Celebrity JWs and exJWs

There is quite a list many I have never heard of. I've done this before but this adds a lot of names - a lot

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  • Gregg Alexander - The New Radicals' lead singer; raised by mother
  • Papa Dee Allen of the 70s-80s rock group War. Passed away during a concert
  • Peter Andre - Inactive - Singer raised in Australia, presently living in London with wife pin up model *Jordan
  • George Benson - Active - musician
  • Maurizio Bianchi - Musician
  • Cheryl Bradley - Executive Housekeeper
  • Ivana Brkic - Croatian Musician
  • Richard Cameron- Dutch Musician
  • Naomi Campbell - Inactive - Model -
  • Valerie Campbell - Active - model - Mother of Naomi Campbell
  • Tom Edur - Former NHLice hockey player.
  • Ida Eisenhower mother of Dwight President of USA - Inactive - Politician Meetings were held in his family home. It makes sense that he probably attended some of those.  He was never baptized as a JW.  His father stopped attending around 1914/1915 when Dwight was about 24 or 25.  Dwight graduated from West Point in 1915.
  • Kid Gavilan - welterweight champion boxer; elected to boxing Hall of Fame in 1990 (convert to JWs) 
  • Larry Graham - Active - Musician - Sly & the Family Stone
  • Danny Granger - professional basketball player (Indiana Pacers) 
  • Teresa Graves - actress, star of TV movie and TV series "Get Christie Love!" (convert to JWs) 
  • Gary Gygax - Co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons.
  • Geri Halliwell - Inactive - Musician - Spice Girls
  • Roy Harper - songwriter, musician (raised) 
  • Anthony Henderson - Famous quick tongued rap artist
  • Dave Hill - musician, Lead Guitarist and back vocals for Slade (convert) 
  • Kim Holland - Dutch porn star (former JW) 
  • Terrence Howard - actor; Ray, Hustle & Flow, etc. 
  • The Jackson Family-- We all know about the Jackson family. I think the only ones who are still JW is the mother, oneof the older sisters, Rebbie. Mother/grandmother Katherine has been seen taking Michael's 3 kids to the hall.
  • Lord Jamar of the band Nubians - Inactive - Musician
  • JaRule - Inactive - Musician
  • Scott Johnson - Actor
  • K-os - Canadian R&B artist ; Raised Jehovah's Witness
  • Margaret Keane - Artist who said converting "changed her life."[1]
  • Peter Knowles - Famous soccer player in England who quit his football career in 1970 aged 24 to join the Jehovah's Witnesses.
  • Krazyzie Bone - Inactive - Musician
  • La Lupe - Cuban salsa singer (convert) 
  • Phillip Landry - Musican
  • Chet Lemon - professional baseball player (Detroit Tigers) 
  • Brian Locking - Bass guitarist with The Shadows for eighteen months, but left to Jehovah's Witnesses activities.
  • Evelyn Mandela - first wife of South African president Nelson Mandela (convert to JWs)
  • Hank Marvin - Active - Musician
  • Mark McCumber - professional golfer 
  • Jerry Lee Merrit, Rockabilly Hall Of Fame member
  • Dave Meyers - professional basketball player (Los Angeles Lakers in 1970s and later for the Milwaukee Bucks) 
  • Thelonius Monk: Musician
  • Rene Montes de Oca Martija - dissident human-rights activist in Cuba (son of JW) 
  • Van Morrison. He was taken to the Kingdom Hall as a child by  his mother. 
  • Miki Nakatani - Japanese Actress, Raised as a Jehovah's Witness
  • Dave Mustaine of the band Megadeth - Inactive - Musician
  • Gloria Naylor - novelist, author of The Women of Brewster Place (1982, American Book Award) 
  • Viv Nicholson - famous London lottery winner in 1961. She then became a devout JW. 
  • Evelyn Ntoko (first wife of Nelson Mandela 
  • Mark O'Meara,golfer
  • Rustom Padilla - Filipino movie star 
  • Angelo Palego - leader of team searching for Noah's Ark
  • Dave Pear - NFL professional football player for Colts, Buccaneers, and Raiders (convert) 
  • Shont'e Peoples - professional football player (Saskatchewan Roughriders); convert to JWs 
  • Selena Quintanilla Perez - Tejano singer; raised Jehovah's Witnesses
  • Prince - Active or inactive? - Musician
  • Nemesis Rising - Jacob and Joshua - Inactive
  • Herman Pizzanelli - leading Uruguayan concert guitarist in the 1960s (convert to JWs) 
  • Ken Richmond - The man who banged the gong in the Rank Organisation film logo from 1955 onward.
  • Michelle Rodriguez - Inactive actress, Lost
  • Solveig Romero - Mexico and Switzerland, Actress and wife of Martin Campbell, the director of James Bond Casino RoyaleMiu Sakamoto - Japanese Singer, 
  • John Salley raised a JW
  • Travis Scott - NFL football player for Rams (raised JW) 
  • Jill Scott - R&B/neo-soul singer-poet raised a JW 
  • Selena - Tejano singer (Selena Quintanilla) 
  • Maher Shalal Hash Baz - Japanese musician, name comes from the Book of Isaiah
  • Sherri Shepherd - Inactive - TV presenter on The View
  • Patti Smith - punk rock star 
  • Richard Sohl?  Pianist.  Died.  with Patti Smith's group
  • Mickey Spillane - best-selling crime novelist (convert to JWs) 
  • Damo Suzuki (Converted in the 1970s, current membership status uncertain)
  • Carol M. Swain - political scientist; professor at Vanderbilt University; author; left the Witnesses at the age of 20, in 1975 
  • Bobby Tambling - English footballer
  • Phil Terry - member of the 60's R&B group The Intruders.
  • Jean Terrell - Replaced Diana Ross in the Supremes in 1970.
  • David Thomas - songwriter/vocalist for Pere Ubu (convert to JWs) 
  • Akira Toriyama - Japanese Mangaka(Cartoonist), Author of Dragon Ball (Manga) 
  • Yoshito Usui - Japanese Mangaka, Author of Crayon Shin-chan
  • Carmina Villarroel - Filipino actress 
  • Leo J. Volpe (1916–13 April 2000) was a draft resister and conscientious objectoras a JW during World War 2. In 1973, after leaving the Jehovah's Witnesses, he founded The Restored Israel of Yahweh, whose members believe that Volpe is the prophet Jeremiah resurrected
  • Reena Virk - Canadian child murder victim
  • Lark Voorhies - TV/movie actress Saved by the Bell
  • Wayan Brothers and Sisters: Damon, Dwayne, Keenen, Ivory, Kim, Nadia, Marlon, Shawn - Mostly Inactive - Actors
  • Lou Whitaker - professional baseball player (Detroit Tigers) 
  • Venus and Serena Williams - Active - tennis -- really???? active???
  • Chuck Winfield - Former Trumpet player for Blood, Sweat, and Tears.
  • Willie Wise - NBA professional basketball player for Seattle Super Sonics and Denver Nuggets 
  • Akiko Yano - Japanese Singer, Former wife of Ryuichi Sakamoto
  • Hinano Yoshkawa - Inactive - Japanese Model
  • XZibit - Inactive – Musician

