Famous August Birthdays a to z

Outfielder Roberto Clemente broke National League batting records while playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1960s.

Bill Clinton was the 42nd president of the United States, and the second to be impeached. He oversaw the country's longest peacetime economic expansion.

James Coburn was a prolific Oscar-winning film and TV actor known for projects like Our Man Flint and Affliction.

Tom Colicchio is a restaurateur and author who stars in the award-winning reality TV show Top Chef.

Teacher Marva Collins was one of the most influential education activists of the 20th century, working to gain equal access for minorities to quality education.

American writer Suzanne Collins is the author of the bestselling The Hunger Games series and The Underland Chronicles.

Oscar-winning Scottish actor Sean Connery played "007" in the first James Bond spy movies. He also played the Indiane Jones's father in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Swimmer Natalie Coughlin has won more than 10 Olympic medals in her career, including two gold medals at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

Wes Craven is a horror film director, screenwriter and producer known for projects like Swamp Thing, Nightmare on Elm Street and the Scream series.

Davy Crockett was a frontiersman, legendary folk hero and three-time Congressman. He fought in the War of 1812 and died at the Alamo in the Texas Revolution.

Sidney Crosby is a Canadian professional ice hockey player for the Pittsburgh Penguins. In 2007, he became the youngest captain of a National Hockey League team.

American illustrator and artist Robert Crumb is best known for his distinctive style and satirical tone and creating the cartoon character Fritz the Cat.

Macaulay Culkin is an actor known mostly for his childhood roles in such films as My Girl and Home Alone.

Andrew Cunanan was a serial murder who killed fashion designer Gianni Versace, and at least four other people, before commiting suicide in a Miami houseboat.

Chris Cuomo is a lawyer and television journalist, the youngest correspondent ever at 20/20, the son of former New York governor Mario Cuomo and the brother of current New York governor Andrew Cuomo.

Billy Ray Cyrus is a country singer/songwriter who is perhaps now more famous for his TV and film roles than for his music.

Gala Dalí is best known as the wife, business manager and muse of Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí.

In 1587, Virginia Dare was the first person born to English parents in America.

Jacques-Louis David was a 19th century painter who is considered to be the principal proponent of the Neoclassical style, which moved art briskly away from the previous Rococo period. His most famous works include "The Death of Marat" and "Napoleon Crossing the Alps."

Viola Davis has earned raves for such films as Doubt and The Help, and for such Broadway plays as King Hedley II and Fences.

Charles G. Dawes was a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize who became the 30th U.S. vice president under Calvin Coolidge.

Jean de La Bruyère was a 17th century French writer known for his satirical work The Characters, or the Manners of the Age, with The Characters of Theophrastus.

Giada De Laurentiis has won over TV audiences with her appetizing and accessible cooking shows, including Everyday Italian and Giada at Home.

Legendary award-winning actor Robert De Niro has starred in such films as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Godfather: Part II and Silver Linings Playbook.

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."

Embracing nontraditional scales and tonal structures, Claude Debussy became one of the most highly regarded composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is seen as the founder of musical impressionism.

Cecil B. DeMille was an actor, director and producer who became a giant of the 20th century film industry, known for epics like The Ten Commandments.

Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret formed the Order of the Solar Temple and allegedly set fire to Swiss OST buildings, killing themselves and 46 others.

Howie Dorough, the Backstreet Boys singer with the smoldering looks, is also a solo artist, actor and advocate for raising awareness for lupus.

African American poet Rita Dove is the youngest person and the first African American to be appointed Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress.

Actor David Duchovny has played FBI agent Fox Mulder on the television series The X-Files and Hank Moody in HBO’s Californication. He married Téa Leoni in 1997.

Controversial musician Fred Durst came to fame in the mid-1990s as the front man for the "nu metal" band Limp Bizkit.

Actress Barbara Eden made magic as a bottled-up genie in the TV sitcom I Dream of Jeannie (1965-1970).

Edwin Edwards served four terms as governor of Louisiana, from 1972 to 1980, and then from 1984 to 1996. In 1998, he was convicted on several charges stemming from a casino license scheme.

