Milwaukee is many things, but a city teeming with celebrities it is not.
Outside of our sports stars, the best we've got are "famous" people like Bob Uecker, John McGivern and Dustin Diamond. And that's taking nothing away from these celebs, either, but Milwaukee simply isn't known for stars basking in the limelight.
Still, Milwaukee has its share of celebrities who once lived here, as well as relatives of celebrities who live here now (while their famous siblings or cousins don't have any other tie to our town).
Tracking them all down has proven to be more difficult than we anticipated, but here's a list -- albeit an incomplete and somewhat unconfirmed one -- of Milwaukee's famous relatives. Please add your suggestions using the Talkback feature bellow.
(Update: for many, many relatives of Milwaukee's celebrities, listen to the podcast above, in which OnMilwaukee.com Publisher Andy Tarnoff takes ideas from the listeners of the Dave and Carole morning show on 96.5 WKLH.)
Relatives of celebrities who have no other apparent connection to metro Milwaukee:
- Brad Smith, brother of Chad Smith, drummer for Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Eric Benet, the ex-husband of actress Halle Berry
- Peter Buffett (now lives in New York), son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett
- William Duvall, brother of actor Robert Duvall (unconfirmed)
- Barbara Porter, wife of musician Rick Springfield
- Lisa Marie Wells, wife of musician Kevin Cronin
- The grandmother of musician Matthew Sweet (unconfirmed)
Relatives of celebrities from Milwaukee, who still live in metro Milwaukee:
- Vernita Lee, mother of TV mogul Oprah Winfrey
- Evelyn and Edward Kaczmarek, the parents of actress Jane Kaczmarek
- Janis Keough, sister of actress Jeana Keough from "The Real Housewives of Orange County"
- Ramiro and Joan Romo, parents of Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo
- Ralph and Sara Neubauer, parents of actress Kristin Bauer from "True Blood"
- Nancy and Arnold Pietz, parents of actress Amy Pietz from "Caroline in the City"
- Mark Kaelin, brother of Kato Kaelin
