Great people in the usa here is a list of famous people from United States

Great people in the USA

Here is a list of famous people from United States. Curious if anybody from United States made it our most famous people in the world list? Read the aformentioned article in order to find out.

Barack Obama

US President

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States, the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, running unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in 2000. In 2004, Obama received national attention during his campaign to represent Illinois in the United States Senate with his victory in the March Democratic Party primary, his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July, and his election to the Senate in November. He began his presidential campaign in 2007, and in 2008, after a close primary campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won sufficient delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the presidential nomination. He then defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months after his election, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

Johnny Cash

Blues Artist

John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author who was considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. Although he is primarily remembered as a country icon, his songs and sound spanned other genres including rock and roll and rockabilly —especially early in his career—and blues, folk, and gospel. This crossover appeal won Cash the rare honor of induction in the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Cash was known for his deep, distinctive bass-baritone voice, for the "boom-chicka-boom" sound of his Tennessee Three backing band; for a rebelliousness, coupled with an increasingly somber and humble demeanor; for providing free concerts inside prison walls; and for his dark performance clothing, which earned him the nickname "The Man in Black". He traditionally began his concerts with the phrase "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash.", followed by his standard "Folsom Prison Blues". Much of Cash's music echoed themes of sorrow, moral tribulation and redemption, especially in the later stages of his career. His best-known songs included "I Walk the Line", "Folsom Prison Blues", "Ring of Fire", "Get Rhythm" and "Man in Black". He also recorded humorous numbers like "One Piece at a Time" and "A Boy Named Sue"; a duet with his future wife, June Carter, called "Jackson"; and railroad songs including "Hey, Porter" and "Rock Island Line". During the last stage of his career, Cash covered songs by several late 20th-century rock artists, most notably "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails.

Bob Dylan

Folk rock Artist

Bob Dylan is an American musician, singer-songwriter, artist, and writer. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for more than five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly reluctant figurehead of social unrest. A number of Dylan's early songs, such as "Blowin' in the Wind" and "The Times They Are a-Changin'", became anthems for the US civil rights and anti-war movements. Leaving behind his initial base in the culture of the folk music revival, Dylan's six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" radically altered the parameters of popular music in 1965. His recordings employing electric instruments attracted denunciation and criticism from others in the folk movement. Dylan's lyrics have incorporated a variety of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences. They defied existing pop music conventions and appealed hugely to the then burgeoning counterculture. Initially inspired by the performance style of Little Richard, and the songwriting of Woody Guthrie, Robert Johnson, and Hank Williams, Dylan has both amplified and personalized musical genres. His recording career, spanning fifty years, has explored many of the traditions in American song—from folk, blues, and country to gospel, rock and roll, and rockabilly to English, Scottish, and Irish folk music, embracing even jazz and swing. Dylan performs with guitar, keyboards, and harmonica. Backed by a changing line-up of musicians, he has toured steadily since the late 1980s on what has been dubbed the Never Ending Tour. His accomplishments as a recording artist and performer have been central to his career, but his greatest contribution is generally considered his songwriting.

John F. Kennedy

US President

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, commonly known as "Jack" or by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from January 1961 until he was assassinated in November 1963. After military service as commander of Motor Torpedo Boats PT-109 and PT-59 during World War II in the South Pacific, Kennedy represented Massachusetts' 11th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953 as a Democrat. Thereafter, he served in the U.S. Senate from 1953 until 1960. Kennedy defeated Vice President and Republican candidate Richard Nixon in the 1960 U.S. presidential election. At age 43, he was the youngest to have been elected to the office, the second-youngest president, and the first person born in the 20th century to serve as president. A Catholic, Kennedy was the only non-Protestant president, and was the only president to have won a Pulitzer Prize. Events during his presidency included the Bay of Pigs Invasion, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Space Race—by initiating Project Apollo, the building of the Berlin Wall, the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and early stages of the Vietnam War. Therein, Kennedy increased the number of military advisers, special operation forces, and helicopters in an effort to curb the spread of communism in South East Asia. The Kennedy administration adopted the policy of the Strategic Hamlet Program which was implemented by the South Vietnamese government. It involved certain forced relocation, village internment, and segregation of rural South Vietnamese from northern and southern communist insurgents.

