Recently created biographies
Bob Lazar
Bob Lazar’s fame rests on his claim since 1989 that he worked on a secret government plan to “reverse engineer” captured alien spacecraft in the Nevada desert. Lazar said he …..
Richard Roundtree
Richard Roundtree was an American actor who first shot to fame as the star and titular character of the 1971 movie Shaft. He appeared in the movie’s sequels and many …..
Michael Gambon
Sir Michael Gambon was the Irish-British actor whose long career stretched from doing Shakespeare with Sir Laurence Olivier at the Royal National Theater in the 1960s to playing the good-guy …..
Thomas Carvel
Thomas Carvel founded the Carvel ice cream company and was a pioneer in soft ice cream and retail franchising. The son of Greek immigrants, he began selling ice cream out …..
Geronimo
Geronimo, also known as Goyahkla or Goyathlay, was the leader of a band of Chiricahua Apache who fought the United States takeover of their land in the late 19th century. …..
Gladys Knight
Gladys Knight and her back-up singers, The Pips, had their first hit record in 1961, when Gladys was still a teenager. Together they became famous on the Motown record label …..
The Daniels
The filmmaking duo known as the Daniels is made up of Daniel Kwan (10 February 1988) and Daniel Sheinert (7 June 1987). Together their second feature film, Everything Everywhere All …..
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges
Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges was a celebrated swordsman and composer in the era of the French Revolution who has been called “The Black Mozart.” Possibly the first European composer …..
Paul Mescal
Paul Mescal is the Irish actor whose strong run of dramatic roles led up to his 2023 Oscar nomination for the 2022 drama Aftersun. As a teen, Paul Mescal moved …..
Angela Bassett
Oscar winning actress Angela Bassett broke out in 1993 as singer Tina Turner in What’s Love Got To Do With It and proved her star quality as the titular character …..
Raquel Welch
Raquel Welch turned her breakthrough role as a prehistoric sex symbol into a five-decade career in the movies. She was born Jo Raquel Tejada in Chicago, to parents of Bolivian …..
Burt Bacharach
Burt Bacharach was an American pianist, composer and songwriter whose work in the decade of the 1960s included hit songs such as “Walk On By,” “The Look of Love” and …..
Austin Butler
Austin Butler is the actor best known for playing music legend Elvis Presley in the 2022 biopic Elvis. Austin Butler grew up in Anaheim, miles south of Hollywood, and as …..
Ke Huy Quan
Ke Huy Quan is the actor whose interrupted career began with the 1984 film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and continued four decades later with a surprising Oscar …..
Judd Hirsch
Mensch-faced, gruff, and vulnerable, Judd Hirsch has had a long career in theater, movies, and in TV, where he is best known for the popular series Taxi (1979-83) and Dear …..
Ana de Armas
Ana de Armas is the actress whose run of high-profile roles led to her 2023 Oscar nomination for playing Marilyn Monroe in the film Blonde. Ana de Armas was born …..
Eero Saarinen
Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen was an innovative designer known for what are now mid-20th century landmarks, including the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the Trans-World Airlines Terminal at New …..
Mary Pickford
Silent film star Mary Pickford was once the biggest movie star in the world, a diminutive blond known at the time as “America’s Sweetheart.” Pickford was also a producer and …..
Rishi Sunak
Rishi Sunak is the former Chancellor of the Exchequer who became the UK’s prime minister on October 25, 2022. Rishi Sunak was born in Southampton, the port city on England’s …..
Perry Como
Perry Como became a singing star in the 1940s, a crooner in the style of Bing Crosby. A string of hits up through the late 1950s had him on the …..
Anita Kerr
Anita Kerr was a singer, composer, arranger and record producer who greatly influenced country music’s “Nashville Sound” during the 1950s and ’60s. Kerr began a musical life of piano and …..
Peter Cushing
Peter Cushing became cinema’s best known “Baron Frankenstein” beginning in 1957, with The Curse of Frankenstein, one of the more than 20 films he did with Hammer Film Productions. Cushing …..
