People a to z

Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted helped design many U.S. public parks. His first project was Central Park in New York City.

Ashley Olsen, along with her twin sister Mary-Kate, came to stardom as a baby on TV's Full House, then built a vast media and fashion empire by the age of 21.

Elizabeth Olsen is best known for being the younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and for acting in the film Martha Marcy May Marlene.

Aristotle Onassis is best known as the Greek shipping tycoon who married JFK’s widow, Jacqueline Kennedy, in 1968. Onassis died on March 15, 1975.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, noted for her style and elegance, was the wife of President John F. Kennedy and a U.S. first lady. She later married Aristotle Onassis.

Juan Carlos Onetti was an Uruguayan novelist and short-story writer whose existential works, including A Brief Life, chronicled the decay of modern urban life.

Yoko Ono is a multimedia artist who became known worldwide in the 1960s when she married Beatles front man John Lennon.

Jan Hendrik Oort was a Dutch astronomer who confirmed that the Milky Way rotates in its own plane around the center of the galaxy.

J. Robert Oppenheimer is often called the "father of the atomic bomb" for leading the Manhattan Project, the program that developed the first nuclear weapon during World War II.

Jerry Orbach was a Tony Award-winning American actor best known for his role as Detective Lennie Briscoe on Law & Order.

Singer-songwriter Roy Orbison wrote romantic 1960s pop ballads like "Oh, Pretty Woman." In 1987, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

American Gymnast John Orozco is best known for his rise to the top of the gymnastics world and participation in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England.

José Clemente Orozco was a painter who helped lead the revival of Mexican mural painting in the 1920s. His works are complex and often tragic.

Fighter Victor Ortiz is an American boxer who won the welterweight title in 2011.

Beth Orton is an award-winning singer-songwriter and guitarist who plays folk and acoustic pop on albums like Comfort of Strangers and Sugaring Season.

George Orwell was an English novelist, essayist, and critic most famous for his novels Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-four (1949).

British playwright John Osborne's Look Back in Anger ushered in a new movement in British drama and made him known as the first of the "Angry Young Men."

Actress, singer and fashion designer Kelly Osbourne is the daughter of heavy-metal musician Ozzy Osbourne.

Eccentric English musician Ozzy Osbourne fronted the heavy metal band Black Sabbath. In 2001, he opened his home to reality TV cameras for The Osbournes show.

Sharon Osbourne is known as the wife of legendary rock star Ozzy Osbourne and a television personality who's been featured on several programs, including The Osbournes and The Talk.

Broadcast journalist Charles Osgood anchored CBS Morning News, the Sunday Night News and Sunday Morning. More recently, he has hosted The Osgood File.

Singer, actress, and television personality, Marie Osmond was half of the brother-and-sister duo Donny and Marie, with her brother Donny Osmond.

Lee Harvey Oswald was a former U.S. Marine who was accused of killing President John F. Kennedy. While in police custody, Oswald was murdered by Jack Ruby.

James Otis was a lawyer in colonial Massachusetts who is best remembered for the phrase, "Taxation without representation is tyranny."

Johnny Otis was a bandleader, drummer, vibraphonist, singer, producer and promoter who discovered artists like Etta James, Jackie Wilson and Big Mama Thornton.

Mary White Ovington was a civil rights activist and one of the white reformers who helped found the NAACP.

British actor Clive Owen’s performance in the 2004 film Closer dazzled critics and audiences, winning him a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination.

Robert Dale Owen, son of the Welsh social reformer Robert Owen, is best known for being integral to the founding of the Smithsonian Institution.

Queen Latifah is an American rapper, record producer and actress known for her roles in the films Set it Off, Bone Collector, Last Holiday and Chicago.

American track-and-field athlete Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. His long jump world record stood for 25 years.

Terrell Owens is a longtime National Football League wide receiver whose career has been marked by Hall of Fame numbers and controversial statements.

Puppeteer Frank Oz is the man behind such iconic characters as Yoda, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Grover, and Animal. He's also directed several films.

Jack Paar had no singing, dancing or acting talent, but he was blessed with "the gift of gab." That gift was enough to endear him to millions of American television viewers during his tenure as host of The Tonight Show (1957-1962).

German composer Johann Pachelbel was known for his works for organ, and was considered one of the great organ masters of the generation before J.S. Bach.

American actor Al Pacino has kept moviegoers riveted since the 1970s, with roles in movies like The Godfather, Serpico and Scent of a Woman.

Manny Pacquiao has won world boxing titles in eight different weight divisions, and is considered one of the world's best boxers.

Ignacy Paderewski was a world famous concert pianist who also became Poland’s first prime minister in 1919.

Sometimes called "the Devil's Violinist," Niccolò Paganini's virtuoso talent, accompanied by his extraordinary dexterity and flexibility, gave him an almost mythic reputation—he is considered by many to be the greatest violinist of all time.

Bettie Page was a Playboy pin-up model and sex symbol of the 1950s. Her straight black bangs and innocent, playful attitude made her a fashion icon.

Actress Geraldine Page, born in Missouri 1924, was well respected for her dedication to her roles on stage and screen, winning an Oscar and an Emmy.

Legendary pitcher Satchel Paige became the oldest player to join Major League baseball, with a career that spanned 40 years.

Thomas Paine was an English American writer and pamphleteer whose "Common Sense" and other writings influenced the American Revolution, and helped pave the way for the Declaration of Independence.

Jack Palance was an American actor best known for playing villainous roles in the 1960s and for his award-winning appearance in the film City Slickers.

William S. Paley was a businessman who started what would become the CBS television network.

Deborah Jeane Palfrey was the leader of a large Washington-based prostitution ring and became known as the D.C. Madame.

The daughter of former governor of Alaska and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, Bristol Palin appeared as herself on The Secret Life of the American Teenager in 2010, and has participated on ABC's Dancing with the Stars.

Sarah Palin, McCain's 2008 running mate, is the second woman and first Republican female to run for vice president on a U.S. major party's ticket.

Arnold Palmer, nicknamed "The King," is a former champion golfer and is considered one of the sport's all-time greats.

Keke Palmer is an actress and singer who made her first splash in Barbershop 2: Back in Business. She's gone on to star in several films and made for TV movies.

Famed pianist and composer Eddie Palmieri won nine Grammy Awards throughout his career, for albums like The Sun of Latin Music, Solito and Masterpiece.

Actor Chazz Palminteri starred opposite Robert De Niro in the 1993 film adaptation of A Bronx Tale, and performed in Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway (1994).

Gwyneth Paltrow is an American actress best known for her lead roles in Seven (1995), Emma (1996) and Great Expectations (1998). In 1998 she won an Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Shakespeare in Love.

Hayden Panettiere is the young American actress who became famous for her role as the cheerleader in the television show Heroes.

Sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi's collage work combining surrealism with elements of popular culture and technology led him to be credited as the inventor of Pop Art.

Academy Award-winning actress Anna Paquin has appeared in such films as The Piano and X-Men, and the television drama True Blood.

Don Pardo is a velvet-toned television announcer known for his work over the years on such NBC shows as Saturday Night Live and The Price Is Right.

Scottish explorer Mungo Park (1771–1806) wrote Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa about his expeditions to find the source of the Niger River.

Half of the notorious Bonnie and Clyde, Bonnie Parker became one of America's most famous outlaws. She and partner Clyde Barrow robbed banks and small businesses, leaving a bloody train of murder victims in their wake.

Charlie Parker was a legendary Grammy Award–winning jazz saxophonist who with Dizzy Gillespie invented the musical style called bop or bebop.