Bill Clinton

US President

William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president from the baby boomer generation. Clinton has been described as a New Democrat. Many of his policies have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance. Before becoming president he was the Governor of Arkansas for five two-year terms, serving from 1979 to 1981 and from 1983 to 1992. He was also the state's Attorney General from 1977 to 1979. Born and raised in Arkansas, Clinton became both a student leader and a skilled musician. He is an alumnus of Georgetown University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Kappa Kappa Psi and earned a Rhodes Scholarship to attend the University of Oxford. He is married to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who served as United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013 and who was a Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009. Both Clintons received law degrees from Yale Law School, where they met and began dating. As Governor of Arkansas, Clinton overhauled the state's education system, and served as Chair of the National Governors Association.

Steven Spielberg

Film Director

Steven Allan Spielberg is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and business magnate. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as archetypes of modern Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking. In later years, his films began addressing humanistic issues such as the Holocaust, the transatlantic slave trade, war, and terrorism. He is considered one of the most popular and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. He is also one of the co-founders of DreamWorks movie studio. Spielberg won the Academy Award for Best Director for Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. Three of Spielberg's films—Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park —achieved box office records, each becoming the highest-grossing film made at the time. To date, the unadjusted gross of all Spielberg-directed films exceeds $8.5 billion worldwide. Forbes puts Spielberg's wealth at $3.3 billion.

Ronald Reagan

US President

Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States. Prior to his presidency, he served as the 33rd Governor of California, and was a radio, film and television actor. Born in Tampico, Illinois, and raised in Dixon, Reagan was educated at Eureka College, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology. After graduating, Reagan moved first to Iowa to work as a radio broadcaster and then, in 1937, to Los Angeles where he began a career as an actor, first in films and later television. Some of his most notable films include Knute Rockne, All American, Kings Row, and Bedtime for Bonzo. Reagan served as President of the Screen Actors Guild and later as a spokesman for General Electric; his start in politics occurred during his work for GE. Originally a member of the Democratic Party, his positions began shifting rightward in the 1950s, and he switched to the Republican Party in 1962. After delivering a rousing speech in support of Barry Goldwater's presidential candidacy in 1964, he was persuaded to seek the California governorship, winning two years later and again in 1970. He was defeated in his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 and in 1976, but won both the nomination and general election in 1980, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter.

Michael Jackson

Celebrity

Michael Joseph Jackson was an American singer-songwriter, dancer, businessman and philanthropist. Often referred to by the honorific nickname "King of Pop", or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records. His contributions to music, dance, and fashion, along with his publicized personal life, made him a global figure in popular culture for over four decades. The eighth child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene along with his brothers as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1964, and began his solo career in 1971. In the early 1980s, Jackson became the dominant figure in popular music. The music videos for his songs, including those of "Beat It," "Billie Jean," and "Thriller," were credited with breaking down racial barriers and transforming the medium into an art form and promotional tool. The popularity of these videos helped to bring the then relatively new television channel MTV to fame. With videos such as "Black or White" and "Scream" he continued to innovate the medium throughout the 1990s, as well as forging a reputation as a touring solo artist. Through stage and video performances, Jackson popularized a number of complicated dance techniques, such as the robot, and the moonwalk, to which he gave the name. His distinctive sound and style has influenced numerous hip hop, post-disco, contemporary R&B, pop, and rock artists.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

US President

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, commonly known by his initials, FDR, 32nd President of the United States, served for 12 years and four terms until his death in 1945, the only president ever to do so, and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic depression and total war. A dominant leader of the Democratic Party and the only American president elected to more than two terms, he built a New Deal Coalition that realigned American politics after 1932, as his domestic policies defined American liberalism for the middle third of the 20th century. With the bouncy popular song "Happy Days Are Here Again" as his campaign theme, FDR defeated incumbent Republican Herbert Hoover in November 1932, at the depth of the Great Depression. Energized by his personal victory over polio, FDR's persistent optimism and activism contributed to a renewal of the national spirit. Assisted by key aide Harry Hopkins, he worked closely with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in leading the Allies against Nazi Germany and Japan in World War II. The war ended the depression and restored prosperity.