http://www.adherents.com/people/pm/Van_Morrison.html

Davis: There's a lot of the gospelsound in your music. Is it true your family were Jehovah's Witnesses?

Van Morrison: No no no no, not really. My mother was in it for a while, a brief encounter, that was all.

Davis:: Were you taken door-to-door as a child with the Witnesses?

Van Morrison: No, but I was taken to a couple of meetings. I found them quite pleasant, but that was all.

Add this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tori_Kudo

and this (this guy is an elder in Italy):

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sammy_Barbot

Lady Lee, glenster, behemot

Thanks

Criminey!  There are a lot there that I recognize and I never had any idea about the JW affiliation.

Thanks for the updated list, Lady Lee!

I didn't find any evidence about Thelonius Monk ever being a JW, it seems his mother was one:

"Monk's imperturbability, bordering on stoicism, has enabled him to stand up under an obstacle-strewn life. The fact that his mother, Barbara, a former civil service worker, was a Jehovah's Witness may account for Monk's detachment from worldly concerns. "I don't believe in luck, good or bad," Monk once declared, "If a guy's good, he'll make it. If not, he won't."

source: http://id3512.securedata.net/theloniousrecords/Profiles_interviews/Frank%20London%20Brown.htm

One person on this list is my brother. He was raised a witness but never baptized, he left around  highschool years. He's very respectful, though.

I knew Shonte Peoples very well.

He was df'ed (in absentia) about 4 years ago.  I know he's remarried and living in the States again.  I doubt he's back in, although his dad is a JW elder.

Well, Mr. Yoshito Usui (Japanese Mangaka, Author of Crayon Shin-chan) has passed away in September, last year (2009).

He went to a mountain (Mt. Arafune) alone, and fell over a 394 feet (120m) cliff and died.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshito_Usui

Although the police has said, "He did not commit suicide", I think that that is doubtful.
The comic/manga (Crayon Shin-chan) which he draws is "vulgar/obscene" and do not harmonize with the morality of JW.

I feel that his "trouble" was there.

possible

wow P-san

I would suspect suicide too

I didn't see Ronnie Laws, (jazz/R&B musician) on the list.  Dunno if he is "in" ATM.  I am not too good googling, didn't find anything personal about him when I searched.  But he was part of that whole LA JW 80's music scene.

Oh just remembered.. http://www.bennygolson.com/

He was the subject in the movie "The Terminal" with Tom Hanks.  It was Golson's autograph the character was trying to get.

There's a great article about how being a Jehovah's Witness child causes you to be really creative.  I'll have to see if I can find the link.  I've wanted to do an interview with alot of celebrities about growing up a JW for a while now.  If only I could find funding LOL.

Lady Lee,

I was told many years ago, a member of Gordon Lightfoot's band was an active JW and was a member of my S/O's congregation, when we were then dating.

Apparently guitarist Red Shea converted to JW's according to this blog entry http://knockingjw.blogspot.com/2008/10/six-degrees-of-separation.html

Although the blog seems to substantiate a JW tie-in to the Lightfoot Band, Red Shea is not the person that was pointed out to me at the KH.

I recall, the person pointed out looked similar to bassist Rick H http://www.lightfoot.ca/profiles.htm (top photo, leaning against the bus) but his name is not the name I was told.

I cannot find any references to the name I was given, but I will keep looking.

Selena was raised in?  THE Selena???  Get out! 

Yes, Oracene Williams is a jw....not her x-husband though.  Venus and SeRena Williams at one point were unbaptized publishers, but I don't think they are any more.  At one point they went to the West Palm Beach FL congregation.

Thanks for the additions

You can add Brian Holland (pro. basketball) and the famous world known Rodney King,,Both

from Pasdena Ca. area.

Tom Reynolds, from the band Hamilton, Joe, Frank and Reynolds. I used to live in Florida, and he lived around Sanford or Altamonte Springs, I think. He gave talks at our KHall in Deltona.

Never knew Peter Andre was at one time a JW although I could have guessed it. 

I remember a couple other ball players having some type of JW connection.  (Sam Perkins- NBA  Rudy Law- MLB)