People a to z

Jay McGuiness is a British singer best known as a member of the five-member U.K. boy band the Wanted.

One of the most powerful hitters in baseball history, Mark McGwire briefly held the record for most home runs in a single season.

Rory McIlroy is an Irish golfer best known for winning the 2011 U.S Open and the 2012 PGA Championship, becoming the youngest player to win a PGA Tour playoff.

Joey McIntyre, the youngest member of the boy band New Kids on the Block, has also acted on Broadway, TV and film, and competed on Dancing with the Stars.

Claude McKay was a Jamaican-born poet and novelist whose Home to Harlem (1928) was the most popular novel written by an American black to that time.

Actress Danica McKellar played Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years. She has also written a series of New York Times best-sellers, including Math Doesn't Suck.

Ian McKellen is a revered, award-winning British actor of stage and screen known for many roles, including The Lord of the Rings and X-Men series.

Actress Nancy McKeon played Jo on the long-running 1980s sitcom The Facts of Life.

Ida McKinley was the wife of 25th U.S. President William McKinley. She served as first lady from 1897 until McKinley's assassination in 1901.

William McKinley is best known for being president when the United States acquired Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.

Founder of female musician showcase Lilith Fair, McLachlan's emotional ballads include "I Will Remember You," "Sweet Surrender," "Adia" and "Angel".

Recording artist and fashion designer Malcolm McLaren came to fame as manager of the Sex Pistols. Later, he recorded several albums of his own material.

Jackie McLean was an American jazz alto saxophonist and also an educator. His personal style included short phrases or irregular length.

Best-selling African-American novelist Terry McMillan wrote Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got her Groove Back. Both became films starring Angela Bassett.

Republican U.S. Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers is best known for being the highest ranking Republican female in the House of Representatives.

Writer Larry McMurtry is noted for his novels set on the frontier, in contemporary small towns, and in increasingly urbanized and industrial areas of Texas.

Scott McNealy co-founded the computer technology company Sun Microsystems, a fervent rival of Windows.

James Abbott McNeill Whistler was a U.S.-born British painter who was highly influential in the late 19th century. His best-known work is "Whistler's Mother."

Kristy McNichol is an Emmy award-winning actress and singer, active on film and television during the 1970s-1980s.

Clyde McPhatter was a popular rhythm-and-blues singer in the 1950s. One of the most dramatic vocalists of his generation, his style anticipated soul music.

Aimee Semple McPherson was a controversial Pentecostal evangelist whose International Church of the Foursquare Gospel had tens of thousands of followers.

Alexander McQueen was a London-based, English fashion designer who was head designer of the Louis Vuitton Givenchy fashion line, before starting his own line.

American film star Steve McQueen was one of the most popular and well-paid actors of the 1960s and ‘70s. He starred in films like The Great Escape, Bullit and The Getaway.

Janet McTeer is an English television, stage and film actress best known for her Golden Globe-winning performance in Tumbleweeds.

Timothy McVeigh was convicted of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, one of the deadliest acts of terrorism in American history. He was executed for his crimes.

Margaret Mead is best known for her studies and publications on cultural anthropology.

Jayne Meadows is an American actress best known for her television work on I’ve Got a Secret (1952-'59). She is the wife of comedian Steve Allen.

Native American activist and actor Russell Means is known for leading an armed takeover of Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1973, and for appearing in films like The Last of the Mohicans. In 2007, he helped draft a proposal to create a new nation for the Lakota tribe.

Dmitry Medvedev served under Vladimir Putin and succeeded him as president of Russia in 2008.

Golda Meir was best known as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel and the world’s third woman to hold the title.

A pop sensation in the 1980s, singer-songwriter John Mellencamp has evolved into one of rock’s most enduring acts, and given voice to the small-town experience.

Actor Christopher Meloni starred as Detective Elliot Stabler in the hit television crime drama Law & Order: SVU for twelve seasons from 1999 to 2011.

