Famous People Who Won Awards a to z

J.J. Abrams is a screenwriter, director and producer known for TV shows like Felicity and Alias and films like Star Trek and Super 8.

Charles Addams was an American cartoonist whose work was frequently featured in The New Yorker. His most famous creation was the humorously macabre Addams Family.

Howard H. Aiken was a 20th century mathematician and engineer who came up with the idea behind the Mark I, a forerunner to modern computing devices.

Alvin Ailey was an American choreographer and activist who founded the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York in 1958.

Anouk Aimée is an acclaimed French actress known for her roles in works like The Lovers of Verona, 8½, La Dolce Vita and A Man and a Woman.

Lou Albano was a professional wrestler-turned-wrestling personality in the hugely popular World Wrestling Federation of the 1980s.

Madeleine Albright became the first woman to represent the U.S. in regards to foreign affairs as the secretary of state.

Ira Aldridge was a 19th century African-American actor who became a renowned interpreter of Shakespearean tragedy on the European stage.

Nicaraguan writer Claribel Alegria, a major voice in contemporary Central American literature, was known for her volume of poetry, Flowers from the Volcano.

Film, theater and television actor Jason Alexander played George Costanza opposite Jerry Seinfeld on the popular television sitcom Seinfeld.

Shaun Alexander is a former running back for the Seattle Seahawks and Washington Redskins who’s one of the leading touchdown scorers in NFL history.

Raúl Alfonsín was an Argentine lawyer, politician and is known best for being the first democratically elected president of Argentina.

Tim Allen was a sporting goods salesman, drug dealer, and stand-up comedian before Home Improvement made him a sitcom star (and the voice of Buzz Lightyear).

Isabel Allende is a Chilean author best known for penning novels in the style of magic realism. She is the niece of former Chilean president Salvador Allende.

Robert Alomar is an American baseball player best known as one of the best second basemen in Major League Baseball.

Sidney Altman is a Nobel Prize-winning Canadian-American molecular biologist.

Don Ameche was an actor know mostly for films in the 1930s and 1940s, radio and TV in the 1950s-1970s, and later the film Trading Places.

Tori Amos is a singer/songwriter known for her influence on the 1990s alternative music scene and her piano-driven songs.

Rodolfo Anaya is a Mexican-American writer best known for his Chicano-themed books such as Bless Me, Ultima, Heart of Aztlán and Tortuga.

Susan B. Anthony was a prominent American civil rights activist and leader during the women's suffrage movement of the 1800s.

Will Arnett is a comedic actor known for his wacky role as G.O.B. on TV's Arrested Development and his voice-over work in film.

Tichina Arnold is best known for portraying Pam James, opposite Martin Lawrence, on the sitcom Martin and Rochelle on the show Everybody Hates Chris.

Rosanna Arquette is an American actress best known for her role opposite Madonna in the 1985 hit film Desperately Seeking Susan.

Entrepreneur Mary Kay, founder of Mary Kay Inc., built a profitable business from scratch that created new opportunities for women to achieve financial success.

Arthur Ashe is the first African American to win the men's singles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, and the first black American to be ranked No. 1 in the world.

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

Comic actor and writer Rowan Atkinson starred on the TV series Not the Nine O'clock News and Blackadder. He is best known for his infamous role as Mr. Bean in the television series and 1997 feature film of the same name.

Crispus Attucks was an African-American man killed during the Boston Massacre, making him the first casualty of the American Revolution.

Margaret Atwood is a Canadian award-winning writer best known for her poetry, short-stories and novels such as The Circle Game, The Handmaid’s Tale, Snowbird and The Tent.

Victoria Azarenka is a Belarusian tennis player and Olympic gold medalist. She is known for the loud grunting noise she makes when hitting the ball.

Lauren Bacall is an Academy Award-nominated actress known for roles in films like The Big Sleep, How to Marry a Millionaire, The Fan and The Mirror Has Two Faces.

Kevin Bacon is known for numerous movies (especially Footloose), his marriage to Kyra Sedgwick and the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Joan Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter and activist who is best known for her distinctive voice and for her role in popularizing the music of Bob Dylan.

