Celebrity Names

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Slim Pickens

Louis Burton Lindley, Jr. (June 29, 1919 – December 8, 1983), known by the stage name Slim Pickens, was an American rodeo performer and film and television actor who epitomized the profane, tough, sardonic cowboy, but who is best remembered for his comic roles, notably in Dr. Strangelove and Blazing Saddles.

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Petula Clark

Petula Sally Olwen Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932) is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.

Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II. During the 1950s she started recording in French and having international success in both French and English, with such songs as "The Little Shoemaker", "Baby Lover", "With All My Heart" and "Prends Mon Coeur". During the 1960s she became known globally for her popular upbeat hits, including "Downtown", "I Know a Place", "My Love", "Colour My World", "A Sign of the Times", and "Don't Sleep in the Subway". She has sold more than 68 million records throughout her career

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Christopher Walken

Ronald Walken (born March 31, 1943), known professionally as Christopher Walken, is an American actor who has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including The Deer Hunter, Annie Hall, Joe Dirt, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New York, True Romance, Catch Me If You Can, Pulp Fiction, Batman Returns, Wedding Crashers, The Rundown, Click, Hairspray, and Seven Psychopaths, as well as music videos by recording artists such as Madonna, Journey, PIL, Run DMC, The Left Rights and Fatboy Slim. Walken has received a number of awards and nominations during his career, including winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1978.

Walken's films have grossed more than $1.8 billion in the United States.[1] He has also played the main role in the Shakespeare plays Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Coriolanus. He is also a popular guest-host of Saturday Night Live, having hosted 7 times as of April 2008. His most notable roles on the show include record producer Bruce thingyinson (no relation to the singer with the same name) in the "More Cowbell" sketch and his multiple appearances as The Continental.

Walken debuted as a film director and script writer with the short film Popcorn Shrimp in 2001. He also wrote and acted the main role in a play about Elvis Presley titled Him, in 1995.[2]

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Walter Mattau

Walter Matthau (October 1, 1920 – July 1, 2000) was an American actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon, as well as his role as Coach Buttermaker in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears. He won an Academy Award for his performance in the 1966 Billy Wilder film The Fortune Cookie.

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Marilyn Monroe

born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962) was an American actress, model, and singer, who became a major sex symbol, starring in a number of commercially successful motion pictures during the 1950s and early 1960s.

After spending much of her childhood in foster homes, Monroe began a career as a model, which led to a film contract in 1946 with Twentieth Century-Fox. Her early film appearances were minor, but her performances in The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve (both 1950), drew attention. By 1952 she had her first leading role in Don't Bother to Knock[5] and 1953 brought a lead in Niagara, a melodramatic film noir that dwelt on her seductiveness. Her "dumb blonde" persona was used to comic effect in subsequent films such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) and The Seven Year Itch (1955). Limited by typecasting, Monroe studied at the Actors Studio to broaden her range. Her dramatic performance in Bus Stop (1956) was hailed by critics and garnered a Golden Globe nomination. Her production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, released The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), for which she received a BAFTA Award nomination and won a David di Donatello award. She received a Golden Globe Award for her performance in Some Like It Hot (1959). Monroe's last completed film was The Misfits (1961), co-starring Clark Gable with screenplay by her then-husband, Arthur Miller.

The final years of Monroe's life were marked by illness, personal problems, and a reputation for unreliability and being difficult to work with. The circumstances of her death, from an overdose of barbiturates, have been the subject of conjecture. Though officially classified as a "probable suicide", the possibility of an accidental overdose, as well as of homicide, have not been ruled out. In 1999, Monroe was ranked as the sixth-greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute. In the decades following her death, she has often been cited as both a pop and a cultural icon as well as the quintessential American sex symbol. In 2009, TV Guide Network named her #1 in Film's Sexiest Women of All Time

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Michael York

Michael York, OBE (born Michael Hugh Johnson; 27 March 1942) is an English actor.

