People a to z

Roseanne Barr is an Emmy Award-winning actress and comedian known for her hit sitcom, Roseanne.

Jean-Louis Barrault was a French actor director, and mime. He is best known for his role in the film The Children of Paradise (1945).

Actress Adriana Barraza played Amelia in the award-winning film Babel. Her performance earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

Guitarist Syd Barrett helped found the psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd. After a mental break forced his departure, he spent 30 years as a painter and recluse.

Sir James Matthew Barrie was a Scottish dramatist, best known for writing the play Peter Pan.

Outlaw Clyde Barrow and his partner, Bonnie, robbed banks and store owners during the Depression and were believed to be responsible for at least 13 murders.

Sydney Biddle Barrows is famous for running a high-class escort service in the 1980s.

A popular humorist, Dave Barry has poked fun at an array of topics, from bad songs to historical events, for more than 30 years.

John Barry was a British film composer best known for his memorable work on James Bond films.

Civil rights activist Marion S. Barry Jr. has served four terms as mayor of D.C., with his career surviving numerous scandals.

Philip Barry is an American playwright best known for writing comedies of life. His most famous play is The Philadelphia Story.

Actress Drew Barrymore gained early fame as a child star. She later struggled with substance abuse and notoriety, before re-emerging as a talented actress and producer.

Head of the famous Barrymore acting family, Lionel Barrymore was one of the most important character actors of the early 29th century.

Roland Barthes was a French literary philosopher whose work influenced structuralism, semiotics and anthropology.

Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi designed and executed New York City’s Statue of Liberty to mark the Franco-American alliance of 1778.

Clara Barton was an educator, nurse and founder of the American Red Cross.

Mikhail Baryshnikov is a Russian-American ballet dancer who choreographed several iconic pieces which have made him one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century.

Considered one of history's most influential jazz musicians, Count Basie was known for his piano style and command of big bands such as the Count Basie Orchestra, and for songs like "Jumpin' at the Woodside," "Taxi War Dance" and "Miss Thing."

Film actress Kim Basinger won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in L.A. Confidential. She married actor Alec Baldwin in 1993.

Jean-Michel Basquiat was a Neo-Expressionist painter in the 1980s. He is best known for his primitive style and his collaboration with pop artist Andy Warhol.

Singer and actor James Lance Bass came to fame as a member of the boy band 'N Sync.

Angela Bassett is an Academy Award- and Emmy Award-nominated actress known for roles in What's Love Got to Do With It, Waiting to Exhale, Malcolm X and The Rosa Parks Story.

A world-famous singer with a big voice and a glamorous reputation, Shirley Bassey has recorded numerous hits, including three James Bond theme songs.

Jason Bateman is an American actor known for playing Michael Bluth on the comedy series Arrested Development, and for starring in films like Juno and Hancock.

Daisy Bates was an African American civil rights activist and newspaper publisher who documented the battle to end segregation in Arkansas.

Edward Bates was a 19th century politician and lawyer who served as U.S. attorney general under President Abraham Lincoln.

A professor and a poet, Katharine Lee Bates wrote the poem "America the Beautiful." Her poem became the lyrics to the popular American ballad still enjoyed today.

Award-winning actress Kathy Bates starred as a deranged fan opposite James Caan in Misery, and as a comically emancipated housewife in Fried Green Tomatoes.

Patricia Bath is the first African American to complete a residency in ophthalmology. She invented the Laserphaco Probe for cataract treatment in 1986.

Charles Baudelaire was a French poet best known for his controversial volume of poems, Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil).

Jean Baudrillard was a French postmodern social theorist and philosopher who developed theories of "hyperreality" and "simulacrum."

Children's book writer Frank Baum created the popular Wizard of Oz series. Ruth Plumly Thompson continued to write the series after his death.

Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner made a record-breaking, supersonic skydive from 24 miles above the earth in October 2012.

Star of the 1980s sitcom Family Ties, Meredith Baxter has appeared in several films and television shows throughout her lifetime.

Hall of Fame NBA forward Elgin Baylor was a prolific scorer and rebounder for the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers.

