Famous Arians a to z

Mahmoud Abbas was elected president of the Palestinian Authority in 2005, and became the unofficial president of the State of Palestine in 2008.

Hall of Fame basketball center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the NBA's all-time leading scorer. He won six NBA titles, five with the Los Angeles Lakers, over 20 years.

American actor and comedian Don Adams is best known for his role as secret agent Maxwell Smart on NBC's hit 1960s sitcom Get Smart.

Frank Gotti Agnello is best known as the grandson of mafia boss John Gotti, and for his reality TV show.

Filipino leader Emilio Aguinaldo led his country to achieve independence after fighting off both the Spanish and the Americans.

Archibald Alexander was a Protestant clergyman and educator whose teachings, reviews and sermons gave him wide influence during his day.

Flex Alexander is an American actor, dancer and choreographer best known for his roles in the films Juice and Snakes on a Plane.

The theme of being caught between two cultures is covered in writer Julia Alvarez's poetry and fiction, including How the García Girls Lost Their Accents.

Maya Angelou is a poet and prize-winning memoirist. She is the author of the critically acclaimed I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Kofi Annan is best known for his role as secretary-general of the United Nations.

Actor and director Alan Arkin is a three-time Academy Award nominee, whose notable films include Catch-22 and Wait Until Dark.

American actress Patricia Arquette has had a long career in film and television, continually showing her great range as a performer across genres.

Sprinter Evelyn Ashford is a five-time Olympian who became the first woman to run 100 meters in under 11 seconds and the oldest American woman to win an Olympic gold medal in track and field in 1992.

Brooke Astor was a philanthropist who served on the boards of many cultural institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

William Waldorf Astor was a wealthy descendant of John Jacob Astor who became a New York State senator and a member of the New York State Assembly.

Jessica Morales became famous in 1987, when, at 18 months old, she fell down a well in her aunt's backyard. She remained trapped for 58 hours while America watched on CNN.

A magnificent classical composer, Johann Sebastian Bach is revered through the ages for his work's musical complexities and stylistic innovations.

Michele Bachmann is a congresswoman best known for her conservative Tea Party politics, and her candidacy for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

American movie, television and theater actor Alec Baldwin is the star of the sitcom 30 Rock, for which he received Golden Globes and an Emmy.

Sirimavo R.D. Bandaranaike was a Sri Lankan political leader, becoming the world’s first woman prime minister in 1960.

Outlaw Clyde Barrow and his partner, Bonnie, robbed banks and store owners during the Depression and were believed to be responsible for at least 13 murders.

Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi designed and executed New York City’s Statue of Liberty to mark the Franco-American alliance of 1778.

Charles Baudelaire was a French poet best known for his controversial volume of poems, Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil).

Actor Sean Bean played the villains in Patriot Games and GoldenEye. More recently, he played Boromir in the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Odysseus in Troy.

Billy Beane is a Major League Baseball executive known for his revolutionary style of management and the film based on his exploits, Moneyball.

Warren Beatty is an Oscar-winning director and actor known for such films as Bonnie and Clyde, Reds and Heaven Can Wait.

20th century Irish novelist, playwright and poet Samuel Beckett penned the play Waiting for Godot. In 1969, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Victoria Beckham is a fashion designer and singer chiefly known for her work with the Spice Girls and for being the wife of soccer star David Beckham.

Arnold Beckman was an American chemist who founded Beckman Instruments and funded the first silicon transistor company, giving rise to Silicon Valley.

Bill Belichick is head coach of the NFL's New England Patriots and widely considered one of the best coaches in football history.

Jean-Paul Belmondo is a French actor best known for starring in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless.

Benedict XVI served as pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 2005 to 2013. He is best known for his rigid views on Catholicism and topics such as birth control and homosexuality.

Thomas Hart Benton was an esteemed 20th century painter and muralist renowned for works like “America Today” and “Persephone.”

David Blaine is a street magician who has become known for endurance stunts, such as living in a glass box for days.

Alfred Blalock was a surgeon who pioneered corrective heart surgery in newborns and did groudbreaking work related to blood loss and shock.

Army nurse Florence Blanchfield is best known for her struggle to attain full military rank, and for equal rights in the military.

One of Great Britain's leading male actors in the 1950s, Dirk Bogarde is known for his complex roles in the dark films Death in Venice (1912), Victim (1961) and The Night Porter (1974).

Lucrezia Borgia was an Italian noblewoman and daughter of Pope Alexander VI. A notorious reputation precedes her, and she is inextricably, and perhaps unfairly, linked to the crimes and debauchery of her family.

Fernando Botero is a Colombian artist known for creating bloated, oversized depictions of people, animals and elements of the natural world.

Leigh Bowery was an Australian fashion designer, club promoter and performance artist, known as the proprietor of the hedonistic London nightclub Taboo.

Plucked from obscurity when she stunned the judges on the UK TV show Britain's Got Talent, Susan Boyle has gone on to great singing success.

Zach Braff is an American actor known chiefly for his role on TV's Scrubs and in the big-screen film Oz the Great and Powerful.

