Name Sakes: Nine Notts Residents Who Share Their Names With Celebrities

Photos: Fabrice Gagos & Tom Morley
Illustrations: Fabrice Gagos
Friday 13 December 2019
reading time: min, words

All of the name, none of the fame. We delved into the lives of nine Notts' residents who share their monikers with the rich and famous...

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Lisa Simpson

Name: Lisa Simpson
Date of birth: 25/10/1974
Location: Forest Fields
Job: I help run a small hydroponics shop, after spending my younger years studying Ancient History and Geology
Best known for: Being laid back, chilled, fun and spontaneous. Most days, anyway...
Style: According to my kids, I dress like a “cool mum”
Catchphrase: Less of a phrase, more of a “leave me the f*** alone” face! 
Biggest achievement: Raising three children, and becoming a grandparent last year. Also, being alone with King Tutenkhamun in his tomb in Luxor
Biggest regret: Not saying I love you more when it mattered
Fun fact: I once stole a large tree fossil from a local quarry and dragged it all the way home. I still have it

According to Google, I even have the same middle name (Marie). I also learnt to play the saxophone at school. My kids still play that ‘Lisa it’s your birthday’ song on my birthday. I love that tune!
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James Dean

Name: James Byron Dean
Date of birth: 08/02/1931
Location: Park Cemetery, Fairmount, Indiana
Job: Actor, heartthrob 
Best known for: Rebel Without a Cause
Style: Smoldering teen rebel
Catchphrase: “Nah it’s cool, I’ll drive”
Biggest achievement: Becoming the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor
Biggest regret: Not getting the bus
Fun fact: Despite being dead since 1955, James Dean’s estate still brings in almost £4 million a year

Sharing a name with one of cinema's most famous rebels has been nothing but constantly interesting. Almost every day someone will mention it, or sing Daniel Bedingfield lyrics at me
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Will Smith

Name: William (Bill) Smith
Age: 69
Location: Bread and Lard Island
Job: Taking showbusiness jobs that no-one else wants
Best known for: Promiscuity, nudity and drugs
Style: My furniture is from the time of gas-lighting, with a touch of Clarice Cliff
Catchphrase: “Thank you for cuming!”
Biggest achievement: Being shot (both filmed and killed) in Secret Army, and my career going the same way
Biggest regret: Putting up with homophobia in Selston for forty years
Fun fact: Thinking I was the other Will Smith, I was once asked to present the MOBO Awards in 1996

“When I get fan-mail from his European fans, I reply with my photo and biography. I once sacked an agent because he asked me if I was black”

Liam Gallagher

Name: Liam Gallagher
Location: Formerly Aspley, now London
Job: Work in Architecture
Best known for: Probably my name. It’s definitely iconic and difficult to forget
Style: Casual workwear
Catchphrase: “It’s alright”
Biggest achievement: Gaining a Masters Degree in Architecture
Biggest regret: Not learning another language
Fun fact: I was born a month before Oasis’ debut album was released

I once entered a competition to see Morrissey live and won. The indie magazine running the comp said it wasn’t because of my name, but we all knew it was. I suppose it saved me a couple of hundred quid
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Tom Jones

Name: Sir Tom Jones MBE
Date of birth: 7/06/1940
Job: Singer, Coach on The Voice
Best known for: Belting out ballards and wooing women
Style: Full-throated, robust baritone and Welsh knicker-magnet. Kinda sexy, kinda creepy and kinda looks like Max from The Tweenies
Catchphrase: “I’ll sing songs about beating women if I bloody well want to”
Biggest achievement: Sleeping with over 250 women in a year, all while being married to his long-suffering wife
Biggest regret: Katherine Berkery. Enough said
Fun fact: Jones became a tax exile in 1974, moving into Dean Martin’s old Los Angeles’ mansion. He later sold the house to Nicholas Cage

It could be a bit annoying when I was a kid, but now I'm older I own it. It's not unusual to share a name with Tom Jones. I'm just glad I don't know anyone called Delilah as that could spell trouble
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Michael Caine

Name: Michael Kane
Date of birth: 04/10/1992
Location: Mansfield Woodhouse
Job: Student and Photographer
Best known for: Most people know me as a photographer, but I'm also known for my love of music
Style: Somewhere between music nerd, skater and art student and generally just a bit of a goofball
Catchphrase: Either “uhhh.... maybe?!” or “that would make a great band name!”
Biggest achievement: Line-managing a graduate intern for eighteen months and watching them develop and thrive professionally
Biggest regret: Probably that I didn't pursue music seriously, earlier. But hey, I'm doing it now!
Fun fact: My middle name rhymes with my last name. 10 points if anyone can guess it and spell it correctly first go

When I was at school the requests for that line from The Italian Job used to get a bit annoying, but I learned to see the funny side pretty quick

Andrew Lincoln

Name: Andrew Lincoln
Location: Formerly Bramcote Moor
Job: Relief chef
Best known for: Having the largest feet in my year at school
Style: Relaxed and homely, casual and approachable
Catchphrase: “The journey is always more exciting than the destination”
Biggest achievement: Getting married to my best friend and life partner in New Zealand
Biggest regret: Not being able to work with a hangover 
Fun fact: I'm a qualified underwater rescue diver

It doesn’t come up too much - only from the hardcore Walking Dead fans. I get asked more about being Andrew Lincoln from Lincoln
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Chris Pratt

Name: Chris Pratt
Date of birth: 22/10/1995
Location: Clifton
Job: Works for car rental company in the West Midlands
Best known for: Sharing the same name as Chris Pratt! 
Style: As comfortable and chilled out as possible
Catchphrase: “Shall we order food?”
Biggest achievement: Surviving on my own after moving out
Biggest regret: Getting the small bargain bucket instead of the large one at KFC last week
Fun fact: Up until two years ago I believed I was the baby in the Teletubbies intro

Sharing a name with Chris Pratt has certainly opened doors for me, and I’d like to thank him for that. If I ever met him, I’d buy him a drin
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Ricky Hatton

Name: Richard Hatton
Date of birth: 11/10/1992
Location: Mapperley
Job: Mathematician at the University of Nottingham
Best known for: Enjoying a pint of real ale
Style: Mostly comfortable. I wear a lot of black jeans
Catchphrase: “I’m game”
Biggest achievement: Having a conversation with Prince Phillip
Biggest regret: Not taking advantage of my time off during the summer whilst an undergraduate to go travelling
Fun fact: I have played rugby for Paviors RFC for over 20 years

When I was younger virtually everyone I met would point out that I shared the same name as the boxer, which was annoying as I knew. But now he is retired, the link is very rarely mentioned

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