Famous U.S. Immigrants a to z

Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist and author of Things Fall Apart, a work that in part led to his being called the "patriarch of the African novel."

Isabel Allende is a Chilean author best known for penning novels in the style of magic realism. She is the niece of former Chilean president Salvador Allende.

Sidney Altman is a Nobel Prize-winning Canadian-American molecular biologist.

Mob boss Albert Anastasia started out as a hitman and became one of the most powerful crime bosses of the 20th century. He helped run Murder Inc.

Beauty pioneer Elizabeth Arden opened the red doors of her first spa in 1910.

Desi Arnaz was a Cuban-born actor and musician who is remembered for his marriage to Lucille Ball and their TV show, I Love Lucy.

Will Arnett is a comedic actor known for his wacky role as G.O.B. on TV's Arrested Development and his voice-over work in film.

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.

W.H. Auden was a literary chameleon known for his poetry but who also wrote librettos, essays and verse dramas.

John James Audubon was an American ornithologist, artist and naturalist known for his studies, drawings and paintings of North American birds.

Spanish actor Antonio Banderas starred in several of Pedro Almodóvar’s films. In America, he has played Zorro, and Puss in Boots in the Shrek film series.

Mikhail Baryshnikov is a Russian-American ballet dancer who choreographed several iconic pieces which have made him one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century.

Victoria Beckham is a fashion designer and singer chiefly known for her work with the Spice Girls and for being the wife of soccer star David Beckham.

Saul Bellow was a celebrated novelist who won the Pulitzer, the Nobel Prize for Literature and the National Book Award for Fiction three times.

Irving Berlin was one of the most prolific and popular songwriters of the 20th century, counting among his many hits "White Christmas" and "Cheek to Cheek."

Fernando Botero is a Colombian artist known for creating bloated, oversized depictions of people, animals and elements of the natural world.

Charles Boyer was an Oscar-nominated French actor of stage, film and television with a career that spanned almost six decades.

Anne Bradstreet was a 17th century writer who is credited as being one of the first English poets in the colonies.

Maeve Brennan was an Irish short story writer and journalist known for her wit, charm and tragic end.

A leader of the Puritan Separatist movement, William Brewster was one of the pilgrims who traveled aboard the Mayflower to America.

Sergey Brin created Google, the world's most popular search engine. Brin and Larry Page, Google's co-creator, still manage the company and are billionaires.

Russian-born American poet Joseph Brodsky was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1987 for his important lyric and elegiac poems.

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.

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

Michael Caine is a beloved Oscar-winning actor known for his roles in films like Alfie, Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules.

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

Rod Carew is a former Major League Baseball first baseman, second baseman and coach who played for the Minnesota Twins and the California Angels. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.

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

Andrew Carnegie, a self-made steel tycoon and one of the wealthiest 19th century U.S. businessmen, donated towards the expansion of the New York Public Library.

Actor/director/producer Jackie Chan's unique blend of impressive martial arts and screwball physical comedy has helped make him an international film star.

Charo is a singer, musician and actress best known for her Latin sassiness, sexy outfits and signature phrase during the 1970s, "Cuchi-cuchi."

Steve Chen is best known as the co-founder and chief technology officer of the video-sharing website YouTube. Google bought YouTube for $1.64 billion in stock.

Student Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 30 people on Virginia Tech's campus in 2007. The mass murder ended when he turned the gun and shot himself in the head.

Ronald Colman was an Academy Award-winning British actor.

Quentin Crisp became a gay icon in the 1970s after publication of his memoir, The Naked Civil Servant, describing his life in homophobic British Society.

Celia Cruz was a Cuban-American singer, best known as one of the most popular salsa performers of all time, recording 23 gold albums. 

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.

Oscar de la Renta is one of the world’s leading fashion designers. Famous for his women's evening wear and suits, his line is distinctly modern yet feminine.

Theodosius Dobzhansky was a 20th century scientist, professor and author who did pioneering work in genetics and evolution.

Samantha Eggar is a British film and television actress. She recently performed as Hera in the Disney film Hercules.

Albert Einstein was a German-born physicist who developed the theory of relativity. He is considered the most influential physicist of the 20th century.

Personality development, in Erik H. Erikson's view, occurs through a series of identity crises that occur in stages that must be overcome and internalized.

Jaime Escalante became famous for his work with troubled, "unteachable" high school math students. His story was told in the 1988 film Stand and Deliver.

Musician Emilio Estefan founded the Miami Sound Machine, won multiple Grammy Awards and produced Latino superstars like Ricky Martin and Marc Antony.

Physicist Enrico Fermi built the prototype of a nuclear reactor and worked on the Manhattan Project to develop the first atomic bomb.

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

Associate Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter was a noted law scholar who served as the high court's leading exponent of the doctrine of judicial self-restraint.

Actress Eva Gabor played the socialite turned farm wife, Lisa Douglas, on the TV series Green Acres. Her sisters Zsa Zsa and Magda were also entertainers.

From The Untouchables to Stand and Deliver to Ocean's Eleven, Andy Garcia built an impressive acting resume.

Philosophical essayist, novelist, poet and artist Khalil Gibran wrote The Prophet, a book of poetic essays that achieved cult status among American youth.

Roberto Críspulo Goizueta served as chairman and CEO of the Coca-Cola Company. Over 16-years, he increased Coca-Cola's market value from $4 to $150 billion.

Actor Cary Grant performed in films from the 1930s through the 1960s. He starred in several Hitchcock films, including the 1959 hit North by Northwest.

Thom Gunn was an award-winning poet known for works that included Fighting Terms, Touch and The Man With Night Sweats.

Doug Henning was a magician known the world over for his tricks performed on TV and Broadway and in Las Vegas.

Actress Audrey Hepburn, star of Breakfast at Tiffany's, remains one of Hollywood's greatest style icons and one of the world's most successful actresses.

Known for his photo collages and paintings of Los Angeles swimming pools, David Hockney is considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th century.

German painter Hans Hofmann was an influential 20th century art teacher whose work paved the way for Abstract Expressionism.

Anthony Hopkins is an Oscar-winning actor known for roles in many films, including The Lion in Winter, Silence of the Lambs and The Remains of the Day.

Roy Horn is half of the headlining Las Vegas magical duo Siegfried & Roy who survived severe injuries after an onstage tiger attack.

Iman is a retired supermodel from the country of Somalia. She's married to rocker David Bowie.

An American novelist and naturalized Englishman, Henry James was an important figure in transatlantic literary culture of the day.

Wyclef Jean is a Haitian musician whose band, the Fugees, hit it big in the mid-1990s with The Score.

Architect Albert Kahn was known for his designs of American automobile factories. He was considered the world's foremost industrial architect at the time.

Actor Klaus Kinski made his mark in such films as Aguirre (1972), Nosferatu (1979) and Fitzcarraldo (1982).

Henry Kissinger is an American political scientist and diplomat who won the Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to broker a peaceful settlement of the Vietnam War.

Anna Kournikova is a Russian professional tennis player, well known for her beauty. At her peak, she was one of the best known players worldwide.

Film and television actress Mila Kunis came to fame on the sitcom That '70s Show. In film, she's co-starred in such hits as Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Black Swan.

Immunologist and pathologist Karl Landsteiner received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the major blood types.

Tom Lantos was a 14-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the state of California, as well as the first and only Holocaust survivor to serve in Congress.