Famous Italians a to z

American actress Amy Adams has starred in the popular films Julie & Julia, Drop Dead Gorgeous, Enchanted and Junebug, among many others.

Maria Gaetana Agnesi is best known for writing the first book discussing integral and differential calculus.

Lou Albano was a professional wrestler-turned-wrestling personality in the hugely popular World Wrestling Federation of the 1980s.

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.

Mario Andretti is best known as one of car racing's most successful drivers.

Italian Dominican theologian Saint Thomas Aquinas was the foremost medieval Scholasticist and father of the Thomistic school of theology.

As Emperor of Rome from 161-180, Marcus Aurelius kept the empire safe from the Parthians and Germans, but is best known for his intellectual pursuits.

Cesare Beccaria was one of the greatest minds of the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century. His writings on criminology and economics were well ahead of their time.

Luciano Benetton is the founder of the Benetton Group, which sells clothing in varying lines, notably the United Colors of Benetton.

Roberto Benigni is an Italian actor, director and producer best known for his 1997 Oscar winning film La Vita e Bella (Life is Beautiful).

Silvio Berlusconi is best known as a controversial Italian politician who was elected as Prime Minister three times.

Lucrezia Borgia was an Italian noblewoman and daughter of Pope Alexander VI. A notorious reputation precedes her, and she is inextricably, and perhaps unfairly, linked to the crimes and debauchery of her family.

Sandro Botticelli was an Italian painter of the early Renaissance-era. He contributed to the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel and painted the immortal The Birth of Venus.

Filippo Brunelleschi was one of the leading architects and engineers of the Italian Renaissance, and is best known for his work on the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (the Duomo) in Florence.

Heiress, model, singer, and actress Carla Bruni is best known for her romances and marriage to French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Explorer John Cabot made a British claim to land in Canada, mistaking it for Asia, during his 1497 voyage on the ship Matthew.

Caravaggio, or Michelangelo Merisi, was an Italian painter who is considered one of the fathers of modern painting.

Giovanni Giacomo Casanova, an 18th Century figure, is known for his archetypal reputation as a seducer of women.

Famed Italian explorer Christopher Columbus discovered the "New World" of the Americas on an expedition sponsored by King Ferdinand of Spain in 1492.

Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian painter and a genius in many realms of science. He is best known for two paintings: the "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper."

Poet, writer, political thinker. Dante was a Medieval Italian poet and philosopher whose poetic trilogy, The Divine Comedy, made an indelible impression on both literature and theology.

Giada De Laurentiis has won over TV audiences with her appetizing and accessible cooking shows, including Everyday Italian and Giada at Home.

Cosimo de' Medici was the "Elder" and start of the Medici dynasty that ruled Florence (Italy) from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance, and after.

Marie de' Medici is best known for serving as queen consort of Henry IV of France.

Domitian was a Roman emperor from years AD 81 to 96 and was known for the reign of terror members of the Senate lived under in his last years.

Italian sculptor Donatello was the greatest Florentine sculptor before Michelangelo (1475–1564) and was the most influential individual artist of the 15th century in Italy.

Renato Dulbecco was an Italian virologist best known winning the Nobel Prize for pioneering the growing of viruses in culture in the 1950s.

El Greco was a Greek artist whose painting and sculpture helped define the Spanish Renaissance and influence various movements to come.

Italian tennis player Sara Errani has won several honors, including two WTA singles titles and six WTA doubles titles. She lost to Maria Sharapova in the final round of the 2012 French Open.

Isabella Farnese was the Queen consort of Spain, wife of Philip V of Spain. She exerted tremendous influence of Spain's foreign policy and expansion.

Italian film director Federico Fellini was one of the most celebrated and distinctive filmmakers of the period after World War II.

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

Italian scientist and scholar Galileo made pioneering observations that laid the foundation for modern physics and astronomy.

Artemisia Gentileschi was a Tuscan, Baroque-period painter. She studied under her father, artist Orazio Gentileschi, and was also influenced by Caravaggio.

One of the most important early Renaissance sculptors, Lorenzo Ghiberti is best known as the creator of the bronze doors of the Baptistery of Florence.

Antonio Gramsci was an Italian Communist Party leader. He was arrested for speaking out against fascism and wrote his Prison Notebooks before dying in jail.

Professional soccer player Kaká helped São Paulo take home the World Cup title in 2002. He later lead Milan to Champions League and Club World Cup titles.

Italian Jewish chemist Primo Levi survived a year at Auschwitz against all odds. He is best known his moving memoir, If This Is a Man.

Rita Levi-Montalcini shared the 1986 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for her part in the discovery of a protein that stimulates nerve cell growth.

Sophia Loren is an Academy Award-winning Italian actress. A striking beauty, Loren is often listed among the world's all time most attractive women.

Lucky Luciano was an Italian-born American mobster best known for engineering the structure of modern organized crime in the United States.

Italian diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli is best known for writing The Prince, a handbook for unscrupulous politicians that inspired the term "Machiavellian" and established its author as the "father of modern political theory."

Academy-award winning Italian stage and film actress Anna Magnani was in the movie Open City, and inspired playwright Tennessee Williams to pen The Rose Tattoo.

Carlos Marcello was best known as the mob boss of New Orleans, and for the FBI's investigation of his possible involvement in JFK's assassination.

Marcello Mastroianni often played the ideal European male in Federico Fellini's films.

Explorer and mountaineer Reinhold Messner is famous for making the first solo ascent of Mount Everest without supplemental oxygen.

Michelangelo is widely regarded as the most famous artist of the Italian Renaissance. Among his works are the David and Pieta statues and the Sistine Chapel frescoes. 

Vittorio Missoni is an Italian business executive best known as the CEO of the Missoni brand, founded by his parents in the 1950s.

Italian physician Maria Montessori was a pioneer of theories in early childhood education, which are still implemented in Montessori schools all over the globe.

Benito Mussolini created the Fascist Party in Italy in 1919, eventually making himself dictator prior to World War II. He was killed in 1945.

St. Philip Neri was best known as an Italian priest who helped his congregation and others in need. He was canonized in 1622.

As Roman emperor, Nero’s reign was lavish and tyrannical. He killed his mother, persecuted Christians and is said to have "fiddled while Rome burned."

Florence Nightingale, a nurse, spent her night rounds giving personal care to the wounded, establishing her image as the 'Lady with the Lamp.'

St Clare of Assisi was one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi. She became the abbess of the convent of San Damiano, near Assisi in 1216. In 1958 she was declared the Patron of television.

St. Catherine of Siena was a Dominican tertiary who worked to return the papacy from France to Italy. She is one of two patron saints of Italy.