Legendary screen presence Marlon Brando performed for more than 50 years and is famous for such films as A Streetcar Named Desire and The Godfather.

Abigail Breslin is one of the youngest actresses to receive an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film Little Miss Sunshine.

Con artist Sandra Bridewell, known as the "Black Widow," collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from lovers and friends, and was suspected of being connected to several mysterious deaths.

Matthew Broderick is an American actor who became a star with his role in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. He's also known for Broadway role in The Producers.

At age 29, Adrien Brody became the youngest person to win the Academy Award for best actor in 2003, for his role in Roman Polanski's The Pianist.

Michael S. Brown is a molecular geneticist who was co-awarded a 1985 Nobel Prize for his work on the metabolism of cholesterol in the human body.

Solomon Burke was an African-American soul singer who released a number of hits in the 1960s, including "Cry to Me" and "Got to Get You off My Mind."

African-American jockey Isaac Burns Murphy repeatedly won the Kentucky Derby and was posthumously inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame.

Amanda Bynes is a well-known TV and film actress who got her start as a child. She has starred in hits like The Amanda Show, What a Girl Wants and Hairspray.

Actor James Caan gave an Oscar-nominated performance as Sonny Corleone in Coppola’s The Godfather and played a writer held hostage in Stephen King’s Misery.

Samantha Cameron is best known for being the wife of British Prime Minister David Cameron, and for her role as an executive for a well-known English stationery company.

Joseph Campbell was a professor and author who focused on comparative folklore with books like The Power of Myth and The Hero With a Thousand Faces.

Former pro-tennis player Jennifer Capriati is known for her incredible comeback after several personal struggles. In 1990 she was the youngest player to ever be ranked in the Women's Tennis Association top ten.

With hits such as "Vision of Love" and "I Don't Wanna Cry," pop diva Mariah Carey holds the record for most No. 1 debuts in Billboard Hot 100 history.

Reeve Carney is a singer-songwriter and actor known for his work in the Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark and the Jeff Buckley biopic Mystery White Boy.

Anita Carter is best known for singing with Mother Maybelle and the Carter Sisters, a family band of early country music.

Giovanni Giacomo Casanova, an 18th Century figure, is known for his archetypal reputation as a seducer of women.

David Cassidy is a singer and actor, most notably appearing as one of the stars of the musical television series The Partridge Family in the 1970s.

Actress Keisha Castle-Hughes was selected from among several hundred children in Mt. Wellington, New Zealand to star as Pai in the acclaimed film Whale Rider.

Artist Elizabeth Catlett celebrates African-American workers in sculptures and prints. She's known for works like "Negro Woman," "Sharecropper" and "Survivor."

Richard Chamberlain was a leading television heartthrob of the early 1960s, best known for his role as Dr. Kildare on the television show Dr. Kildare.

Actor/director/producer Jackie Chan's unique blend of impressive martial arts and screwball physical comedy has helped make him an international film star.

Lon Chaney was an actor known for his use of makeup to great effect in such films as The Phantom of the Opera and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Costa Rican-born Franklin Chang-Díaz was the first Hispanic-American astronaut. He made several trips to space for NASA and developed plasma propulsion.

Charlie Chaplin was a comedic British actor who became one of the biggest stars of the 20th century's silent-film era.

American singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman received wide fame in the late 1980s and '90s with songs like "Give Me One Reason" and "Fast Car."

Samuel Chase was an associate Supreme Court justice until he was impeached. His political views gradually turned from support of states’ rights to Federalism.

Jessica Chastain is an American actress who first gained widespread attention in 2011 for her work in Take Shelter, The Help and Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life.

Union leader and labor organizer Cesar Chavez dedicated his life to improving treatment, pay and working conditions for farm workers.

British serial killer John Christie murdered at least six women, including his wife, before being arrested and hanged in 1953.

Actress Julie Christie won an Academy Award for her role in Darling, and earned a second nomination for her performance in McCabe & Mrs. Miller.

Liz Claiborne was a fashion designer and icon who created a clothing empire. She's also the first woman to found a company (Liz Claiborne Inc.) that landed on the Fortune 500 list.

Tom Clancy is a New York Times Best Selling American author, best known for his thrillers that include themes of espionage, military, science, politics and technology.

Guitarist and singer-songwriter Eric Clapton's 1992 single "Tears in Heaven" became a top five hit. It was written about the death of his son.

Anthony Clark is an American actor and comedian known for playing Greg Warner on the CBS series Yes, Dear.

Technology entrepreneur James Clark started Silicon Graphics, launched Netscape with Marc Andreessen and created Healtheon, which merged with WebMD.

Henry Clay was an American statesman. He promoted several major governmental compromises to balance the rights of free and slave states.

Jamaican musician Jimmy Cliff is best known for introducing reggae to an international audience.

Scottish actor Robbie Coltrane is best known for his roles such as Hagrid the Giant in the Harry Potter series and Mr. Hyde in Van Helsing.