CROSSWORDS: Fame

Summary | Quotes |
References: General | Celebrities | Death | Politicians | Sports | Tournaments

Summary

• Some already-famous people (e.g., politicians, celebrities) enjoy solving crosswords.
• Some seek fame -- while alive -- by
• appearing in a crossword clue, proposing marriage in a crossword, celebrating a birthday in a crossword
• solving the fastest on 'leaderboards', bragging on social media about longest solving streaks
• winning a tournament
• publishing one or more crosswords
• creating crossword-themed art, music, literature, software, ...

• 
  

  Some company names include "crossword", e.g., Crossword Cybersecurity.

• An obituary may tout the deceased's love of crosswords -- especially solving them in ink,
• or a suicide note or tombstone may leave behind a tantalizing crossword mystery.

Quotes

• "You are never famous until... you've had your name in a crossword puzzle." ~Beverly Sills
• "You know when you've got it made?...
  When you get your name in the crossword puzzles." ~Rocky Bridges
• 'crossword-famous':...your name is better known by regular crossword-solvers
  than it is by the general population
• "They just use my name for a filler... I like that." ~Yoko Ono
• "AOC is maybe the first politician since LBJ... with an iconic three-initial nickname,
  which is good news for her career but ESPECIALLY for crossword editors"
• "TV host who's a big crossword fan?"... (D)AVID LETTERMAN
• Like many actors, Sir John Gielgud passed the time between scenes... by doing crosswords.
  
  Although he was renowned for the speed with which he demolished the cryptic puzzle in his
  daily newspaper, he did not always concern himself with such mundanities as getting the answers right.
  
  One day a co-star peered over his shoulder as he solved and caught sight of a strange-looking word.
  
  'Excuse me, John, but what are Diddybums?' he asked.
  
  'I have no idea,' came the reply. 'But it does fit awfully well.'
  
  Gielgud, who died at the age of 96 with a freshly completed crossword on his bedside table,
  attributed his longevity to the puzzles.
  
  'It's the only exercise I take. I smoke non-stop and solving the crossword clears the fumes.'
• "Once you've sat in a room annoying Derek Jacobi... while he's trying to do his crossword,
  you're prepped for working with the greats." ~Nicola Walker
• "Father liked word games. He was fourteen times World Scrabble Champion.
  When he died,... we buried him at Queenzieburn to make use of the triple word score."
  ~Jasper Fforde, The Big Over Easy
• "Touring Ireland's countryside with a group of travel writers,
  we passed an immaculate cemetery... with hundreds of beautiful headstones
  set in a field of emerald-green grass. Everyone reached for their cameras
  when the tour guide said the inventor of the crossword puzzle was buried there.
  He pointed out the location, 'Three down and four across.'" ~Anonymous joke
• "My goal in life is to be a clue in the New York Times crossword puzzle...
  I've never told anyone that, but it's true." ~Peter King, Sports Illustrated writer [puzzle!]
• "I'd like to be a crossword clue one day... I want to be in The New York Times's Sunday edition.
  Right now, the clue 'Giants great' is always Mel Ott. I want my clue to be down, not across.
  The down ones are usually harder. And when I'm the clue, I'll fill it in -- just that one --
  and frame it. How sweet would that be?" ~Brian Wilson, SF Giant
• "The problem is even if the crossword author needs the answer 'Brian Wilson',...
  there's a 99.99% chance that the clue is going to be about the Beach Boys." ~Anonymous commenter
• "30 D. Giants hurler (2010 champs) / Beach Boys vocalist on 'Help Me, Rhonda' (#1 in 1965)"...
  3/31/2011 NYT puzzle about identities of pitchers on World Series-winning teams
  who shared a name with musicians who had No. 1 songs; Brian gets his wish!
• "'Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid' was my favorite of all the things I ever did,...
  because it was like doing a Sunday crossword puzzle and beating it."" ~Carl Reiner
• "[My husband] tells everybody that I do / my puzzles in ink. He never /
  brags about / my high notes. My favorite / clue in the whole world is... [___ Sills' solo]"
  ~Beverly Sills; Newsday, Sun, 8/29/2021: "SILLS SOLO: Miss Beverly singing about crosswords";
  puz (pdf), sol (pdf)
• "All I've ever ended up with in terms of achievements... is the movie, some really stupid anecdotes,
  a bunch of crosswords that I didn't finish and maybe some old bicycle that I found lying around on set."
  ~Christian Bale
• ."I never just sit down and see what's on TV anymore... And also, I hate almost everything,
  so that keeps you reading magazines and doing crossword puzzles or whatever." ~Andy Richter
• "Q. Who in your family was the New York Giants/Mel Ott fan?...
  