Vincent Price
Vincent Price was a stage and screen actor known mostly as a suave, gentlemanly escort through the world of Hollywood horror, from the 1940s up through 1990’s Edward Scissorshands. Price …..
Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars in the 1930s, and he set the standard for the cinema’s version of the monster from Frankenstein. He was born William Henry …..
Lon Chaney
Lon Chaney was billed in silent films of the 1920s and ‘30s as “The Man of a Thousand Faces” for his ability to transform his appearance with make-up and prosthetics. …..
Lon Chaney, Jr.
Lon Chaney, Jr. was a movie and television actor from the 1930s to the 1970s, most closely associated with his starring role in the 1941 horror classic The Wolf Man. …..
Liz Truss
Liz Truss is the Conservative politician who became prime minister of the United Kingdom in 2022. She replaced fellow conservative Boris Johnson, who resigned in disgrace after a series of …..
Walter Lippmann
Columnist Walter Lippmann was one of America’s most influential and famous commentators on world affairs between the 1920s and 1960s. Lippmann’s newspaper column,”Today and Tomorrow,” was in more than 200 …..
Camille Paglia
Camille Paglia has been a nationally famous academic and cultural critic since her 1990 book, Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. A feminist who identifies as …..
Harold Bloom
Harold Bloom was famous for his erudition and his many books, several of which were bestsellers, including Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, The Western Canon: The Books and School …..
Edith Sitwell
Dame Edith Sitwell was a famous literary figure in her time, a poet, critic and novelist known for her embrace of experimentation as well as her flamboyant appearance. She and …..
Fritz Haber
German chemist Fritz Haber won the Nobel Prize in 1919 for his discovery of how to make ammonia out of atmospheric nitrogen. This allowed for the production of fertilizer and …..
Mayim Bialik
Mayim Bialik was a child actress and star of 1990s TV’s sitcom Blossom, but she’s best known for her role on The Big Bang Theory and as the current co-host …..
Olivia Newton-John
Olivia Newton-John was the ethereal pop singer who shifted to a bolder new persona after she starred in the hit 1978 film Grease. Olivia Newton-John was born in Oxford, England, …..
Nichelle Nichols
Nichelle Nichols played Lt. Uhura on the original Star Trek television series for only three seasons, but it made her internationally famous for the rest of her life. During the …..
Bill Russell
Bill Russell was the tall, fiercely competitive center who led the Boston Celtics to an unprecedented 11 NBA titles from 1956-1969. His coach, Red Auerbach, called Russell “the single most …..
Paul Sorvino
Paul Sorvino was an actor of stage and screen, best known for his role as Paulie the crime boss in Goodfellas (1990, directed by Martin Scorsese). Sorvino grew up in …..
Bob Rafelson
Bob Rafelson made his name one of the great filmmakers of the 1970s, thanks in part to his success as co-creator of the Monkees. After graduating from Dartmouth College and …..
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
American communists Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in 1953 after being convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage. Arrested in 1950, the Rosenberg’s trial came in the post-World War II …..
Beanie Feldstein
Beanie Feldstein is the comic actress who played Fanny Brice in the show Funny Girl on Broadway in 2022. Elizabeth Feldstein was born in Los Angeles in 1993. She was …..
E.L. Doctorow
E.L. Doctorow was a critically acclaimed bestselling author of historically flavored novels, the most famous of which is 1975’s Ragtime. His 1985 novel, World’s Fair, won the National Book Award …..
Malcolm Lowry
Malcolm Lowry’s 1947 novel Under the Volcano is often mentioned as one of the great books in 20th century English literature. It tells the tale of a man modeled after …..
Fanny Brice
A potent blend of moxie, comedy chops, and knock-’em-dead vocal talent, Fanny Brice was the star of Broadway revues, vaudeville, and American radio from the 1910s through the 1940s. Fanny …..
