The list of celebrities who live or have lived in Brooklyn is long, and so we continue our series on famous, fascinating Brookynites. From relative newcomers like Anne Hathaway to Brooklyn natives like Lou Ferrigno, here are five who have called the borough home.
Adam Sandler
Although Sandler doesn’t live in Brooklyn now, he was born in the borough back in 1966. He grew up in the southern neighborhood of Bensonhurst to his mother Judy, a teacher, and his father Stanley, an electrical engineer. They moved away to New Hampshire when Sandler was still a young boy. He returned to New York as a college student to attend NYU, and that’s where he started regularly performing comedy.
Adam Sandler in Billy Madison photo courtesy of New York Natives.
Anne Hathaway and Adam Shulman | Popsugar via INF
Anne Hathaway
Back in 2012, Anne Hathaway moved to the waterfront neighborhood of Dumbo with fiancée (now husband) Adam Shulman. She eventually bought a $4.1 million apartment at Dumbo’s Clocktower Building — it’s one of the neighborhood’s priciest residential developments. She was often spotted walking her dogs through the neighborhood, but after growing tired of the attention she put her apartment on the market. It sold a few months ago for $4.25 million.
Marisa Tomei | via fanpop
Marisa Tomei
Marisa Tomei is another Brooklyn-born star. She was raised in an Italian family in Midwood, and it was growing up there where she discovered her love for Broadway shows. In a recent interview with the Daily Beast, she spoke about her desire to return to the borough: “I actually want to move back to Brooklyn. Whenever I saw that Manhattan skyline from the BQE I’d get a palpable adrenaline rush. I have my apartment in the West Village that I’ve kept all this time so I can do plays because it’s so hard to find a place with that amount of regularity. I’d like to move to Brooklyn, but I haven’t put enough time into planning it. The real estate gambit will always be a New York pastime. But I was looking a long time ago in Williamsburg, and then I went through a breakup and wound up not moving with that guy, and then went to L.A. instead.”
Chris Rock and Steve Buscemi at Greenpoint’s Palace Cafe | via Brokelyn
Chris Rock
Although Chris Rock was born in South Carolina, his family moved first to Crown Heights and ultimately settled in Bedford-Stuyvesant not long after he was born. Rock was bussed to predominantly white neighborhoods in Brooklyn for school, where he experienced horrible bullying. He talked about those experiences, as well as his childhood in Bed-Stuy, through his television show Everybody Hates Chris. Rock also bought a townhouse in Clinton Hill in the early days of his career, which he tried to rent out in 2013.
A young Lou Ferrigno in Pumping Iron | White Mountain Films via Pyxurz
Lou Ferrigno
The actor, fitness consultant, and former professional bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno is a Bensonhurst native. He attended Saint Athanasius Elementary School in the neighborhood. Despite a hearing disability which affected his speech, Ferrigno went on to the elite Brooklyn Technical High School. The sportsman-turned-actor eventually found worldwide fame starring in The Incredible Hulk.
For more on Famous Brooklyn, check out our articles: Five famous and historic Brooklyn stoops, Famous Brooklyn movie locations, Famous Brooklynites part 1, and Famous Brooklynites part 2.