  A. I'm a fan of any celebrity whose name is short and contains a convenient vowel-consonant pattern.
  We need more famous people with names like Eli, Eno, Ira, Ari, Omar, Ella, Ida, Ada, Uma, Ono, Oona
  and, yes, Mel and Ott." ~Will Shortz interview NYT; 7/19/2009
  -- and AIMEE, IDI AMIN, ANAIS NIN, ARA, ELLE, ELLIE, ERLE, ESAI, ETTA,
  EMO, IDA, MIA, NIA, NITA, YMA, OLLI, ... ~Steve
• "Q. Has any celebrity or public figure ever tried to influence you... to use their name
  as a puzzle answer? Having your name as an answer to a NYT puzzle clue must be
  up there with an Oscar, Nobel or Grammy, wouldn't you say?
  
  A. Once in a while a semi-celebrity or up-and-coming starlet (or that person's agent)
  has sent me info on himself or herself, with the suggestion that I use the name in a Times
  crossword. I always throw this away immediately. I don't want to be influenced by personal
  appeals. If I use a name in a Times crossword, I want it to be because the name has seeped
  into my brain naturally. Having one's name in a Times crossword does seem to carry some cachet.
  In "Wordplay," one of the Indigo Girls says the appearance of their name in a Times puzzle
  (the very first puzzle I edited for the Times back in 1993, as a matter of fact) was
  'total thrill' and '... let's call it the pinnacle of our career!'" ~Will Shortz interview NYT; 6/20/2006
• "All smart people do crossword puzzles"... spokesperson for Rand Paul,
  who was solving a crossword during 2020 impeachment trial.
• "I, TONYA is the new movie I'm most looking forward to seeing,... in crossword puzzles for decades."
• "Shoutout to the NYT crossword for making sure nobody... ever forgets about Ulee's Gold"
• "She died as she lived, doing crossword puzzles on her phone... while attempting to cross a major street."
• "I contend there has never been a 'Brian Eno'... He exists only in crossword puzzles."
• "Everyone knows ghosts were people with unfinished business,...
  so right before I die I'm starting a crossword puzzle."
• "I was fortunate to be able to do two movies with Harold Ramis... On top of his talent,
  he could do the 'New York Times' crossword puzzle faster than anyone!" ~Andie MacDowell

References

• sections: Ref:Celebrities; Ref:Death; Ref:Politicians; Ref:Sports; Ref:Tournaments
• topics: art, clues, movies, records
• WordPlay: ACPT 2005: Will Shortz, Merl Reagle, Bill Clinton,
  Bob Dole, Jon Stewart, Ken Burns, Mike Mussina, the Indigo Girls
• Wikipedia: Crossword records
• Most people doing crosswords simultaneously Guiness record 2017; =609
• Steve's puzzles some published
• Companies with "crossword" in name:
• Crossword Cybersecurity UK
• Crossword Bookstores India
• Crossword Group travel; India
• Crossword Agro Industries exporter; India
• Damien Hirst: Mom took my art seriously when I became a crossword clue CNN; 3/2/2021
• A reader of The Scotsman and avid crossword fan has celebrated her milestone
  100th birthday with a puzzle dedicated to her in her favourite newspaper 1/14/2021
• Laurie Keller's Crossword Surprise
  in NYT Sun: 21 Across: '____ the Doughnut,' children’s book series; 1/12/2021
• My "Kind-Of, Sort-Of, Bucket List"
  Now what I would like to have happen is for my name to be an answer to a newspaper crossword clue.
  Have you ever thought of having your name be the answer to a crossword clue?
  I think and dream of things like that'; 2/2/2020
• Former Spotlight reporter hits the big time: The NYT crossword puzzle Michael Rezendes; BG; 7/3/2019
• Reader enjoys crossword surprise birthday puzzle in newspaper; 5/13/2019
• NY Times Deletes Tweets Scolding Twitter User for Joke
  About Winner of Crossword Getting to Execute a Pundit 4/10/2019
• "___ Technica" is a clue in today's NYT crossword
  It has three letters... and I work there; Ars; 8/7/2018
• "Holy crap! You're in the crossword!"
  Ira Basen's maritime odyssey to find out who turned him into a crossword clue...
  and, more importantly, why. His documentary is called "42 Across." 11:58; 10/10/2017
• 91-Year-Old Woman Fills in $89,000 Artwork She Thought Was Crossword Puzzle
  'Reading-work-piece' by avant garde artist Arthur Koepcke at Nuremberg's Neues Museum closely
  resembles a crossword and features the phrase 'insert words'; Time; 7/15/2016
• A Man, a Plan, a Palindrome a short documentary about Palindrome World Champion Mark Saltveit; 3/2015
• The Shortz Factor introducing a new measure: 'crossword-famous' -- your name is better known
  by regular crossword-solvers than it is by the general population:
  7. URI; 6. YMA; 5. OTT; 4. ESAI; 3. ERTE; 2. RAE; 1. ERLE; 1/27/2012
• Word Wars a look at the obsessive world of competitive Scrabble; 2004

