People a to z

Immunologist and pathologist Karl Landsteiner received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the major blood types.

Versatile singer and songwriter k.d. Lang is known for such country hits as "Crying" and "I'm Down to My Last Cigarette," and for the successful pop single "Constant Craving."

Dorothea Lange was a photographer whose portraits of displaced farmers during the Great Depression greatly influenced later documentary photography.

Jessica Lange is an award-winning American actress best known for her roles in King Kong, Tootsie and Grey Gardens.

Actor Frank Langella portrayed Richard Nixon in the Broadway and film version of Frost/Nixon. He won a Tony Award and an Oscar nomination.

Actress Angela Lansbury has entertained audiences in a variety of ways, including her 12-year stint as Jessica Fletcher on the 1984 series Murder, She Wrote.

Tom Lantos was a 14-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the state of California, as well as the first and only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress.

Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14, 2012, before shooting himself.

James Larkin was an Irish labor organizer and activist who founded the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union.

Stieg Larsson was the Swedish author best known for his Millenium novels, including The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Tommy Lasorda is an American baseball manager best known for successfully managing the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1977 to 1996.

Lewis Howard Latimer was an inventor and draftsman best known for his contributions to the patenting of the light bulb and the telephone.

Estée Lauder started her own company. Seven years later, her Youth-Dew beauty oil launched Estée Lauder, Inc., which became a billion-dollar-a-year business.

Anglo-American stage and film actor Charles Laughton starred in The Old Dark House and Mutiny on the Bounty. He also directed The Night of the Hunter.

Cyndi Lauper is a singer who rose to fame in the 1980s with a string of pop hits such as "Girls Just Want to Have Fun."

Ralph Lauren is an American clothing designer best known for his sportswear line, Polo Ralph Lauren, which is the centerpiece of his fashion empire.

Laurence Olivier was one of the most acclaimed actors of the 20th century, known for his numerous Shakespeare roles on stage and screen as well as memorable turns in more modern classics.

Hugh Laurie's portrayal of Dr. Gregory on the TV show House made him famous in the U.S. For years prior, the comedian was making sitcoms in the U.K.

Taylor Lautner is an American actor who portrayed Jacob Black in the Twilight movie series, based on the books by Stephenie Meyer.

Mixing rock, punk and a rebellious style, Canadian singer Avril Lavigne's first album sold 15 million copies, thanks to hit singles "Complicated" and "Sk8er Boi."

Bernard Law Montgomery led the British Eighth Army in North Africa during World War Two and oversaw British participation during the D-Day invasion.

directed British actor Jude Law received an Academy Award nomination for his performance in Cold Mountain. He also played "Gigolo Joe" in Steven Spielberg's film A.I.

Actor Peter Lawford ran with the Rat Pack, married a Kennedy, and was the last person to speak to Marilyn Monroe. He also made movies now and then.

D.H. Lawrence is best known for his infamous novel Lady Chatterley's Lover, which was banned in the United States until 1959, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential writers of the 20th century.

Jacob Lawrence was an American painter, and the most widely acclaimed African-American artist of the 20th century. He is best known for his Migration Series.

Jennifer Lawrence is known for her roles in The Hunger Games and Winter’s Bone, and is heralded as one of the most promising young actresses working today.

Jerome Lawrence was an American playwright. He collaborated with Robert Edwin Lee for over 50 years. Inherit The Wind is their most well known play.

Comedian Martin Lawrence got hist start hosting HBO's Def Comedy Jam before appearing in movies like Bad Boys and Big Momma's House.

T. E. Lawrence was a British Army officer during the Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkish rule. He became known as Lawrence of Arabia, based on the 1962 film.

Painter Ernest Lawson is known for his impressionistic urban landscapes using thick, intense color. His major work includes Spring Night, Harlem River.

Henry Lawson was a revered Australian writer of short stories and poetry.

Best known as Enron business executive who was convicted of conspiracy and fraud. 20,000 Enron employees lost their jobs and life savings.

Simon Le Bon was lead singer of the 1980s pop group Duran Duran, known for recording the hit song “Hungry Like the Wolf.” He left the group before they later reunited in 2001.

Author John Le Carré’s first published novel, Call for the Dead, introduced his ‘anti-hero’ George Smiley, who appears in most of his stories.

Jean-Marie Le Pen is best known for being the founder of the Front National, a far-right wing political party in France, and for his polarizing xenophobic and anti-Semitic comments.

American actress Cloris Leachman has had a long, successful career in television and film, playing a range of dramatic and comedic roles.

Mary Leakey was a paleoanthropologist who, along with husband Louis, made several prominent scientific discoveries. Skull fossils found by the Leakeys advanced our understanding of human evolution.

David Lean was a British director and screenwriter best known for his spectacular cinematography and adaptations of Charles Dickens classics, including Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948).

Michael Learned is an Emmy Award-winning American actress best known for her role on the long-running television drama The Waltons.

Timothy Leary was an American psychologist and author who was a leading advocate for the use of LSD and other psychoactive drugs.

Matt LeBlanc is an American actor most famous for his role as Joey Tribbiani on the hit television series, Friends.

Heath Ledger was an Academy Award-winning, Australian actor best known for his roles in Brokeback Mountain and The Dark Knight. He died of an accidental prescription drug overdose in 2008.

Ang Lee is an Academy Award-winning director, producer and screenwriter whose films include Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain.

British religious leader Ann Lee, also known as "Mother Ann," had a vision of the second coming of Christ, which led her to found an American society of Shakers.

Brandon Lee was an action film star and the son of actor Bruce Lee. His untimely death was caused by a prop gun accident and the set of the film The Crow.

Bruce Lee was an actor, film producer and director, and the martial arts expert who founded the Jeet Kune Doe martial arts system.

Christopher Lee began his legendary career in monster movies in the 1950, playing both Frankenstein’s monster and Dracula, the latter in several classics of the genre. Lee has recently become known to a whole new generation of filmgoers in The Lord

Gypsy Rose Lee rose from an early life in vaudeville to America's most famed burlesque performers, becoming the subject of the Broadway show Gypsy.

Harper Lee is best known for writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning best-seller To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)—her one and only published novel.

Richard Henry Lee was an American statesman from Virginia who made the motion for independence from Great Britain at the Second Continental Congress.

Robert E. Lee was the leading Confederate General during the U.S. Civil War and has been venerated as a heroic figure in the South.

Sandra Lee is best known for hosting the Food Network shows Semi-Homemade Cooking and Sandra's Money Saving Meals. She is also the girlfriend of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Producer, director, writer and actor Spike Lee creates controversial films that explore race relations, political issues and urban crime and violence. His films include She's Gotta Have It and Do the Right Thing.

Stan Lee is a revered comic-book creator who co-launched superheroes like the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Doctor Strange and the X-Men for Marvel Comics.

Tommy Lee is the drummer and co-founder of heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. He has two children with actress Pamela Anderson.

Wen Ho Lee is a nuclear engineer who was working at Los Alamos National Laboratory when he was accused of being a Chinese spy.

Nicholas Leeson is best known for trading the Barings out of existence by hiding losses for years.

British-American actress Jane Leeves played Daphne on the Emmy Award-winning NBC sitcom Frasier, and began playing Joy on TV Land's Hot in Cleveland in 2010.

Canadian actress Rachelle Lefevre is known for her film and television roles, most notably appearing in What About Brian, Off the Map and the Twilighti saga.

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.