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Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent, known as Yves Saint Laurent (French pronunciation: ​[iv sɛ̃ lɔʁɑ̃], August 1, 1936 – June 1, 2008),[1] was a French fashion designer, and is regarded as one of the greatest names in fashion history.[2] In 1985, Caroline Rennolds Milbank wrote, "The most consistently celebrated and influential designer of the past twenty-five years, Yves Saint Laurent can be credited with both spurring the couture's rise from its sixties ashes and with finally rendering ready-to-wear reputable."[3] He is also credited with having introduced the tuxedo suit for women and was known for his use of non-European cultural references and use of ethnic models.[4]

Three documentaries have been made about Saint Laurent's life: David Teboul's "Yves Saint Laurent: His Life and Times" (2002), "Yves Saint Laurent: 5 Avenue Marceau 75116 Paris" (2002), and Pierre Thoretton's "L'Amour Fou" (2009).[5]

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Shirley Williams

Shirley Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby PC (born 27 July 1930) is a British politician and academic. Originally a Labour Member of Parliament (MP) and Cabinet Minister, she was one of the "Gang of Four" rebels who founded the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981. In 2001–2004, she served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, and served as Adviser on Nuclear Proliferation to Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 2007 to 2010. Williams also serves as Professor Emerita of Electoral Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

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Winona Ryder

(born Winona Laura Horowitz; October 29, 1971) is an American actress. She made her film debut in the 1986 film Lucas. Ryder's first significant role came in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice (1988) as Lydia Deetz, a goth teenager, which won her critical and commercial recognition. After various appearances in film and television, Ryder continued her career with the cult film Heathers (1988), a controversial satire of teenage suicide and high school life, which drew Ryder further critical and commercial attention. She later appeared in Mermaids (1990) earning a Golden Globe nomination, in Burton's Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Francis Ford Coppola's gothic romance, Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992).

Having played diverse roles in many well-received films, Ryder won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and an Academy Award nomination in the same category for her role in The Age of Innocence in 1993, as well as another Academy Award nomination for Little Women the following year for Best Actress. She later appeared in the Generation X cult hit, Reality Bites (1994), Alien Resurrection (1997), the Woody Allen comedy Celebrity (1998) and Girl, Interrupted (1999) which she also executive-produced. In 2000, Ryder received a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California.[1]

Ryder's personal life has attracted significant media attention. Her relationship with Johnny Depp and a 2001 arrest for shoplifting were a constant subject of tabloid journalism. She has since revealed her personal struggles with anxiety and depression. In 2002, she appeared in the box office smash, Mr. Deeds. In 2006, Ryder returned to the screen after a brief hiatus, later appearing in high-profile films such as Star Trek. In 2010, she was nominated for two Screen Actors Guild Awards, as the lead actress of When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story, and as part of the cast of Black Swan.[2] She also reunited with Burton for Frankenweenie (2012).

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Ralph Reader

William Henry Ralph Reader CBE (25 May 1903 – 18 May 1982), known as Ralph Reader, was a British actor, theatrical producer and songwriter, best known for staging the original Gang Show, a variety entertainment presented by members of the Scouting Movement.

Reader was born in Crewkerne, Somerset, England, the son of a Salvation Army bandmaster. He was orphaned by the age of eight, and brought up by aunts and uncles. Joining the Scout Movement at the age of eleven, he began his theatrical career by putting on Scout Shows as a Patrol Leader in the 2nd Newhaven, Denton and Heighton Troop in Newhaven, Sussex.

In 1920 he moved to the United States of America, working in various menial jobs, while acting in and directing off-Broadway shows. At the age of 21 he choreographed his first Broadway show and the New York Times wrote "Watch Ralph Reader". Returning to England, he continued producing and choreographing several West End productions, notably variety performances at Drury Lane and at the Hippodrome.

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Ringo Starr

Richard Starkey MBE (born 7 July 1940), commonly known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for the Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He joined the Beatles in August 1962, taking the place of Pete Best. In addition to his drumming, Starr is featured on lead vocals on a number of successful Beatles songs (in particular, "With a Little Help from My Friends", "Yellow Submarine", and the Beatles' version of "Act Naturally"). He is credited as a co-writer of the songs "What Goes On", "Flying", and "Dig It" and as the sole writer of "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus's Garden".

As a musically creative drummer for the Beatles, Starr's contribution to their music has received high praise from notable drummers. Starr described himself as "your basic offbeat drummer with funny fills". Drummer Steve Smith said that Starr's popularity "brought forth a new paradigm" where "we started to see the drummer as an equal participant in the compositional aspect" and that Starr "composed unique, stylistic drum parts for the Beatles' songs". In 2011, Starr was picked as the fifth-best drummer of all-time by Rolling Stone readers.

Starr is the most documented and critically acclaimed actor among the Beatles, playing a central role in several of their films, and appearing in numerous other films, both during and after his career with them. After their break-up in 1970, Starr achieved solo musical success with several singles and albums, and recorded with each of his fellow ex-Beatles as they too developed their post-Beatle musical careers. He has also been featured in a number of TV documentaries, hosted TV shows, narrated the first two series of the children's television series Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends and portrayed "Mr. Conductor" during the first season of the PBS children's television series Shining Time Station. Since 1989, Starr has toured with twelve variations of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.