Celebrities

• "Famous Puzzlers: Kristen Bell, David Bowie, Ken Burns, Ellen Burstyn, Daniel Craig,
  Bill Clinton, Claire Danes, Rachel Dratch, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman,
  Bill Gates, Teri Garr, Jake Gyllenhaal, Keith Hernandez, Dustin Hoffman, Kate Hudson,
  Rashida Jones, Stephen King, Diane Lane, John Lithgow, Yo-Yo Ma, Keith Olbermann,
  Nancy Pelosi, Katy Perry, Natalie Portman, Zachary Quinto, Paul Simon, Frank Sinatra,
  Stephen Sondheim, Jon Stewart, Martha Stewart, Sting, Vanessa Williams, Bellamy Young,
  Catherine Zeta-Jones." Puzzle Mania, p. 7; NYT; 12/18/2016
• Celebrity Crosswords: Facebook; Word-Game-World
• The Types Of Notable People That Newspaper Crosswords Mention The Most, Visualized 5/15/2023
• El-P Was Pretty Chill About Being A NYT Crossword Clue 4/21/2021
• I'd Like to Solve the Puzzle: Pat Sajak Loves Crosswords DB; 4/12/2021
• Free ‘Celebrity’ Crossword Zoom Events w/ John Halpern e.g., w/ Will Shortz on 2/5/2021
• Billy Crystal Is Spending Quarantine Playing Basketball
  and Doing the NYT Crossword Puzzle video; Yahoo; 1/28/2021
• Dune Star Rebecca Ferguson Compares Reading Frank Herbert's Novel to 'Doing a Crossword Puzzle' 10/6/2020
• Leah Remini To Host Crossword Puzzle Show 'People Puzzler' For Game Show Network 7/30/2020
• 'The Office': Leslie David Baker Reveals How Many Actual Crosswords
  He Did as Stanley on Set and It's Impressive 7/29/2020
• Why Full Celebrity Names in Crossword Puzzles Are Fun -- And Hard to Come By DB; 7/27/2020
• Why Idina Menzel is More "Crossword Famous" Than Jay-Z:
  The Art of Vowel-Heavy Celebrity Names in Puzzles 7/4/2020
• Queen's lockdown revealed: From crosswords to walks around Windsor Castle 5/28/2020
• Soha Ali Khan challenges herself a crossword puzzle amidst national lockdown 3/28/2020
• The BTS ARMY Finally Figured Out the Meaning Behind Jungkook's Crossword Tattoo 3/5/2020
• Shannon Cartier "Lucy Home is a crossword puzzle I can't solve" at Lubov art exhibition; 3/2020
• Ana de Armas Gets Included in the NYT Crossword Puzzle Knives Out actress; 1/27/2020
• Brenda Blethyn: How cryptic crosswords help me play Vera, TV's cleverest detective
  She’s a cryptic crossword fiend. 'I race my brother every day to finish the cryptic crossword [in the newspaper].
  My record is 40 minutes – not very quick,' she says modestly. She can polish off a concise crossword in
  three-and-a-half minutes; 12/28/2019
• Paul Rudd Talks About Being a Crossword Answer on The Late Late Show
  with James Corden! video; 10/22/2019
• 5 Questions with Brandon Uranowitz from Burn This 5/1/2019
• June Spencer's secrets for a long life... a sense of humour, crosswords and a Baileys
  actress in The Archers; 6/12/2019
• Robert Downey Jr. Celebrates Birthday With Crossword Puzzle Tweet HP; 4/4/2019
• Lucinda Williams on memoirs, crossword puzzles and more before St. Petersburg concert 1/29/2019
• Natasha Lyonne Has a New Life. It's Just That She Keeps Dying.
  There have been relationships where I've broken up because I'm like, I need this to feel
  more like a crossword puzzle; you were an answer in a Times crossword puzzle and wrote:
  "Please put this on my tombstone"; NYT; 1/25/2019;
  How Natasha Lyonne Created a Times Crossword Puzzle NYT; 4/1/2019
• Garry Trudeau NYT; 5/14/2018
• A Year of Celebrity Crossword Puzzles NYT; 10/24/2017
• Transylvania Twist Emanuel Ax; 4NYT; /18/2017
