Some Folks Who've Made It BIG...


To start, I’d like to share some of my favorite Oklahomans with you. I’m a movie freakazoid, and a book demolisher. Forgive me. So most of these are actor/entertainer/writers….

I will just make it known. Brad Pitt. He’s been a part of me since his abs first graced the screen in Thelma and Louise. Well maybe not first graced the screen (cause he was in a made for TV movie with the Silver Spoons kid as well as some bits and pieces of other well known movies) , but you know what I mean…. Anywho….I know I should be embarrassed to start my blog off with a rabid fan picture of Brad Pitt, but so be it. I know, you can leave now. The door is just to the right.

Other famous Okie actors that I heart…

Suzy Amis, favorite movie she’s been in, Fandango. Don’t know it. Find it, rent it, watch it. Go on now, I’ll wait.

Wes Studi. American Indian. Beautiful. Enough said.

Tim Blake Nelson. Thank you Coen brothers for making him a part of your world, and thus a part of mine.

Blake Edwards, director of many a silly comedy. The Pink Panther anyone?! Or my personal favorite Mickey and Maude (well, maybe not my favorite but definitely was watched way too many times on HBO as a kid and might be why I have commitment issues…just sayin’…). Married to Julie Andrews. Cool, just cool.

Bill Hader. Crush. SNL. Pineapple Express. Super Bad. He is a hot mess and I want to have his baby.

Mary Kay Place. Love, just love. Too many wonderful movies and TV shows to even name. Love.

James Garner. I will admit now, I love older men. Freudianize it any way you want, whatever.

He’s. The. Man. Deal with it. Murphy’s Romance. And an old fart astronaut in Space Cowboys. Don’t judge, it was directed by Clint Eastwood.

Speaking of Astronauts….Oklahoma is full of them. My favorite, is Gordon Cooper. Born in Shawnee, OK.

Mickey Mantle and Jim Thorpe are two of Oklahoma’s most well known athletes. In keeping with my cheese factor though, I might mention Brian Bosworth circa 1984-1986. The Boz. Loud, obnoxious, and controversial. Just like I like em. I have since moved on to Sam Bradford. Yes, I am an OU fan. Deal.

The graceful Maria Tallchief. Ballerina extraordinare. Georgian-born choreographer George Balanchine wrote several of his most famous works for her. She makes me feel like a lumpy, oaf of an elephant. She is grace and beauty and light.

Wilson Rawls, The Summer of the Monkeys. It’s on everyone’s childhood reading list. Go read it again.

S.E. Hinton. Stay golden Pony boy. Stay golden. Read her.

Ralph Waldo Ellison, Invisible Man. Read it. Learn Something. Go.

Chet Baker, jazzy horn player. I know nothing about music except for what I like. I like Chet.

Leon Russell. He will get a few of his own posts as time goes by. Artist, visionary, all around strange dude.

And let me leave you with a few words from John Berryman….

The Traveller by John Berryman

They pointed me out on the highway, and they said

'That man has a curious way of holding his head.


'They pointed me out on the beach; they said

'That manWill never become as we are, try as he can.


'They pointed me out at the station, and the guard

Looked at me twice, thrice, thoughtfully & hard.


I took the same train that the others took,

To the same place. Were it not for that look

And those words, we were all of us the same.

I studied merely maps. I tried to name

The effects of motion on the travellers,

I watched the couple I could see, the curse

And blessings of that couple, their destination,

The deception practised on them at the station,

Their courage. When the train stopped and they knew

The end of their journey, I descended too.

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