Famous People Who Were Involved in Scandals a to z

Frank Abagnale became notorious for impersonating a pilot, a doctor, and a laywer. He was hired by the FBI to teach them his fradulent tricks.

Casey Anthony is best known for her connection to the mysterious disappearance of her daughter, Caylee Anthony.

Benedict Arnold was an American Revolutionary War general best known for his defection from the Continental Army to the British side of the conflict in 1780.

Francis Bacon was an English Renaissance statesman and philosopher, best known for his promotion the scientific method.

Roseanne Barr is an Emmy Award-winning actress and comedian known for her hit sitcom, Roseanne.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum became prime minister and vice president of the United Arab Emirates in 2006, and is responsible for Dubai’s transformation into a lavish business destination.

Tony Blair was leader of the British Labour Party from 1994 to 2007, and prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007.

Jean-Bedel Bokassa was the president of the Central African Republic (1966-1976) and a self-proclaimed emperor of the Central African Empire (1976-1979).

Anne Boleyn, the second wife of King Henry VIII, served as queen of England in the 1530s. She was executed on charges of incest, witchcraft, adultery and conspiracy against the king.

Napoleon Bonaparte was a military general who became the first emperor of France. His drive for military expansion changed the world.

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.

American motion-picture actress Clare Bow personified the flapper of the 1920s. From 1927 to 1930 she was one of the top five Hollywood box-office attractions.

Tom Bradley was a lawyer and police officer who became the first African-American mayor of Los Angeles, serving from 1973 to 1993.

Rebekah Brooks resigned as editor of the British paper that hacked into voicemail for news scoops.

Aaron Burr was the third vice president of the United States, serving under President Thomas Jefferson. Burr fatally shot his rival, Alexander Hamilton, during a duel.

William S. Burroughs was a Beat Generation writer known for his startling, nontraditional accounts of drug culture, most famously in the book Naked Lunch.

Simon Cameron was a Pennsylvania senator who later served as President Abraham Lincoln's secretary of war.

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

Anna Chapman became famous in June 2010, when she was arrested in New York and accused of spying for the Russian government.

Jacques Chirac is a French politician best known as the Prime Minister, Mayor of Paris and President of France during his career from 1974-2007.

St. John Chrysostom was archbishop of Constantinople and an important early church father.

Julio César Chávez is a retired Mexican professional boxer and world lightweight champion who, for many years, was one of Mexico's most popular sports figures.

Dick Clark was a TV personality known for the shows American Bandstand, $25,000 Pyramid and TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes, among others.

Gary Condit served in the U.S. House of Representatives and is considered a conservative Democrat. He was inconclusively linked to the disappearance of federal intern Chandra Levy.

Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus identified the concept of a heliocentric solar system, in which the sun, rather than the earth, is the center of the solar system.

Conquistador Juan de Oñate established the colony of New Mexico for Spain. During his governorship, he vainly sought the mythical riches of North America.

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

Alfred Dreyfus was a French army officer who was wrongly convicted of treason based primarily on anti-semitism. The scandal was known as the Dreyfus Affair.

Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, is best known as the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, the father of Prince Charles and the grandfather of Prince William.

Edward VIII became king of the United Kingdom following the death of his father, George V, but ruled for less than a year. He abdicated the throne in order to marry his lover, Wallis Simpson, thereafter taking the title Duke of Windsor.

M. Joycelyn Elders is a physician who briefly served as U.S. Surgeon General under President Clinton.

Daniel Ellsberg strengthened public opposition to the Vietnam War in 1971 when he leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan became prime minister of Turkey in 2003, and is best known for his vision of Turkey's economic interdependence in the Arab world.

Ralph Fiennes is a British film actor best known for his performances in Schindler's List, The English Patient and The Constant Gardener.

Bobby Fischer is best known for being the first American grandmaster of chess.

When Larry Flynt published an unflattering parody of Jerry Falwell in Hustler, Falwell waged a suit that eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court. It ruled in Flynt's favor, citing the First Amendment's protection of freedom of speech.

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.

John Galliano is a British fashion designer who served as head designer of the French haute couture houses Givenchy (1995-1996) and Christian Dior (1996-2011).

Doris Kearns Goodwin is best known for authoring biographies of American presidents, including Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, a mobster turned government witness, is best known for testifying against his mafia associates in exchange for government protection.

Lita Grey Chaplin was an actress known mostly for her tumultuous marriage to screen legend Charlie Chaplin.

Mata Hari was a professional dancer and mistress who became a spy for France during World War I. Suspected of being a double agent, she was executed in 1917.

"Barefoot Bandit" Colton Harris-Moore became something of an anti-hero when he eluded the police for two years after committing a string of robberies, which he occasionally perpetrated while barefoot.

Rex Harrison was a Tony- and an Oscar-winning English actor known for his film and stage performances. His most famous role is that of Henry Higgins in the film musical My Fair Lady.

Canadian-born American actor Phil Hartman is best known for his performances on Saturday Night Live.

Tony Hayward was the CEO of BP when its rig Deepwater Horizon sank in the Gulf of Mexico, creating one of the greatest environmental disasters ever.

American film actress Rita Hayworth is best known for her stunning explosive sexual charisma on screen in films throughout the 1930s and 1940s.

Lillian Hellman was a playwright and screenwriter whose dramas attacked injustice, exploitation and selfishness.

Robert Hichens was a British mariner best known for being at the wheel of the RMS Titanic when it hit the iceberg that resulted in its sinking.

Heinrich Himmler was commander of Hitler's Schutzstaffel, and later of the Gestapo in Nazi Germany. After World War II, he committed suicide to escape capture.

Actress Katie Holmes played Joey Potter on The WB teen drama Dawson's Creek from 1998 to 2003. She has a daughter with actor Tom Cruise.

As director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover had rabid anti-Communist and anti-subversive views and used unconventional tactics to monitor related activity.

Victoriano Huerta was dictatorial president of Mexico, whose regime united disparate revolutionary forces in common opposition to him.

Infamous murderer Jack the Ripper killed at least five London female prostitutes in 1888. Never captured, his identity is one of English's most famous unsolved mysteries.

Joe Jackson was a top major league baseball player during the early 20th century who was ousted from the sport for his alleged role in game fixing.

Rachel Jackson was the wife of President Andrew Jackson and is best known for the smears about her honor during her husband's election campaign.

Jezebel was a Phoenician princess, later the wife of King Ahab of Israel. She became known for putting on makeup before her death and being a wicked woman.

Jim Jones was best known as the cult leader of the Peoples Temple who led over 900 followers in a mass suicide via cyanide-laced punch known as the Jonestown Massacre.

Kim Jong-un became the leader of North Korea in 2011, having inherited his position from his father Kim Jong-il.

Entertainer, author and famous transsexual Christine Jorgensen, made headlines in the early 1950s for having a sex change from a man to a woman.

Believe it or not, comedian Andy Kaufman was banned from Saturday Night Live, but beloved for his portrayal of Latka Gravas on the sitcom Taxi.

Jill Kelley sought help from the FBI in 2012 after receiving threatening emails, triggering an investigation that exposed the affair between General David Petraeus and biographer Paula Broadwell.

R. Kelly is a popular American R&B singer-songwriter and record producer best known for his gospel-tinged vocals and highly sexualized lyrics.

Ethel Kennedy is best known as the widow of Robert F. Kennedy, the former U.S. Attorney General and New York Senator who was assassinated in 1968.

Jack Kevorkian was a U.S.-based physician who assisted in patient suicides, sparking increased talk on hospice care and "right to die" legislative action.