 2-2-2008 at 4:40 pm
I am amazed that all of these fingers are missing as I have been receiving fingers from other drivers for many years.
posted by Scott on 2-2-2008 at 7:10 pm
Gary Burghoff (Radar from MASH) had an extra digit, he was missing none.
posted by teddy c on 2-3-2008 at 3:34 am
Not to be nit-picky, but you missed out on John Rhys-Davies, who is missing one of his middle fingers from the first knuckle up.
posted by BethanytheMartian on 2-3-2008 at 5:37 pm
It suprises me that, as Trekkies, my husband and I would not know that about Scottie until today!
posted by Maggie on 2-6-2008 at 10:27 am
Actually, Gary Burghoff was missing a digit. And he did hide in all scenes. He was always carrying something in that hand. So if you watch the episodes now knowing to look for it you can sometimes catch quick glimpses.
posted by bil on 2-6-2008 at 7:00 pm
Irish comedian Dave Allen (Dave Allen at Large) was missing part of the index finger on his left hand.
And Chicago Cubs pitcher Mordecai “Three-Finger” Brown was also missing a finger.
posted by Steven on 2-7-2008 at 6:18 am
Yeah, Three Finger Brown (known to his teammates as Miner) lost a finger and a half on his pitching hand in a farm equipment accident as a child. They really should have called him Three and a Half Finger Brown. Brown was one of the first pre-Ruth baseball stars in the early 1900s and is in the Hall of Fame.
I bet you could find lots of photos of yakuza guys with various fingers missing.
posted by John on 2-7-2008 at 8:49 am
Darryl Hannah is missing the tip of one of her fingers, although it’s usually hidden with a prosthetic or props.
posted by vic on 2-10-2008 at 4:21 pm