Famous Cancerians a to z

Director, producer and playwright George Abbott lived to be 107 and participated in such Broadway productions as Boy Meets Girl, The Fall Guy and Our Town.

J.J. Abrams is a screenwriter, director and producer known for TV shows like Felicity and Alias and films like Star Trek and Super 8.

John Quincy Adams was the sixth president of the United States. He was also the eldest son of President John Adams, the second U.S. president.

Todd Akin is a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri's 2nd District, best known for his controversial statement on abortion made during his 2012 senate bid.

Alexander the Great was the King of Macedonia. During his leadership he united Greece, reestablished the Corinthian League and conquered the Persian Empire.

Eugene Allen was a distinguished butler for the White House who served under eight presidents, including Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.

African-American entrepreneur Wally Amos founded the Famous Amos cookie brand. He also worked as a talent agent and discovered Simon & Garfunkel.

Pamela Anderson first gained fame in the pages of Playboy and rose to international fame with her role on Baywatch. She garnered more fame in 2010, when she competed on Dancing with the Stars.

Jodi Arias was convicted of brutally murdering her ex-boyfriend, Travis Alexander, at his Arizona home in 2008.

After the Duvalier family of dictators was overthrown, Salesian Priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide was chosen as president of Haiti in its first democratic election.

Tichina Arnold is best known for portraying Pam James, opposite Martin Lawrence, on the sitcom Martin and Rochelle on the show Everybody Hates Chris.

Arthur Ashe is the first African American to win the men's singles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, and the first black American to be ranked No. 1 in the world.

Julian Assange came to international attention as the founder of the whistle-blowing Web site, Wikileaks.

Fur trader and real estate investor John Jacob Astor was one of the leading businessmen of his day and the founder of an American fur trade dynasty.

Financier John Jacob Astor IV was the great-grandson of John Jacob Astor. He helped build the Waldorf-Astoria hotel and died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic.

American neuroscientist Richard Axel is best known for his work on the olfactory system, exploring how the brain interprets smell.

Dan Aykroyd is a Canadian actor and comedian known for his performances on Saturday Night Live, and in the hit films The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters.

In 2011, Kelly Ayotte was elected to represent New Hampshire in the U.S. Senate, after previously serving as the state's attorney general.

Isaak Babel was a Russian writer of Jewish descent known for his masterful short stories. He was imprisoned and executed in the Stalin era.

Kevin Bacon is known for numerous movies (especially Footloose), his marriage to Kyra Sedgwick and the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Singer Florence Ballard formed The Supremes in 1961 with childhood friends Mary Wilson and Diana Ross. She sang on 16 different Top 40 hits.

Deep-sea archaeologist and oceanographer Robert Ballard is best known for discovering the wreck of the RMS Titanic in 1985.

Buju Banton is a controversial Jamaican dancehall singer who is best known for his notorious single "Boom Bye Bye," which advocated violence against gays and inspired worldwide protest.

A popular humorist, Dave Barry has poked fun at an array of topics, from bad songs to historical events, for more than 30 years.

Award-winning actress Kathy Bates starred as a deranged fan opposite James Caan in Misery, and as a comically emancipated housewife in Fried Green Tomatoes.

Star of the 1980s sitcom Family Ties, Meredith Baxter has appeared in several films and television shows throughout her lifetime.

Jeff Beck is a guitarist best known for his recordings and performances with The Yardbirds, The Jeff Beck Group, and as a solo artist.

Henry Ward Beecher was an American Congressional clergyman, best known for his Protestant sermons and his involvement in a high-profile adultery scandal.

Gertrude Bell was a British writer, archaeologist and political officer best known for helping to establish modern Iraq after World War I.

Kristen Bell is an American actress known for her roles on TV's Veronica Mars and in such films as Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Couples Retreat and Get Him to the Greek.

Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director and producer best known for films such as The Seventh Sea (1956), Cries and Whispers (1971) and Autumn Sonata (1978).

Milton Berle was a Jewish-American comedian who started in vaudeville acts, and was a success in the early days of TV, becoming known as "Uncle Miltie."