M. Joycelyn Elders is a physician who briefly served as U.S. Surgeon General under President Clinton.

Joe Elliott is known for his singing career with metal band Def Leppard, made popular by such songs as "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Love Bites."

Throughout his career, American actor Sam Elliott has played gun-slinging cowboys on TV and in films, including The Quick and the Dead and Tombstone.

Patrick Ewing is a Jamaican-American retired Hall of Fame basketball player best known for winning Olympic Gold Medals in 1984 and 1992 for U.S. Men's Basketball.

Jerry Falwell is a religious leader, political activist and television evangelist. He restarted The Moral Majority Coalition in 2004.

Philo T. Farnsworth was an American inventor best known as a pioneer of television technology.

Tennis pro Roger Federer was the first Swiss man to win a Grand Slam title. In 2012, he became a seven-time Wimbledon champion, tying with Pete Sampras for the world No. 1 ranking record of 286 weeks.

Geraldine A. Ferraro was a member of Congress and the first woman to run for the U.S. vice presidency on a major party platform.

David Fincher is an American film director known for his meticulous process and dark movies, including Alien³, Fight Club and Seven.

Teenage Amy Fisher had an affair with mechanic Joey Buttafuoco in the early 1990s. When Buttafuoco refused to leave his wife, Fisher attempted to kill her.

Alexander Fleming was a doctor and bacteriologist who discovered penicillin, receiving the Nobel Prize in 1945.

Publisher Malcolm Forbes was the son of B.C. Forbes, who founded Forbes magazine. Malcolm Forbes eventually worked his way up to becoming company president.

Tom Ford is a fashion designer and film director who was the Creative Director of Gucci from 1994-2004. He founded his own Tom Ford fashion label in 2004.

Actor Andrew Garfield has appeared in such films as The Social Network and The Amazing Spider-Man.

Marcus Garvey was a proponent of the Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements, inspiring the Nation of Islam and the Rastafarian movement.

Melinda Gates, wife of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, is co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which strives to improve global health and education.

Tyson Gay is a track and field athlete who specializes in sprinting. He placed fourth in the men's 100 at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, following a hamstring injury.

Actor Ben Gazzara starred in the Broadway debut of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and in films such as 1998's The Big Lebowski.

Clifford Geertz was a leading proponent of a form of anthropology that stresses the importance of symbols and interpretation in human social life.

Ed Gein was a notorious serial killer and grave robber. He inspired the creation of several film characters, including Norman Bates (Psycho), Jame Gumb (The Silence of the Lambs) and Leatherface (Texas Chainsaw Massacre).

Timothy Geithner is best known as the 75th U.S. Sercretary of the Treasury, under President Barack Obama. As the CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank, he was responsible for several crucial decisions during the 2008 financial crisis.

Richard Gere is an American actor best known for his status as an American sex symbol and his leading film roles, including in Report to the Commissioner, American Gigolo, An Officer and A Gentleman, Pretty Woman and Chicago.

Tennis star Althea Gibson was the first African American to play at Wimbledon. She also broke racial barriers in professional golf.

Kathie Lee Gifford won over TV audiences with her on-screen chemistry with co-anchor Regis Philbin on The Morning Show. She now co-anchors the Today show.

Donna Godchaux was a back-up singer for the Grateful Dead, and was married to the band's former keyboardist, Keith Godchaux. She continues to perform as a singer today.

Prominent book author and magazine writer, Adam Gopnik is a leading arts and culture writer.

Jeff Gordon is best known as an American stock car race driver with the most wins in NASCAR modern history (1972-present).

Photographer and activist Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President Al Gore, co-founded the Parents' Music Resource Center, and was Clinton’s mental health advisor.

Actor Elliott Gould starred in the original M*A*S*H movie, married Barbra Streisand, and is one of Ocean's Eleven (2001 version).

Temple Grandin is a noted animal expert and advocate for autistic populations who has penned the books Animals in Translation and Animals Make Us Human.