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Robert Service and Jack London would rate a mention wouldn't they?
Perhaps not.
Service was born in England to Scottish parents and didn't arrive in Canada until the age of 21. He lived in various areas in Canada, but left the country for Europe long before he died.
Jack London was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area and spent only a short period of time in the Yukon Territory.
Some obvious actors you missed are Lorne Greene (Bonanza) and Raymond Massey (Dr. Kildare) and Donald Sutherland. And every NHL superstar, such as Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull and Maurice Richard. Robin McNeil of the McNeil-Lehrer report. Michigan governor Jennifer Granholme. Singers Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray and Hank Snow. Rock group Bare Naked Ladies. Morley Safer. Doug Henning, cult philosopher Marshall McLuhan.
Franklin D. Roosevelt had siblings born in Canada, and if FDR had been born in summer, he would have been, too, and therefore ineligible to be president.
there's too many to list them all, I only included the top 30 and a couple others. For example the creators of ren and stimpy, spawn, artists for batman, fantastic four, tarzan comics, and other people Kiefer Sutherland, Donald Sutherland, kd lang, Paul Shaffer, Amy Sky, Susan Aglukark, Kreesha Turner, Portia White, Robert McNeil, David Hubel (mapped the visual cortex), John Taylor (President of the lds church after Brigham Young), Richard Taylor (nobel prize in quark theory), David Cronenberg, Haydon Christensen, Elisha Cuthbert, Sarah Polley.
What? No Oscar Peterson, Ferguson Jenkins, Harry Jerome, William Hall, Rose Fortune(first female police officer in North America), Daurene Lewis(first Black woman to be mayor in North America), Lincoln Alexander, Anderson Ruffin Abbott, Josiah Henson, Elijah McCoy, Adrienne Clarkson................
to achieve fame in the world it usually has to start in the United States.
This is a very North America-centric perspective. The most popular athlete in the world is probably Cristiano Ronaldo, who is pretty much unknown in the United States.
Shah Rukh Khan is one of the world's biggest movie stars (some say he is in fact the biggest) and known to hundreds of millions in many countries (and not just his native India) but he is hardly a household name in Omaha...
This is a very North America-centric perspective. The most popular athlete in the world is probably Cristiano Ronaldo, who is pretty much unknown in the United States.
Shah Rukh Khan is one of the world's biggest movie stars (some say he is in fact the biggest) and known to hundreds of millions in many countries (and not just his native India) but he is hardly a household name in Omaha...
people who are famous in the US are known everywhere in the world.
people who are famous in India, China aren't known around the world.
shah rukh khan is famous in India. that's it, India has a large population but so does North and South America, Europe, China and in those places he's relatively unknown. Take the most ethnically diverse countries in the world, and if someone is famous in those places they will probably do well everywhere else.
the world's media is based in North America. if you can get their attention then the world will pay attention.
google hits
Shah Rukh Khan 2-4 million
Sarah Jessica Parker 15.6 million
Ellen Page 17.1 million
Cristiano Ronaldo 18.8 million
Michael Jordan 45.8 million
If Lara Fabian had the kind of success in the US that she had in Europe she'd be just as known as Shania Twain.
Europe has 2.5 times more people than the US and Canada. Maybe that's why Ronaldo is more popular than Kobe.
people who are famous in the US are known everywhere in the world.
people who are famous in India, China aren't known around the world.
shah rukh khan is famous in India. that's it, India has a large population but so does North and South America, Europe, China and in those places he's relatively unknown. Take the most ethnically diverse countries in the world, and if someone is famous in those places they will probably do well everywhere else.
the world's media is based in North America. if you can get their attention then the world will pay attention.
google hits
Shah Rukh Khan 2-4 million
Sarah Jessica Parker 15.6 million
Ellen Page 17.1 million
Cristiano Ronaldo 18.8 million
Michael Jordan 45.8 million
If Lara Fabian had the kind of success in the US that she had in Europe she'd be just as known as Shania Twain.
Europe has 2.5 times more people than the US and Canada. Maybe that's why Ronaldo is more popular than Kobe.
I think you are greatly overestimating how pervasive American popular culture is around the world. Yes, I would agree that it is the most pervasive culture around the world, and one has to be a fool to suggest otherwise.
But that does not mean it is as pervasive everywhere as it is in English-speaking Canada, for example. To be famous in the United States is not to be automatically famous around the world.
You chose Google hits as an indicator of people's fame. But millions of soccer fans (including many in Europe) do not have access to the Internet, which is much more widespread in the U.S. It's even truer of the markets for Bollywood movies.
Plus, Michael Jordan played basketball, the most "globally popular" of the American sports. But most people around the world have no idea who Peyton Manning or Mark McGwire are, and just because they are famous in the U.S. hasn't magically changed that fact.
Sure, your average Indian or Egyptian would know Brad Pitt and some other American celebrities. But their knowledge of "famous" American people doesn't extend as much as you might think. Heck, I live in Quebec right across from Ottawa and I betcha more than half the people on my street have absolutely no idea who David Letterman is.
And stuff like Bollywood often has much, much more reach outside its own country than you give it credit for. Bollywood movies are regularly shown in countries with no or little Indian diaspora population like Russia, Germany and many African countries. Of course, Bollywood movies are also extremely popular in all of the countries neighbouring India like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and even all the way up into Afghanistan and into the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.
There are all sorts of cultural alternatives to Hollywood like this that exist around the world. Another good example are the Egyptian TV and movies that are the mainstream in most of the Arabic-speaking world.
Even in English-speaking countries like the UK, Australia and New Zealand, classic American stuff like Saturday Night Live for example is surprisingly little known. I hardly think that Regis Philbin and Jeff Foxworthy are household names in New Zealand, let alone Brazil and Malawi.
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