List of polydactyl people
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The following is a list of famous people who are, were, or are believed to have been polydactyl:
- Antonio Alfonseca, relief pitcher for the Florida Marlins, as of May 2005. See a picture here [1] (http://www.librarising.com/twelve.html).
- Anne Boleyn - Said to have had eleven fingers, although she only had a double fingernail and a lump on her little finger [2] (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_053.html)
- Toyotomi Hideyoshi
- Pacal the Great, King of Palenque - Said to have had six toes on his feet
- Hrithik Roshan, a Bollywood actor has an additional thumb on his right hand.
- Sir Garry Sobers - has an extra finger on each hand (removed during childhood)
The following fictional characters are polydactyl:
- Hannibal Lecter, fictional psychopathic psychiatrist created by the author Thomas Harris
- The legendary Padeira of Aljubarrota a man-like woman who helped Portuguese soldiers in the Battle of Aljubarrota (1385)
- Count Rugen, the six-fingered man in the comic adventure novel The Princess Bride by William Goldman (1973), as well as the movie adaptation, directed by Rob Reiner in 1987
The following people are sometimes mistakenly said to be polydactyl:
- Marilyn Monroe is believed by some people to have had six toes on one foot, but this is an urban legend (due to two misinterpreted photographs) and is untrue. See http://marilynmonroepages.com/6toes.html for photographic proof.
- David Sedaris is sometimes claimed to have a sixth toe on one of his feet, but in fact does not. The rumour appears to have been started by the owner of an Internet fansite, solely to see if he could successfully spread a rumour.
- Ontario premier Mike Harris was the subject of a similar rumour in 1997, after a newspaper obtained a photo of him as a youth in swimming trunks and barefoot, in which he appeared, through the same type of optical illusion as the Marilyn Monroe photographs, to have six toes on one foot. Several days later, he showed his foot to the press to prove that he only had the usual five toes after someone agreed to donate money to charity for showing his foot.
See also
Reference
- Garry Sobers, My Autobiography by Garry Sobers with Bob Harris ISBN 0-7553-1007-1