Joy Adamson was a conservationist who pioneered the movement to preserve African wildlife. She won renown with her books about raising the lion cub Elsa.
1910-1980
Tex Avery was an American cartoonist best known for creating characters such as Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, Droopy and Chilly Willy.
1908-1980
Roland Barthes was a French literary philosopher whose work influenced structuralism, semiotics and anthropology.
1915-1980
Sir Cecil Beaton was an English fashion photographer who is also known for his work as a diarist, interior designer, and Oscar-winning stage and costume designer.
1904-1980
1904-1980
Jacqueline Cochran is a pioneering 20th century pilot who was an advocate for female aviators during WWII and the first woman to break the sound barrier.
1910-1980
Dorothy Day was an activist who worked for such social causes as pacifism and women’s suffrage through the prism of the Catholic Church.
1897-1980
1895-1980
William O. Douglas was a government official who in 1939 became the second youngest Supreme Court justice in U.S. history.
1898-1980
Jimmy Durante was an American comedian whose career in every major entertainment performance medium spanned more than six decades.
1893-1980
1929-1980
1900-1980
Keith Godchaux is known for his tenure as a keyboardist with the Grateful Dead in the 1970s.
1948-1980
1902-1980
Robert Hayden was an African-American poet and professor who is best known as the author of poems, including “Those Winter Sundays” and “The Middle Passage.”
1913-1980
Filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was nicknamed the "Master of Suspense" for employing a kind of psychological suspense in his films, producing a distinct viewer experience.
1899-1980
John Lennon, pop star, composer, songwriter and recording artist, founded the Beatles, a band that impacted the music scene like no other before or since.
1940-1980
1908-1980
1918-1980
1911-1980
American film star Steve McQueen was one of the most popular and well-paid actors of the 1960s and ‘70s. He starred in films like The Great Escape, Bullit and The Getaway.
1930-1980
1894-1980
Henry Miller was a 20th century American writer, who created a new sort of novel—later characterized as a fictionalized autobiography.
1891-1980
Luis Muñoz Marín was Puerto Rico's first governor, serving four terms.
1898-1980
A.C. Nielsen was an American market-research engineer and business executive, best known for creating Nielsen ratings, a national rating of television viewing.
1897-1980
American track-and-field athlete Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. His long jump world record stood for 25 years.
1913-1980
1919-1980
Psychologist Jean Piaget identified stages of mental development, called Schema, and established the fields of cognitive theory and developmental psychology.
1896-1980
Colonel Sanders is best known for creating a fried chicken recipe that would become the world's fast-food chicken chain, Kentucky Fried Chicken.
1890-1980
Jean-Paul Sartre was a 20th century intellectual, writer and activist who put forth pioneering ideas on existentialism.
1905-1980
British actor Peter Sellers was incredibly versatile, playing Chief Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther films with as much ease as Clare Quilty in Lolita.
1925-1980
1915-1980
Dorothy Stratten was a Playboy model and actress before she was murdered at the age of 20.
1960-1980
Mae West started in Vaudeville and on the stage in New York, and later moved to Hollywood to star in films known for their blunt sexuality and steamy settings.
1893-1980