9. Lawrence Hilton Jacobs, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands (Freddie “Boom Boom” Washington from “Welcome Back Kotter”)
Lawrence Hilton Jacobs was a big deal in the ’70s. He starred in Cooley High, appeared in Roots, and recorded a pair of disco albums. On Welcome Back Kotter, he played Freddie “Boom Boom” Washington, part of the “Sweathogs” crew along with a young John Travolta’s Vinny Barbarino, and the original “Juan Epstein.” Raised in NYC, Hilton Jacobs was the fifth of nine children born to Hilton and Clothilda Jacobs of St. Thomas, USVI.