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Sasha Distel

Sacha Distel (29 January 1933 – 22 July 2004) was a French singer and guitarist who had hits with a cover version of the Academy Award-winning "Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head"[1] (originally recorded by B. J. Thomas), "Scoubidou", and "The Good Life". He was born in Paris.

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Danny Kaye

(born David Daniel Kaminsky; January 18, 1913 – March 3, 1987) was a celebrated American actor, singer, dancer, and comedian. His best known performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and rapid-fire nonsense songs.

Kaye starred in 17 movies, notably The Kid from Brooklyn (1946), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), The Inspector General (1949), Hans Christian Andersen (1952), White Christmas (1954), and – perhaps his most accomplished performance – The Court Jester (1956). His films were extremely popular, especially his bravura performances of patter songs and children's favorites such as "Inchworm" and "The Ugly Duckling". He was the first ambassador-at-large of UNICEF in 1954 and received the French Legion of Honor in 1986 for his many years of work with the organization.

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Kenneth Branagh

Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh ( born 10 December 1960) is an actor and film director from Northern Ireland. He has directed or starred in several film adaptations of William Shakespeare's plays including Henry V (1989) (for which he was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Actor and Best Director), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Othello (1995), Hamlet (1996) (for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay), Love's Labour's Lost (2000), and As You Like It (2006).

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Billie Holiday

(born Eleanora Harris April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo.

Critic John Bush wrote that Holiday "changed the art of American pop vocals forever." She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child", "Don't Explain", "Fine and Mellow", and "Lady Sings the Blues". She also became famous for singing "Easy Living", "Good Morning Heartache", and "Strange Fruit", a protest song which became one of her standards and was made famous with her 1939 recording. Music critic Robert Christgau called her "uncoverable, possibly the greatest singer of the century".

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Henry Kissinger

Henry Alfred Kissinger
born May 27, 1923 is a German-born American political scientist, diplomat, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Adviser and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. After his term, his opinion was still sought by many following presidents and many world leaders.

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Kathie Lee Gifford

(born Kathryn Lee Epstein on August 16, 1953) is an American television host, singer, songwriter and actress, best known for her 15-year run (1985–2000) on the talk show Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee, which she co-hosted with Regis Philbin. She has received 11 Daytime Emmy nominations and won her first Daytime Emmy in 2010 as part of The Today Show team.

Before her long stint in talk shows, Gifford's first television exposure was that of Tom Kennedy's singer/sidekick on Name That Tune, from 1974-78.

She also appeared in television advertisements for Carnival Cruise Lines beginning in 1984.

On April 7, 2008, Gifford began co-hosting the fourth hour of NBC's Today, alongside Hoda Kotb.

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Gerry Lee Lewis

Jerry Lee Lewis (born September 29, 1935) is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. He is known by the nickname "The Killer".
An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis had hits in the late 1950s with songs such as "Great Balls of Fire", "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", "Breathless" and "High School Confidential". However, Lewis' rock 'n' roll career faltered in the wake of his marriage to his young cousin. He had little success in the charts following the scandal until his popularity recovered in the late 1960s after he extended his career to country and western music with songs such as "Another Place, Another Time". More country hits soon followed over the late 1960s and through the 1970s.

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Lauren Bacall

pron.: /ˌlɔrən bəˈkɔːl/; born Betty Joan Perske, September 16, 1924) is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry looks.

She first emerged as leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have And Have Not (1944) and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in Bogart movies The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947), and Key Largo (1948), as well as a comedienne in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) with Marilyn Monroe and Designing Woman (1957) with Gregory Peck. Bacall has also worked on Broadway in musicals, gaining Tony Awards for Applause in 1970 and Woman of the Year in 1981. Her performance in the movie The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996) earned her a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination.

In 1999, Bacall was ranked #20 of the 25 actresses on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars list by the American Film Institute. In 2009, she was selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive an Academy Honorary Award "in recognition of her central place in the Golden Age of motion pictures."

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Bunny Austin

Henry Wilfred "Bunny" Austin (20 August 1906 – 20 August 2000) was a British tennis player from England.
Austin was, for 74 years, the last Briton to reach the final of the Gentlemen's Singles at Wimbledon, until the success of Andy Murray in 2012. He was also a finalist at the 1937 French Championships and a championship winner at Queen's Club. Along with Fred Perry, he was a vital part of the British team that won the Davis Cup in three consecutive years (1933–35). He is also remembered as the first tennis player to wear shorts.[1]
Austin was brought up in South Norwood, London. The nickname Bunny came from a comic strip, Pip, Squeak and Wilfred. Encouraged by his father, who was determined that he become a sportsman, he joined Norhurst Tennis Club aged six.