R. Kelly
R. Kelly became a superstar of R&B and pop in the 1990s, but by 2020 he had become more famous for his sex crimes with minors. In 2022 he was …..
Roger Sherman
Roger Sherman was an important — but often forgotten — member of the group of white men commonly called the “Founding Fathers” of the United States of America. Sherman is …..
Anne Lister
Anne Lister was a 19th century businesswoman and diarist whose openly lesbian lifestyle defied convention at a time when the love affairs between women were never discussed. Lister’s volumes of …..
Chung Ling Soo
Magician Chung Ling Soo was a top European attraction in the early part of the 20th century, packing theaters and making thousands of dollars a week performing illusions on stage. …..
Harry Blackstone, Sr.
Harry Blackstone, Sr. was one of the 20th century’s best-known stage magicians. His career stretched from vaudeville of the early 1900s up to 1960s television. Although Blackstone was adept at …..
Edward the Elder
Edward became the king of the Anglo-Saxons after his father Alfred the Great died in 899. He is known to posterity as Edward the Elder (a name applied a century …..
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great was a ninth century king of the Anglo-Saxons and is considered to be one of the foundations of the British monarchy. He is famous for keeping the …..
Gilbert Gottfried
Stand-up comedian Gilbert Gottfried was easily recognized by his purposefully grating, New York voice, perhaps most famously used in the animated feature Aladdin (1992) as Iago the parrot. Gottfried grew …..
E.O. Wilson
Edward Osborne Wilson was a writer, an influential biologist, an expert on ants and an advocate of ambitious efforts to preserve life on the earth. Originally from Alabama, Wilson’s lifelong …..
Lusia Harris
Lusia “Lucy” Harris was a record-breaking women’s basketball player in the 1970s, made famous again by the Oscar-winning short documentary The Queen of Basketball (2021). The film was released just …..
Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno was the first woman to be an EGOT — winner of the big four awards in entertainment: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. She is best known for winning …..
Ariana DeBose
Ariana DeBose won an Oscar for her role as Anita in Steven Spielberg’s screen version of West Side Story (2021). That was the role made famous by Rita Moreno, who …..
Ciarán Hinds
Ciarán Hinds is the veteran Irish actor who received his first Academy Award nomination at age 68, for his supporting role in the 2021 nostalgic drama Belfast. Ciarán Hinds was …..
Troy Kotsur
Troy Kotsur is the first deaf actor to win an Oscar since Marlee Matlin won for best actress in 1987. Kotsur won the award for his supporting role in 2021’s …..
Jessie Buckley
Irish actress Jessie Buckley was nominated for an Oscar for her role as a desperate young mother in The Lost Daughter. Since her big breakthrough as the singing star of …..
Jesse Plemons
Jesse Plemons was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role as George, the brother in the 2021 drama The Power of the Dog. TV audiences know him better as …..
Aunjanue Ellis
Aunjanue Ellis is the actress who was Oscar-nominated for her role as Oracene Price — the mother of tennis stars Serena Williams and Venus Williams — in the 2021 film …..
Kodi Smit-McPhee
Australian actor Kodi Smit-McPhee was in the spotlight in early 2022 for his Oscar-nominated role as Peter in The Power of the Dog (2021). By that time, Smit-McPhee had had …..
Ryūsuke Hamaguchi
Ryūsuke Hamaguchi is the film director whose 2021 drama Drive My Car was nominated for four Academy Awards Ryūsuke Hamaguchi graduated from the University of Tokyo in 2003 with a …..
Lucy Stone
Lucy Stone was a 19th century abolitionist and an early leader of the women’s suffrage movement in the United States. With little help from her family, Stone worked her way …..
Emily Davison
Emily Wilding Davison was an English activist who died while pursuing the right to vote. On June 4, 1913, with newsreel cameras running, Davison stepped in front of King George …..
