Michael Bay
American film director; adopted as a child
Bay was adopted as a small baby by an accountant and child psychologist in Westwood, Los Angeles, California. His parents later also adopted a baby girl. His birth father is rumored to be the director John Frankenheimer, but Frankenheimer denies this and Bay does not insist on it, although Frankenheimer does admit to having had an affair with Bay's birth mother, whom Bay traced and met when he was 20. He studied film at college. He has directed several very successful Hollywood films: Bad Boys (1995), The Rock, Armageddon (1998), and Pearl Harbor (2001), known for their spectacular and expensive special effects.
Truman Capote
American author; adopted as a child
At the age of six Capote's parents abandoned him to the care of four elderly, unmarried maternal cousins, three sisters and a brother, living together. He was a high-school dropout, apprenticed as a fortune teller, and started his literary career as an office boy at the offices of the New Yorker magazine.
His books include In Cold Blood, A Christmas Memory and Breakfast at Tiffany's
Kitty and Peter Carruthers
Olympic Silver Medalists in Pairs Figure Skating; adopted as children
Kitty and Peter are adoptive siblings with different biological parents; both were adopted as infants in Massachusetts. Following their Olympic medal performance, they skated professionally for a time, and have now retired from performance skating. Kitty and her husband, Brett Conrad, are adoptive parents.
Bill Clinton
President of the United States; adopted as a child
Forty-second president of the United States, born William Jefferson Blythe, on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas. His father, William Blythe, died in an auto accident three months before he was born. He was adopted by his stepfather, Roger Clinton.
“We must work tirelessly to make sure that every boy and girl in America who is up for adoption has a family waiting to reach him or her. This is a season of miracles, and perhaps there is no greater miracle than finding a loving home for a child who needs one.”
Faith Daniels
American television journalist; adopted as a child
Daniels was conceived as a result of a rape and her mother asked that she be adopted. She graduated from Bethany College. She joined CBS News as one of the youngest ever news anchors; in 1990 she moved to NBC and Today and News at Sunrise, then A Closer Look, Dateline and Today's Health. She is an active supporter of adoption, a member of the National Council on Adoption, and president of the Board of Trustees of the Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa Research Association of America.
Scott Hamilton
Olympic Gold Medalist in Men's Figure Skating; adopted as a child
Scott was adopted as an infant and began skating at age 9. He participated in the Sarajevo Olympics (1984) and received a gold medal. Reports have it that he asked his mother about his biological family and her hurt reply stopped him from seeking further. Scott now skates professionally and he is a cancer survivor.
“Though she wasn't a blood relative, people say we looked alike. She was short, only five feet and _ inch tall and had a high forehead, just like me. Yet my clearest and fondest memory of my adopted mother is her laughter.”
Faith Hill
Singer; adopted as a child
Faith Hill (full name: Audrey Faith Perry Hill) was adopted when a few days old by Ted and Edna Perry, who had two older sons and wanted a daughter. She raised in Star, Mississippi. Her birth parents were unmarried, although they married later and had a son. She always has known she was adopted.
She has won a number of country music awards and honors. She is married to singer Tim McGraw and has three children. (Her first marriage to songwriter Dan Hill ended in divorce.)
Although she initially had no interest in tracing her birth family, she changed her mind and has a good relationship with her birth mother and birth brother; her birth father had already died in an accident. In an interview, she has said that one of the reasons for searching was to discover where her passion for music came from. She also said that at their meeting, as her birthmother was walking towards her, she recognized her own walk. To maintain family privacy, Hill chooses not to identify her birth family by name.
To honor her adoptive father, she founded the Faith Hill Family Literacy Project in 1996. She also participates in concerts and other efforts in support of pediatric AIDS
“Having been adopted, I really have a strong sense - a necessity almost - for stability. A foundation where my family is concerned. Success would be meaningless without anyone to share it with.”
Jesse Jackson
Civil Rights activist; adopted as a child
Jackson was born to an unmarried woman. His birth father was her next-door neighbor, but he was married with children and had very little contact with Jesse. His mother married when he was still young, and he was adopted by his step-father in 1956.
Since 1963 he has been one of American's most important civil rights activists, working for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Operation Breadbasket, Operation PUSH, PUSH/Excel, and The National Rainbow Coalition, the last three of which he himself founded. He ran for president in 1984 and 1988.
“Charles Henry Jackson adopted me and gave me his name, his love, his encouragement, discipline and a high sense of self respect.”
Art Linkletter
TV personality; author; adopted as a child
Radio broadcaster, television personality, author. Born Arthur Gordon Linkletter, on July 17, 1912, in Moosejaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, where his biological parents abandoned him on the doorsteps of a local church. He was adopted by an itinerant preacher and his wife, who eventually settled in California when Linkletter was three.
