Famous People Named James a to z

James Agee was a film critic for TIME magazine, penned the screenplay for The African Queen, and won the 1958 Pulitzer Prize for his novel A Death in the Family.

James Armistead was an enslaved African American, best known for his work as a spy during the American Revolution.

James Arness is an American actor best known for portraying Marshal Matt Dillon on the TV show Gunsmoke for 20 years.

James Mitchell Ashley was best known as a U.S. congressman and abolitionist who laid the foundation to pass the 13th Amendment, outlawing slavery.

James Baldwin was an essayist, playwright and novelist regarded as a highly insightful, iconic writer with works like The Fire Next Time and Another Country.

Sir James Matthew Barrie was a Scottish dramatist, best known for writing the play Peter Pan.

James Beard was a chef, television personality and food writer who many consider the father of American-style gourmet cooking.

Jim Belushi, younger brother of the late John Belushi, starred on his own TV sitcom, According to Jim, as well as in several theater and film productions.

James Booker was an African-American musician known for his unique fusion of jazz and rhythm-and-blues, and for songs like "The Sunny Side of the Street," "A Taste of Honey" and "Papa Was a Rascal."

James J. Braddock the American world heavyweight boxing champion from 1935 until 1937. His astonishing comeback in 1934 earned him the nickname, "The Cinderella Man."

James L. Brooks is an American director, producer and screenwriter, best-known for The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda and Taxi.

Gordon Brown succeeded Tony Blair as prime minister of the United Kingdom in 2007, and served against the backdrop of a worldwide financial crisis.

James Brown, the "Godfather of Soul," was a prolific singer, songwriter and bandleader, as well as one of the most iconic figures in funk and soul music from 1956 to 2006.

James M. Buchanan is an American economist best known for his work on public choice theory, for which he receive the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1986.

James Buchanan was the 15th president of the United States. He served from 1857 to 1861, during the build-up to the Civil War.

James "Whitey" Bulger was a preeminent figure in Boston's organized crime scene from the 1970s until the mid-'90s, when he fled the area. He was captured in California in 2011, and now faces numerous charges, including money laundering, extortion and participating in 19 murders.

Actor James Caan gave an Oscar-nominated performance as Sonny Corleone in Coppola’s The Godfather and played a writer held hostage in Stephen King’s Misery.

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

Oscar-winning director James Cameron is best known for the highly acclaimed, box-office hits Aliens (1986), Titanic (1997) and Avatar (2009).

James Mark Cameron was a respected and prominent British journalist who reported widely and illuminatingly on poverty, war, injustice.

Technology entrepreneur James Clark started Silicon Graphics, launched Netscape with Marc Andreessen and created Healtheon, which merged with WebMD.

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

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.

James Fenimore Cooper was a 19th-century American novelist, best known for his Leatherstocking Tales, which included The Last of the Mohicans.

Actor and cultural icon James Dean starred in East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant. He was killed in a tragic car accident at age 24.

James Dickey was a Poet Laureate and novelist best known for his 1970 book Deliverance.

Actor James Doohan will forever be remembered as the Scottish chief engineer Scotty in the popular science fiction television and film series Star Trek.

James Forten was an African-American businessman and black leader in pre-Civil War Philadelphia.

Film and television actor James Franco starred in the NBC series Freaks and Geeks and won a Golden Globe for his role in 2001's TNT cable biopic James Dean.

Writer James Frey wrote the book, A Million Little Pieces. When The Smoking Gun discredited the book as a memoir, he had to apologize on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

James Galway is an internationally renowned flutist who includes both classical and contemporary works in his repertoire.

James Gandolfini is an American actor best known for his role as a mobster in the hit 1999 HBO television series The Sopranos.

James Garfield is best known as the 20th president of the United States. He was assassinated after only a few months in office.

James Garner is an actor known for his lead role in the TV show Maverick and for films such as Murphy’s Romance and Decoration Day.

James Hanratty was hanged in 1962 after being convicted of shooting a couple near London, but his guilt is still disputed.

James Herriot was a British veterinarian and author best known for his books detailing life as a country vet. Two films and a TV series were based on his book All Creatures Great and Small.

James Hetfield is the lead guitarist and vocalist for heavy metal band Metallica, known for hits like "Enter Sandman" and "The Memory Remains."

James J. Hill was a railroad magnate responsible for greatly expanding railways into the U.S. northwest during the late 19th century.

