Famous November Birthdays a to z

A stage, film and TV actress, Esther Rolle is best remembered as Florida Evans -- a character she played on two comedy series, Maude and Good Times.

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was one of German's most popular generals during World War II, and gained his enemies' respect with his victories as commander of the Afrika Korps. Implicated in a plot to overthrow Hitler, Rommel took his life in 1944.

Hermann Rorschach was a Swiss psychoanalyst who created the controversial Rorschach Inkblot Test to measure social behavior.

Mark Ruffalo is an actor who has become known most recently for his portrayal of Bruce Banner/The Hulk in the movie The Avengers.

Morley Safer is a television journalist known for his long tenure at the CBS newsmagazine 60 Minutes.

José Saramago was a Portuguese novelist and man of letters who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998.

Actor Roy Scheider landed his breakthrough role in 1971’s Klute, and later played Police Chief Martin Brody in the Steven Spielberg-directed film Jaws.

Curt Schilling was a major league baseball pitcher, who helped the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Boston Red Sox to World Series victories.

Charles Schulz was a cartoonist best known for creating the one of the world's most successful comic strips, Peanuts.

Sherwood Schwartz created two of television's most enduring comedies: Gilligan's Island and The Brady Bunch.

Director Martin Scorsese has produced some of the most memorable films in cinema history, including the iconic Taxi Driver and Academy Award-winner The Departed.

Ridley Scott is an English director and producer, whose notable hits include Thelma and Louise, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down. He is also recognized as the older brother of director Tony Scott, who committed suicide in August 2012.

Spanish missionary Juniper Serra established his first U.S. mission in 1769. He built eight more California missions over the next thirteen years.

Actress Chloë Sevigny was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in the film Boys Don't Cry, and later played a polygamist on the HBO drama series Big Love.

Poet Anne Sexton wrote the collections To Bedlam and Part Way Back, as well as Live or Die, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize. She committed suicide in 1974.

Alan Shepard became one of the original seven Mercury program astronauts in 1959. He later commanded the Apollo 14 flight.

Sam Shepard is a prolific, Oscar-nominated actor and playwright who’s won the Pulitzer Prize.

Jean Shrimpton is known for being one of the world's first supermodels, the highest-paid model of the 1960s and the face of "Swinging London," as well as for popularizing the miniskirt.

Maria Shriver married Arnold Schwarzenegger and is the first lady of California. She is part of the Kennedy family and was an NBC journalist for many years.

Sargent Shriver was a political administrator and diplomat perhaps best known for designing the U.S. Peace Corps, which was established in 1961. Shriver served as first director of the organization from its inception until 1966.

Considered one of South Africa's worst serial killers, Moses Sithole was found guilty of 38 murders and 40 rapes in 1997.

Jeffrey Skilling was the CEO of the energy company Enron who was found guilty of multiple counts of fraud and insider trading.

Elizabeth Smart gained national fame in 2003 when she was rescued after being kidnapped and held captive for nine months.

Anna Nicole Smith gained early fame as a model for Guess and Playboy magazine, and later became known for her marriage to 89-year-old oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II.

Trey Songz is a Grammy Award-nominated singer-songwriter known for hits like "Can't Help but Wait."

Sammy Sosa is a former MLB slugger, most notably with the Chicago Cubs, with whom he chased Roger Maris's home run record.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was an early leader of the woman's rights movement, writing the Declaration of Sentiments as a call to arms for female equality.

After murdering a gas station attendant in 1957, Nebraska native Charles Starkweather embarked on a murderous rampage with girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate in 1958. Together, they killed 10 people.

Actor and lawyer Ben Stein was a speech writer for Richard Nixon, but is best known as the economics teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

Ted Stevens was a U.S. senator from Alaska, and the longest-serving Republican senator in American history (1968-2009).

Robert Louis Stevenson was a 19th century Scottish writer notable for such novels as Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Jon Stewart is the host of Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which dubs itself "the most trusted name in fake news" and has run for nearly 20 seasons.

Actor and director Ben Stiller is responsible for such funny films as There's Something About Mary, Zoolander, and Meet the Fockers.

Irish writer Bram Stoker is best known for authoring the classic horror novel Dracula (1897).

Curtis Stone is best known as the co-host of Bravo's Top Chef Masters and Around the World in 80 Plates.

