People a to z

Conquistador Juan de Oñate established the colony of New Mexico for Spain. During his governorship, he vainly sought the mythical riches of North America.

Brian De Palma is a writer-director whose career has been marked by both hits and misses, with such films as Carrie and Bonfire of the Vanities.

Madame de Pompadour became the mistress of French King Louis XV in the mid-1700s. She greatly influenced French culture during this time, including decorative arts, architecture and statecraft.

St. Martín de Porres is the patron saint of interracial harmony, known for his social work and miraculous healing powers.

Maximilien de Robespierre was an official during the French Revolution and one of the principal architects of the Reign of Terror.

Portia de Rossi, wife of Ellen DeGeneres, played the cold and calculating Nelle Porter in Ally McBeal and Jason Bateman's twin sister in Arrested Development.

Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat and philosopher who became notorious for acts of sexual cruelty in his writings as well as in his own life.

Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who participated in the conquests of Central America and Peru and discovered the Mississippi River.

Priest Tomas De Torquemada became notorious for his cruelty while serving as Inquisitor General during the Spanish Inquisition.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a 19th century French artist known for works like “The Streetwalker” and “At the Moulin Rouge.”

Some people believe it was Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, who really wrote the plays attributed to William Shakespeare.

Cosimo de' Medici was the "Elder" and start of the Medici dynasty that ruled Florence (Italy) from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance, and after.

Marie de' Medici is best known for serving as queen consort of Henry IV of France.

John Deacon is a bassist and songwriter who played with the band Queen. He penned the hits "You're My Best Friend" and "Another One Bites the Dust."

Deadmau5 is a Grammy Award-nominated and Juno Award-winning electronic DJ/dance artist known for his trademark helmet and popular live shows. He's released albums like 4x4=12 and >album title goes here<.

Dizzy Dean was a Major League Baseball pitcher who led the St. Louis Cardinals to World Series victory in 1937.

American politician Howard Dean is best known for running for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination.

Actor and cultural icon James Dean starred in East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant. He was killed in a tragic car accident at age 24.

Computer scientist and engineer Mark Dean is credited with helping develop a number of landmark technologies, including the color PC monitor, the Industry Standard Architecture system bus and the first gigahertz chip.

Millvina Dean was the youngest of the 705 survivors of the sinking of the RMS Titanic and lived to be the last survivor.

Michael DeBakey was an American cardiovascular surgeon and surgical pioneer.

Embracing nontraditional scales and tonal structures, Claude Debussy became one of the most highly regarded composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is seen as the founder of musical impressionism.

Roy DeCarava was an American photographer who created some of the most iconic images we have of the Civil Rights Movement and jazz musicians in motion.

Actress Yvonne De Carlo was Moses' wife in DeMille's The Ten Commandments, but is better known for playing the matriarch on TV's The Munsters.

Ruby Dee is an American actress, playwright, screenwriter, activist, poet and journalist, perhaps best known for starring in the 1961 film A Raisin in the Sun. She's also known for her civic work with husband Ossie Davis.

Sandra Dee became the “Queen of Teens” in 1950s Hollywood, appearing in such films as Gidget and A Summer Place.

Paula Deen is best known for her Food Network shows on Southern cooking, including Paula's Home Cooking, Paula's Party and Paula's Best Dishes. 

John Deere was an American inventor and manufacturer of agricultural equipment. In 1837, Deere started an eponymous company that went on to become an international powerhouse.

Born December 11, 1973 in Brooklyn, this acclaimed rapper and actor is known for his socially conscious hip-hop music as well as for his performances in Monster's Ball, The Italian Job and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

In 1974, Ronald DeFeo killed his entire family, including his parents, brothers and sisters, while they were sleeping in their beds.

English novelist, pamphleteer and journalist Daniel Defoe is best known for his novels Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders.

Painter and sculptor Edgar Degas was a highly celebrated 19th-century French Impressionist whose work helped shape the fine art landscape for years to come.

With her own talk show, Ellen DeGeneres is one of America's most well-known comedians, also serving as a prominent gay/lesbian role model.

Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson hosted NOVA ScienceNow and appeared on such shows as The Daily Show and Real Time with Bill Maher.

Jamaican born singer Desmond Dekker was best known for creating several musical hits in the ska and reggae genres.

Eugène Delacroix, considered one of the greatest French Romantic painters, was influential in the development of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting.

Jane A. Delano was a nurse, administrator and leader who was a pioneer in her field, overseeing the mobilization of U.S. nurses overseas during World War I.

Abolitionist Martin Robison Delany was both a physician and newspaper editor, and became one of the most influential and successful anti-slavery activists of the 19th century.

Tom Delay was Republican majority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives who was convicted of money laundering charges in 2010.

Michael Dell helped launch the personal computer revolution in the 1980s with the creation of the Dell Computer Corporation, now known as Dell Inc.

Ferdinand Waldo Demara, Jr. traveled the country posing as a Navy officer, a surgeon, a teacher, and more, beginning in the 1940s. He is known as the "Great Imposter" for pulling off some of the greatest identity hoaxes in history.

American dancer and choreographer Agnes DeMille further developed the narrative aspect of dance in her choreography of musical plays and ballets.

Cecil B. DeMille was an actor, director and producer who became a giant of the 20th century film industry, known for epics like The Ten Commandments.

Director and producer Ted Demme created Yo! MTV Raps, and worked on the films Beautiful Girls, Life and Blow.

Jack Dempsey -- known as the "Manassa Mauler" -- was the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1919-1926.

American actor & high school dropout Patrick Dempsey is best known for his role as Dr. Derek Shepherd on the hit medical drama Grey's Anatomy.

Dame Judi Dench is an Academy Award-winning British actress. She won an Oscar for her role as Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love.

Actor Brian Dennehy was born on July 9, 1938, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. One of his first film roles was in Looking for Mister Goodbar (1977). Dennehy went on to act in more than 60 films and 70 television roles. He also won Tony awards for his stage

Bob Denver played the title role on the goofy 1960s TV sitcom Gilligan's Island.

John Denver was one of the most successful singer-songwriters of the 1970s. His hits include "Take Me Home, Country Roads" and "Thank God I'm a Country Boy."

Johnny Depp is an award-nominated actor known for his portrayal of odd-ball characters including Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean.

André Derain was a French painter of the Fauvist school and a book illustrator. He was friends with Henri Matisse.

Actor, director and writer Laura Dern, daughter of actors Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, has played everything from willowy ingénues to drug-addicted washouts. She's known for starring in Jurassic Park, and for co-producing and starring on the series Enlightened.

Jacques Derrida was an influential postmodern French philosopher who developed the analytic method known as Deconstruction.

Alberto DeSalvo is best known for confessing to be the Boston Strangler.

Philosopher and mathematician René Descartes is regarded as the father of modern philosophy for defining a starting point for existence, “I think; therefore I am.”

Actress Zooey Deschanel has appeared in such films as (500) Days of Summer, and on the hit TV sitcom New Girl.

French bicyclist Henri Desgrange is best known for organizing the first Tour de France.

Jean-Jacques Dessalines was a military leader who worked with Toussaint l'Ouverture and gave the country of Haiti its name.

American track athlete Gail Devers overcame Graves disease, a thyroid disorder, to win Olympic gold medals in 1992 and 1996.

After playing with various rock bands in the early 1980s, C.C. DeVille became the lead guitarist for Poison, who wrote 1988's "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," a No. 1 hit.