5 Celebrities Who Don’t Use Cellphones, Including One Who Is Only Reachable Via Fax

Madison E. GoldbergFri, August 21, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC

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Dolly Parton on March 20, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn.; Ed Sheeran on Dec. 14, 2025, in BostonCredit: Jason Kempin/Getty; Paras Griffin/Getty

Despite the widespread popularity of cellphones, many of Hollywood’s biggest stars don’t actually own one.

Dolly Parton, for example, is famously only reachable via fax. Fellow country star Reba McEntire explained what it’s like to communicate with the “9 to 5” singer in an April 2022 appearance on the Apple Music podcast Southern Accents Radio.

“You don’t call Dolly, you fax her,” McEntire said. “You fax your people and your people talk to her people. That’s the only way I know to get ahold of her.”

Other celebrities have chosen to avoid buying a smartphone for reasons ranging from distractibility to a general aversion to all kinds of technology.

Ahead, here are five stars who don’t have cellphones.

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Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton attends the opening of Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum’s new exhibit ‘Dolly Parton: Journey of a Seeker’ at Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on May 19, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee.Credit: Jason Kempin/Getty

Parton doesn’t use a cellphone and, as a result, is only reachable via fax. Aside from McEntire, Parton’s goddaughter, Miley Cyrus, also previously mentioned her love of faxing in a May 2022 appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers.

“Every time I coordinate and kind of communicate with Dolly, it’s still through fax,” the “Flowers” singers said. “We do use the phone, but she does a fax and then someone scans the fax and then they put it into a text message. And then that gets sent to me, and it’s always signed.”

“She has a phone — she just doesn’t use it, I don’t think,” Cyrus added. “I think someone uses it for her and does the fax machine through the phone.”

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Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran poses during TikTok Presents Ed Sheeran’s PlayCredit: Rich Fury/Getty

Though Ed Sheeran doesn’t own a smartphone, he does allow himself “iPad time,” which enables him to FaceTime friends like Taylor Swift.

When Swift got engaged to her now-husband Travis Kelce in 2025, Sheeran found out via Instagram because the “Love Story” singer forgot to call him on his iPad. She later recounted the mishap in an October 2025 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

“He doesn’t have a phone,” Swift explained. “And this is one thing I love about him. It’s very eccentric. Love it. But when I’m going through saying, ‘Hey, who should we call? Who should we FaceTime?’ I’m going through my texts and being like, ‘Who have I texted within the last like, month of my life?’ ”

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“This is one of my absolute favorite people on the planet,” she added. “Then, when the news came out I was like, ‘Oh my God we forgot to call Ed! Oh no!’ ”

Under a clip from the interview posted on the show’s TikTok, Sheeran commented, “Hello from my allotted iPad time, this is factual.”

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Christopher Walken

Christopher Walken attends during the “The Deer Hunter” ScreeningCredit: John Lamparski/Getty

In a January 2025 interview with The Wall Street Journal, Pulp Fiction actor Christopher Walken explained that he does not own a smartphone or use social media, and that he did not even watch his own performance on Severance until the show came out on DVD.

“I don’t have technology,” Walken told the outlet. “I only have a satellite dish on my house. So I’ve seen Severance on DVDs that they’re good enough to send me. I don’t have a cell phone. I’ve never emailed or, what do you call it, Twittered.”

Walken’s luddite lifestyle just so happened to be the perfect fit for Severance, where director Ben Stiller banned the use of cellphones on set. Stiller later explained on the Working It Out podcast that the ban was enacted to “protect that environment for the actors,” per Variety.

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Christopher Nolan

Christopher NolanCredit: Sonja Flemming/CBS via Getty

Two-time Academy Award-winning director Christopher Nolan uses a flip phone “from time to time” and largely stays offline in part because he’s “easily distractible.”

“I do a lot of my best thinking in those kind of in-between moments that people now fill with online activity, so it benefits me,” he told PEOPLE in December 2020. “When I’m working, I’m just surrounded by, I mean, everybody’s got a phone. I can’t hide, so I’m very easy to get in touch with when I’m working.”

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Elton John

Elton John Elton John AIDS Foundation’s 34th Annual Academy Awards Viewing PartyCredit: Michael Kovac/Getty for Elton John AIDS Foundation

Elton John described life without a cellphone as “fabulous” in a 2013 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, perE! News.

“I don’t do anything online. I’ve never downloaded anything in my life. I don’t have a phone. I don’t Twitter,” he said.

“I just have an iPad for the kids to keep Skyping them if I’m not with them,” John added.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”