Emma Stone is best known for her acting roles in the 2011 films The Help and Crazy, Stupid, Love. She received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in Easy A.

Michael Strahan is a former defensive end for the New York Giants, and co-host of the morning television program Live! With Kelly and Michael.

Dame Joan Sutherland is an Australian operatic soprano internationally acclaimed for her coloratura roles.

Percy Sutton was a Freedom Rider, civil rights activist and prominent African-American lawyer best known for representing Malcolm X.

Jonathan Swift was an Irish author and satirist. Best known for writing Gulliver's Travels, he was dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin.

Tilda Swinton is an Oscar-winning British actress known for her arthouse film roles and for acclaimed performances in more mainstream pictures like Michael Clayton.

Ida Tarbell was an American journalist best known for her pioneering investigative reporting that led to the breakup of the Standard Oil Company’s monopoly.

Zachary Taylor was an American military war hero best known as the 12th president of the United States.

Chef Tell was one of the first culinary celebrities, giving cooking demonstrations on television beginning in the 1970s.

Julien Temple is an English filmmaker and music video director who began his career directing the Sex Pistols documentary The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle (1979).

Actress Marlo Thomas starred on the 1970s television hits That Girl and Free to Be...You and Me. She is married to Phil Donahue.

Tiberius was an ancient Roman emperor who ruled from year 14 to 37.

Actress Gene Tierney had a rocky start in Hollywood, but is best known for her role as a memorable murder victim in the 1944 film Laura.

Football player Pat Tillman enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2002. He was killed in action in 2004, and the exact circumstances of his death are still in question.

Santo Trafficante is best known for running casinos in Cuba, prior to Castro's revolution.

Communist Leon Trotsky helped ignite the Russian Revolution of 1917, and built the Red Army afterward. He was exiled and later assassinated by Soviet agents.

Ike Turner made a string of R&B hits with singer and wife Tina Turner. He struggled with drug addiction and died of an accidental cocaine overdose.

Ted Turner is a television and media magnate who founded CNN, the first 24-Hour cable news network.

Tina Turner is an American singer and actress who topped the pop music charts in the 1980s.

An adventurer and wily intellectual, Mark Twain wrote the classic American novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Nguyen Van Thieu was elected president of South Vietnam in 1967, but was forced to flee when his government surrendered to the North in 1975.

Steven Van Zandt is best known as a founding member, guitarist and backup vocalist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band and an actor on the HBO TV series The Sopranos.

American actor Robert Vaughn is best known for his 1960s role as Napoleon Solo on the hit TV series The Man From U.N.C.L.E.

Dana Vollmer is a swimmer and three-time Olympic gold medalist. She set the world record for the 100-meter butterfly at the London Olympics in 2012, and won two gold medals there.

Author Voltaire wrote the satirical novella Candide and, despite controversy during his lifetime, is widely considered one of France's greatest Enlightenment writers.

Kurt Vonnegut was an American author best known for the novels Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions.

Sam J. Wagstaff was an important art curator and collector of photography. He was also a companion and benefactor of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

Kara Walker is an African-American artist who rose to fame for her use of large paper silhouettes to explore social issues surrounding gender, race and black history.

Australian Aboriginal writer and political activist Kath Walker is considered the first of the modern-day Aboriginal protest writers.

Mary Walker was a physician and women's rights activist who received the Congressional Medal of Honor for her service during the Civil War.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is best known for his controversial 2011 budget proposal, in which he wanted to eliminate most collective bargaining rights for Wisconsin state employees. Walker is also the first governor in U.S. history to win a recall election.

DeWitt Wallace was an American publisher and, with his wife, founder of Reader's Digest magazine. The couple supported numerous philanthropic causes.

Paul Warren is a former professional American football wide receiver from Warren Ohio known for his grace on the field in the 1960s and 1970s.

Sam Waterston is an acclaimed actor known for his film, TV and stage work, including roles in Law & Order and Gore Vidal's Lincoln.

Professional golfer Bubba Watson is a leading player on the PGA Tour and winner of the 2012 Masters Tournament.

Chinese-American actress Ming-Na is best known for her portrayal of Dr. Deb Chen on the medical drama ER.

Tina Weymouth is best known as the bassist in the band The Talking Heads.