People a to z

Singer-songwriter John Legend won his first Grammy Award with 2004's Get Lifted. The album went platinum, thanks in part to the hit single "Ordinary People."

Annie Leibovitz, considered one of America's best portrait photographers, developed her trademark use of bold colors and poses while at Rolling Stone.

Film actress Janet Leigh, once Tony Curtis’s wife, is best remembered for her shower scene as Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller, Psycho.

Jennifer Jason Leigh is a film, TV and stage actress who’s starred in an array of projects, including Single White Female, Short Cuts and Dolores Claiborne.

Vivien Leigh was a British actress who achieved film immortality by playing two of American literature's most celebrated Southern belles, Scarlett O'Hara and Blanche DuBois.

The winner of two Oscars, Jack Lemmon was one of Hollywood’s finest actors, known for his roles in films like Some Like it Hot and The Odd Couple.

Suzanne Lenglen was a French tennis player who won 31 championship titles between 1914 and 1926. She is largely credited as the first female tennis star.

Vladimir Lenin was founder of the Russian Communist Party, leader of the Bolshevik Revolution and architect and first head of the Soviet state.

John Lennon, pop star, composer, songwriter and recording artist, founded the Beatles, a band that impacted the music scene like no other before or since.

Musician Julian Lennon is the child of John Lennon, a founding member of The Beatles, and his first wife. One of his better know songs is Too Late For Goodbyes.

Annie Lennox is a singer/songwriter known for her work with the Eurythmics and as a solo act. Her hits include “Sweet Dreams,” “Who’s That Girl?” and “Why.”

Jay Leno is the late-night talk show host of The Tonight Show. Fallon announced plans to exit the long-running series in April 2013.

Melissa Leo is an American actress best known for her Academy Award-winning performance in the 2010 film The Fighter.

Sugar Ray Leonard was a champion Olympic and professional welterweight boxer. He retired from the sport in 1997 and was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame.

Environmentalist Aldo Leopold served as director of the Audubon Society in the mid-1930s. He also founded the Wilderness Society.

Leopold I was Holy Roman emperor during whose lengthy reign Austria emerged from a series of struggles to become a great European power.

Marc Lepine went on a shooting spree in 1989 that became known as the Montreal Massacre, which killed 14 people.

Phil Lesh is best known as being a founding member and bass player for the 1960s rock group Grateful Dead.

Lisa Leslie was an All-Star basketball player, Olympic gold medalist and WNBA league MVP.

Actor Len Lesser played Uncle Leo on the sitcom Seinfeld. He also co-starred with Hollywood legends Steve McQueen, Robert DeNiro and Clint Eastwood.

Comedian and late-night talk show host David Letterman is known for his irreverent sense of humor and cynical, mocking style.

Italian Jewish chemist Primo Levi survived a year at Auschwitz against all odds. He is best known his moving memoir, If This Is a Man.

Rita Levi-Montalcini shared the 1986 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for her part in the discovery of a protein that stimulates nerve cell growth.

Author Ira Levin wrote some of the gripping novels of the 1960s and 1970s, including Rosemary's Baby and The Boys from Brazil.

Adam Levine is the Grammy Award-winning frontman of Maroon 5, known for such pop hits as "This Love" and "Moves Like Jagger." He has also appeared as a judge/coach on The Voice.

American artist Jack Levine is best remembered for his American Social Realist paintings, including "Gangster Funeral," which satirized corruption in the modern world.

James Levine is a renowned pianist, violinist and conductor who has served as music director of the Metropolitan Opera since 1971.

Helen Levitt was a photographer, film editor and director known for her captivating portraits of New York urban life.

Al Lewis was an entertainer who was best known for his role as Grandpa, the elderly vampire in a family of monsters, in the 1964 sitcom The Munsters.

Damian Lewis is a British actor best known for his role in Steven Spielberg’s miniseries Band of Brothers, and starring roles on the series Life and Homeland.

Since co-founding Essence magazine, Edward T. Lewis has become one of the most successful and respected magazine publishers in the country.

Jerry Lewis rose to fame as Dean Martin's comedic partner. The two performed on stage before their film career began in 1949.

Jerry Lee Lewis is a piano-playing rock 'n roll pioneer famous for his high energy stage presence and controversial life.