50 Cent

Hip hop Artist

Curtis James Jackson III, better known by his stage name 50 Cent, is an American rapper, entrepreneur, investor, and actor. He rose to fame with the release of his albums Get Rich or Die Tryin' and The Massacre. His album Get Rich or Die Tryin' has been certified eight times platinum by the RIAA. Born in the South Jamaica neighbourhood of the borough of Queens, New York City, Jackson began drug dealing at the age of twelve during the 1980s crack epidemic. After leaving drug dealing to pursue a rap career, he was shot at and struck by nine bullets during an incident in 2000. After releasing his album Guess Who's Back? in 2002, Jackson was discovered by rapper Eminem and signed to Interscope Records. With the help of Eminem and Dr. Dre, who produced his first major commercial successes, Jackson became one of the world's highest selling rappers. In 2003, he founded the record label G-Unit Records, which signed several successful rappers such as Young Buck, Lloyd Banks, and Tony Yayo. Jackson has engaged in feuds with other rappers including Ja Rule, Nas, Fat Joe, Jadakiss, Cam'ron, Puff Daddy, Rick Ross, and former G-Unit members The Game and Young Buck. He has also pursued an acting career, appearing in the semi-autobiographical film Get Rich or Die Tryin' in 2005, the Iraq War film Home of the Brave in 2006, and Righteous Kill in 2008. 50 Cent was ranked as the sixth-best artist of the 2000s by Billboard magazine. The magazine also ranked him as the fourth top male artist and as the third top rapper behind Eminem and Nelly. Billboard magazine also ranked him as the sixth best and most successful Hot 100 Artist of the 2000s and as the number one rap artist of the 2000s. Billboard ranked his album Get Rich or Die Tryin' as the twelfth best album of the 2000s and his album The Massacre as the 37th best album of the 2000s. 50 Cent is currently working on his fifth studio album, Street King Immortal, which is to be released in 2013.

Louis Armstrong

Swing Artist

Louis Armstrong, nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana. Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an "inventive" trumpet and cornet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance. With his instantly-recognizable gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also skilled at scat singing. Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and voice almost as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong's influence extends well beyond jazz music, and by the end of his career in the 1960s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general. Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to "cross over", whose skin-color was secondary to his music in an America that was severely racially divided. He rarely publicly politicized his race, often to the dismay of fellow African-Americans, but took a well-publicized stand for desegregation during the Little Rock Crisis. His artistry and personality allowed him socially acceptable access to the upper echelons of American society that were highly restricted for a black man.

Walt Disney

Entertainer

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American business magnate, animator, cartoonist, producer, director, screenwriter, entrepreneur, and voice actor. A major figure within the American animation industry and throughout the world, he is regarded as an international icon, and philanthropist, well known for his influence and contributions to the field of entertainment during the 20th century. As a Hollywood business mogul, he, along with his brother Roy O. Disney, co-founded the Walt Disney Productions, which later became one of the best-known motion picture producers in the world. The corporation is now known as The Walt Disney Company and had an annual revenue of approximately US$36 billion in the 2010 financial year. As an animator and entrepreneur, Disney was particularly noted as a film producer and a popular showman, as well as an innovator in animation and theme park design. He and his staff created some of the world's most well-known fictional characters including Mickey Mouse, for whom Disney himself provided the original voice. During his lifetime he received four honorary Academy Awards and won 22 Academy Awards from a total of 59 nominations, including a record four in one year, giving him more awards and nominations than any other individual in history. Disney also won seven Emmy Awards and gave his name to the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort theme parks in the U.S., as well as the international resorts like Tokyo Disney Resort, Disneyland Paris, and Hong Kong Disneyland.

Richard Nixon

US President

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974, when he became the only president to resign the office. Nixon had previously served as a Republican U.S. Representative and Senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961. Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California. He graduated from Whittier College in 1934 and Duke University School of Law in 1937, returning to California to practice law. He and his wife, Pat Nixon, moved to Washington to work for the federal government in 1942. He subsequently served in the United States Navy during World War II. Nixon was elected in California to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the Senate in 1950. His pursuit of the Alger Hiss case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist, and elevated him to national prominence. He was the running mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1952 election. Nixon served for eight years as vice president. He waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960, narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy, and lost a race for Governor of California in 1962. In 1968, he ran again for the presidency and was elected.

Brad Pitt

Actor

William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received four Academy Award nominations and five Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one Golden Globe. He has been described as one of the world's most attractive men, a label for which he has received substantial media attention. Pitt first gained recognition as a cowboy hitchhiker in the road movie Thelma & Louise. His first leading roles in big-budget productions came with A River Runs Through It, Interview with the Vampire, and Legends of the Fall. In 1995, he gave critically acclaimed performances in the crime thriller Seven and the science fiction film 12 Monkeys, the latter earning him a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and an Academy Award nomination. Four years later, Pitt starred in the cult hit Fight Club. He then starred in the major international hit Ocean's Eleven and its sequels, Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen. His greatest commercial successes have been Troy, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and World War Z. Pitt received his second and third Academy Award nominations for his leading performances in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Moneyball. Pitt owns a production company, Plan B Entertainment, whose productions include The Departed, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Moneyball, which garnered a Best Picture nomination.

