Edward Norton’s production company is being sued for $7 million by residents of a building destroyed in a fire that killed a firefighter. They claim that Norton’s company, Class 5 Films, which was filming ‘Motherless Brooklyn,’ knew the fire broke out but didn’t warn residents.

• Film Actor
  (1969–)

American radio and television news broadcaster Edward R. Murrow gave eyewitness reports of WWII for CBS and helped develop journalism for mass media.

• Journalist, News Anchor, Radio Personality
  (1908–1965)

Edward Snowden is a former National Security Agency subcontractor who made headlines in 2013 when he leaked top-secret information about NSA surveillance activities.

• Computer Programmer
  (1983–)

Some believe it was Elizabethan courtier Edward de Vere, 17th earl of Oxford, who really wrote the plays attributed to William Shakespeare.

• Poet
  (1550–1604)

Edward Gorey was an American illustrator best known for his cartoons of Edwardian children coming to macabre ends. He work can be seen in the animated credits of PBS' Masterpiece Mystery.

• Screenwriter, Illustrator, Author
  (1925–2000)

Since co-founding Essence magazine, Edward Lewis has become one of the most successful and respected magazine publishers in the country.

• Publisher
  (1940–)

Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Edward Albee was considered one of the greatest American playwrights of his generation for his plays including 'The Zoo Story,' 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,' 'A Delicate Balance' and 'Three Tall Women.'

• Playwright
  (1928–2016)

In 1876, Edward Alexander Bouchet became the first African American to earn a doctorate degree in the United States.

• Educator
  (1852–1918)

Edward Bates was a 19th century politician and lawyer who served as U.S. attorney general under President Abraham Lincoln.

• Judge, Lawyer, U.S. Representative, Government Official
  (1793–1869)

Edward, Earl of Wessex is son to Queen Elizabeth II and husband to Sophie Rhys-Jones. A former theater and television producer, he remains active in charity.

• Prince, Philanthropist, Television Producer
  (1964–)

Economist Edward C. Prescott won the 2004 Nobel Prize in Economics for his study of central bank policy and business cycles.

• Economist
  (1940–)

Edward Weston's photography captured organic forms and texture. Portraits of his family taken in the 1940s are some of his best work.

• Photographer
  (1886–1958)

Educational psychologist E.L. Thorndike pioneered the fields of animal learning and behavioral psychology with his theory of connectionism.

• Psychologist, Academic
  (1874–1949)

Biochemist Edward Tatum won the 1958 Nobel Prize for his research, which helped create the field of molecular genetics.

• Scientist
  (1909–1975)

Actor Edward G. Robinson played a range of movie roles from a gangster in Little Caesar (1931) to an Israelite in The Ten Commandments (1956).

• Actor
  (1893–1973)

English painter and comic poet Edward Lear popularized the limerick and wrote the nonsense poem "The Owl and the Pussy-Cat."

• Poet, Illustrator
  (1812–1888)

English surgeon Edward Jenner discovered the vaccine for smallpox, greatly reducing the impact of a disease that had killed millions.

• Surgeon
  (1749–1823)

Artist Edward Hopper was the painter behind the iconic late-night diner scene Nighthawks (1942), among other celebrated works. 

• Painter, Artist
  (1882–1967)

Writer and critic E.M. Forster is the author of Howards End, A Passage to India and A Room With a View.

• Writer
  (1879–1970)

Edward Everett (1794–1865) was governor of Massachusetts, president of Harvard and the man who gave the speech before Lincoln's at Gettysburg.

• Governor
  (1794–1865)

E.E. Cummings was a 20th century poet and novelist known for his innovations in style and structure.

• Artist, Playwright, Poet, Author
  (1894–1962)

British journalist and author Edward Samuel Behr was a foreign correspondent for Reuters, Time, and Newsweek.

• Journalist
  (1926–2007)

Edward O. Wilson is the world's foremost expert on ants, and proponent of sociobiology, which explores the genetic basis of social behavior.

• Biologist, Scientist
  (1929–)

Captain Edward J. Smith played a role in one of the most famous disasters at sea in history, the sinking of the Titanic in 1912.

• (1850–1912)