American jazz pianist and composer John Lewis was a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet, one of the longest-lived and best-received groups in jazz history.

Lennox Lewis was the first British boxer to hold the undisputed world heavyweight title since Bob Fitzsimmons (who won the title in 1899). Lewis won Olympic gold in 1988.

The first professional African-American and Native-American sculptor, Edmonia Lewis earned critical praise for work that explored religious and classical themes.

NFL linebacker Ray Lewis is a two-time Defensive Player of the Year, Super Bowl MVP and played his entire 17-year career with the Baltimore Ravens.

Angst-ridden and neurotic, Richard Lewis turned his private pain into a comic persona that served him as a standup comedian and versatile actor, adding author to his credits when he penned a memoir of struggling with sobriety.

Shari Lewis was the host of Lamb Chop's Play-Along, which aired on PBS from 1992 to 1997, and received several Emmy Awards.

Sinclair Lewis was a journalist and Nobel Prize winning novelist known for 20th century works like Main Street, Elmer Gantry and Babbitt.

Sol Lewitt was an American artist best known for helping to launch Conceptual Art and Minimalism of the Post-War era.

American gymnast Danell Leyva is best known for being the first Cuban-American and Miami resident to make it to the United States Olympic men's gymnastics team, and for winning a bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

Jet Li is an actor and martial artist who has starred in a number of Chinese and English-language action films.

Liberace was a flamboyant pianist who twice had his own TV show and frequently performed in Las Vegas.

Roy Lichtenstein was an American pop artist best known for his boldly-colored parodies of comic strips and advertisements.

British runner Eric Lidell won a gold medal in the 1924 Olympic Games. The movie Chariots of Fire (1981) tells the story of his triumph.

Actress Judith Light has successfully tackled daytime dramas, prime time sitcoms and the New York stage. She played Angela Bower on the sitcom Who’s the Boss? and a witty alcoholic in the Broadway production Other Desert Cities.

Candy Lightner founded one of the country's largest activist organizations, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, after her daughter died in a drunk driving accident.

Lil Wayne is a Grammy Award-winning rapper known for his hit albums, mixtapes and singles, including "A Milli" and "Lollipop."

Conservative Rush Limbaugh hosts the syndicated and controversial radio talk show, The Rush Limbaugh Show. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.

With a string of wins in early 2012, New York Knicks guard Jeremy Lin has become one of basketball's most famous players.

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States. He preserved the Union during the U.S. Civil War and brought about the emancipation of slaves.

Robert Todd Lincoln was an American lawyer and secretary of war best known as the first-born son of President Abraham Lincoln.

Opera singer, teacher and philanthropist Jenny Lind, a.k.a. the "Swedish Nightingale,” was the prima donna at the Royal Opera in Stockholm during the 1800s.

Writer and aviation pioneer Anne Morrow Lindbergh was married to aviator Charles Lindbergh. The couple’s child was kidnapped for ransom and murdered in 1932.

Aviator Charles Lindbergh became famous for making the first solo transatlantic airplane flight in 1927.

Delroy Lindo is an actor who has played both good guys and bad guys in his three-decade career in film, theater and television.

John Lindsay was a U.S. congressman and was the mayor of New York City during the 1960s. He is known for his "ghetto walks" and clashes with labor groups.

James Ling was the former head of the Ling-Temco-Vought corporation, or LTV.

Laura Linney is an American actress known for performances in such films as Lorenzo's Oil and Hyde Park on Hudson, and for her starring role on the television series The Big C.

Sol Myron Linowitz was an American diplomat, lawyer and businessman known as a presidential adviser and as a co-founder of Xerox.

American actor Ray Liotta is best known for his on-the-edge tough-guy characterizations in films like Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas (1992) and No Escape (1994).

French physicist Gabriel Lippmann created the first color photographic plate. The creation earned him the 1908 Nobel Prize for Physics.

Actor, writer and producer James Lipton founded the Actors Studio Drama School and has hosted Bravo TV's Inside the Actors Studio since 1994.

Russian painter, typographer and designer El Lissitzky was a major contributor to the modern Constructivist movement.

British surgeon and medical scientist Joseph Lister is regarded as the founder of antiseptic medicine, which he implemented with amputee patients.

Sonny Liston was introduced to boxing while serving time in a Missouri State penitentiary. He became a professional fighter in 1953.