mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
My dad was a military brat - my grandpa was in the Navy so my dad found himself uprooted a few times. He was born in Virginia but ended up in Iowa where he decided to stay put. Although he doesn’t quite make the list of famous people (sorry, dad), these brats do:
10 Famous Military Brats
1. Photographer Annie Leibovitz’s father was a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force.
2. R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe’s dad was in the U.S. Army.
3. Actor Tim Curry (one of my favorites) traveled quite a bit with his dad, who was a Chaplain in the Royal Navy.
4. Xuxa, a Brazilian Icon who is sometimes called “The Madonna from South America”, was quite worldly at a young age. Her father, who was in the Brazilian military, wasn’t stationed in one place (Rio de Janiero) until Xuxa was seven.
5. Michael J. Fox was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and didn’t settle in one place until his dad retired from the Canadian Forces in 1971.
6. Elton John comes by his musical talents honestly - his dad was a trumpter with the Royal Air Force Band.
7. Bruce Willis was born in Iber-Oberstein, West Germany. His father was a soldier in the U.S. Army and met his mother while stationed there.
8. Emmylou Harris’s dad was a Marine Corps pilot who went missing in action in Korea in 1951. He was a prisoner of war for for somewhere between 10 and 16 months (different reports say different things) before he was released and sent home.
9. Michelle Bachelet, the President of Chile, was born to an archaeologist mother and a father who was a Chilean Air Force Brigadier General. She moved all around Chile, and spent two years in Maryland while her father was serving at the Chilean Embassy in Washington, D.C. They then moved back to Chile where Michelle graduated high school.
10. Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill, moved numerous times because of his dad’s career with the U.S. Navy. Although he started high school in Annandale, Virginia, he graduated from Nile C. Kinnick High School in Japan. And then he went on to save the world from his evil father. No, wait, I’m confusing fantasy and reality again…
Comments (15)
Comment
Michael J Fox… too funny! I remember one “Family Ties” episode where he goes to another state to go drink at a bar and tells some chicks that he had to leave tomorrow on a mission to invade Canada.
posted by markmier on 5-15-2008 at 3:07 pm
What about Shaq?
posted by Austin on 5-15-2008 at 3:07 pm
Wasn’t Kris Krostofferson an Army Brat also?
posted by KenG on 5-15-2008 at 3:36 pm
Stacy is hot!
posted by tommy on 5-15-2008 at 3:45 pm
I’m not famous, but I am a proud Brat. There are a few that are not on this list, namely, Christina Aguilera, Norman Schwarzkopff, and the Queen to his King, Pricilla Presley, who was attending Frankfurt American High School (as did I, class of ‘95!) when Elvis met her.
posted by Michelle on 5-15-2008 at 3:49 pm
No Jim Morrisson? First famous person I thought of, right after Michelle Bachelet, of course.
posted by Johnny Cat on 5-15-2008 at 3:55 pm
Christian Bale is an RAF brat; his dad was an aviator.
posted by snarkypants on 5-15-2008 at 4:03 pm
Lest we not forget 3rd generation military brat (and just brat) John McCain.
posted by gus on 5-15-2008 at 5:20 pm
On the Bruce Willis entry it has to be Idar-Oberstein, not “Iber”
I’ve been there many times as a child.
posted by JB on 5-15-2008 at 6:17 pm
Very old reference: John Denver was also a military brat. His dad was an Air Force office.
posted by Tim on 5-15-2008 at 6:38 pm
One of my favorites…Dee Dee Ramone!
posted by stick on 5-15-2008 at 6:42 pm
Don’t forget Jim Morrison who’s father was an admiral in the Navy.
posted by Matt Garrett on 5-15-2008 at 7:33 pm
Posted this link in www.surfurls.com
posted by gibsy on 5-15-2008 at 9:31 pm
Rob Thomas was born in Landstuhl, Germany (same hospital I was born in)- Army brat.
posted by ashburnite on 5-16-2008 at 2:25 pm
I was going to mention shaquille o’neal too. I think at Ft. Sam they even know which house he lived in, as you can imagine not that great being military quarters.
posted by Rachel on 5-22-2008 at 12:33 am