Herman Melville wrote the classic American novel Moby-Dick (1851), a whaling adventure which regarded as one of the greatest literary works of all time.

Gregor Mendel was an Austrian monk who discovered the basic principles of heredity through experiments in his garden. Mendel's observations became the foundation of modern genetics and the study of heredity, and he is widely considered a pioneer in the field of genetics.

Dmitri Mendeleyev was a Russian chemist who developed the periodic classification of the elements.

Eva Mendes is an American actress best known for her roles in the films Training Day, Stuck on You and Hitch. The beauty of Cuban descent is also a model for several brands.

English stage and film director Sam Mendes won an Oscar for American Beauty, and went on to direct films like Jarhead, Revolutionary Road and Skyfall.

Tony Mendez is a CIA officer best known for overseeing the rescue of six American diplomats during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, inspiring the 2012 film Argo.

Erik Menendez and brother Lyle were found guilty of murdering their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez. They were both sentenced to life in prison in 1996.

Lyle Menendez was convicted, along with his brother Erik, of killing his parents. They each unsuccessfully claimed self-defense, and were sentenced to life in prison in 1996.

Josef Mengele was a Nazi doctor at Auschwitz extermination camp who selected prisoners for execution in gas chambers and led medical experiments on inmates.

James Meredith is a civil rights activist who became the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi in 1962.

Angela Merkel is a German politician best known as the first female chancellor of Germany and one of the architects of the European Union.

S. Epatha Merkerson is an Emmy-Award-winning actress who’s starred on the TV series Law & Order for 17 years.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty was a French philosopher and man of letters, the leading exponent of phenomenology in France.

Ethel Merman is best known as a gutsy, powerful musical comedy performer and remembered for her brassy style and powerful mezzo-soprano voice.

Charles Edward Merrill was an American investment banker who co-founded Merrill Lynch & Company and arranged the merger that created the Safeway food chain.

Though primarily remembered for her lavish tastes, heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post was a shrewd businesswoman and a dedicated philanthropist.

Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk who was a revered pacifist and author, with works like Seven Storey Mountain and Thoughts in Solitude.

Argentina native Lionel Messi has established records for goals scored and won individual awards en route to worldwide recognition as the best player in soccer.

Explorer and mountaineer Reinhold Messner is famous for making the first solo ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen.

Tammy Faye Messner was the wife of disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker, with whom she hosted The 700 Club and the Praise the Lord Club. The couple split in 1992, after Jim Bakker's affair with a church secretary surfaced.

During the 2000s, actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers continued to shine in a wide array of film genres. Notable films include 2001’s Prozac Nation with Christina Ricci.

Stephenie Meyer is best known for authoring the Twilight book series, which was later adapted for a film franchise.

Seth Meyers is a comedian, actor and writer known for hosting Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update." He is also the slated replacement for Jimmy Fallon on Late Night.

Kweisi Mfume is the former President and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Anthony Michael Hall is a film and TV actor known for his roles in Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club and The Dead Zone.

Grammy award-winning pop singer George Michael was one of the leading performers in the 1980s. His 1987 album Faith won a Grammy for Best Album of the Year.

Bret Michaels is the lead singer in the glam-metal band Poison and has starred in several reality TV shows, including The Celebrity Apprentice.

A high-profile trainer and life coach, Jillian Michaels starred on the reality TV show The Biggest Loser and has created her own fitness franchise.

Michelangelo is widely regarded as the most famous artist of the Italian Renaissance. Among his works are the David and Pieta statues and the Sistine Chapel frescoes. 

American athlete Phil Mickelson began golfing as soon as he could walk, and is now one of the foremost successful golfers in the world.

Kate Middleton, Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge, married Prince William in 2011 at Westminster Abbey. She will not be a princess until Prince Charles inherits the throne.

Pippa Middleton is best known as the younger sister of Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge and wife of Prince Charles.

Bette Midler sang "Wind Beneath My Wings" for the film Beaches and earned Oscar nods for her roles in The Rose and For the Boys.