For several weeks, 12 relatives of A-list celebrities have been holed up in a mansion, doing their best to keep their celebrity connections a secret. But every week, clues are revealed and mysteries solved on the reality competition show Claim to Fame.
Unlike viewers at home, the contestants have no access to the outside world while trying to piece things together, and some people are harder to understand than others – like Chris.
Although he looks exactly like his famous relative — we won’t include spoilers here like we did in this other article — the Claim to Fame contestants have a really hard time figuring out just how close Chris is to celebrities.
And after one recent episode – which literally revealed some of the most obvious references to Chris’ celebrity relative – it’s clear that the Claim to Fame contestants have no idea who this person is. At this point, only the name remains to be revealed.
That means there’s a very good chance Chris will win the whole show.
During the August 7 episode, the contestants paired up and had to piece together shredded documents that contained clues about one another. Chris’ dossier was quite revealing. It said his relative was 65, a native of Ogden, Utah, and known associates include Andy Williams, Weird Al Yankovic and Andrew Lloyd (last name redacted).
And it didn’t stop there. Participants also learned that this person was last seen with his (redacted) husband in Las Vegas and that he had an 11-year (redacted) residency in an “amazingly colored dream coat.”
If that doesn’t reveal anything, there won’t be anything else either.
As participants went through all of this new information, they were extremely excited when they landed on the celebrity they were convinced was the answer: Elton John.
Sir Elton-John.
Participants don’t have access to their phones, so the age difference is somewhat forgivable – John is 76 not 65. John had residencies in Las Vegas for two years. And John collaborated with Tim Rice, longtime lyricist to Andrew Lloyd Webber, on the music for The Lion King. Oh, and Weird Al Yankovic has said that John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” was the first rock album he ever bought with his own money.
But what was really close to the heart of the participants was the idea of the “amazingly colored dream coat”.
They found that the Rocket Man is known for his flashy outfits. Combine that with Vegas and you have a winning combination.
However, there is one part of this equation that simply cannot be rationalized: Sir Elton John is not from Ogden, Utah.
As the title “Sir” suggests, John is actually from England. He was born in Pinner, less than 20 miles from London.
While the Claim to Fame contestants briefly discussed the matter, the other evidence was apparently strong enough to overrule them. The contestants were completely sure of their guess and chose to go ahead and hypothesize that Chris was related to Elton John.
Spoiler alert: you were wrong.
Hugo, the candidate who made the official guess, was sent home and the show revealed he was former President Jimmy Carter’s grandson. And Chris survived one more episode – and will likely survive all remaining episodes, as the suspicions of the Claim to Fame contestants get wilder by the week.
Elton John may not be from Ogden, but there are a number of celebrities who were actually born in Utah — although many now live elsewhere.
Listed below are 11 Utah-born entertainment stars. So David Archuleta (the “American Idol” star moved to Utah when he was 6) doesn’t make that list, nor does The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers, who was born in Nevada but spent much of his childhood in Nephi. Or stars like Katherine Heigl, who raised her children here, and Post Malone, who chose to transform Midvale’s Raising Cane’s into a bright salmon pink building with medieval bathrooms.
But be warned: Chris’ relative may or may not be on this list.
jewel
Singer-songwriter Jewel was born in Payson.
“However, I left when I was about two years old,” she told the Deseret News in 2007. “I spent most of my youth in Homer, Alaska, on a family ranch that my father built from the ground up.” We had no electricity and had outbuildings. It was a very real way of life.”
But Jewel has returned to Utah over the years, most recently to perform the national anthem at the 2023 NBA All-Star Game.
Brendon Urie
Brendon Urie, the longtime frontman of Panic! At the Disco, which broke up earlier this year, hails from St. George. But like Jewel, he left the company around the age of two and his family moved to Las Vegas.
Chrissy Teigen
Model and TV personality Chrissy Teigen, wife of John Legend, was born in Delta — a surprising Utah connection that apparently had nothing to do with BYUtv landing Legend for its 2019 Christmas special.
Derek and Julianne Hough
Siblings and dance stars Derek and Julianne Hough are both from Utah. Growing up, the Houghs trained at the Center Stage Performing Arts Studio in Orem – which has produced a number of award-winning dancers, appearing on shows such as So You Think You Can Dance and World of Dance.
The siblings no longer live in Utah. Both were the leads on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ but return to their home state from time to time – Derek Hough is bringing his show ‘Symphony of Dance’ to the Eccles Theater for two nights in October.
But her father, Bruce Hough — who was on the ballroom team at Brigham Young University-Idaho — has stayed in Utah and is currently one of three Republican candidates vying for Rep. Chris Stewart’s 2nd congressional district seat.
James Woods
Longtime actor James Woods – who played the voice of Hades in Disney’s 1997 film Hercules – was born in Vernal. His family lived in Rangely, Colorado at the time, and Vernal had the closest hospital — 65 miles away, according to Route Magazine.
According to a 2022 study sent to Deseret News that examined IMDb box office and birthplace data of nearly half a million actors, Woods, 76, is Utah’s highest-grossing actor, earning more than $3 billion over the years for played his roles.
That used
Some members of The Used, including lead singer Bert McCracken and former guitarist Quinn Allman, are from Utah. The band has performed at the Beehive State several times, most recently at The Complex in Salt Lake in June.
Roseanne Barr
According to Deseret News, comedian Roseanne Barr was born in Salt Lake City and attended East High. Barr has returned to Utah several times over the years, including in 2018, shortly after the successful revival of “Roseanne” was canceled due to Barr’s controversial comments on social media.
Pike Watanabe
Actor Gedde Watanabe, best known for his role on Sixteen Candles and voice actor for the character Ling on Mulan and Mulan II, was born and raised in Ogden. His mother sewed costumes for productions at Weber State University (then Weber State College), and Watanabe’s first stage appearance was in the school’s production of The King and I, according to Deseret News.
Wilford Brimley
The late Wilford Brimley, known for his roles in films such as The Natural, Absence of Malice, and Cocoon, was born in Salt Lake City and spent much of his life in Utah. Brimley died in 2020 at the age of 85.
“Even when he was not doing well, this man had a memory that you wouldn’t believe,” John Diehl, a longtime family friend, previously told Deseret News. “The man had an incredible repertoire of music that he knew. He remembered the lyrics to every song he wanted to sing. I found it quite amazing to have all these songs in my head.
“And he remembered people, too,” Diehl continued. “You could meet Wilford once and then meet him again ten years later and he knew who you were.”
Donny and Marie Osmond
Both Donny and Marie Osmond, who lived together in Las Vegas for eleven years after finding fame during their childhood years, were born in Ogden.
In a six-minute rap about his six-decade career, Osmond begins, “It started in Utah, I was four years old. I started singing with my brothers and the sound was like gold.”
Both Donny and Marie still reside in Utah, although Donny recently announced that he would be extending his solo residency in Las Vegas at Harrah’s through May 2024, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. Marie also continues to perform extensively, performing at the Eccles Theater in Salt Lake City on December 2nd.
Mike Lookinland
Mike Lookinland, a child actor who rose to fame as Bobby Brady on ‘The Brady Bunch,’ was born in Mt Pleasant, Sanpete County. Lookinland left Hollywood at 17 and returned to his Utah roots. Today he runs a concrete countertop company in Midvale called Just Add Water.
“I wanted to get out of LA, away from agents, executives and Hollywood and just be a kid in the mountains,” he previously told the Deseret News. “I attended the University of Utah and met my wife while we were both studying in the US. I put down roots and didn’t even think about going anywhere else. We like it here so much.”
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