Frédéric Bazille was a French painter who helped found the Impressionist movement of the late 19th century, before dying in combat in the Franco-Prussian War.

Edith Ewing Beale, also known as "Big Edie," was aunt to Jackie Kennedy, and resident of the decrepit mansion called Grey Gardens.

Edith Bouvier Beale ("Little Edie") was an eccentric cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. She became a cult figure and fashion icon after her appearance in the documentary Grey Gardens.

Jennifer Beals is an American actress who launched to stardom with the lead role in the 1983 hit Flashdance. She also starred on Showtime's The L Word.

Actor Sean Bean played the villains in Patriot Games and GoldenEye. More recently, he played Boromir in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Odysseus in Troy.

Billy Beane is a Major League Baseball executive known for his revolutionary style of management and the film based on his exploits, Moneyball.

Swimmer Amanda Beard competed in four Olympic Games, the first in 1996 when she was just 14 years old. She appeared on the cover of Playboy in 2007.

James Beard was a chef, television personality and food writer who many consider the father of American-style gourmet cooking.

Sir Cecil Beaton was an English fashion photographer who is also known for his work as a diarist, interior designer, and Oscar-winning stage and costume designer.

Warren Beatty is an Oscar-winning director and actor known for such films as Bonnie and Clyde, Reds and Heaven Can Wait.

Bobby Beausoleil, a part of Charles Manson's circle, is serving a life sentence in a California prison for the July 1969 murder of Manson associate Gary Hinman.

Cesare Beccaria was one of the greatest minds of the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century. His writings on criminology and economics were well ahead of their time.

Jeff Beck is a guitarist best known for his recordings and performances with The Yardbirds, The Jeff Beck Group, and as a solo artist.

Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck rose to nationally syndicated television and radio host with his knack for creating controversy.

St. Thomas Becket, England’s Archbishop of Canterbury, refused to give King Henry II power over the church. He was murdered in 1170 and became a saint in 1173.

20th century Irish novelist, playwright and poet Samuel Beckett penned the play Waiting for Godot. In 1969, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Soccer great David Beckham has played for Manchester United, England, Real Madrid and the L.A. Galaxy. He is married to Victoria Beckham, also known as Posh from the Spice Girls.

Victoria Beckham is a fashion designer and singer chiefly known for her work with the Spice Girls and for being the wife of soccer star David Beckham.

Film actor. Kate Beckinsale is an actress whose starring role in the Underworld films catapulted her to international stardom.

Arnold Beckman was an American chemist who founded Beckman Instruments and funded the first silicon transistor company, giving rise to Silicon Valley.

Henri Becquerel was a French physicist who discovered radioactivity, an achievement for which he won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903.

Jeanne Bécu, Countess Du Barry, mistress to French King Louis XV, asserted her influence on the court throughout his reign and was later executed for treason.

Henry Ward Beecher was an American Congressional clergyman, best known for his Protestant sermons and his involvement in a high-profile adultery scandal.

Sir Herbert Beerbohm was a stage actor and well-known figure in English theater. He both managed and produced several plays in London including Charles Dickens and Shakespearean classics.

Lawrence Beesley was a teacher, journalist and Titanic survivor. After the collision, he boarded lifeboat 13, which was eventually rescued by the Carpathia.

Ludwig van Beethoven was a deaf German composer and the predominant musical figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras.

English Restoration author, playwright and poet Aphra Behn wrote the short work of fiction Oroonoko, a love story about an African slave in Surinam.

Dancer and choreographer Maurice Béjart founded Switzerland's Béjart Ballet Lausanne, known for his 2000 version of The Nutcracker.

Harry Belafonte has achieved lasting fame for such songs as "The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)," and for his humanitarian work.

Bill Belichick is head coach of the NFL's New England Patriots and widely considered one of the best coaches in football history.

Alexander Graham Bell was one of the primary inventors of the telephone, did important work in communication for the deaf and held more than 18 patents.

Andy Bell is an English musician best known as the lead singer of the pop duo Erasure. 

Gertrude Bell was a British writer, archaeologist and political officer best known for helping to establish modern Iraq after World War I.