James Holmes was charged in a Colorado shooting that killed 12 and injured 58 on July 20, 2012.

African American musician Rick James was a popular performer in the late 1970s and is best known for hits such as "Super Freak", "Mary Jane" and "You and I".

J.J. Johnson was a 20th century jazz musician and composer regarded as one of the greatest trombonists in history.

James Johnson was an influential African-American jazz pianist and a key figure in musical transition from ragtime to jazz. He's known for his hit "Carolina Shout."

James Weldon Johnson was an African-American writer, politician, educator and lawyer. He was also an early civil rights activist and leader of the NAACP.

James Earl Jones is the American actor who voiced Darth Vader in the Star Wars film franchise. He's also known for roles in such films as The Hunt for Red October and Field of Dreams, and such shows as Frasier and Everwood.

James Joyce was an Irish, modernist writer who wrote in a ground-breaking style that was known both for its complexity and explicit content.

James Levine is a renowned pianist, violinist and conductor who has served as music director of the Metropolitan Opera since 1971.

James Ling was the former head of the Ling-Temco-Vought corporation, or LTV.

Actor, writer and producer James Lipton founded the Actors Studio Drama School and has hosted Bravo TV's Inside the Actors Studio since 1994.

James Longstreet was the principle general of the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, serving under Robert E. Lee.

Ramsay MacDonald was the first Labour Party prime minister of Great Britain, in Labour governments and the national coalition government.

The fourth U.S. president, James Madison believed in a robust yet balanced federal government and is known as the "Father of the Constitution."

James Marsden is an American actor best known for his role as Cyclops in the action adventure movie X-Men and its two sequels.

Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell originated the idea of electromagnetic radiation. His ideas formed the basis for quantum mechanics.

James McAvoy is a Scottish actor best known for his roles in The Last King of Scotland (2006), Atonement (2007) and X-Men: First Class (2011).

James Abbott McNeill Whistler was a U.S.-born British painter who was highly influential in the late 19th century. His best-known work is "Whistler's Mother."

James Meredith is a civil rights activist who became the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi in 1962.

James Mill was a Scottish historian, economist, and philosopher. He supported the radical philosophical belief called Utilitarianism.

The fifth president of the United States, James Monroe is known for his "Monroe Doctrine," disallowing further European colonization in the Americas.

James Nachtwey is an American photographer best known for his work documenting wars, civil strife and other social conflicts. His work has appeared in Time magazine and in international solo exhibitions.

James Naismith invented tha game of basketball in 1891.

James Edward Oglethorpe was an 18th century member of British Parliament who also founded the U.S. colony of Georgia.

James Otis was a lawyer in colonial Massachusetts who is best remembered for the phrase, "Taxation without representation is tyranny."

English born, English bred, forgotten by the English and the world, James Parkinson identified the "shaking palsy" as a disease of the central nervous system.

James Patterson is an author of popular thrillers. He is best known for the Womens Murder Club series, and for his books starring psychologist Alex Cross.

James Polk was the 11th president of the United States, known for his territorial expansion of the nation chiefly through the Mexican-American War.

Magician James Randi, known as "The Amazing Randi," has spent much of his career debunking the claims of self-proclaimed psychics and paranormalists.

J. Arthur Rank was a British film producer and magnate who also owned two large movie chains.

James T. Rapier served in Congress as a U.S. Representative from Alabama. He was one of only three black congressmen during Reconstruction and helped to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1875.

James Earl Ray is best known for assassinating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., in 1968.

James Spader is the king of playing smarmy antiheroes and villains on TV and film. He won three Emmy Awards for his role as snarky lawyer Alan Shore on Boston Legal.

James Van Der Zee was a renowned, Harlem-based photographer known for his posed, storied pictures capturing African-American citizenry and celebrity.

James Van Praagh has worked as a psychic medium and popular media figure, and is also the bestselling author of the book Talking to Heaven.

Comedic actor Jim Varney played his signature character Ernest P. Worrell in hundreds of commercials and five Disney films including Ernest goes to Camp (1987).

James D. Watson is a Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist and researcher credited with co-discovering the double-helix structure of DNA.

James West is an American inventor who developed the foil electret microphone, now used in 90 percent of all contemporary microphones, in 1962.

James Wilson was a Supreme Court associate justice. He signed both the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

James Woods is an award-winning actor of stage and screen, known for his versatility in fare like Salvador, My Name Is Bill W. and Ghosts of Mississippi.