Celebrity Statues Around the World The Hollywood Reporter

May 22, 2024

celeb

Celebrity Statues Around the World – The Hollywood Reporter

Arnold Schwarzenegger in Austria
This ripped tribute to “Austria's most famous living son” as the local Mayor put it was erected in 2011 outside the house in the tiny Alpine village where Schwarzenegger was born. The former California governor commissioned the bronze likeness of his younger, bodybuilding self to mark the occasion, the opening of a museum dedicated to all things Arnie.
Bob Marley in Serbia
Musicians from the former Yugoslavia raised this statue of late Jamaican reggae icon Bob Marley as a symbol of peace less than a decade after the region's bloody civil war. Prominent Serbian and Croatian musicians unveiled the statue with its inscription (in Serbo-Croat): “Bob Marley — fighter for freedom armed with a guitar” at the “Rock Village” music festival in the Serbian hamlet of Banatski Sokolac.
Bruce Lee in Bosnia
The Balkans have a thing for out-of-place celebrity statuary. Why else would, on November 26, 2005, the first ever public monument to Bruce Lee be unveiled in Bosnia? (To be fair, Hong Kong put up its own Lee tribute a day later). But it took L.A. until this week to get around to memorializing the Kung Fu legend with a 7-foot likeness in Central Plaza in Chinatown.
Elvis in Nashville
The King is probably the most effigized VIP world wide. Statues of Elvis attract fans and pigeons from Memphis to Japan, from Israel to Shreveport, Louisiana. This tribute to the Rock and Roll giant, showing Presley in all his hip swinging glory, stands in the country music capital of Nashville.
Jean-Claude Van Damme in Brussels
The Mussels from Brussels finally got his due last year when a permanent tribute to the 80s action legend – and Expendables 2 co-star – was inaugurated in his hometown. It somehow seems appropriate that the unveiling took place in honor of the 40th anniversary of the Brussels Westland Shopping Mall.
John Lennon in Cuba
John Lennon has a whole park dedicated to him in Havana, Cuba. Fidel Castro himself unveiled this statue to the former Beatle on December 8, 2000, the 20th anniversary of Lennon's murder. The inscription is a Spanish translation of a lyric from “Imagine”: You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.” Apparently, if you ask, a nearby security guard will put a pair of Lennon's signature round-lens glasses on the statue for a photo.
Johnny Depp in Serbia
One of the stranger attempts at VIP statuary is this carving located in a Serbian mountain village. Serbian director Emir Kusturica, who directed Depp in Arizona Dream (1992) unveiled the statue to the Pirates of the Caribbean star to kick off Kusturica's annual Kustendorf film festival three years ago.
Michael Jackson in West London
But the prize for the most truly bizarre placement of celebrity monument has to go to this tribute to Michael Jackson that stands outside the Fulham soccer stadium in West London. Egyptian business magnate Mohammed Al Fayed, owner of Fulham and a friend of Jackos, told fans of the soccer team they could “go to hell” if they didn't appreciate having the King of Pop immortalized outside their home club.
Sylvester Stallone in Belgrade
The Balkan Balboa. This 10-foot-tall monument to Sylvester Stallone's fighting spirit stands proudly in Zitiste, a a village just north of Belgrade. Unlike other celeb statues in the region, Rocky wasn't put up to inspire world peace but in the hopes the Serbian town, which had been beset by years of flooding and landslides, would channel some of the fighter's never-say-die spirit.
Kobe Bryant in China
Images of this bronze tribute to the L.A. Lakers' superstar turned up on Twitter this week, apparently shortly after the monument to number 24 went up outside the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts. It's not so surprising basketball-mad China would choose to immortalize Kobe. There's already a statue to ex-Laker Shaquille O'Neal towering over a park in Beijing.
Colin Firth in London
In July 2013, a 12-foot fiberglass statue of Colin Firth was erected in the Serpentine, a lake in Hyde Park, London, to mark the launch of UKTV's new channel, Drama. The sculpture was meant to pay tribute to the BBC's beloved 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. In the miniseries, Firth (as Mr. Darcy) has a scene in which he emerges dripping wet in a shirt after a spontaneous swim at his estate. The scene was chosen after U.K. television viewers voted it the most memorable moment in a British TV drama in a survey.