www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Stars that have an Eastern Rite or Orthodox Roots

I love Arianna Huffington but I heard she is pretty unreligious. At the very least, she is a proponent of abortion and other heinous sins.

That said, I still like her (guilty as charged!).

Logos Teen

Well if he is a star - Prince Charles has Greek Orthodox roots and seems to be leaning that way.

Speaking of Danny Thomas - his brother who helped him found St. Judes is from our Church here in B'ham. There is a great neice of his Amanda that you will see some day - she has every bit the talent and charisma her great uncle had.

Robert Urich family is from our Church in Ohio. I cannot remember his brother's name right off, but you would recognize him if you are a soap opera fan which I am not. Anyway - he has been an actor on the soaps for decades.

The late dance, Gregory Hines was buried in a Ukranian Catholic Cemetary in Canada. Who knows?

Dear Teen,

Arianna (Stassinopoulos) Huffington's political views change with the wind.

I remember her when she first appeared from England, after writing a book on feminism. It became a best seller in England, and here she was...on TV and such.

She was born in Athens and went to university in Britain. It seems that at the time of her sojourn in Britain, she became sort of 'New Age', but on coming here, was introduced to the Texas millionaire Huffington.

Well he was a Republican, so she became a practicing Episcopalian, and began to realize an ethnic name was not a plus, so she stopped using 'Stassinopoulos'.

Well, her husband lost an election after spending something like tens of millions of dollars, and in his distress decided to become Greek Orthodox and made a retreat to Mt. Athos.

Well that didn't do him any good, because after he returned he decided to break the news to his wife that he was 'gay'...and can you imagine, he had two children too. :rolleyes:

So Arriana is now single, and has left her adopted conservatism and is now a liberal...in everyway.

So much for her biography. Gosh, I do have a long memory.

Zenovia

Wow, Zenovia,

that waa surely the most uncompletely unbiased biography of someone I have EVER read in my life!

Zenovia,

Thank you for that overview. I do remember now that she was/is an Episcopalian.

I certainly do think that she is a very reasonable and intelligent person, whether one agrees with her political stances or not, and her soft accent is always nice to hear!

Of course not when she is advocating murdering unborn children...

Logos Teen

For Greek Orthodox roots, this list pretty much covers it all!!!

(I see from the list that we forgot Senator Paul Tsongas, the actress Olympia Dukakis and the actor John Stamos!)

http://www.hellenism.net/cgi-bin/display_celeb.html?c=31

There is a long list of celebrities with Russian roots, (Sean Penn, Wynona Ryder, etc.) but they are all Jewish.

Our wondeful radio stars The Very Reverand Father Thomas Loya and Katie G can be heard here:

http://www.byzantinecatholic.com/radio.htm

These Stars are so bright that they have to call the show "Light of the East."

Paul Weyrich, of the Free Congress Foundation and frequent contributor to National Review Online, is Melkite Catholic.

How about the American actor Vladimir Palaniuk / Volodymyr (Walter Jack) Palahniuk otherwise known as Jack Palance. I dont know what religious connection he has or decends from. He has made it very clear he is of Ukranian decent and is definately NOT Russian.

ICXC
NIKA

What about Yul Brynner? He was born in Vladivostok, his dad was half Swiss/half Mongolian and his mom was Russian.

Dr. Eric, who hopes to some day be as cool as Yul!

Dr. Eric,

Yul Brynner may have been yet another Russian Jew. Russian Jews generally have first names that are Christian.

In Christ,
Alice

Well, I have on thing in common with Yul Brynner - his haircut!

I thought that he was Jewish as well, but usually on the biographies they would list his mother as a Russian Jew, but she's just listed as Russian.

Anyway, I still think he's cool, except for the smoking. :rolleyes:

Someday I too will have his haircut!

Jack Palance was raised Ukrainian Catholic and has shown up from time to time at the church in LA.

He still speaks Ukrainian and actually writes poems in Ukrainian.

-uc