Linkletter's ability to entertain through ordinary people enhanced his likable character. He proved particularly skilled at interviewing children, whose candid remarks provided some of his shows' most precious moments. He translated his success into a handful of children's books, including Kids Say the Darndest Things! (1957), The Secret World of Kids (1959). Kids Still Say the Darndest Things! (1961), and Kids Sure Rite Funny!: A Child's Guide to Misinformation (1962).
Most recently, Linkletter returned to television in a 1998 production of Kids Say the Darndest Things, which he co-hosted with fellow funnyman Bill Cosby.
“As I grew older - and I feel even more strongly about it today - I realized that every adopted child should be told the truth at the earliest possible moment. The truth is that you chose this child because you wanted him and that proves your love.”
Greg Louganis
Olympic Gold Medalist in Diving; adopted as a child
Greg is a transcultural adoptee. He is dyslexic, gay and HIV+. Considered by many to be the greatest diver of all times, he is perhaps best remembered for hitting his head on the springboard during the 1988 Olympic Games and going on to win gold medals in both the springboard and platform events. He also won a silver Olympic medal in 1976, and another gold medal in 1984.
“Mom said that what really cinched the deal was my smile. Once she saw that, she didn't want to look at any other babies.”
Sarah McLachlan
Canadian singer; adopted as a child
McLachlan was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to a woman named Judy James (or Kaines; sources differ) and adopted soon afterwards by an American couple living in Canada, Jack and Dorice McLachlan, who have two other adopted children.
From the age of four McLachlan was a singer and played the ukulele, and studied music later at the Nova Scotia Royal Conservatory. She joined a band called October Game then she was 17 but did not become a full-time musician until after completing her education at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.
It was during her time at NSCAD in 1986 that one source claims a friend remarked on her resemblance to another friend of hers, who turned out to be her birth mother. They now have a continuing friendly relationship.
She has released a number of albums, including Touch (1989), Solace (1991), Fumbling towards Ecstasy (1993), The Freedom Sessions (1995), Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff (1996), Surfacing (1997), and Mirrorball (1999). McLachlan was the founder of the group Lilith Fair.
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Singer; adopted as a child
Sainte-Marie is part Cree and was born on the Piapot Reserve in Canada. She was adopted by a white family from Maine, USA, and raised in Maine and Massachusetts. Her family encouraged her interest in her origins and also her musical talents.
She has degrees in teaching and oriental philosophy and a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from the University of Massachusetts. She was a major figure in the folk-song renaissance of the 1960s and '70s as a singer and composer. Her own albums include It's My Way, Many a Mile, Sweet America and Coincidence (and Likely Stories), and she composed the scores for the films Harold of Orange and Great Spirit in the Hole. Individual songs of hers such as "Universal Soldier," "Up Where We Belong," "Until it's Time for You to Go," "The Piney Wood Hills," "He's an Indian Cowboy in the Rodeo" and "Now that the Buffalo's Gone" were also recorded by other singers and she earned a blacklisting by the Johnson administration for her anti-war activities.
She spent five years as a regular on Sesame Street and since the folk revolution was taken over by commercial interests she has concentrated more on her art, touring outside the USA, writing and experimental music.
Dave Thomas
Founder of Wendy's; adopted as a child
Perhaps best known to the world at large as the founder of Wendy's restaurants, Dave Thomas is widely recognized as one of the most vocal and active advocates of adoption of special children.
- that he had been born out of wedlock,
- that he had been adopted, and
- that he had dropped out of high school
As his business career peaked and he had time and money to spend, he made adoption and education the twin focus of his life. He earned his GED, and became a national spokesperson for adoption.
Dave Thomas devoted untold hours lobbying for adoption benefits at the federal and state level, traveling around the country to address state legislatures and congressional committees. He convinced major businesses to add or improve adoption benefits as part of employee benefit packages, setting an example with his own companies and sponsoring awards to recognize others. He was a major force behind National Adoption Awareness Month, the annual "A Home for the Holidays" television show at Christmas, the Adoption Awareness Stamp issued in 1999 by the U.S. Postal Service, and an annual Adoption Christmas ornament, to name only a few.
Born in 1932 and adopted as an infant, Thomas spent most of his young life, from his early teens forward, on his own, learning everything he could about his consuming dream - to own a chain of restaurants. His first fast food experience after the service was with Kentucky Fried Chicken, but his true love was hamburgers. When KFC made him a wealthy man, he was able to pursue his dream and Wendy's - named after his youngest daughter - was born.
“People ask me, 'What about gay adoptions? Interracial? Single parent?' I say, 'Hey, fine, as long as it works for the child and the family is responsible.' My big stand is this: Every child deserves a home and love. Period.”