Famous People Born in 1941 a to z

One of the biggest classic pop performers, Canadian singer-songwriter Paul Anka moved from teen heartthrob to adult artist with a slew of hits.

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.

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.

Ron Brown was a lawyer and Democratic politician who served as commerce secretary under the administration of President Bill Clinton.

Stokely Carmichael was a Trinidadian-American political activist, best known as the leader of the civil rights group SNCC in the 1960s.

Chubby Checker was an early rock 'n' roller who had a hit with the song and dance sensation, "The Twist."

Dick Cheney served four Republican presidents and spent six terms in the House. The former Vice President specialized in defense, energy, and the Middle East.

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

Jamaican born singer Desmond Dekker was best known for creating several musical hits in the ska and reggae genres.

Singer and songwriter Neil Diamond wrote "I'm A Believer" for The Monkees, and peformed his own pop hits, including "Heartlight" and "Sweet Caroline."

Faye Dunaway is a revered Oscar-winning actress known for her work in films like Bonnie and Clyde, The Thomas Crown Affair, Chinatown and Network.

Bob Dylan is a folk rock singer-songwriter whose career began in the early 1960s with songs that chronicled social issues like war and civil rights.

Cass "Mama Cass" Elliot was known for her heavyset figure, and was one of four members of the late 1960s pop sensation The Mamas and the Papas.

Hortense Ellis, younger sister of the "Godfather of Rock Steady" Alton Ellis, was a pop singer who was regarded as Jamaica’s first locally based female singing star.

Alex Ferguson is a Scottish soccer player known for his highly successful, long-term management of the Manchester United league.

Art Garfunkel is a singer and one half of the 60s folk-rock duo Simon & Garfunkel.

Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist and evolutionary biologist, and the best-selling writer of popular science books.

Actor, playwright and screenwriter Spalding Gray wrote and performed his own roles in Monster in a Box and Gray’s Anatomy; both became feature films.

Richie Havens was an American folk singer who opened the 1969 Woodstock Festival, and covered numerous pop and folk songs over his long career.

Robert Hunter is a writer and lyricist chiefly known for the songs he has written for the Grateful Dead.

Jesse Jackson is an American civil rights leader, Baptist minister and politician who twice ran for U.S. president.

J.J. Jackson was disc jockey, television personality and one of the first VJs (video jockeys) on MTV.

Kim Jong Il's dominating personality and complete concentration of power has come to define the country North Korea.

Julia Kristeva is a psychoanalyst, critic and novelist, known for her writings in structuralist linguistics, psychoanalysis and philosophical feminism.

Jon Lord is best known for his membership in the hard-rock band Deep Purple in the late 1960s, performing songs like "Demon's Eye" and "Space Truckin'." He later joined the band Whitesnake, which gained wide fame in the 1980s.

Singer Darlene Love sang backup for hit artists including Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin but struggled to gain fame for her solo endeavors.

Linda McCartney was a photographer who became widely known as the wife of Beatle Paul McCartney.

Slobodan Milosevic was a politician best known as the Serbian and Yugoslavian president in the late 1980s through the '90s. After losing power in 2000, he was charged for crimes against humanity.

Actor Nick Nolte made it big in the 1980s with such films as 48 Hours, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, and The Prince of Tides.

Ryan O’Neal is an Oscar-nominated actor known for films like Love Story, What’s Up, Doc?, Barry Lyndon and The Main Event.

Martha Reeves is an American pop and R&B singer best remembered as the lead singer of the group Martha and the Vandellas.

Anne Rice wrote supernatural novels. Her most famous series was Vampire Chronicles, which included the book Interview with the Vampire.

American baseball star Pete Rose established a career record for hits before earning a lifetime suspension for gambling on the sport.

David Ruffin was an American soul singer who rose to fame as one of the lead singers of the Temptations.

American singer-songwriter Paul Simon is an influential figure in American rock music. He is best known for his long-running success as a musician.

In 1966, Richard Speck committed one of the most horrifying mass murders in American history when he brutalized and killed eight student nurses living on Chicago's South Side.

Lesley Stahl is an award-winning television journalist. She's served as co-editor of 60 Minutes and anchored the news program 48 Hours Investigates.

Martha Stewart is an American media mogul best known for her television show and magazine, Martha Stewart Living.

American radio astronomer and physicist Joseph H. Taylor Jr. was the co-recipient of the 1993 Nobel Prize for Physics for discovering the first binary pulsar.

Dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp founded the Twyla Tharp Dance Company. Her work for the American Ballet Theatre combined classical and modern styles.

The murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till on August 28, 1955 galvanized the emerging civil rights movement.

Anne Tyler is an American novelist best known for writing The Accidental Tourist (1985) which was made into a movie in 1988 starring William Hurt and Geena Davis.

Mexican-American musician Ritchie Valens is best known for his hit "La Bamba." His successful career was cut short when he died in a plane crash at age 17.

Charlie Watts is best known for playing drums as part of the famed rock 'n' roll group the Rolling Stones. He is also a noted jazz musician.

Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood helped set the style for modern punk and New Wave music.

Charles Whitman was a former Marine and sniper who killed 16 people at the University of Texas in 1966.

Melvin Williams is best known for becoming Baltimore's biggest drug dealer throughout the 1970's and 1980's.

Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. is pastor emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ. His sermons were scrutinized in connection with Barack Obama's presidential campaign.