Random Famous People Who Never Actually Existed (12 items)

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  (#9) Jack Dawson

  • Titanic

  Everyone wanted to believe that Jackson Dawson, handsome protagonist of James Cameron’s Oscar-winning Titanic, was a real person. He was sweet, he was clever, he was handsome. Unfortunately, he was also fictional.  

  To be fair, there was a J. Dawson on the ship, but he was thought to be a stokehold slave who channeled coal to the firemen at the furnaces, not the blockbuster hunk played by Leonardo DiCaprio. 

  That hasn't stopped Titanic fans from flocking to the real J. Dawson's grave in Halifax, where over 150 of the shipwreck's victims are laid to rest. 
• 

  (#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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  (#4) Spinal Tap

  As much as we wish they were, Spın̈al Tap was not, in fact, a real band. At least not in the traditional sense, but rather a parody heavy metal rock band. The group and mockumentary, created by songwriter/performer Loudon Wainwright III and writer/director Rob Reiner, did such a great job at imitating rock bands in the late ’70s that fans were disappointed to find out that they didn't really exist, despite a disclaimer at the end of film that states the band is fictional and adds, "There's no Easter Bunny either!"

  In 2010, Reiner told Newsweek:

  When Spinal Tap initially came out, everybody thought it was a real band. Everyone said, ‘Why would you make a movie about a band that no one has heard of?’ The reason it did go over everybody’s head was it was very close to the bone.

  Spinal Tap did release an album and play a few concerts so maybe they are a real band.
• 

  (#5) Aunt Jemima

  The friendly face on syrup bottles feels real but an actual "Aunt Jemima" is nowhere to be found. The character is based on the common stereotype of the mammy archetype, a character in minstrel shows in the late 1800s.

  The R. T. Davis Milling Company, the brand behind Aunt Jemima, then hired former slave Nancy Green as a spokesperson for the Aunt Jemima pancake mix in 1890, the first of several different women who would be the face behind the brand. 

  In 2014, responding to a $2 billion lawsuit by Green's family, Quaker Oats, the company that now owns the brand, said:

  "The image symbolizes a sense of caring, warmth, hospitality and comfort and is neither based on, nor meant to depict any one person."
• 

  (#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. 
• 

  (#8) John Barron

  John Barron was Donald Trump’s official spokesman most notably in the 1980's, and he was also quoted in multiple print stories about the Trump family over the years. The only problem is that it was actually Trump himself, disguised as John Barron.

  This was revealed when Trump had to appear in court, and, under oath, admitted that he had been his own official spokesman for years and no one noticed

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