Ethel Higgins Byrne
Ethel Higgins Byrne was a co-founder of the first birth control clinic in the United States. She is less famous than her sister, Margaret Sanger. Also from Corning, New York, …..
Flip Wilson
Black comedian Flip Wilson hosted The Flip Wilson Show, a showcase for music and comedy acts that was one of the highest rated shows on TV from 1970 to 1972. …..
Akira Yoshizawa
Akira Yoshizawa died on his 94th birthday as the world’s most famous origami artist and the man who made folding paper an art form. He began his career as a …..
Fred D. Gray
Fred D. Gray is an Alabama attorney who has been at the center of the fight for racial justice since the Montgomery Bus Boycott of the 1950s. Among his first …..
Anna May Wong
Anna May Wong was a star of early silent films and “talkies,” and is regarded as the first prominent Chinese-American actor in Hollywood movies. She was born Wong Liu-tsong in …..
Nina Otero-Warren
Nina Otero-Warren is the New Mexican woman remembered for her early work on behalf of the region’s Hispanic and Native American residents, and for support of the successful campaign to …..
J.D. Tippit
J.D. Tippit was the Dallas police officer who was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald less than an hour after the death of President John F. Kennedy on November …..
Kenan Thompson
Comedian Kenan Thompson went from being a young star on Nickelodeon in the 1990s to joining Saturday Night Live in 2003. In 2017 he became SNL’s longest serving cast member. …..
Micky Dolenz
Micky Dolenz is the drummer from The Monkees, the made-for-TV 1960s band that became an enduring and nostalgic pop music institution. The group included Dolenz, Peter Tork, Michael Nesmith and …..
Michael Nesmith
Michael Nesmith was one of the four founding members of The Monkees, a made-for-TV musical group that was a pop phenomenon in the late 1960s. Michael Nesmith was born in …..
Martín Espada
Poet Martín Espada won the National Book Award for Poetry for his 2021 collection, Floaters. He published his first collection in 1982, The Immigrant Iceboy’s Bolero (with photos by his …..
Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino was a Hollywood leading lady in the 1940s and ‘50s who was also a force behind the camera as a writer, producer and director. She was born in …..
Edmund Fitzgerald
Edmund Fitzgerald of Wisconsin wasn’t as famous as his name became, thanks to the 1975 sinking of a ship named after him. The tragedy inspired a 1976 hit song by …..
Dean Stockwell
Actor Dean Stockwell is best known for his sidekick role in the TV series Quantum Leap, and for his eccentric performances in films such as Blue Velvet and the 1984 …..
Rebecca Solnit
Journalist Rebecca Solnit began her writing career in the late 1980s, but it was her 2014 essay collection, Men Explain Things to Me, that gained her an audience beyond alert …..
Hoagy Carmichael
Hoagy Carmichael is the 20th-century musician and composer who wrote “Star Dust,” “Georgia On My Mind,” and other nostalgic hits that became part of the Great American Songbook. Hoagland Carmichael …..
Norman Lear
Norman Lear was at the top of his TV career in the 1970s, co-producing the most popular sitcoms of the era, including All in the Family, Sanford and Son and …..
Elon Musk
Elon Musk is one of the richest people in the world and the man behind Tesla and SpaceX — companies building cars and rockets. Born to a well-to-do family in …..
Emma Raducanu
Emma Raducanu is the tennis player who, at age 18, dashed out of semi-obscurity to win the 2021 U.S. Open. Emma Raducanu was born in Toronto as the only child …..
Norm Macdonald
Most people know comedian Norm Macdonald because of his five years on Saturday Night Live, which included three seasons as the anchor of the segment “Weekend Update.” Macdonald started out …..
Bobby Seale
Bobby Seale co-founded the Black Panthers in 1966 with Huey P. Newton, in Oakland, California. Seale was originally from Texas, but had been living in Oakland since he was a …..
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II
Actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II won an Emmy in 2020 for his role as Cal Abar in the mini-series Watchmen (starring Regina King). On the big screen, Abdul-Mateen is best known …..