• Matt Bai: All-Encompassing political correspondent; NYT; 9/6/2014
• Lion Observed at Night Joy Behar; NYT; 9/25/2017
• Modern-Day Remake Elayne Boosler; NYT; 7/11/2017
• Elayne Boosler: Soft T's comedian; NYT; 4/27/2013
• Bill Clinton Didn't Want His New York Times Crossword to Be Boring
  The Way It Used to Be; the (free) puzzle; NYT; 5/11/2017
• Dana Delany actress; NYT; 4/14/2011
• Something Bleeped Out for Television Sen. Joe Donnelly; NYT; 1/10/2018
• Jesse Eisenberg NYT; 2/14/2017
• Ron Ely Tarzan; 3/16/1997
• Melinda Gates NYT; 9/26/2018
• Part of a Magic Act Neil Patrick Harris; NYT; 8/23/2017
• Mollie Katzen cookbook author; NYT; 1/31/2011
• John Lithgow Is Not Eldritch NYT; 10/17/2017
• Lisa Loeb Hears Music in the Creation of a Crossword Puzzle NYT; 6/5/2017
• Keeper of the Flame Rachel Maddow; NYT; 3/1/2018
• Merrill Markoe writer; NYT; 3/14/2011
• By Design Isaac Mizrahi; NYT; 7/29/2017
• A Questionnaire for the Immodest and Curious: Clever Puzzles, Riddles,
  and Word Games from Nabokov’s Love Letters to His Wife 4/16/2015
• Daniel Okrent NYT public editor; NYT; 8/12/2011
• The One That Got Away: The Bittersweet Story of George Orwell and His Childhood Sweetheart
  "All I do is read and do crossword puzzles"; 6/25/2015
• Neal Pollack author; NYT; 4/4/2016
• Sex, Drugs and R&B: Inside the Weeknd’s Dark Twisted Fantasy Abel Tesfaye;
  "A high school dropout, he used to do crossword puzzles to improve his vocabulary"; RS; 10/21/2015
• Josh Radnor actor; NYT; 2/22/2011
• Calculated Josh Radnor; NYT; 1/30/2018
• Carl Reiner NYT; 4/5/2015
• A Path to Victory Peter Sagal; NYT; 11/1/2017
• Gestures of Gratitude Harry Smith; NYT; 12/4/2017
• Joel Stein TIME contributor; NYT; 6/26/2011
• Quite a Distance Off Neil deGrasse Tyson; NYT; 3/19/2017
• Suzanne Whang: It's Better This Way actress; NYT; 3/15/2014
• Betty White on her world record, her favorite works, and getting started on TV
  GWR longest TV career; "I am an avid crossword puzzle addict"; 9/4/2013
• Cheesy Stuff Weird Al Yankovic; Word Crimes; NYT; 4/3/2018
• Alan Zweibel writer; NYT; 1/30/2012
• The Acrosses and Downs of Crossword Celebrity 2/6/2012
• The Shortz Factor new measure of crossword-related fame; 1/27/2012

Death

• Halifax man closing in on goal of completing 3,653 NYT crosswords in honour of late father 11/21/2019
• Gerald Castillo enjoyed crossword puzzles and hunting 9/30/2019
• Barrington Pheloung obituary Composer who found fame with the theme and incidental music
  he created for the TV series Inspector Morse; "Bazz was an avid tackler of the Guardian's cryptic crossword,
  which he rarely failed to complete"; Guard; 8/11/2019
• My grandfather: Apollo 11 engineer, crossword savant ... nudist 7/16/2019
• Colin Dexter's life in five clues Inspector Morse (book) creator, who died on Tuesday, was a prolific creator
  of crosswords both real and fictional. Here are five clues that sum up his life of witty wordplay; Guard; 5/22/2017
• Bean Puzzle Tombstone 1867; Henrietta & Susanna Bean; it took over 100 years to decode this enigmatic
  epitaph for two buried brides; AO; 12/5/2016
• This Man’s Tombstone Features a Cryptic Crossword Puzzle—Can You Solve It? 1832; John Renie
• Family Poses Dead Mother With Beer, Cigarettes and Crossword Puzzles at Memorial 6/13/2014
• Rev John Graham, aka Araucaria: 'Crosswords are a way of life'
  Last week, he used one to reveal he has cancer; 1/18/2013