Stephen King

Novelist

Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books. King has published 50 novels, including seven under the pen-name of Richard Bachman, and five non-fiction books. He has written nearly two hundred short stories, most of which have been collected in nine collections of short fiction. Many of his stories are set in his home state of Maine. King has received Bram Stoker Awards, World Fantasy Awards, British Fantasy Society Awards, his novella The Way Station was a Nebula Award novelette nominee, and his short story "The Man in the Black Suit" received the O. Henry Award. In 2003, the National Book Foundation awarded him the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He has also received awards for his contribution to literature for his whole career, such as the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, the Canadian Booksellers Association Lifetime Achievement Award and the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Public speaker

Martin Luther King is a fictional character in the film Theme of the Traitor and the Hero.

Pendleton Ward

Animator

Pendleton "Pen" Ward is an American animator, screenwriter and producer who works for Cartoon Network Studios and Frederator Studios. He created the Emmy-award winning series Adventure Time and the internet series Bravest Warriors. Ward is a graduate of the CalArts Animation Program. He currently resides in Los Angeles and grew up in Texas.

Adam Horowitz

TV Writer

Adam Horowitz is an American screenwriter and producer. He is known for his work on Felicity, Black Sash, One Tree Hill, Popular, Fantasy Island, Birds of Prey, Life As We Know It, and Lost. He currently works on the ABC fantasy series Once Upon a Time, which he, and collaborator Edward Kitsis, co-created.

Julia Quinn

Novelist

Julia Quinn is the pseudonym used by Julie Pottinger, a best-selling American historical romance author, who says she chose her pseudonym so her Regency romances would be on bookshelves next to those of the successful romance writer Amanda Quick. Her novels have been translated into 26 foreign languages, and she has appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List 18 times.

Maulik Pancholy

Actor

Maulik Navin Pancholy is an American actor known for his recurring role as Sanjay on Weeds, his role as Jonathan on 30 Rock, voice acting as Baljeet Tjinder in Phineas and Ferb, and as Neal during the first season of Whitney. He currently voices Sanjay Patel in the Nickelodeon animated series Sanjay and Craig.

Amy Seimetz

Actor

Amy Lynne Seimetz is an American writer, producer, director, editor and actress. She is a series regular on AMC's The Killing and recurring on HBO's Family Tree.

Suzanne Brockmann

Novelist

Suzanne Brockmann is an American romantic fiction writer. She lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts with her husband, Ed Gaffney, and their two children, Melanie and Jason. She has also penned works under the name Anne Brock.

Stephen C. Meyer

Organization founder

Stephen C. Meyer is an American scholar, philosopher of science and advocate for intelligent design. He helped found the Center for Science and Culture of the Discovery Institute, which is the main organization behind the intelligent design movement. Before joining the DI, Meyer was a professor at Whitworth College. Meyer is currently director at the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture and Senior Fellow at the DI.

Mark Kramer

Record producer

Mark Kramer, known professionally as Kramer, is a musician, composer, record producer and founder of the New York City record label Shimmy-Disc. He was a full-time member of the bands New York Gong, Shockabilly, Bongwater and Dogbowl & Kramer, has played on tour with bands such as Butthole Surfers, B.A.L.L., Ween, Half Japanese and The Fugs, and has also performed regularly with John Zorn and other improvising musicians of New York City's so-called "downtown scene" of the 1980s. Kramer's most notable work as a producer has been with bands such as Galaxie 500, Low, Half Japanese, White Zombie, GWAR, King Missile, Danielson Famile, Will Oldham, Daniel Johnston, and Urge Overkill, including their hit cover of "Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon".

Earl Eby

Olympic athlete

Earl William Eby was an American athlete who competed mainly in the 800 metres. He competed for the United States in the 1920 Summer Olympics held in Antwerp, Belgium in the 800 metres where he won the silver medal. He was born in Aurora, Illinois, but attended high school in Chicago, Calumet High. He died in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

Laura Shigihara

Singer-songwriter

Laura Shigihara is a video game composer, independent game developer, and singer-songwriter. She has created music and sound for over 25 videogames titles, but she is best known as the lead composer and sound designer for the tower defense video game Plants vs. Zombies. She is half-Japanese, and in addition to writing and performing the English version of the ending credits song, "Zombies on Your Lawn", she also wrote and performed the Japanese version, "Uraniwa ni Zombies ga." Shigihara provided vocals for the Singing Sunflower pet in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. She also participated in Akira Yamaoka's Play For Japan charity album alongside other composers like Nobuo Uematsu and Yasunori Mitsuda.