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Adam West

William West Anderson (born September 19, 1928), better known by his stage name Adam West, is an American actor best known for his lead role in the Batman TV series on the ABC TV network and the 1966 Batman feature film. He is currently known for portraying eccentric or psychotically delusional characters, as well as his voice work on animated series such as The Fairly OddParents and Family Guy, in both of which he voices a fictional version of himself.

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Walter Winterbottom

Sir Walter Winterbottom CBE (31 March 1913 – 16 February 2002) was the first manager of the England football team (1946-1962) and FA Director of Coaching. He resigned from the FA in 1962 to become General Secretary of the Central Council of Recreation (CCPR) and was appointed as the first Director of the Sports Council in 1965. He was knighted for his services to sport in 1978 when he retired.

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Wynonna Ellen Judd

(pron.: /waɪˈnoʊnə/; born Christina Claire Ciminella on May 30, 1964) is an American country music singer. Her solo albums and singles are all credited to the singular name Wynonna. Wynonna first rose to fame in the 1980s alongside her mother, Naomi, in the country music duo The Judds. The duo released seven albums on Curb Records in addition to charting 26 singles, of which 14 were number one hits.

After The Judds disbanded in 1991, Wynonna began a solo career, also on Curb. In her solo career, she has released eight studio albums, a live album, and a compilation album in addition to charting more than 20 singles of her own. Her first three singles—"She Is His Only Need", "I Saw the Light" and "No One Else on Earth"—all reached number one on the U.S. country singles charts, as did 1996's "To Be Loved by You." Three of her albums are certified platinum or higher by the RIAA. Her most recent recording, Sing: Chapter 1, was released on February 3, 2009. Wynonna is most recognized for her musical work, although starting in the 2000s she has also pursued other interests, including acting and philanthropy.

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Joe louis

Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981), better known as Joe Louis, was an American professional boxer and the World Heavyweight Champion from 1937 to 1949. He is considered to be one of the greatest heavyweights of all time. Nicknamed the Brown Bomber, Louis helped elevate boxing from a nadir in popularity in the post-Jack Dempsey era by establishing a reputation as an honest, hardworking fighter at a time when the sport was dominated by gambling interests.[1][2] Louis' championship reign lasted 140 consecutive months, during which he participated in 26 championship fights; a 27th fight, against Ezzard Charles, was a challenge to Charles' Heavyweight title and so is not included in Louis' reign. All in all, Joe was victorious in 25 successful title defenses, a record for the heavyweight division.

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Lou Costello

Louis Francis "Lou" Costello (March 6, 1906 – March 3, 1959) was an American actor and comedian best remembered for the comedy double act of Abbott and Costello, with Bud Abbott. Costello played a chubby, bumbling character. His catchphrase was "Heeeeyyy, Abbott!"

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Charlie 'Bird' Parker

Charles "Charlie" Parker, Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), also known as "Yardbird" and "Bird", was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Miles Davis once said, "You can tell the history of jazz in four words: Louis Armstrong. Charlie Parker."

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Peter Lorre

(26 June 1904 – 23 March 1964) was a Austrian-American actor.
Lorre caused an international sensation with his portrayal of a serial killer who preys on little girls in the German film M (1931). He later became a popular featured player in Hollywood crime films and mysteries (in particular with Humphrey Bogart and Sydney Greenstreet), and, though frequently typecast as a sinister foreigner, became star of the successful Mr. Moto detective series.

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Lucinda Green

Lucinda Green MBE (born 7 November 1953) is a champion British equestrian and journalist who before her marriage was Lucinda Jane Prior-Palmer.

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Greta Garbo (

18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990), born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson, was a Swedish film actress and an international star and icon during Hollywood's silent and classic periods. Many of her films were sensational hits, and all but three of her twenty-four Hollywood films were profitable.[1] Garbo was nominated four times for an Academy Award and received an honorary one in 1954 for her "luminous and unforgettable screen performances". She also won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress for both Anna Karenina (1935) and Camille (1936). In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Garbo fifth on their list of greatest female stars of all time, after Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Audrey Hepburn, and Ingrid Bergman.

In 1941, she retired at the age of 35 after appearing in only twenty-eight films. Although she was offered many opportunities to return to the screen, she declined most of them. Instead, she lived a private life, shunning publicity.

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Gerald Ford

Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King, Jr.; July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006) was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and prior to this, was the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974. He was the first person appointed to the Vice Presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment, after Spiro Agnew had resigned.