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:

1 Considered authentic
2 Fictional characters
3 People from religious writings
4 Sometimes mistakenly said to be polydactyl
5 See also
6 Reference

[edit] Considered authentic

Endre Ady, was born with six fingers, with an extra little finger, which was tied off with a thread, withered away and only a dot-like scar remained of it, and this feature contributed to his belief of being a kind of shaman, a chosen (or accursed) one, reflected a few times in his poetry as well
Antonio Alfonseca, of the Philadelphia Phillies - has six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot. His nickname is "El Pulpo" ("the octopus"). Alfonseca claims that several of his family members have the same trait. The extra finger provides no advantage in pitching as it never touches the baseball.[1]
Eric Bristow The "Crafty Cockney" is a former darts world champion who has six toes on one foot, he claims it assists him in balance.
Daniela Cicarelli, Brazilian model and VJ, Ronaldo's ex-wife.^{[citation needed]}
Devendra Harne, a boy from Nagipur, India is currently credited by Guinness World Records as having the most fingers and toes of any living person with 6 fingers on each hand, 6 toes on his left foot and 7 toes on his right foot for a total of 25. [2]
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, 16th century Japanese ruler
Dr Adefolarin Majekodunmi, British/ Nigerian scientist - was born with six fingers on each hand (removed shortly after birth)
S'fiso Ncwane, South African Gospel singer, small extra finger on each hand [3]
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
Nayanthara, an Indian actress.
Harry Relph, "Little Tich", Music hall comedian - five fingers and a thumb on each hand, six toes on both feet
Sir Gary Sobers, cricketer - had an extra finger on each hand (removed during childhood)
"Hound Dog" Taylor, American blues musician - born with an extra finger on each hand. Taylor, while drunk, amputated the extra digit from his right hand with a razor blade. His left hand had the extra digit for the rest of his life, and allegedly contributed to his distinctive electric guitar playing style. [4] [5]
Albert Uderzo, comic artist
Sid Wilson, an American DJ mostly known for his work in Slipknot- was born with six fingers on each hand (removed during childhood)
Grant Wilson-Claridge, DJ with six fingers on each hand.
Robert Capa had an extra finger, which his mother considered a sign of good luck.
Henry II the Pious, Duke of Silesia, born with six toes on his left foot - commander of the Polish army during the Battle of Legnica
Ogun Altiparmak Famous Turkish soccer star and sports journalist.

[edit] Fictional characters

Gwyllm Griffiths from "The Sixth Finger" episode of The Outer Limits grew a sixth finger on each hand after being exposed to a scientist's machine designed to accelerate evolution.
Hannibal Lecter, fictional psychopathic psychiatrist created by the author Thomas Harris, was noted as having "perfect polydactylery", in that he had a perfectly formed extra finger in the middle of his left hand, but that it was surgically removed to better disguise Lecter. This is not mentioned in the movie adaptation.
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. His polydactyly had a part in the plot of the story, because he had a special sword crafted to be balanced properly for a six-fingered man to wield.
Wilbur Swain, the protagonist of Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slapstick, and his twin sister Eliza each have twelve fingers and toes.
Edward Hunt, fictional hero from Giova Kooman's epic, Worcestor, from the Italian renaissance
Warrick Tennyson, who built the bomb which killed Trudy Monk on the TV series Monk said he was hired by a man with six fingers on his right hand.
The pianist in the feature film Gattaca had six fingers on both hands.
Polydactyly was a common trait in the Darkover series of novels by Marion Zimmer Bradley - the presence of a fully functional sixth finger on each hand was nearly normal among members of certain families, and sometimes attributed to chieri (nonhuman) ancestry.
Chen Dieyi, one of the two lead characters in the film (and novel) Farewell My Concubine, was born with six fingers on one hand. To allow the child to be accepted into the local Peking opera troupe, his mother amputates the child's sixth finger with a butcher knife.
Bleh, cousin to Princess Clara on Comedy Central's Drawn Together, has six toes on her right foot.
Sophie Wender, a character in The Chrysalids, has six toes on each foot. Discovery would mark her as a "non-human blasphemy" according to her culture's strict religious criteria and she is forced to carefully conceal her additional digits.
The Doc in Kouta Hirano's Hellsing manga has six fingers on each hand.
The disabled girls in the X-Files episode "All Souls" are polydactyl with six fingers on each hand, all of them fully functional. In this case their polydactyly is presumably a result of being a nephilim.
Shad Bealing, the villain in The Six Fingered Glove Mystery (1936), one of the Kay Tracey mysteries, has an extra finger on his right hand. The book also features another polydactyl with an extra finger on his left hand.

[edit] People from religious writings

In the Old Testament, a Philistine warrior with extra digits was killed by Jonathan the son of Shimea, King David's brother (II Sam 21:20, I Chr 20).

[edit] 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 here)
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.
Both Halle Berry and Kate Hudson are rumored to have a sixth toe; as with Marilyn Monroe and Mike Harris, this is due to photographic misinterpretations. [6] [7] [8]
Tom Lehrer, pianist and satirist, has jokingly described himself as "endowed with twelve incredibly agile fingers."
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor is often mistakenly said to have developed the "Maximilian style" of armor, which features widely-flared toes, in order to conceal his polydactyly.
David Sedaris is sometimes claimed to have a sixth toe on one of his feet, but in fact does not. The rumor appears to have been started by the owner of an Internet fansite, solely to see if he could successfully spread a rumor. (a sort of breaching experiment)
Linda Cohn, ESPN personality - Another ESPN personality, Tony Kornheiser, has made repeated allegations on his show Pardon the Interruption that Cohn is polydactyl.
It is old joke among piano students that composers such as Franz Liszt and Frédéric Chopin must have had twelve fingers, in order to have played the extensive reaches and one-handed chords of more than 5 notes in their piano music. These composers, however, were just deft; for example, 6-note chords can be played with one hand by extending the thumb to play two notes.
Anne Boleyn, 2nd wife of Henry VIII - rumored by her enemies to have had eleven fingers.[9]