Famous people who have had gastric-bypass

Apr 07, 2009

Gastric Bypass:

• Patti Austin
  • roux-en-y, 2004
  • American R&B and jazz singer, known for hits like Do You Love Me? / The Genie and Baby, Come To Me.
• Rosanne Barr
  • Fobi pouch, 1998
  • sometimes controversial American comedian and actress who gained fame with her stand-up act and acheived super-stardom with her hit show Roseanne.
• Kent "Big Boy" Alexander
  • duodenal switch, 2003
  • Los Angeles morning radio DJ. Morning DJs on American radio (especially in big cities) can become nationally famous, as is the case with Big Boy. He once appeared almost nude on a billboard in L.A. - when he was almost 500 pounds.
• Darlene Cates 
  • vertical banded gastroplasty, 1984 (the old-fashioned "stomach stapling")
  • American actress best known for playing "Momma" in the film What's Eating Gilbert Grape. She weighed a little over 400 pounds at the time of her surgery and lost about 100 pounds in the year following surgery. She subsequently gained back the 100 pounds plus at least 100 more. She says she regrets having the surgery and does not wish to have a revision. We find her story particularly poignant. She has struggled with her weight nearly all of her life - like so many of us. We think it's important that we learn from both the good stories and the bad when it comes to obesity surgery.
• Andrae and Sandra Crouch
  • Fobi pouch, 2003 or earlier
  • American gospel singers and twins. Andrae is quite famous in the U.S. gospel genre.
• Michael Genadry
  • roux-en-y, 2002
  • American actor, one of the stars of the television dramedy Ed. His surgery was actually written into the storyline to explain his rapid weight loss.
• Gil Gerard
  • mini-gastric bypass, 2006
  • American actor famous for playing Buck Rogers on television from 1979-1981. He allowed the Discovery Channel to follow his obesity surgery journey, a show which aired in 2007.
• Adam Goldstein
  • roux-en-y, 2003
  • Club DJ and former boyfriend of Nicole Ritchie.
• Jackie Guerra  LOOK in my pics ~ to the left, I've met her...she was a speaker at an OH conference!!
  • gastric bypass (RNY), 2003
  • Emmy Award-winning American comedienne, Actress, Author, and Jewelry Designer. She played Selena's sister in the film Selena, had a sitcom called First Time Out, and a show on the DIY network called Jewelry Making.
• Jennifer Holliday
  • Fobi pouch, 1989-1990
  • American actress and singer. She won a Tony award in 1982 for Best Lead Actress in a Musical for Dreamgirls. She won a Grammy that same year for the song And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going, also from Dreamgirls. Interestingly, She says in a 1991 Ebony article that she lost 148 pounds by going on a liquid diet. Dr. Fobi lists her as a Fobi pouch patient though, so we wonder when exactly she had surgery, and if she just didn't want to reveal it at first.
• Randy Jackson
  • Fobi pouch, 2003
  • Most famous as an American Idol judge, he's also a Grammy Award-winning musician.
• Jesse Jackson, Jr.
  • gastric bypass (type unknown), revealed in March 2005
  • American politician and son of activist and former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson.
• Etta James
  • Fobi pouch, 2003
  • American blues/jazz singer and songwriter, most famous for the 1961 song At Last. (one of our favourite songs!)
• Star Jones
  • roux-en-y, 2003
  • These days we think she is most famous for denying that she had gastric bypass, even though she so obviously lost weight at a dramatic pace when she was one of the hosts of the American television show The View. She finally admitted to having undergone obesity surgery in the August, 2007 issue of Glamour magazine.
• Harry Lee
  • roux-en-y, 2003
  • He's not necessarily famous in the Hollywood way, but he is a person of note. He was a Chinese-American politician who was elected Sheriff of Jefferson Parish (where New Orleans is) in Louisiana six times, serving over 27 years and had a career full of controversy. He was known for "telling it like it is", although not everyone always appreciated his style. The day before hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans he went on the radio and said, "You better haul ass! Y'all should have left yesterday." A true statement, albeit said with some indelicacy. He died from Leukemia in October 2007, just three weeks before his expected re-election to office.
• Ron Lester
  • gastric bypass (type unknown), 2001
  • American comedian and actor. He played Billy Bob in the film Varsity Blue, and parodied that role in Not Another Teen Movie. He lost 348 pounds with gastric bypass surgery, an incredible amount of weight. He has reportedly had ten plastic surgery procedures to remove excess skin.