James Gunn
Filmmaker James Gunn had big success with Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), then hopped over to the DC Comics universe to …..
Gilbert Patten
Gilbert Patten appears on lists of top selling authors because of his dime novels of the early 20th century — he wrote one each week for 17 years, under the …..
Hermes Trismegistus
Hermes Trismegistus — Hermes the Thrice Great — is the attributed source of the Corpus Hermeticum, a collection of revelatory texts foundational to the study of the occult, astrology, alchemy …..
J. D. Vance
J.D. Vance wrote the memoir Hillbilly Elegy, a 2016 bestseller that made him a political celebrity and launched his career as an expert on the troubles of poor, white Americans. …..
Theodore Sturgeon
Science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon wrote hundreds of short stories and a handful of novels, but he’s recognized more for his influence on the development of modern science fiction than …..
Kevin Feige
Kevin Feige is the president of Marvel Studios and the Chief Creative Officer for Marvel Comics, Marvel Television and Marvel Animation. Born in Boston and raised in New Jersey, he …..
Nick Cannon
Nick Cannon is a comedian, rapper, actor and TV executive, known as the host of Wild N’ Out (2005-present), America’s Got Talent (2009-16) and The Masked Singer (2019-21). Cannon is …..
Ned Beatty
Ned Beatty was known for the role that was his first part in the movies — a southern city slicker who gets brutally raped in the backwoods in 1970’s Deliverance. …..
Yaphet Kotto
American actor Yaphet Kotto was best known for his TV role as Idi Amin in Raid on Entebbe and his movie role as Parker in Alien. From Harlem, Kotto started …..
Olivia Rodrigo
Olivia Rodrigo’s debut single, “Drivers License” hit the top of the Billboard charts in January of 2021 and stayed there for eight weeks. Before that, Rodrigo was just another of …..
Charles Grodin
Writer, director, producer and comic actor Charles Grodin was known to most film audiences as the annoying accountant in 1988’s Midnight Run and the angry dad in the kids’ movie …..
Mary Leakey
Mary Leakey was one of the most famous names in archaeology in the 20th century. In 1978 she discovered fossilized footprints in volcanic ash that proved humans were walking on …..
Bob Ross
Public television’s Bob Ross made his educational painting show, The Joy of Painting, at station WIPB in Muncie, Indiana from 1983 to 1994. After his death in 1995, Bob Ross, …..
Paul Raci
Veteran actor Paul Raci earned sudden recognition in 2020 with his role in the drama The Sound of Metal. The film was nominated for an Oscar as the year’s best …..
Leslie Odom, Jr.
Leslie Odom, Jr. won a Tony award and became a star after portraying Aaron Burr, the villain of the musical Hamilton. That restarted his screen career, and in 2021 he …..
Lee Isaac Chung
Lee Isaac Chung’s 2020 film Minari was nominated for six Oscars, including best picture. Chung himself earned nominations for best director and best original screenplay. Chung’s Minari is the story …..
Andra Day
Andra Day is the stage name of singer and songwriter Cassandra Monique Batie, a Grammy nominated performer who won an Oscar nomination for portraying Billie Holiday on film in 2020. …..
Youn Yuh-jung
After fifty years of screen performances, Youn Yuh-jung’s movie star fame spread internationally with an Oscar win for her supporting role in for Lee Isaac Chung‘s Minari. Raised in Seoul, …..
Lakeith Stanfield
Actor Lakeith Stanfield played informant Bill O’Neal in the film Judas and the Black Messiah and was nominated for an Oscar when he was just 29 years old. Stanfield had …..
Riz Ahmed
English actor Riz Ahmed’s performance in 2020’s Sound of Metal earned an Oscar nomination for best actor in a leading role. After several roles in TV productions and feature films, …..
Merle Oberon
Merle Oberon was an Oscar-nominated movie star in both England and the U.S., most famous for her role as Cathy in the 1939 movie Wuthering Heights. Since her death, Oberon …..
