People who became famous outside their country

Post Reply New Topic

Do you know some people who became famous no in the country where they were born, grown up and lived some part of adult life, but in some other one?

I can remember just a few - Hitler, who was born in Austria; Schwarzenegger, again from Austria, and Igor Sikosky, airplane constructor from Russian Empire who didn't have much success until he moved to US after the Russian revolution (famous Black Hawk helicopter was created by his company).

Some more?

Jimi Hendrix and Chrissie Hynde are amoung a number of Americans musicians that moved to England and became famous there before becoming famous at home.

I was about to say Napoleon Bonaparte, but he was born in Corsica, France. I doubt that counts as someone famous outside their country. The other would be Justin Bieber who was born in London, Canada.

I can think of a few Australian music acts that found more success in UK or US.

Savage Garden
Natalie Imbruglia
Kylie Minogue
Keith Urban

A lot of actors and comedians who were born here in Canada became famous after working in the US. Micheal J. Fox, Jim Carrey, Dan Akroyd, John Candy, Matt Frewer... it's mainly because most Canadian TV shows suck.

The three most notorious rulers of modern Europe were each either foreigners to, or came from fringe ethnic minorities within, the country they ruled.

Hitler was not a German, but an Austrian.

Napoleon, was not an ethnic Frenchman, but a Corsican (the island had only recently been seized by the kings of France, and they have a seperate language- a dialect of Italian- from French). French oppression of Corsicans was actually a cause celeb around 1800 (like Tibet is now).

And Joseph Stalin was not an ethnic Russian, nor even a Slav, but was an Ossetian from Georgia. Georgia is now a seperate independent nation from the Russian Republic (kind of like how Britain lost all of its African, and Asian colonies).

When he gave his "inauguration" speech in Red Square in Moscow the members of the ruling Politburo couldnt figure out WTF he was talking about because his command of the Russian language was so bad.

Many Americans found fame overseas: Josephine Baker, Jimi Hendrix. Singer Eva Cassidy never physically moved over seas, but her records were discovered by British deejays before her fame spread back here (here being her hometown of Bowie Maryland).

And many immigrants from overseas became famous moving here to the US.

Beckii Cruel became famous in Japan from YouTube but not so in her home country.

Eastwood (went to Italy)

Bruce Lee (went to H.K)

The Beatles became famous the world round.

There's a trope for that: Germans Love David Hasselhoff

P. S.: I apologize if I've ruined anyone's lives by mentioning TV Tropes.

Marlene Dietrich

Madalina Ghenea, originally from Romania, is a famous actress and model in Italy.

Joanna Krupa, originally from Poland, is a successful model and celebrity in the US. She is also an animal activist and has shot controversial (nude) campaigns for PETA.