The Six Degrees of Sondheim

[MartinG]

A slighty tenuous and somewhat macabre route, but -

Nureyev allegedly once had a yen to father a child with... 
Nastassja Kinski who starred in Tess directed by...
Roman Polanski, whose wife,...
Sharon Tate was murdered by members of the...
Manson Family, which included...
Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme who appears in Assassins.


Archbishop Desmond Tutu

[Chris L]

Desmond Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Barack Obama also won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Barack Obama presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Stephen Sondheim.

Walter Becker
(It's okay to look him up if you don't know who he was.)

[KathyB]

OK. This is lame, but it's creative.

Walter Becker was a member of Steely Dan.
The movie Me, Myself and Irene has a soundtrack made up mostly of Steely Dan covers.
The movie Me, Myself and Irene starred Jim Carrey and Renee Zellweger.
Renee Zellweger was in Chicago (the movie) with Catherine Zeta-Jones...
Who was Desiree in the most recent Broadway revival of A Little Night Music.


Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

[MartinG]

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar appeared in Airplane! along with...
Ethel Merman who created the role of Mama Rose in Gypsy.


Barry Humphries

[KathyB]

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar appeared in Airplane! along with...
Ethel Merman who created the role of Mama Rose in Gypsy.

Gads, that's too easy.   If I had remembered that (and I should have), I would have picked a different athlete.

Barry Humphries

[Chris L]

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar appeared in Airplane! along with...
Ethel Merman who created the role of Mama Rose in Gypsy.

Gads, that's too easy.  If I had remembered that (and I should have), I would have picked a different athlete.

Barry Humphries

Names with clever but non-obvious solutions are encouraged.

[KathyB]

How about one degree? 

Barry Humphries, in his persona of Dame Edna Everidge, recorded "Losing My Mind" for the compilation album Sondheim: The Stephen Sondheim Album (which I have, but I didn't realize it would be so difficult to find on Amazon sixteen years after it came out).




J.R.R. Tolkein

[Chris L]

J.R.R. Tolkein

J.R.R. Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings.
Cate Blanchett played Galadriel in Peter Jackson's film versions of the trilogy.
Blanchett played Katharine Hepburn in the movie The Aviator.
Katharine Hepburn used to live next door to Stephen Sondheim.

Diana Ross

[Leighton]

Diana Ross was the inspiration for Deena Jones in Dreamgirls

Audra McDonald played Deena in a concert version of Dreamgirls

Audra has done Passion (and probably others?!) 

[Leighton]

Peter Sissons

[MartinG]

How about one degree?  

Barry Humphries, in his persona of Dame Edna Everidge, recorded "Losing My Mind" for the compilation album Sondheim: The Stephen Sondheim Album (which I have, but I didn't realize it would be so difficult to find on Amazon sixteen years after it came out).

Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs!    If I ever knew that, it had entirely slipped my mind. Or maybe it was wallowing in the sludge of my subconscious somewhere.

Masterly work, Kathy.

A mere two degrees...

Peter Sissons went to school with John Lennon, Paul McCartney and...
Bill Kenwright, who produced the UK premiere of Passion.


Joey Ramone

[KathyB]

Joey Ramone recorded "What a Wonderful World"...
As did Louis Armstrong, whose version is in the Grammy Hall of Fame...
As is Leonard Bernstein's (with the NY Philharmonic) version of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5.
Upon further perusal of the list of Grammy Hall of Famers:
As is the original cast recording (and also the soundtrack) of West Side Story (and also the OCR of Company)

(Thanks, Wikipedia!)

Rin Tin Tin

[Bookman George]

Rin Tin Tin is mentioned in the song "Drop That Name" in Bells are Ringing, which had music by

Jule Styne who also wrote the music for

Gypsy, the lyrics to which were written by a young lyricist named

STEPHEN SONDHEIM

Albert Finney

[Chris L]

Albert Finney was in the movie Annie with Carol Burnett and Bernadette Peters.
...and need I say more?

Gene Roddenberry

[Hester Jean]

Gene Roddenberry produced/created Star Trek

Which featured George Takei (sp?)

Who recently was in Pacific Overtures. 

Agatha Christie