People a to z

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 known for such films as Se7en, Emma and Great Expectations. In 1998, she won an Academy Award for her role in Shakespeare in Love.

Hayden Panettiere is the young American actress who became famous for her role as the cheerleader on 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.

Dorothy Parker was the sharpest wit of the Algonquin Round Table, as well as a master of short fiction and a blacklisted screenwriter.

Sarah Jessica Parker is an award-winning TV and film actress whose starring role in the series Sex and the City catapulted her to stardom.

Sean Parker is an entrepreneur who co-founded the music file-sharing service Napster and was the founding president of Facebook.

Tom Parker is a British musician and singer best known as a member of the popular boy band the Wanted.

Trey Parker is a writer, director and actor known chiefly as the creator and driving force behind the animated TV series South Park.

English born, English bred, forgotten by the English and the world, James Parkinson identified the "shaking palsy" as a disease of the central nervous system.

Gordon Parks was an African-American photographer, filmmaker and author, best known for his work published in LIFE magazine and for directing the hit movie Shaft.

Maxfield Parrish was an American painter and illustrator who was the highest-paid commercial artist in the United States by the 1920s.

Lucy Parsons was an activist who was politically radical for her times and one of the first minority activists.

Country music queen Dolly Parton is a cultural icon whose voluptuous figure and powerful voice made her popular on both stage and screen.

Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist and religious philosopher, who laid the foundation for the modern theory of probabilities.

Scientist Louis Pasteur came up with the food preparing process known as pasteurization; he also developed a vaccination for anthrax and rabies.

Ann Patchett is an American novelist best known for her PEN/Faulkner Award-winning novel Bel Canto.

As head football coach at Pennsylvania State University, Joe Paterno was one of the most successful coaches in the history of collegiate football.

A lifelong governmental and political figure, David Paterson was the first African American governor of New York state.

Mina Stevens was an astronomer who was a pioneer in the classification of stellar spectra.

Danica Patrick is a female race car driver and has set several records for women drivers, including becoming the first woman to lead the Indy 500 and the first woman to win the pole position at the Daytona 500.

Deval Patrick is governor of Massachusetts and the former U.S. assistant attorney general of civil rights.

American boxer Floyd Patterson was the first to hold the world heavyweight championship twice. He won a gold medal in the 1952 Olympic Games.

James Patterson is an author of popular thrillers. He is best known for the Womens Murder Club series, and for his books starring psychologist Alex Cross.

Actor Robert Pattinson is known for such roles as Cedric Diggory in 2005's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Edward Cullen in 2008's Twilight.

Mississippi blues guitarist and singer Charley Patton is remembered as the "Father of the Delta Blues." He played with guitarist Willie Brown, and the Chatmons.

General George Patton led the Third Army in a very successful sweep across France during World War II in 1944. He was skilled at tank warfare.

New York City resident Etan Patz disappeared in 1979, when he was 6 years old. Nearly 33 years later, in May 2012, New Jersey resident Pedro Hernandez confessed to the murder.

Suffragette Alice Paul dedicated her life's work to women's rights and was a key figure in the push for the 19th Amendment.

Pope John Paul II made history in 1978 by becoming the first non-Italian pope in more than four hundred years.

Les Paul was a musician who designed a solid-body guitar in 1941, which then was a new type of instrument.

Senator Rand Paul, son of Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, is best known for his support of the Tea Party movement and his controversial comments on the Civil Rights Act.

Politician Ron Paul has served in the U.S. House of Representatives for Texas multiple times. His politics are a mix of Republican and Libertarian views.

Paul I of Russia served as the nation's emperor for a brief, tyrannical five years before he was assassinated 1801.

Jane Pauley was a correspondent and co-anchor for NBC’s Today. She also started the weekly magazine series Real Life with Jane Pauley, later renamed Dateline.

Henry Paulson was CEO of Goldman Sachs until he became secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury in 2006. As such, he developed a bailout program.

A tenor known for his larger-than-life showmanship, Luciano Pavarotti helped expand the popularity of opera worldwide.