• Ralphie May
  • roux-en-y, 2003
  • American comedian who gained fame on the television show Last Comic Standing. He won first runner up in the competition, and has since made a comedy CD, did a special on Comedy Central, and makes regular guest appearances on popular comedy radio shows. He was a true heavyweight, tipping the scales at over 800 pounds at his heaviest. In mid-2007 his weight was reportedly in the 300's.
• JoMarie Payton
  • Fobi pouch, 2003 or earlier
  • American actress most famous for her role as Harriette Winslow (the mom) on the sitcom Family Matters.
• John Popper
  • roux-en-y, 2000
  • American singer and songwriter. He's the frontman for the group Blues Traveler, and is amazing on the harmonica. Who knew the humble harmonica could be such a beautiful instrument? He had a near heart attack in 1999 at the tender age of 32. He had an emergency angioplasty which revealed that he had 95% arterial blockage.
• Anne Rice
  • roux-en-y, 2003
  • This American author has a huge following for her book series The Vampire Chronicles, which includes the stunningly successful Interview with a Vampire (later made into a movie starring Tom Cruise, Brad Bitt and Kirsten Dunst). Although she was a self-proclaimed athiest most of her adult life, she returned to her Roman Catholic roots around the time of the death of her husband of 41 years, Stan. She announced in 2005 that she would henceforth write "only for the Lord" and declared most strongly that she would not be writing any more vampire novels, much to the dismay of her fans. In 1998 she discovered that she had Type 1 diabetes after she fell into a diabetic coma. After her husband's death in 2002, her weight rose steadily, and she suffered from sleep apnea "and other weight-related problems", which led her to undergo gastric bypass surgery.
• Al Roker
  • roux-en-y, 2002
  • Anchor on the American morning news show "Today". Al Roker was one of the first people we remember talking about gastric bypass surgery. We were amazed at the way he seemed to shrink in front of our eyes every day. He seems lately to have gained back a fairly substantial amount of weight. Another example that this surgery is not a cure-all!
• Lulu Roman
  • gastric bypass (type unknown), year unknown
  • Gospel singer and American actress from the long running comedy-music series Hee-Haw.
• Glenn Shadix
  • roux-en-y, 2000
  • American actor known for his deep voice and southern accent. He is known for playing Otho in the film Beetlejuice, and does a lot of voice work for animated television shows and movies.
• Deborah Voigt
  • roux-en-y, 2005
  • An American opera singer. Deborah has expressed some concerns about how her weight loss might have affected her voice. In an 2006 interview with Opera News she asserts that her diaphragm function and voice are not compromised, but she does say, "I do have to think about it more now. I have to remind myself to keep my ribs open. I have to remind myself, if my breath starts to stack. When I took a breath before, the weight would kick in and give it that extra Whhoomf! Now it doesn't do that."
• Charlie Weis
  • roux-en-y, 2002
  • Head coach of the American football team for the University of Notre Dame. He sued his doctors for damages due to complications from his obesity surgery, during which he almost died. He checked into the hospital under an assumed name hoping to keep the surgery quiet, but the malpractice lawsuit has put every detail of his weight struggle in the public eye. In his book, No Excuses: One Man's Incredible Rise Through the NFL to Head Coach of Notre Dame, he says that having gastric bypass "was probably the biggest mistake of my life." He initially lost 100 pounds, but says he has gained back about 50.
• Basil White
  • roux-en-y, 2000
  • An American comedian (lots of comedians on this list - we wonder whether that's a coincidence. How many of us have tried to use humour to cover our pain at being obese?). He kept a detailed diary of his experience.
• Carnie Wilson
  • roux-en-y, 2000
  • She's been so public about her struggle with obesity, her gastric bypass surgery, and her subsequent struggles that we hardly know where to begin! She is the daughter of Beach Boys singer Brian Wilson and his first wife Marilyn Rovell. She was part of the popular pop singing trio Wilson Phillips. She speaks of how humiliating it was to be "the fat one" in this sucessful group. Her surgery was broadcast live on the Internet, she lost 150 pounds, went on to pose for Playboy and wrote the book that changed The Guru's life: Gut Feelings.

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