Reykjavík Grapevine - 25.09.2015, Side 22

Sigurður Hilmarsson
Well-stocked on the shelf of every re-
spectable Whole Foods store is a straight-
out-of-Iceland-made-in-America brand
of skyr. Spearheaded by its founder, Sig-
urður Hilmarsson, Siggi’s skyr has grown
to national prominence in the US for the
unique texture, delicious flavours and
all the gastrointestinal benefits. It’s also
helped popularise Iceland with interna-
tional foodies, increasing gastronomic
travel to our shores.
“Leatherface”
The masked killer in the ground-break-
ing and hyper-controversial movie ‘The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ was in fact an
Icelandic-American! Or at least the ac-
tor playing him was. Gunnar Hansen was
born in Reykjavík, moved to Maine at age
five and from eleven onwards grew up
in—you guessed it—Texas! He’s appeared
in over twenty horror movies since the
1974 slasher classic, including the first lo-
cal slasher film, ‘Reykjavík Whale Watch-
ing Massacre’.
k.d. lang
A singer-songwriting legend, lesbian
icon and true Canadian treasure, k.d. lang
possibly has the most diverse cultural
heritage of any famous Western-Iceland-
er on our list. Her background is a melt-
ing pot of English, Irish, Scottish, German,
Russian, Jewish and Sioux, with a dash
of Iceland in the mix. Given our country’s
fame for its musical talents, it’d be nice to
think we contributed a bit to her wonder-
ful voice of gold.
Bjarni Tryggvason
Iceland’s terrain is often described as
lunar, and was in fact the site of geologi-
cal field trips by NASA before the actual
moon landing—Stanley Kubrick’s widow
still contends that the whole thing was
a hoax filmed near Askja! Of course, it
was only a matter of time before one of
our own became a spaceman. Icelandic-
Canadian Bjarni is our Major Tom, having
clocked in over 4,000 hours of flight time
and spent 12 days in outer space in 1997
on the STS-85 mission.
Peter Steele
The summer after Type O Negative’s lead
singer passed away, the Iceland Tattoo
Convention saw many metal fans get-
ting devotional ink to the semi-local icon.
Born in Red Hook, Pete was part Icelan-
dic on his mother’s side and was said to
hold a particular fondness for this country
during his touring years. His dark, self-
deprecating lyrics were possibly a trait of
his Nordic heritage.
Bill Holm
The grandson of Icelandic immigrants,
this Minnesotan poet and professor
published prolifically until his passing
in 2009. Until then, he also spent part
of each year at his second home in
Hofsós, North Iceland, where he held
the annual White Night Writer’s Week
for 11 years. His legacy of poetry fol-
lows a long tradition of Icelanders us-
ing language for expression, play and
self-definition.
Magnus Magnusson
The exception to prove the rule, this is
our token Eastern-Icelander on the list,
but definitely one of the most prominent.
Although he never took on British citizen-
ship, this Iceland-born BBC icon lived in
Scotland for nearly his entire life and be-
came a household UK name by hosting
the quiz-show ‘Mastermind’ for 25 years.
He was also an accomplished translator
of the Icelandic Sagas and an author of
Viking history.
Guy Maddin
This art-house filmmaker is the only per-
son on our list who originates from the
very heart of Western-Iceland: Manitoba,
Canada. Although he was born in Win-
nipeg, south of the Icelandic settlement
town Gimli, his ancestry and many of his
films are rooted in the small town. In fact,
his production company was named Ex-
tra Large Productions thanks to the Gimli
pizzeria and he is still widely known for
his first feature film, ‘Tales From The Gimli
Hospital’.
Carl Carlsson & Kitty Forman
Although they are both fictional, Icelan-
dic heritage has seeped into not one, but
two wildly popular Twentieth Century
FOX shows: Carl Carlsson on ‘The Simp-
sons’ and Kitty Forman (née Sigurdsson)
on ‘That 70s Show’. The former, Homer’s
co-worker and drinking buddy, made a
pilgrimage back to the motherland on a
recent episode, while the latter’s descent
was always more of a wink and a nod.
‘That 70s Show’ was set in Wisconsin, the
state with the highest population of Ice-
landic settlers in the US. The TV mom’s
maiden name gave away her heritage in a
few different episodes, but only Icelando-
phile nerds caught it, probably.
The Icelandic diaspora stretches far and wide but the countries with the most people
of Icelandic descent are Canada, the United States and Norway. Not surprisingly, many
of them have gone onto great ventures and wild success. Here are a few folks that are
making us proud.
Photo
Still from ‘The Simpsons’ s24e21
Words
RX Beckett
Go West!
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Famous Western-Icelanders of our time
22 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 15 — 2015TRAVEL