Famous British People a to z

Freddie Mercury is best known as the rock worlds most versatile and engaging performers and for his mock operatic masterpiece, Bohemian Rhapsody.

Emma Bunton was known as "Baby Spice" in the all-girl, British pop group the Spice Girls. She became engaged to R&B singer Jade Jones in 2011.

Anthony Burgess was an English novelist and composer best known for his novel A Clockwork Orange, which became a popular 1971 Stanley Kubrik film.

British astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell assisted in constructing a large radio telescope and discovered pulsars, cosmic sources of peculiar radio pulses.

British-born Mark Burnett produced and directed a number of highly popular shows in the United States, including Survivor and The Apprentice.

Poet Robert Burns is considered one of the most famous characters of Scotland's cultural history. He is best known as a pioneer of the Romantic movement.

Sir Richard Burton was a British explorer and linguist. He translated The Arabian Nights, and wrote extensively about his travels in Asia, Africa and America.

Richard Burton was a highly regarded Welsh actor of stage and screen. He earned seven Oscar nominations and was married twice to actress Elizabeth Taylor.

Thomas Byles, a Catholic priest, was a victim of the RMS Titanic disaster.

David Byrne is a singer/songwriter who is best known as the front man for the art-rock musical group the Talking Heads.

Lord Byron is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and is best known for his amorous lifestyle and his brilliant use of the English language.

Michael Caine is a beloved Oscar-winning actor known for his roles in films like Alfie, Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules.

David Cameron is best known for being a revolutionary leader of Britain's Conservative Party, a quality that eventually won him the election as prime minister in 2010.

Samantha Cameron is best known for being the wife of British Prime Minister David Cameron, and for her role as an executive for a well-known English stationery company.

Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish essayist, historian and satirical writer. His best know works include Life of Schiller, Sartor Resartus and The French Revolution.

Laura Carmichael is a British actress known chiefly for playing Lady Edith Crawley on the hit TV series Downton Abbey.

Lewis Carroll was the pen name of Charles L. Dodgson, author of the children's classics "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass."

Helena Bonham Carter is a British actress known for her roles in historical dramas, as well as quirkier movies including Fight Club and Dark Shadows. She is married to director Tim Burton.

Howard Carter was a British archaeologist who excavated King Tut's tomb beginning in 1922.

Henry Cavill is a TV and film actor known for his roles in The Tudors and The Immortals and as Superman in Man of Steel.

Robert Cascoyne-Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood, is best known as one of the chief architects behind the League of Nations.

Neville Chamberlain was the British Prime Minister as England entered World War II. He is known for his policy of "appeasement" towards Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany.

Charlie Chaplin was a comedic British actor who became one of the biggest stars of the 20th century's silent-film era.

Charles II was the monarch of England, Ireland and Scotland during much of the latter half of the 17th century, marking the Restoration era.

Bobby Charlton is best known for being one of England's most accomplished soccer player of all time.

English poet Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the unfinished work, The Canterbury Tales. It is considered one of the greatest poetic works in English.

Melanie Chisholm, also known as "Sporty Spice" and "Mel C," became famous in the mid-1990s with the all-girl British pop group the Spice Girls.

Agatha Christie was a mystery writer who was one of the world's top-selling authors with works like Murder on the Orient Express and The Mystery of the Blue Train.

British serial killer John Christie murdered at least six women, including his wife, before being arrested and hanged in 1953.

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

After writing radio and television plays for the BBC, British playwright Caryl Lesley Churchill penned the controversial theatrical play Seven Jewish Children.

As prime minister, Sir Winston Churchill rallied the British people during WWII, and led his country from the brink of defeat to victory.

Cicely Saunders was a nurse, social worker who founded the first modern hospice, St. Christopher's Hospice, in 1967 to provide palliative care to those in need.

Sam Claflin is a British actor who's starred in big-screen fantasy adventures like Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Snow White and the Huntsman, and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

Guitarist and singer-songwriter Eric Clapton's 1992 single "Tears in Heaven" became a top five hit. It was written about the death of his son.

An author of more than 100 books, Arthur C. Clarke’s imagination and insight influenced modern science via works like his classic 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Vince Clarke is best known for his membership in the snythpop group Erasure and the technopop group Depeche Mode.

Comedian John Cleese is most famous for his work with the comedy group Monty Python, and for the popular British television series Fawlty Towers.

Sacha Baron Cohen is a British comedian and actor who is widely known for his portrayal of three unorthodox fictional characters: Ali G, Borat and Brüno.

Singer Cheryl Cole was part of the top-selling British girl group Girls Aloud.

