Random Famous People Who Never Actually Existed (12 items)

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  (#3) William Tell

  • William Tell: The Legend, Guillaume Tell, Guillaume Tell

  According to legend, Swiss folk hero William Tell famously shot an arrow off his son's head. The event allegedly happened in 1307 A.D. when a representative of the Duke of Austria ordered Tell and his son to remove their hats and Tell refused. The official ordered Tell to shoot an apple off of his son's head at 120 paces.

  After Tell did so, the official asked why Tell held a second arrow, to which Tell responded, "If the first arrow had killed my son, I would have shot the second at you and I would not have missed."

  Tell was ordered to be imprisoned in the dungeon but famously escaped by leaping out of the boat. Tell promptly led a revolt which overthrew the Austrians and helped establish Switzerland.

  Only, scholars now believe Tell was a fabrication. There is no evidence for Tell as a historical individual, let alone for the apple-shot story, according to historians since the second half of the 19th century.

  That hasn't stopped Switzerland from using an image of Tell's crossbow as an official seal of all Swiss-made exports.
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  (#12) Alan Smithee

  You might not be familiar with the name Alan Smithee but this famous director's pseudonym has appeared in hundreds of films over years such as Twilight Zone: The Movie, Hellraiser: Bloodline, and Mighty Ducks the Movie: The First Face-Off.

  The tradition allegedly started with the 1969 film Death of a Gunfighter after the bad flicks two directors refused to have their name associated with it and the Director's Guild credited the movie to the fake name Alan Smithee. The pseudonym was used on a variety of films until 1997. 

  Why would a director use this fake name? Because they don't want their real name associated with the project, which isn't a very good sign. So if you ever see that a film is directed by Alan Smithee, you might want to take a pass. 
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  (#10) Uncle Ben

  The face of Uncle Ben has decorated rice boxes for decades but who was the real Uncle Ben? The man in the portrait is actually Frank Brown, a Chicago restaurant maître d’ known to Gordon L. Harwell, the former president of Uncle Ben’s. 

  And the name? It referred to a Gulf Coast rice farmer known only by Ben who delivered high-quality rice to food buyers in the 1940s.

  In 2007, with hopes of shedding the images racist background, the company re-branded Uncle Ben as Chairman Ben.
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  (#11) Sherlock Holmes

  • Sherlock, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sherlock Holmes, The Red-Headed League, Comedy Playhouse, Elementary, Terror by Night, Murder by Decree, The Woman in Green, Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, O Xangô de Baker Street, The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother, Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady, Sherlock Holmes 3, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Sherlock Holmes, Crazy House, I Am Bob, The Triumph of Sherlock Holmes, Without a Clue, The Masks of Death, Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace, Sherlock Holmes in Washington, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Silver Blaze, Sherlock Holmes and the House of Fear, The Great Mouse Detective, The Spider Woman, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Sherlock Holmes in New York, Sherlock: Case of Evil, Incident at Victoria Falls, Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror, Sherlock Holmes Faces Death, The Scarlet Claw, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, The Speckled Band, Pursuit to Algiers, The Pearl of Death, The Sign of Four, Young Sherlock Holmes, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Dressed to Kill, Sherlock Holmes, The Missing Rembrandt, 1994 Baker Street: Sherlock Holmes Returns, The Sleeping Cardinal, Sherlock Holmes Universe

  Here's a clue about legendary sleuth Sherlock Holmes — he was made up. Created by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Guinness World Records lists Sherlock Holmes as the "most portrayed movie character" in history, which has lead many to believe that he was a real person. 

  And while Holmes is purely fictional, it's thought he was based upon Dr. Joseph Bell, one of Conan Doyle’s medical school professors. Doyle wrote to Bell: “It is most certainly to you that I owe Sherlock Holmes and though in the stories I have the advantage of being able to place him in all sorts of dramatic positions, I do not think that his analytical work is in the least an exaggeration of some effects which I have seen you produce in the outpatient ward.”
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  (#1) Betty Crocker

  You know Betty for her delicious cake mixes and pie crusts that allow every novice home baker to replicate her recipes, but alas, she never set foot in a real kitchen. 

  In 1921, a promotional contest for Gold Medal flour received thousands of responses and a seemingly endless stream of questions about baking. The name Betty Crocker was created to personalize responses to consumer inquiries. 

  Why that name? According to the company:

  The surname Crocker was chosen to honor a popular, recently retired director of the company, William G. Crocker, whose family name had long been associated with milling. Betty was chosen simply as a friendly sounding name. 

  To create a realistic signature, Gold Medal asked female employees to submit a mock signature for their made-up baker. The winning version is still used today.

  Betty's fame grew into a line of baking products, a radio baking show, regional cooking schools and a collection of recipe books.
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  (#2) Robin Hood

  • When Things Were Rotten, Robin Hood, The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men, Robin Hood, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Blackadder: Back & Forth, Keloglan vs. the Black Prince, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Rabbit Hood, Cinema Paradiso, Robin and Marian, Robin Hood, Time Bandits, Beyond Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Robin Hood, The Arrows of Robin Hood, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Men of Sherwood Forest, Superfantozzi, Man-Eaters of India, Twang!!, The Merrie Men of Sherwood Forest, Der Templer und die Jüdin, Robin Hood, Ivanhoe

  The centuries-old tale of a caped figure hero with his bow and arrow valiantly stealing from the rich to give to the poor sounds too good to be true because it is actually.

  Robin (or Robert) Hood (aka Hod or Hude) was a nickname given to petty criminals from at least the middle of the 13th century. It's no coincidence that the name "Robin" sounds a bit like "robber." The Sherwood Forest folk hero began appearing in 14th- and 15th-century ballads and books which told of his exploits against the sheriff of Nottinghamshire. 

  So while there were men like Robin Hood, it's doubtful that he actually existed. 

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