David Copperfield

Magician

Name at birth: David Seth Kotkin

A member of the exclusive club of world-famous magicians, David Copperfield is known for staging whopper illusions, including making the Statue of Liberty disappear before a live audience and millions of TV viewers. A member of the Society of American Magicians since he was a teenager, Copperfield got his start in the entertainment industry singing and performing magic on stage in Chicago. When he was 19 years old he was tapped to host a television show, and from there his career took off. His Emmy-winning television specials have been popular events since the late 1970s, and Copperfield has pulled off some amazing stunts over the years, including levitating across the Grand Canyon and walking through the Great Wall of China. In addition to performing worldwide, he has had a hit on Broadway (1997's Dreams and Nightmares), founded an organization to help rehabilitate disabled people (Project Magic), published books (Beyond Imagination and David Copperfield's Tales of the Impossible) and dated a supermodel (Claudia Schiffer, 1994-99).