Posted in Arkansas
May 19, 2015
10 (More) Celebrities with Arkansas Connections
We’ve covered several names in previous articles about various celebrities (Arkansas filmmakers such as Billy Bob Thornton, Joey Lauren Adams, and Jeff Nichols) from the Natural State (also musicians such as Johnny Cash and Ronnie Dunn), but there are definitely other well-known individuals out there with Arkansas connections. From Nashville to Hollywood, Arkansas maintains a strong representation in the entertainment and media worlds.
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Dragonwagon and her late husband, Ned Shank, owned Dairy Hollow House, a country inn and restaurant in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Dragonwagon later co-founded the non-profit Writer's Colony at Dairy Hollow, and was active in the cultural and literary life of Arkansas throughout the 31 years she lived in the state full-time. Since the 2014 death of her subsequent partner, filmmaker-activist David R. Koff, she has divided her time between New York, Vermont, and Arkansas.
Allegedly, in 1957, Jenkins decided that his real name wasn't marketable and sought a better show business name. Legend states that the singer was looking at a road map when he spotted Conway, Arkansas, and Twitty, Texas, and chose the name Conway Twitty.
In 1962, Brown's book Sex and the Single Girl was published in 28 countries and stayed on the bestseller lists for over a year. In 1964 the book inspired a film of the same name starring Natalie Wood. Brown began her editor-in-chief position at Cosmopolitan in 1965, where she revamped the magazine as New Cosmopolitan and re-invented it as a magazine for the modern single career woman.
Along with fellow Arkansan and guitarist Ben Moody, Lee performed with Evanescence in their beginning years at Juanita's Cantina in downtown Little Rock in the mid-90s. Their success as a group would come later with 2002's now-classic powerhouse "Bring Me To Life".
In 2005, May released his comedy album, Just Correct. Since then, he has recorded four Comedy Central specials: Girth of a Nation (2006), Prime Cut (2007), Austin-tatious (2008), and Too Big To Ignore (2012), as well as one Netflix special, Unruly (2015).
The lives of Marty Stouffer and his brothers Mark and Marshall, in the town of Fort Smith, Arkansas, were adapted for the 1997 movie, Wild America.
Aside from his music endeavours, Moody works with his television and film production company, Makeshift Films.
Neely's work includes the comic series "Creased Comics" and the Harry Potter spoof Wizard People, Dear Reader, which consists of an alternate soundtrack of narration in the style of a book on tape, which viewers can play over the muted movie. Neely is featured in the documentary We Are Wizards.
Between 1991 and 2007, Raye charted 30 singles on the U.S. country charts; he has also charted twice on the Adult Contemporary format as a duet partner on two Jim Brickman songs. Four of Raye's singles have reached Number One on the Billboard country music charts: 1992's "Love, Me" and "In This Life", 1994's "My Kind of Girl", and 1998's "I Can Still Feel You".
Popular with wrestling fans throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, Eudy worked for both major wrestling companies WWF and WCW during their peak business years alongside other legendary wrestlers such as Hulk Hogan, Bret "Hitman" Hart, and Kevin Nash.
Be sure to check out past articles to see other names of native Arkansans who have “made it” in their various genres! The Natural State has a great number of celebrities who have called it home. What do you think of our list? Tell us below in the comment section!
