Celebs Abound in Fairfield County

Fairfield County may not be the center of the universe. But Kevin Bacon has a house just a stone’s throw away, (near Kent) so we thought we’d compose our Fairfield County celebrity list based on the game, "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon."

Starting with the phenomenon himself, Kevin Bacon, versatile actor and musician, adds “daddy” to his credentials.

Just down the pike and also sporting the nickname “Big Daddy,” talk and game show host Regis Philbin has made Greenwich his home.

Like Philbin, Olympic rowing twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss also have a nickname, “the Winklevii,” after their likenesses were immortalized in the 2010 film, “The Social Network.”

While practicing their strokes in Long Island Sound, the twins might very well have been spied from the waterfront mansion of legendary Supremes singer Diana Ross.

The Ross residence is around the corner from the 9,000-square-foot granite former estate of world-class pianist Victor Borge, who died there in his sleep in 2000. Borge’s ashes are interred in Greenwich’s Putnam Cemetery.

Putnam Cemetery is also where former U.S. Sen. Prescott Bush lies in rest. Bush was the father of 41st U.S. President George H.W. Bush, who attended Greenwich Country Day School, as did the star of current box office hit, “50-50,” Bryce Dallas Howard.

Growing up in Greenwich with her own famous father, actor and director, Ron Howard, the younger Howard’s early career included a role in Spider-Man 3 alongside Darien native, Topher Grace, who played the web-slinging character “Venom” in that 2007 film.

Grace might blush at the mention of his childhood babysitter, Chloë Sevigny, who graduated Darien High School in 1993, following in the footsteps of one Richard Mellvile Hall.

Hall, better known by his stage name, “Moby,” graduated from DHS eight years prior to Sevigny and attended UConn Storrs before dropping out and taking up work at rock music memorabilia store, Johnny’s Records.

Located in Darien, Johnny’s is just a mile from the upscale Rowayton section of Norwalk, home to “60 Minutes” iconic commentator, Andy Rooney, who reportedly does not like to sign autographs.

Up the pike in Fairfield, Justin Long doesn’t mind signing autographs at all. Long, who grew up the son of a Fairfield University professor, attended the all-boys Jesuit prep school, Fairfield Prep before studying film and performing in plays at Vassar College.

Greenwich native Glenn Close also prepared for an acting career as an undergrad. Majoring in drama at William and Mary she readied herself for roles, which included “Claire Wellington” in “The Stepford Wives” remake filmed at Lockwood-Mathews mansion in Norwalk in 2004.

Close’s Stepford-husband, “Mike Wellington” was played by Wilton resident Christopher Walken, whose career ignited in 1978 in the role of steel worker turned Vietnam soldier in “The Deer Hunter.”

Walken’s on screen “Deer Hunter” girlfriend was Meryl Streep, who is often mistaken for close friend Glenn Close. Over the years Streep has loaned her talents to Paul Newman’s (Westport) Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for kids with serious illnesses.

Newman may be best known as an Academy Award winning actor, but he was also a racecar driver, political activist, and food company founder who donated all business profits to charity. Newman died in 2008, the same year he and his wife Joanne Woodward celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary. They lived happily in Westport for decades. 

Another famed Westport couple never actually lived in the bucolic town. Instead, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz recreated suburban life on set in Los Angeles for their hit 1950s sitcom, “I Love Lucy.”

In one of the memorable Westport episodes, which aired in 1957, Lucy hatches a plot that results in the family house being overrun with 500 baby chicks.

Lucy’s chicken farming fiasco may have foreshadowed the efforts of modern-day Westport locavore and television personality, Martha Stewart. In any event, Stewart has the Ricardos to thank for pioneering the concept of the rerun all the way back in 1957.

Which takes us back to Kevin Bacon, who most likely grew up watching “I Love Lucy.”