British actress Jenna-Louise Coleman is best known for playing the Doctor's companion, Oswin, on the popular sci-fi BBC program Doctor Who, and for playing bad girl Jasmine Thomas on the British soap Emmerdale.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet of the Romantic Movement, best known for his allegorical sea-faring poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner."

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.

Olivia Colman is a British actress best known for playing Carol Thatcher, the daughter of Margaret Thatcher, in the 2011 biopic The Iron Lady.

Scottish actor Robbie Coltrane is best known for his roles such as Hagrid the Giant in the Harry Potter series and Mr. Hyde in Van Helsing.

English novelist and short-story writer Joseph Conrad’s works include the novels Lord Jim, Nostromo and The Secret Agent and the story “Heart of Darkness”.

Alan Conway was best known for impersonating the film director Stanley Kubrick. Conway convinced several figures in the entertainment industry, and recieved meals, drinks, and sexual favors in exchange for promising roles in Kubrick films.

British navigator James Cook discovered and charted New Zealand and Australia's Great Barrier Reef on his ship Endeavor, and later disproved the existence of the fabled southern continent Terra Australis. His voyages provided the first accurate map of the Pacific.

Robin Cook was a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Livingston from 1983 until his death.

Alistair Cooke was a British-born journalist who worked in newspaper, radio and television. He hosted television's Masterpiece Theatre.

Stewart Copeland is best known as the drummer for The Police. Copeland is also an accomplished producer and composer of soundtracks for movies and television.

British actor, songwriter and playwright Noël Coward was one of the top figures of 20th century theater, using wit to deal with major social issues.

Simon Cowell is a record producer and television personality known for his scathing critical remarks as a judge on the television show, "American Idol."

Graham Coxon is an English singer-songwriter, best known as the guitarist and backup vocalist for the alternative rock band Blur.

Singer Nadine Coyle was part of top-selling British girl group Girls Aloud.

Daniel Craig is an English actor who has played a wide varity of roles but is best known for playing the most recent incarnation of James Bond.

Francis Crick is responsible for discovering, along with James Watson, the double-helix structure of the DNA strand.

Quentin Crisp became a gay icon in the 1970s after publication of his memoir, The Naked Civil Servant, describing his life in homophobic British Society.

British singer-songwriter Taio Cruz is known for the albums Departure and Rokstarr, which includes songs like "Break Your Heart" and "Dynamite."

Benedict Cumberbatch is a British screen actor, best known for his role on the BBC television show Sherlock.

Alan Cumming is a Scottish actor known for a range of work, from Shakespeare to Cabaret to X-Men, to the television series The Good Wife.

English actor Tim Curry starred as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the groundbreaking stage (1973) and film (1975) productions of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Children's author Roald Dahl wrote the kids' classics Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach, among other famous works. He was married to actress Patricia Neal.

Barbara West Dainton survived the sinking of the Titanic on April 15, 1912, and was the second-to-last remaining survivor when she died in 2007.

Stephen Daldry is a three-time Oscar nominated director known for the films Billy Elliot, The Hours and The Reader.

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

Chemist John Dalton is credited with pioneering modern atomic theory. He was also the first to study color blindness.

Timothy Dalton is a versatile stage and film actor. He succeeded Roger Moore in the James Bond franchise in the 1980s and played Prince Barin in Flash Gordon.

Roger Daltrey is a rock musician and singer who’s the former lead vocalist of The Who. He’s also a film and TV actor.

Thomas Arthur Darvill is a British actor and musician, best known for his role as Rory Williams, the Eleventh Doctor's companion in the popular sci-fi program Doctor Who.

Charles Darwin is best known for his work as a naturalist, developing a theory of evolution to explain biological change.

David Suchet is a British actor who became known to international audiences as Agatha Christie's detective Hercule Poirot.

Lead singer for The Kinks, Ray Davies is known for his decades-long career in rock, hits like ‘Lola,’ and ongoing feuds with brother and bandmate Dave Davies.

Siobhan Davies is a British dancer and choreographer. She founded her Siobhan Davies Dance Company in 1988.

Militant suffragette Emily Wilding Davison fought to gain equal voting rights for British women before dying at the Epsom Derby in 1913.

Humphry Davy was a British chemist best known for his contributions to the discoveries of chlorine and iodine. He is noted for suggesting the anesthetic use of nitrous oxide in human surgery.

British comedian Richard Dawson is best known for his role as Corporal Newkirk in the World War II sitcom Hogan's Heroes and as the host of Family Feud.

Academy Award-winning English actor Daniel Day-Lewis is known for going to extreme lengths to prepare for a role. He has starred in several films, including Sunday, Bloody Sunday; My Beautiful Laundrette; My Left Foot; and Lincoln.

Some people believe it was Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, who really wrote the plays attributed to William Shakespeare.