Mary McLeod Bethune was an educator and activist, serving as president of the National Association of Colored Women and founding the National Council of Negro Women.

Benazir Bhutto became the first female prime minister of Pakistan in 1988. She was killed by a suicide bomber in 2007.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum became prime minister and vice president of the United Arab Emirates in 2006, and is responsible for Dubai’s transformation into a lavish business destination.

Rubén Blades is an acclaimed Panamanian singer, musician and actor known for albums like Buscando America and hits like "Pedro Navaja."

Jean-Pierre Blancard was a French balloonist who crossed the English Channel by balloon in 1785. He spurred interest in ballooning in Europe and the United States.

Thomas Blanchard was an American inventor whose patents contributed to the development of the mass production system.

Franz Boas was a German-born anthropologist who founded the relativistic, culture-centered school of American anthropology that dominated 20th century thought.

Lizzie Borden is best known for her arrest and trial for the 1892 axe murders of her father and stepmother. She was acquitted in 1893.

Chef, TV host, author. Chef Anthony Bourdain moved out of the kitchen to become a bestselling author and TV personality, gaining wider fame with his unique culinary worldview.

Thomas Bowdler was a physician and self-appointed editor of great literature. He published The Family Shakespeare, a family friendly version of Shakespearean works, in 1807, and gave rise to the term "Bowdlerized."

Camilla Parker Bowles married Prince Charles in a civil service in 2005. The two had been romantically involved for more than 25 years.

Entrepreneur Richard Branson launched Virgin Records in 1973. Today Virgin Group holds more than 200 companies in more than 30 countries.

For 40 years, Actor and comedian Albert Brooks has worked steadily in Hollywood, appearing both in other people's movies and in his own self-directed projects.

Mel Brooks is an iconic filmmaker known for comedies like The Producers, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, among other works.

Dan Brown is the New York Times-bestselling author of The Da Vinci Code. He is known for the intricate plotting and detail in his books.

Molly Brown was best known for her social welfare work on behalf of women and children, and for surviving the Titanic sinking.

Yul Brynner was an actor of stage and screen most famous for portraying King Mongkut of Siam in The King and I.

Prolific author Pearl S. Buck earned a Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Good Earth. She was also the first female to win a Nobel Prize for Literature.

Betty Buckley is an American actress best known for roles in the television show, Eight is Enough, and later film roles.

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.

George W. Bush was the 43rd president of the United States. He led his country's response to the 9/11 attacks in 2001 and initiated the Iraq War in 2003.

Brazilian-born beauty Gisele Bündchen is a top fashion model, and the wife of professional football player Tom Brady.

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and helped Italian-American immigrants. She was canonized in 1946.

James Cagney was an Academy Award-winning actor who was known for playing gangsters and short-fused tough guys.

Theologian John Calvin was the leading French Protestant Reformer and the most important figure in the second generation of the Protestant Reformation.

Jose Canseco is best known for his record-breaking Major League Baseball career.

Pierre Cardin is an Italian-born French fashion designer best known for his haute couture geometric avant-garde designs.

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

June Carter Cash was a Grammy-winning country singer who was married to and performed with country music star Johnny Cash.

Paul Castellano is best known for becoming the boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City.

Marc Chagall was a French artist whose work was generally based on emotional association rather than traditional pictorial fundamentals.

Charles IX was King of France from 1560 until 1574 during the turbulent time of the Wars of Religion.

Judy Chicago is an American artist, educator and writer, and a leading figure in feminist art. She received critical acclaim in the 1970s for her art project "The Dinner Party."

Julio César Chávez is a retired Mexican professional boxer and world lightweight champion who, for many years, was one of Mexico's most popular sports figures.

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.

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

When Frances Cleveland married Grover Cleveland, she became the youngest first lady ever, and the first to be married in the White House.

Van Cliburn was an acclaimed pianist who played with the New York Philharmonic and founded an international piano competition.

Lucille Clifton is a poet whose works generally examine family life, racism and gender issues.