Famous People Who Immigration a to z

Madeleine Albright became the first woman to represent the U.S. in regards to foreign affairs as the secretary of state.

Yasser Arafat was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization from 1969 until his death in 2004, a tumultuous period in which clashes with neighboring Israel were prevalent.

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

Ingrid Bergman was one of the most popular motion-picture actresses in the United States from the 1940s until her death in 1982. She was also an international star across Europe.

Isaiah Berlin was a trailblazing 20th century scholar, philosopher and author, who championed pluralistic thinking and openness to ideas.

Elizabeth Bowen is the author of novels and short-story collections such as The House in Paris (1935), The Heat of the Day (1938) and The Demon Lover (1945).

Jackson Browne is a folk singer-songwriter who released numerous hit records in the 1970s and '80s, including Late for the Sky. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004.

Dancer and choreographer Maurice Béjart founded Switzerland's Béjart Ballet Lausanne, known for his 2000 version of The Nutcracker.

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

Jane Campion is a New Zealand film director and writer who won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for The Piano in 1993. She also directed Bright Star.

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.

Ronald Colman was an Academy Award-winning British actor.

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.

Rubén Darío was an acclaimed Nicaraguan poet, essayist and journalist who introduced the style known as modernism to Spanish literature.

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.

Soccer player Ronaldo starred for the Brazilian national team and several European clubs over the course of a career that spanned nearly two decades.

Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat and philosopher who became notorious for acts of sexual cruelty in his writings as well as in his own life.

Art critic Sergei Diaghilev started the artistic collaboration the Ballet Russes, which toured worldwide and was a forerunner of the Royal Ballet.

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

Isadora Duncan was a trailblazing dancer and instructor whose emphasis on free forms of movement was a precursor to modern dance techniques.

Retired magician Siegfried Fischbacher was one-half of the performing duo Siegfried and Roy.

Sandford Fleming was a civil engineer and scientist best known as the chief railway engineer of Canada in the 19th century.

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist best known for developing the theories and techniques of psychoanalysis.

Economist F.A. Hayek was noted for his criticisms of the Keynesian welfare state and of totalitarian socialism. In 1974 he shared the Nobel Prize for Economics.

Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher in the 17th century, was best known for his book Leviathan (1651) and his political views on society.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was a 17th century nun, self-taught scholar and acclaimed writer of the Latin American colonial period and the Hispanic Baroque. She was also a staunch advocate for women's rights.

Washington Irving was a popular 19th century American author, best known for the stories Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

J.B.S. Haldane was a British geneticist who helped found the theories of population genetics.

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.

Rudyard Kipling was an English author, famous for his works: Just So Stories, The Jungle Book and "Gunga Din." He received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907.

Stanley Kubrick was an American filmmaker best known for directing Dr. Strangelove, Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining and Full Metal Jacket.

British-American actress Jane Leeves played Daphne on the Emmy Award-winning NBC sitcom Frasier, and began playing Joy on TV Land's Hot in Cleveland in 2010.

Jet Li is an actor and martial artist who has starred in a number of Chinese and English-language action films.

Yo-Yo Ma is an acclaimed cellist and songwriter who has produced dozens of albums and won more than 15 Grammy Awards.

William Lyon Mackenzie was a journalist and political agitator who led an unsuccessful revolt against the Canadian government in 1837.

German novelist, short-story and essay writer Thomas Mann won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929. One of his best-known novels is Death in Venice.

Rudolph A. Marcus is a Canadian chemist known for his research in electron-transfer reactions. He established what is known as the Marcus Theory, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1992.

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."

Argentina native Lionel Messi has established records for goals scored and won individual awards en route to worldwide recognition as the best player in soccer.

Sun Myung Moon was founder and leader of the Unification Church, a religious movement whose followers were labeled "Moonies."

Sir V.S. Naipaul is a Trinidadian-British writer of Indian descent known for his novels set in developing countries. He won the Nobel Prize in 2001 for his novel, Half a Life.

Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich of Russia was commander in chief of Tzar Nicholas II's army during WWI. The Russian Revolution ended his career.

Asra Nomani is known for her fight for women's equality in the American Islamic community.

Famed Russian-born male dancer Rudolf Nureyev was a soloist for the Kirov Ballet and a choreographer for the Paris Opera Ballet.

Of Spanish descent, the devout, learned Catherine of Aragon was the 16th-century Queen of England due to her marriage to Henry VIII.

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

Sandra Oh is a Canadian actress best known for her role as Dr. Cristina Yang on the hit television series Grey's Anatomy.

I.M. Pei is a Chinese-born American architect, perhaps best known for his controversial glass pyramid in the courtyard at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

Stamford Raffles was an English administrator and traveler who oversaw the establishment of Singapore.

Paraguayan author Augusto Roa Bastos received the Premio Cervantes prize in 1989 for books like I, the Supreme (1947).

Soccer superstar Ronaldinho was a member of Brazil's 2002 World Cup championship team and twice won the FIFA World Player of the Year award.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau is best known as an influential 18th-century philosopher who wrote the acclaimed work A Discourse on the Arts and Sciences.

Salman Rushdie is a British-Indian novelist best known for the novels Midnight's Children (1981) and The Satanic Verses (1988), for which he was accused of blasphemy against Islam.

Yves Saint Laurent was best known as an influential European fashion designer who impacted fashion in the 1960s to the present day.

In 1999, Criminal Defense Attorney Catherine Shelton was accused of shooting her rival, Marissa Hierro. Shelton’s husband was convicted, while she was absolved.

J.C.L. Simonde de Sismondi was an 18th-19th century economist and author who espoused pioneering ideas on governmental structures.

St Jerome was a 4th-century religious scholar and ascetic who’s responsible for the Vulgate, the Catholic Church’s Latin version of the Bible’s Old Testament.

St. Patrick is Ireland's patron saint, known for spreading Christianity throughout the country as a missionary during the 5th century.

Rudolf Steiner was a lecturer and founder of anthroposophy. His works attempted to find a synthesis between science and mysticism.

Musician, Isaac Stern was a famous violinist and was responsible for discovering Yo-Yo Ma.

Sir Tom Stoppard is a Czech-born British playwright whose famous works include Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1964) and Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (1978). He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1998 Academy Award winning film Shakespeare in Love. 

Peter Ustinov was an English actor, writer and director who is known for his Oscar-winning performances in Spartacus (1960) and Topkapi (1964).

America was named after Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine navigator and explorer who played a prominent role in exploring the New World.

Antonio Vivaldi was a 17th and 18th century composer who’s become one of the most renowned figures in European classical music.

Actress Naomi Watts starred in Mulholland Drive and The Ring. She's also a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations, and works on HIV/AIDS awareness programs.

Simone Weil was a French intellectual, activist and Christian Mystic.

Chinese-American actress Ming-Na is best known for her portrayal of Dr. Deb Chen on the medical drama ER.

Stefan Zweig was an Austrian writer and novelist popular in the 1920s and 1930s.