Steven Yeun
Actor Steven Yeun was best known as the upbeat, resourceful Glenn of the TV series The Walking Dead before he was nominated for an Oscar for his lead performance in …..
Winona LaDuke
Winona LaDuke is one of the most famous Native Americans in progressive politics, having twice been a candidate for the office of U.S. vice president as a member of the …..
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay was nationally popular during the 1920s and 1930s for her knowing and expertly crafted love poems. Raised in poverty in Maine, when she was 19 …..
Maggie Lena Walker
Maggie Lena Walker was a community leader and entrepreneur in Richmond, Virginia in the first part of the 20th century. She’s famous as the first black American woman to start …..
Emerald Fennell
England’s Emerald Fennell is a writer and actress whose directorial debut, Promising Young Woman, brought her three Oscar nominations in 2021, and a win for best original screenplay. Fennell was …..
Megan Thee Stallion
Megan Thee Stallion is the rapper whose brassy personality, provocative raps and Instagram-ready exploits made her a breakout star in 2020 and beyond. She was named the best new artist …..
Phoebe Bridgers
Indie-rock singer Phoebe Bridgers emerged from the Los Angeles music scene with 2017’s Stranger in the Alps, and by 2021 had earned four Grammy nominations for her 2020 album, Punisher. …..
Wilma Mankiller
Wilma Mankiller was the first woman to serve as Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, a post she held from 1985 until 1995. Mankiller was born on Cherokee land in …..
Dorothy Kilgallen
Journalist and TV personality Dorothy Kilgallen was nearly forgotten for decades, until she was resurrected by the curious to play a minor role in the story of President John F. …..
Aubrey Plaza
Actress and comedian Aubrey Plaza polished her deadpan delivery skills as a cast member of the TV sitcom Parks and Recreation (2009-15). Along the way, Plaza also became an adventurous …..
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti was a San Francisco writer, bookseller and publisher who was central to the literary movement known as The Beat Generation. When he settled in San Francisco in 1951, …..
Wilt Chamberlain
Wilt Chamberlain was a professional basketball star and one of the most dominant centers to ever play the game. He famously scored 100 points in a game by himself in …..
Maria P. Williams
Maria P. Williams is said to be the first black woman to write and produce a movie, 1923’s The Flames of Wrath. Little is known about Maria Priscilla Williams, other …..
Fred Hampton
Fred Hampton was a black Chicago activist who was murdered by law enforcement officers in 1969 because he was a leader of the Black Panther Party. Raised in a Chicago …..
Cicely Tyson
Cicely Tyson was a star of stage and screen from the 1950s until her death in 2021 at the age of 96. Tyson was nominated for an Oscar in 1973 …..
Antony Blinken
Antony ‘Tony’ Blinken is the American diplomat who became the U.S. Secretary of State under President Joseph Biden in 2021. Antony Blinken was born into a family with diplomatic traditions: …..
Lloyd Austin
General Lloyd J. Austin III was sworn in as the United States Secretary of Defense on January 22, 2021, three days before President Joe Biden was inaugurated. Austin was confirmed …..
Amanda Gorman
Amanda Gorman hit the national spotlight on January 20, 2021, when she gave a reading of her poem “The Hill We Climb” at the inauguration of President Joe Biden. At …..
Eleanor Holm
Swimmer Eleanor Holm was an Olympic gold medalist who famously got kicked off the 1936 American team for drinking champagne and ignoring her curfew. A “Brooklyn girl,” Holm she was …..
David Thompson
David Thompson was an 18th century explorer who mapped more than 1.5 million square miles of Western Canada. Born into poverty, he was educated at a charity school and recruited …..
Walter Isaacson
Walter Isaacson is a journalist and historian who spent much of his career at TIME magazine, and was briefly the chairman and CEO of CNN. He’s famous for his biographies …..
