What's it like to go through life with the same name as a celebrity? Does it opens doors or just lead to confusion and ultimately disappointment? Optimist reporter Dave Willis caught up with a few local people who share a name with a celebrity to find out what it's like to be famous in name only.
Bradley Cooper
Brad Cooper, a Ladner resident of nearly 25 years, shares his name with American actor Bradley Cooper.
He quips the famous heartthrob has the same name as him.
"I am older, just a bit," he says.
Cooper recalls one time during the 2010 Olympics while he was out with a group downtown after an event and trying to get a seat at a restaurant. After the hostess said it would be a two-hour wait, Cooper asked if there would be a spot available if Bradley Cooper came in. The hostess then asked if the actor was there.
"I said, 'You're looking at him.' I said, 'No, really, film makes me taller, younger, thinner and have more hair.' I didn't get in."
Bradley Cooper, known for his starring role in The Hangover trilogy, is an Academy Award-nominated actor.
He received Academy Award nominations for his work in Silver Lining Playbook (Best Actor) and American Hustle (Best Supporting Actor). Cooper performed voice work for Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy movie, providing the voice for wisecracking bounty hunter Rocket Raccoon. People magazine named Cooper, who's also a producer, the sexiest man alive in 2011.
Ladner's Brad Cooper is very involved in the community. A member of the Ladner Business
Association for 12 years, he's also a past president of the organization. He's spent 14 years with the Ladner Rotary Club and also serves on the municipal finance committee and Boundary Bay Airshow committee. President of Vancouver Pacific Financial Group in Ladner, Cooper was named Delta's Citizen of the Year in 2008.
He is also a former board member of both the Delta Hospital Foundation and Tour de Delta.
Christine Magee
Local singer/songwriter Christine Magee was just a teenager when she got a letter in the mail meant for the Sleep Country Canada co-founder with whom she shares a name. The complaint letter about recently purchased mattresses was bewildering for Magee, who had never heard of the other Magee before.
She says the name sharing comes up "all the time," from booking gigs to friends joking with her and singing the Sleep Country radio ad tune. Magee also recalls one particular time she and her mom were writing some chords together, they realized afterwards the tune sounded similar to the mattress company's radio jingle. She periodically uses it, as a lead-in to one of her songs, at the end or beginning to her shows.
"We've been using that. Not all the time, but sometimes."
The name thing is beneficial, though, she says. "It does help me. People will always remember me."
Christine Magee is described as a "mom, wife, daughter, friend and well rested mattress lady!" on her Twitter account bio.
The co-founder of Sleep Country Canada, which has over 240 corporate-owned stores, is frequently asked to speak at conferences, business associations, chambers of commerce and schools about leadership and effective management strategies, the Sleep Country website notes.
Christine Magee is a singer/songwriter from Tsawwassen. Her debut album, Overcome, was released in 2007. She won a Gospel Music Association Canada Covenant Award for her song Loud and Clear, which was included on that album.
Set to perform at a Wander Inn Café event in Ladner tomorrow night, Magee has started to venture out more to Vancouver, including a gig at a coffee house downtown in January.
She says she's moving into the soul, RB and gospel genres as she writes. Magee also teaches piano, voice and guitar.
Anne Murray
The fact she shares a name with a famous Canadian singer comes up "all the time" for Tsawwassen's Anne Murray.
A naturalist who gives talks on nature and birds, Murray says sometimes people expect to see the singer.
"They just see the famous name and think maybe it's going to be Anne Murray," she says.
Murray says the same happens when she makes hotel reservations or shows her credit card. However, she says once she's outside of the country, the coincidence doesn't raise much interest.
"But in Canada, wherever I am in Canada, it comes up," she says, --- Anne Murray has sold millions of albums over her lengthy singing career.
Known as Canada's Songbird, Murray hails from Springhill, Nova Scotia. She is a four-time Grammy winner and has over 20 Juno Awards to her credit. She is a member of the Canadian Country
Music Hall of Fame, the Juno Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
"For over 40 years, her unique voice and heartwarming style have made her a household name," her website states.
Tsawwassen's Anne Murray is an author, columnist and blogger who volunteers with bird and nature organizations.
She is the author of A Nature Guide to Boundary Bay and Tracing Our Past ~ A Heritage Guide to Boundary Bay and a major contributing author to the Georgia Basin Habitat Atlas: Boundary Bay.
A columnist for the Delta Optimist and Georgia Straight, Murray, who's originally from England, is on the board of Bird Studies Canada and is also helping with the BC Breeding Bird Atlas, a project that's the result of years of work from many people, she notes.
Murray is also a contributor to BirdWatching magazine.
Colin Campbell
Ladner's Colin Campbell isn't a big sports fan but he has heard of the former National Hockey League player, coach and current front office member.
During the NHLer's playing days, the local Campbell, a retired high school principal, sometimes got phone calls meant for the defenceman.
"I was in school administration. I was used to rude phone calls," he says with a laugh.
The calls were typically from somebody upset with something the other Campbell had or hadn't done on the ice.
"He wasn't the most polite player in the league and some people didn't care for him, we found out."
Former defenceman Colin Campbell played for five teams, including the Vancouver Canucks, during his NHL tenure from 1974 to 1985. He amassed 1,292 penalty minutes over 636 regular season games. Campbell went on to coach the New York Rangers for a stint in the 1990s.
He eventually joined the league's front office and is the current senior executive vice president of hockey operations.
The local Campbell has been involved with the restoration of Kirkland House for the last two decades. He got started when he stopped and asked Matt Rogers, another longtime volunteer, if he'd like a hand clearing some vegetation at the heritage home on Arthur Drive. "I got involved by clearing blackberries by hand with Matt 20 years ago," he says.
