Owners
Apart from the Pope and governments, famous owners of the 600 have included celebrities such as Coco Chanel, Hugh Hefner, Elizabeth Taylor, John Lennon, George Harrison, Jay Kay, Aristotle Onassis, Jack Nicholson, Simon Spies, Ronnie Wood, Bob Jane, Frank Packer, Elvis Presley, Rowan Atkinson and Jeremy Clarkson. Notable dictators have included Park Chung-hee, Nicolae Ceauşescu, Josip Broz-Tito, Fidel Castro, Pol Pot, Enver Hoxha, Leonid Brezhnev, Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-Il also owned a landaulet (both seen in the 65th anniversary parade in Pyongyang on October 10, 2010) and religious leader Guru Maharaj Ji. African revolutionaries Idi Amin Dada, Jomo Kenyatta and the former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos had four 600s including a Landaulet, a 1981 bulletproof and a six-door version.
In Senegal, the first regime (1960–1980) under president Leopold Sedar Senghor had in its fleet three 600s, a short wheel base, a long wheel base and a Landaulet. These were later 'replaced' by the W126 based Carat Limousine.
Iran royal court and Iran's Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi owned multiple 600 models that were used for official and personal use of the late Shah and his court. Some of them were sold after the 1979 Islamic revolution and 3 of them are in the National Car Museum of Iran in Karaj.
Other notable owners include Saddam Hussein, Sukarno, Frederik Willem de Klerk, Éamon de Valera, and Archbishop Makarios III of Cyprus.
Former Chinese Foreign Minister Chen Yi, Deng Xiaoping, wife of the first Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai - Deng Yingchao, and the former King of Cambodia Norodom Sihanouk when he fled to Beijing after the Cambodian coup of 1970 all used the 600.
In television, a Mercedes Benz 600 limousine was used by Angela Channing, matriarch of the fictional Channing/Gioberti family, in the American television series Falcon Crest. Images of the car driving from San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge to the Falcon Crest vineyard were featured in the opening credits of the first four seasons.
The Mercedes 600 has also featured in the James Bond films, most notably as transport of the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Diamonds are Forever. Kamal Khan is also seen leaving Sotheby's in a 600 in Octopussy.
Read more about this topic: Mercedes-Benz 600
Famous quotes containing the word owners:
“When the passage “All men are born free and equal,” when that passage was being written were not some of the signers legalised owners of slaves?”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“O, these naughty times
Puts bars between the owners and their rights!”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The work of the miner has its unavoidable incidents of discomfort and danger, and these should not be increased by the neglect of the owners to provide every practicable safety appliance. Economies which involve a sacrifice of human life are intolerable.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)