Famous Faces of WNY
National Celebrities with Local Roots

Carol Fisher-Linn

   Mama Mia is loved universally for its music, action and light-hearted fun. Actress Christine Baranski successfully and comically plays a lead role in that film. A native Buffalonian, she is the daughter of Virginia and Lucien Baranski. Her father edited a Polish-language newspaper and her grandparents were stage actors in Poland before emigrating to the United States. Baranski was raised in a Polish/Catholic neighborhood in the Buffalo suburb of Cheektowaga. She attended my alma mater, Villa Maria Academy, where she was class president and salutatorian, graduating in 1970. She studied at New York City’s Juilliard School earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. She received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Maryann Thorpe in the sitcom Cybill. She also received four Primetime Emmy Award Nominations.

   NFL star Rob Gronkowski was born in Amherst NY in 1989 to Gordon and Diane Walters

Gronkowski and was raised in Williamsville. Multi-talented, he played hockey until he was 14; then basketball, baseball and football at Williamsville North HS, as well as freshman kickoff specialist, supposedly due to his having the biggest feet on the team.  He was named an All-Western New York first-team and All-State second-team player. In his football career, he played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. Nicknamed “Gronk”, Gronkowski played nine seasons for the New England Patriots, then played his final two seasons for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Regarded as one of the greatest tight ends of all time, he is a four-time Super Bowl champion (XLIX, LI, LIII, LV), a five-time Pro Bowl selection, a four-time first-team All-Pro selection, and was selected to the NFL 2010s All-Decade Team and NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team.

    James Prendergast of Jamestown was born in 1764 in Pawling NY even before Jamestown existed. After the American Revolution, the Prendergast family moved several times before moving to what is now Ontario, Canada. Reaching adulthood, Prendergast married and moved on, settling in what is to become Jamestown, NY in 1810, unexpectedly finding the area while looking for runaway horses. Prior to coming to permanently settle in the area, he had his brother buy a thousand acres of land on his behalf, which is now where the city of Jamestown (named after him) stands. A survey made by his nephew Thomas Bemus was made, stores and shops were developed and the 50’ by 120’ lots were offered at $50 each. Originally called “The Rapids” for the swift water of the shallows there at the outlet of Lake Chautauqua, it was renamed Jamestown, after its founder, James Prendergast. He moved once more to Ripley where his wife died and then settled into his final home in Kiantone where he died at his home in November 1846, at the age of 82. He is buried in Prendergast Cemetery. Prendergast had one son, Alexander, and a grandson named James, who is the namesake of James Prendergast Library in Jamestown.

Jesse J. Cornplanter (1889 -1957), born on the Seneca Nation Cattaraugus Reservation was an actor, artist, author, craftsman, Seneca Faithkeeper and Purple Heart decorated veteran of World War I. He was the last male descendant of Cornplanter, an important 18th century Haudenosaunee leader and war chief during and after the Revolutionary War. He never progressed beyond third grade, yet his life-learned knowledge of Seneca customs, songs and rituals placed him in the position of the go-to person as a resource about the Senecas, for those inside and out of the tribe. While serving in the Army during WWI he lost many family members to the flu epidemic of 1918 including his parents. Returning home he eventually married and supported the remaining family members. Unfortunately, because he was the last remaining heir to the great Cornplanter with whom treaties were made by the United States government, with his own passing in 1957 the treaty granting Cornplanter’s heirs a perpetual land grant called the Cornplanter Tract, (about 1500 acres along the Allegheny River) expired with much of this land being submerged after the completion of the Kinzua Dam in 1965. In his lifetime, Cornplanter illustrated several books about Seneca and Iroquois life. At age 12 he was illustrator on the book Jesse Cornplanter, Seneca Indian Boy (oldwestbooks.com) with proceeds from sales used to produce and award the Cornplanter Medal every two years “to the person best contributing to the research and knowledge of the Iroquois.” He also illustrated The Code of Handsome Lake, (amazon) and wrote and illustrated his own book, Legends of the Longhouse, published in 1938.