Campbell is the current president of the Kirkland House Foundation.
"I keep saying we get zero dollars an hour and I'm in charge, so I get time and a half," he jokes.
Work continues on the home, originally built in 1911.
Campbell is a former chairperson of Tour de Delta and was on the Delta Community Living Society board for 10 years.
Ladner's Robert Lowe shares his name with a well-known American actor.
"I'm an '80s kid," Lowe says, noting the actor's name was well known during that time.
He says there was some teasing growing up, more so as a teen, about sharing the name. A few people recognize the coincidence these days but it doesn't come up very often.
Lowe, being a fan of hockey, remembers the actor appearing in the film Youngblood, a 1986 movie about an American hockey prospect trying to make it in a Canadian junior league.
Rob Lowe, who can be currently seen in commercials urging viewers to switch from cable to a satellite TV provider, has compiled a lengthy list of credits on both the big and small screen.
He's appeared in films like St. Elmo's Fire, Wayne's World, Tommy Boy and Austin Powers and TV shows including The West
Wing. He played government official Chris Traeger on the hit ABC comedy Parks and Recreation.
Lowe released a memoir, Stories I Only Tell my Friends: An Autobiography, in 2011 and another book, Love Life, earlier this year.
Born and raised in Ladner, Robert Lowe is now running his own business in his hometown community.
He owns Stir Coffee House in Ladner Village.
Lowe's passion for coffee started a few years before opening the coffee shop in 2012 and it continues to grow.
The business, which has picked up Delta Optimist Readers' Choice awards the last two years, keeps Lowe busy.
Asked what he does while not at work, he says he's there most of the time and doesn't get much leisure in these days.
Thomas Mueller
The fact Ladner's Thomas Mueller shares a name with a German soccer star came up often during this year's World Cup. Mueller says he was "inundated" on Facebook. Most were joking with him but some people were asking if he was related to Germany's Thomas Muller.
"My buddies were razzing me too. That was pretty funny," says Mueller.
He says he was rooting for Müller during the World Cup in Brazil, which Germany ended up winning.
"I watched it all. I was glued to it."
Mueller, who has German heritage and cousins living there, says he's not related to the recent World Cup winner.
"Muller is like a Smith here in North America," he says.
"It's quite common."
Thomas Muller is a German national team member and plays his club soccer with Bayern Munich, a powerhouse in the Bundesliga.
He has a pair of World Cups under his belt, helping Germany to the title this year and was a part of the country's third place finish in 2010.
He captured the tournament's Golden Boot award in 2010 as top scorer and was also named Best Young Player.
At this year's tournament in Brazil, he scored a hattrick in Germany's opening game against Portugal. He ended up with the Silver Boot as the second highest scorer.
Muller helped Bayern Munich to a Champions League title in 2013 and multiple German league championships.
Thomas Mueller says he has been a hairdresser since he was 18. He works out of a salon built into his Ladner home.
He actually played soccer growing up but not as an adult. Due to his father's work as a diplomat, Mueller was out of the country throughout his childhood, playing soccer in places like Cyprus and Jamaica.
He's lived in Ladner since 1990.
John Montgomery
Tsawwassen's John Montgomery was in downtown Vancouver with a group of friends during the 2010 Winter Olympics the same day skeleton racer Jon Montgomery won gold for Canada.
He says he was playing up the fact they shared the same name. He eventually ran into a group of Australians while out and about and brought up the name coincidence.
"They said something to the effect of, 'It happened in Whistler and now you're here. You really are fast!'" Montgomery was dressed in a Canadian outfit and had a gold medal with him as well.
"I had a gold medal I was truckin' around town with."
He says he remembers Montgomery's gold medalwinning run and his celebration.
"(He) gave Canada the swagger."
Russell, Manitoba's Jon Montgomery was among the Canadian contingent of gold medal winners at the 2010 Winter Olympics held here in B.C. His memorable celebration walking through Whistler Village with a pitcher of beer turned in to one of the iconic moments of the Games. The Canadian Olympic team's website notes he made an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show and was a presenter at the Juno Awards. Montgomery is now the host of the Amazing Race Canada TV show.
John Montgomery is the founder and president of Professional Flight Centre.
The flight school is based at Boundary Bay Airport and is one of Canada's largest flight training institutions.
Operating since 1986, it attracts students from around the world.
Montgomery, who has extensive aviation experience under his belt, owns the business with his wife Blythe.
Kevin Smith
People don't really associate the fact Kevin Smith shares her name with anybody famous.
"Actually they're just focused on Kevin being a woman. Everything else goes out the door," she says.
"You've got to be quick.
Some people are just all over you," she adds.
Smith recalls one time she met another woman with a not so common first name, thinking she would understand, but after Smith introduced herself, she says the other just replied, "'That's a boy's name!'" Smith got her name from her parents.
"It's funny. It's been a hoot."
Actor, director, author and podcaster Kevin Smith is known for his role in the Jay and Silent Bob duo and for films like Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, and Zack and Miri Make a Porno. He has written comic books for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, notably working on Daredevil (Marvel), Green Arrow (DC) and Batman (DC). Smith, who owns Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, a comic book store in New Jersey, can be seen on the AMC reality show Comic Book Men.
Tsawwassen's Kevin Smith works as a house cleaner. She also runs a mixed adult volleyball league out of Hugh Boyd, a Richmond high school.
She's run the league for 35 years.
"I really, really liked volleyball when I graduated and at that time there was nothing organized."
She doesn't play anymore.
"I retired, my thumbs are done."