Politicians

• Cigars, painting, and crosswords: the surprising hobbies of 17 presidents
  crosswords: Bill Clinton; Yahoo; 2/11/2021
• 'New York Times' Pledges To Cover Biden Sexual Assault Allegations In Upcoming Crossword
  ;-) Onion; 4/10/2020
• CNN's Berman Upset that Rand Was Doing Crosswords During Impeachment Trial
  "All smart people do crossword puzzles"; 1/23/2020
• Doing the crossword and smoking a cigar on his balcony
  Australian PM; Bob Hawke's last home photo with his beloved wife Blanche smiling until the end; 5/17/2019
• Schumer jokes NY Times erred in crossword clue: 'Chuck' has 'five letters!' 4/27/2019
• Nancy Pelosi "in the zone" with crossword puzzles
  she tells Jane Pauley her hobby of doing crossword puzzles comes with benefits; video: 0:38; CBS; 1/6/2019
• Obama Orders Two-Year Supply of Crossword Puzzles
  the President said that he hoped that Republicans in Congress would support his plan for the puzzles,
  but added, "I don't need their support. All I need is a pen."; 11/7/2014
• Pres. G. W. Bush to Replace Will Shortz as NYT Crossword Editor (& 1st puzzle) ;-) 1/3/2009
• Pres. Bill Clinton pens NY Times' crossword puzzle Reut; 5/7/2007; [Java, .pdf, .puz]

Sports

• Who is the D-backs' undisputed crossword champ? 3/20/2023
• Nationals reliever Tanner Rainey is also a crossword devotee WaPo; 6/23/2022
• Mina Kimes loves doing difficult crosswords and bragging about it on Instagram 8/21/2020
• Staten Island Yankees to host ‘The Office’ Night in August
  Leslie David Baker -- who portrayed the character Stanley Hudson (who loved crosswords)
  will make an appearance and throw out the first pitch; 3/5/2020
• Aaron Rodgers interview
  Green Bay quarterpack; 1. Rodgers does eight to 12 crossword puzzles a week. Spending time with his
  grandparents as a kid introduced him to his love of crosswords. He does them on his New York Times
  app, in USA Today and occasionally the local newspaper for both fun and to help keep his mind sharp.
  Sometimes he’ll even do one in the three hours before a game at Lambeau Field. I do enjoy them,
  but also I’ve had a number of concussions and you worry about your future brain functions,
  and I feel like doing crosswords, doing Sudoku, doing KenKen, watching ‘Jeopardy,’ brushing your
  teeth with a different hand, tying your shoes in different orders, there’s a lot of different things
  that you can do to stay sharp mentally, and I think that’s one of them, crosswords.”; 12/26/2019
• Everything to Know About ESPN Reporter Mina Kimes
  Aside from painting, Kimes says her 'number one hobby' is doing crossword puzzles
  -- particularly the ones published by the New York Times; she finds the Times‘ Friday and
  Saturday crosswords to be the most difficult; People; 12/23/2019

Tournaments / Awards

• see also: Financial: Tournament
• Win an Orca Award?
  annual (2019-2012) celebration of outstanding achievement in crossword puzzle construction and editing,
  with many categories: Best Crossword, Best Clue, Constructor of the Year, ...
• American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT) Winners: 1978-present
  most wins: Dan Feyer =7 (6 consecutive); oldest: Doug Hoylman =56+; youngest: Tyler Hinman =20+
• Portland man crowned UK crossword puzzle champion with 'totally misleading' clue Oreg; 10/31/2023
• Crossword Tournament From Your Couch
  an online, synchronous, live-streamed crossword solving competition; puzzles; 3/20/2020
• Wordsmiths turn to web for 'largest crossword puzzle ever organized'
  About 900 compete in Crossword Tournament From Your Couch event on Facebook; WT; 3/22/2020
• People share passion for puzzles at annual crossword contest Westport; 2/4/2020