Russell Baker is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and columnist who authored the autobiographies Growing Up and The Good Times.

Vernon Baker was a highly decorated soldier and the only living black WWII veteran to earn the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Stanley Baldwin was a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister three times between 1923 and 1937.

Christian Bale is an award winning actor who as a child starred in Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun, and is also know for his roles in Batman movies.

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas starred in several of Pedro Almodóvar’s films. In America, he has played Zorro, and Puss in Boots in the Shrek film series.

Sir Frederick Grant Banting was a Canadian scientist and doctor, whose research led to the discovery of insulin to treat diabetic patients.

Imamu Amiri Baraka is an African-American poet and scholar. He has served as professor emeritus of Africana Studies at the State Unversity of New York at Stony Brook.

Sir James Matthew Barrie was a Scottish dramatist, best known for writing the play Peter Pan.

Jason Bateman is an American actor known for playing Michael Bluth on the comedy series Arrested Development, and for starring in films like Juno and Hancock.

Patricia Bath is the first African American to complete a residency in ophthalmology. She invented the Laserphaco Probe for cataract treatment in 1986.

Star of the 1980s sitcom Family Ties, Meredith Baxter has appeared in several films and television shows throughout her lifetime.

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.

James Beard was a chef, television personality and food writer who many consider the father of American-style gourmet cooking.

Soccer great David Beckham has played for Manchester United, England, Real Madrid and the L.A. Galaxy. He is married to Victoria Beckham, also known as Posh from the Spice Girls.

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

Henri Becquerel was a French physicist who discovered radioactivity, an achievement for which he won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903.

Saul Bellow was a celebrated novelist who won the Pulitzer, the Nobel Prize for Literature and the National Book Award for Fiction three times.

Robert Benchley was an American humorist, drama critic and film actor who is best known for his small roles in over 40 films, including How To Sleep.

Tony Bennett is an American jazz vocalist, best known for performing standards and his signature song, "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."

For more than 50 years, comedian Jack Benny was a star of radio, the stage and screen. His radio show, The Jack Benny Program, was a forerunner of the sitcom genre.

Leonard Bernstein was one of the first American-born conductors to receive worldwide fame. He composed the score for the Broadway musical West Side Story.

Charles H. Best was a physiologist and medical researcher who co-discovered the use of insulin as a treatment for diabetes.

Athlete George Best played for Manchester United and was named European Footballer of the Year in 1968. His brief career ended by the time he was 25.

Ingrid Betancourt was kidnapped by Marxist guerillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) while campaigning for the presidency.

Hussein bin Talal served as king of Jordan from 1953 to 1999. He helped guide his country into the modern era.

Actress Thora Birch earned her first starring film role in Monkey Trouble and got her big break in American Beauty. In 2001 she starred in Ghost World.

Bjork is an Icelandic singer and founding member of the band The Sugarcubes. She went on to a strong solo career and acting success.

Film and TV actor Jack Black appeared in the popular comedy films Shallow Hal, High Fidelity and Tropic Thunder, and is the voice of Kung Fu Panda.

Linda Blair is an Academy Award-nominated actress and animal activist known for her role as a demonically possessed girl in The Exorcist.

Tony Blair was leader of the British Labour Party from 1994 to 2007, and prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007.

Jean-Pierre Blancard was a French balloonist who crossed the English Channel by balloon in 1785. He spurred interest in ballooning in Europe and the United States.

Richard Blanco is the fifth inaugural poet of the United States, the first Latino and openly gay-identified person to hold the position.

Bluford became the first African American to travel in space in 1983, as a mission specialist aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

American poet and activist Robert Bly is best known for writing Iron John: A Book About Men which is credited for starting the Mythopoetic men's movement.

Arna Bontemps was an African-American author best known for his novels, children’s books and poems written during the 1930s-1970s.

Danny Boyle is a British film director whose films include Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, and 127 Hours.

American actor Peter Boyle is best known as the grumpy dad on the CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, a role he held for eleven years.

James J. Braddock the American world heavyweight boxing champion from 1935 until 1937. His astonishing comeback in 1934 earned him the nickname, "The Cinderella Man."