Tina Louise
Tina Louise played Ginger Grant, a sexy movie star marooned on a tropical isle with six goofy people, in the 1960s sitcom Gilligan’s Island. Tina Louise grew up and attended …..
Art Tatum
Art Tatum was one of the greatest American piano players of the 20th century, rising to fame in the 1930s on the strength of his virtuoso jazz performances. Tatum was …..
Pierre Cardin
Pierre Cardin became one of the world’s top fashion designers in the 1960s, then went on to become the head of a global brand that included perfume, household items, luggage …..
Anna Karina
Danish screen actress and singer Anna Karina was known mostly for her French films, especially those directed by Jean-Luc Godard during their marriage (1961-65). Raised in Copenhagen, Karina went to …..
Sophia Lillis
Sophia Lillis got her break on the big screen in the popular horror film It (2017), and then starred in the Netflix series I Am Not Okay With This (2020). …..
François Truffaut
Filmmaker François Truffaut was one of the founders of the French New Wave in cinema in the 1950s, and the director of The 400 Blows, Jules and Jim, and Day …..
Sukarno
First president of the Republic of Indonesia, 1945-67 A fervid nationalist with a gift for public speaking, Sukarno became the first president of the newly independent Republic of Indonesia in …..
Douglas Emhoff
Douglas Emhoff became the “second gentleman” of the United States when his wife, Kamala Harris, took office as U.S. vice president on January 20, 2021. Douglas Emhoff was born in …..
Anya Taylor-Joy
The spotlight fell on young actress Anya Taylor-Joy in 2020, when she carried the television series The Queen’s Gambit as Beth Harmon, a chess playing orphan. First scouted as a …..
Adolphe Sax
Antoine-Joseph “Adolphe” Sax was the inventor of the saxophone, earning his patent for it in 1846. A Belgian whose father, Charles Joseph Sax, was a well-known Brussels instrument maker, Adolphe …..
Gerardus Mercator
Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator produced a flat world map in 1569 that came to dominate our view of the world until only recently. From humble beginnings in what is now …..
Amy Coney Barrett
Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed in October of 2017 as a judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Three years later she was confirmed as …..
Don McLean
Don McLean is the songwriter and singer of the pop classic “American Pie,” a hit that launched him to stardom in 1971. McLean is secondarily famous for complaining about how …..
Martin Heidegger
German Martin Heidegger made his mark on western philosophy with the 1927 publication of Being and Time. Within that tradition, he’s sometimes said to be the most influential philosopher of …..
Louise Glück
American poet Louise Glück won several literary prizes for her work after the 1960s, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2020. From 2003 to 2004, she was …..
Eddie Van Halen
Eddie Van Halen was a guitarist who bolted to the top ranks of rock with the band that bore his name, Van Halen, starting with their 1978 debut album. The …..
Alan Watts
Alan Watts was a writer and lecturer in comparative religions, known best for his many books on Buddhism, including the 1957 classic The Way of Zen. A rebellious product of …..
Breonna Taylor
Breonna Taylor was fatally shot by officers of the Louisville (Kentucky) Metropolitan Police Department on March 13, 2020, after they burst into her apartment to execute a search warrant around …..
Dan Levy
Dan Levy is the creator and star of the TV comedy Schitt’s Creek (2015-20), which also starred his father, Canadian comedy legend Eugene Levy. Born and raised in Toronto, Dan …..
Eugene Levy
Eugene Levy is a comedy veteran and now Canadian TV royalty, thanks to dozens of screen appearances, from the comedy hit American Pie (1999) to the Emmy-winning TV series Schitt’s …..
Fred Willard
Comic actor Fred Willard appeared hundreds of times in TV sitcoms and feature films, usually playing harmless and inept side characters in films such as Waiting for Guffman and Best …..
Peter Straub
Peter Straub wrote thrilling bestselling novels beginning in the 1970s, a line of horror and mystery novels that included Ghost Story (1979) and, written with Stephen King, The Talisman (1984). …..