Famous People Born in 1951 a to z

Emmy Award-winning actress Kirstie Alley played Rebecca Howe on the TV series Cheers and has struggled with weight problems in the public eye. She's also competed on the dance-competition show Dancing with the Stars.

Horace Andy is a Jamaican singer-songwriter known for his breakthrough single, "Skylarking," and for his long association with British trip-hop band Massive Attack.

Kenneth Bianchi, known as the Hillside Strangler, is a serial killer best known for working with his cousin Angelo Buono to commit 15 rapes and murders.

Jill Biden is best known for being the wife of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, and for her role as America's second lady.

Filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow has directed films like Point Break and Zero Dark Thirty. In 2009, she became the first woman to win an Academy Award for best director for The Hurt Locker (2008).

Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair as prime minister of the United Kingdom in 2007, and served against the backdrop of a worldwide financial crisis.

Ben Carson overcame his troubled youth in inner-city Detroit to become a gifted neurosurgeon famous for his work separating conjoined twins.

Charo is a singer, musician and actress best known for her Latin sassiness, sexy outfits and signature phrase during the 1970s, "Cuchi-cuchi."

Ben Cohen is the co-founder of the ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s.

Phil Collins was one of the most successful musicians in the world during the 1980s, releasing thirteen U.S. Top Ten hits between 1984 and 1990.

David Coverdale founded Whitesnake, a rock band that achieved wide fame in the late 1980s, with the No. 1 song "Here I Go Again."

Scottish soccer legend Kenny Dalglish was a star striker for Celtic and Liverpool before becoming a successful manager.

John Deacon is a bassist and songwriter who played with the band Queen. He penned the hits "You're My Best Friend" and "Another One Bites the Dust."

In 1974, Ronald DeFeo killed his entire family, including his parents, brothers and sisters, while they were sleeping in their beds.

Esther Dyson, named by Forbes magazine as one of the most powerful women in American business, is regarded as one of the most influential voices in technology.

Dale Earnhardt was a champion stock car driver with NASCAR who won seven championships. He died in the final lap of the Daytona 500 in 2001

Al Franken is the junior senator of Minnesota who first gained notice as a comedian and political satirist during his long tenure on Saturday Night Live.

Phillip Garrido kidnapped 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard in 1991. Garrido held Dugard captive for 18 years, raping her repeatedly and impregnating her twice. He also committed several other crimes, including many rapes.

Bob Geldof is best known as the singer of the band the Boomtown Rats and for his political activism, particularly anti-poverty efforts in Africa.

Jerry Greenfield is the co-founder of the company that makes Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

Actor Harry Hamlin starred in the television series L.A. Law as lawyer Michael Kuzak for five seasons and was voted People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive in 1987.

TV star Mark Harmon has been on long-running shows like St. Elsewhere, Chicago Hope and NCIS.

American fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger created a brand of clothing that was extremely popular with several different communities in the 1990s.

Anjelica Huston is an Academy Award-winning actress, a film director and the daughter of John Huston.

Jackie Jackson was the oldest member of the group Jackson 5, which included his four brothers Michael, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon Jackson.

Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov was a Russian chess grandmaster and world champion from 1975-1985.

Michael Keaton is an American actor known for his roles in the comedy Mr. Mom and as Batman in the Tim Burton-directed installments of the series.

Conservative Rush Limbaugh hosts the syndicated and controversial radio talk show, The Rush Limbaugh Show. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.

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

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.

Alley Mills is a television actress who starred in the hit series The Wonder Years, as well as Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.

Barbara Morgan was the first teacher-astronaut to complete a shuttle mission on board the Endeavor in 2007.

Mohamed Morsi was elected as president of Egypt in June 2012. He is the successor to Hosni Mubarak, and is Egypt's first democratically elected president.

American actress Cassandra Peterson became famous in the 1980s for her television role as the vampy Elvira, Mistress of the Dark.

Comedian Joe Piscopo joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1980 where he was known for his impressions of celebrities like Frank Sinatra.

Steve Prefontaine is best known as the runner who once held the U.S. record in every long-distance event. He died in a car crash in 1974 at age 24.

Queen Noor of Jordan, who was the consort of King Hussein, was trained as an urban planner and works as a philanthropist/world activist.

In 1983, astronaut and astrophysicist Sally Ride became the first American woman in space aboard the space shuttle Challenger. Ride died on July 23, 2012 at the age of 61, following a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Debra Jo Rupp is an actress who played Kitty on the TV sitcom That '70s Show, which ran from 1998 to 2006.

Actor Kurt Russell has appeared in a number of film roles and is know as long-time romantic companion to actress Goldie Hawn, mother of actress Kate Hudson.

Artist, screenwriter and director Julian Schnabel was a leading figure of the art world in the 1980s, and has proven to be talented in many creative fields.

Fred Schneider is best known as the lead singer of rock band The B-52s. He's known for his style of reciting poetry over music, called sprechgesang.

Actor Steven Seagal makes popular action movies such as the 1998 hit Under Siege. He studied martial arts in Asia and opened an academy in the U.S.

Emmy Award-winning British actress Jane Seymour starred on the dramatic TV series Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman, and was in the James Bond film Live and Let Die.

Sting, born Gordon Sumner, is an English singer, songwriter and philanthropist best known as the frontman of The Police.

Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger is a former US Airlines pilot, who successfully ditched his passenger plane on the Hudson River after it struck a flock of Canada geese, thereby saving all 155 people aboard.

Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura went on to a career in acting and politics, becoming the governor of Minnesota.

Actor and comedian Robin Williams is known for his fast-paced, improvisational performance style. He performed in films like Good Will Hunting and Dead Poets Society.

Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was the 13th president of Nigeria for 3 years before his death in 2010.