1946-1993
1882-1942
Robert Benchley was an American humorist, drama critic and film actor who is best known for his small roles in over 40 films, including How To Sleep.
1889-1945
Athlete George Best played for Manchester United and was named European Footballer of the Year in 1968. His brief career ended by the time he was 25.
1946-2005
Author and poet Charles Bukowski wrote the gritty poetry book Love is a Dog from Hell, and the novels Barfly and Factotum, both of which were made into films.
1920-1994
Calamity Jane was a woman of the Wild West who was respected for her talent with a gun and kindness toward others.
1852-1903
Truman Capote was a trailblazing writer of Southern descent known for the works Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood, among others.
1924-1984
As prime minister, Sir Winston Churchill rallied the British people during WWII, and led his country from the brink of defeat to victory.
1874-1965
William Faulkner was a Nobel Prize-winning novelist of the American South, who wrote challenging prose and created the fictional Yoknapatawpha County. He is known for novels like Sartoris.
1897-1962
American short-story writer and novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald is known for his turbulent personal life and his famous novel The Great Gatsby.
1896-1940
Actress and singer Judy Garland was the star of many classic musical films, and was known for her tremendous talent and troubled life.
1922-1969
Irish actor Richard Harris is best known for his performances as King Arthur in Broadway's Camelot and Albus Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter films.
1930-2002
Nobel Prize winner Ernest Hemingway is seen as one of the great American 20th century novelists, and is known for works like A Farewell to Arms and The Old Man and the Sea.
1899-1961
Jack Kerouac was an American writer best known for the novel On the Road, which became an American classic, pioneering the Beat Generation in the 1950s.
1922-1969
Lindsay Lohan is an actress and pop singer who starred in the film Mean Girls and in the TV movie Liz & Dick.
1986-
Jack London was a 19th century American author and journalist, best known for the adventure novels White Fang and The Call of the Wild.
1876-1916
Shane McGowan is an Irish singer-songwriter who founded the folk-punk band the Pogues.
1957-
Modest Mussorgsky was a 19th century Russian composer. His most famous works include "Night on Bald Mountain," "Boris Godunov" and "Pictures at an Exhibition."
1839-1881
Dorothy Parker was the sharpest wit of the Algonquin Round Table, as well as a master of short fiction and a blacklisted screenwriter.
1893-1967
American writer, critic and editor Edgar Allan Poe is famous for his tales and poems of horror and mystery, including The Raven.
1809-1849
1895-1948
Actor Charlie Sheen, star of such films as Platoon and of TV's Two and a Half Men, is the brother of actor Emilio Estévez and the son of actor Martin Sheen.
1965-
Actor Kiefer Sutherland, son of Donald Sutherland, appeared in numerous coming-of-age films throughout the 1980s, including Stand by Me and The Lost Boys.
1966-
Writer Dylan Thomas is best known for the poem "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night," the play "Under Milk Wood," and for his heavy drinking.
1914-1953
A counterculture icon, Hunter S. Thompson was an American journalist best known for writing 1971's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and creating "Gonzo journalism."
1937-2005
Vincent van Gogh is considered the greatest Dutch painter after Rembrandt, although he remained poor and virtually unknown throughout his life.
1853-1890
1949-
Boris Yeltsin was the first freely elected President of Russia. He voluntarily resigned from the post after nine years, leaving the job to Putin.
1931-2007