Zak Penn

Screenwriter

Zak Penn is an American screenwriter and director. Penn wrote and directed Incident at Loch Ness, The Grand, and co-wrote the script for X-Men: The Last Stand. With Michael Karnow, Penn is the co-creator of the TV series Alphas on the Syfy network.

Steve Perry

Novelist

Steve Perry is an American television writer and science fiction author.

Q Lazzarus

Alternative rock Artist

Q Lazzarus is an American singer, best known as a one-hit wonder for the 1988 song "Goodbye Horses," which was featured in Married to the Mob, The Silence of the Lambs, Clerks II, Lakai Footwear's Fully Flared, Unhinged: The Jesse Hicks Story, Rockstar's video game Grand Theft Auto IV, EA's video game Skate 3, and TV shows Family Guy and Nip Tuck. The music and lyrics of the song were written by William Garvey. It was originally recorded by Q Lazzarus in 1988, but later re-released as a single in 1991, with a greater duration, as a result of its appearance in Silence of the Lambs. The infamous scene in which the track plays has garnered it the popular nickname "The Buffalo Bill Song." Q Lazzarus appeared in the 1986 film Something Wild performing "The Candle Goes Away" and in the 1993 film Philadelphia performing "Heaven" from the Talking Heads album Fear of Music. She also contributed music to the 1996 underground film Twisted. Q Lazzarus is known for having a husky contralto voice. Before she was discovered as a singer, she worked as a taxi driver in New York City. The ensemble of Q Lazzarus dissolved at some point before 1996. Apart from Q Lazzarus, Mark Barrett and songwriter William Garvey, nothing is publicly known about the other band members. William Garvey died in August 2009.

Proem

Musical Artist

Proem, whose real name is Richard Bailey, is a 35-year-old musician. Formerly a resident of Austin, Texas, he now resides in Houston. He has been releasing music since 1999 on labels like Merck, n5MD, and Hydrant. Bailey started experimenting with electronic devices at an early age, using thrift store turntables, some tape decks, a few cheap Casio SK-5s, and some circuit bent bargain bin keyboards. He currently sequences in FL Studio, using a number of VST plugins, such as Kontakt and Reaktor. Proem has released several albums, EPs, and remixes. He is regarded as one of the early members of US Intelligent dance music scene.

Awol One

Underground hip hop Artist

Anthony Martin, better known by his stage name Awol One, is an alternative hip hop artist based in Los Angeles, California.

Jeffrey Michael Jordan

Basketball Player

Jeffrey Michael Jordan is an American former basketball player who played for the University of Central Florida Knights and the University of Illinois Fighting Illini. He played high school basketball for Loyola Academy in Wilmette, Illinois. Jordan is the elder son of retired NBA MVP Michael Jordan, who played for the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards, and the older brother of Marcus Jordan. Jeffrey Jordan has been the subject of local and national media attention, and had three of his high school games broadcast nationally on ESPN in 2007. Jordan also played football in his sophomore year at Loyola Academy. Jordan graduated from Loyola Academy on May 26, 2007. He received scholarship offers from Valparaiso and Loyola University Chicago, and was actively recruited as a preferred walk-on by Davidson, Penn State, Northwestern, and University of Illinois. Jordan decided to play as a preferred walk-on at the University of Illinois. Jeff Jordan enrolled at the university in 2007 as a psychology major with an academic scholarship. On January 22, 2009, it was announced by the university that Jordan would receive a full scholarship. On June 24, 2009 Jordan announced he was leaving the University of Illinois’ basketball team to focus on school and his "life after basketball". Jordan later decided to return to the team, but after the 2009-10 season, he received a release to transfer to the University of Central Florida alongside his brother, Marcus.

John A. Russo

Actor

John A. Russo, sometimes credited as Jack Russo or John Russo, is an American screenwriter and film director most commonly associated with the 1968 horror classic Night of the Living Dead. As a screenwriter, his credits include Night of the Living Dead, The Majorettes, Midnight, and Santa Claws. The latter two, he also directed. He has performed small roles as an actor, most notably the first ghoul who is stabbed in the head in Night of the Living Dead, as well as cameos in There's Always Vanilla and House of Frankenstein 1997. John Russo is also the founder and one of the co-mentors along with Russell Streiner of the John Russo Movie Making Program at DuBois Business College in DuBois, Pennsylvania. John A. Russo has completed several interviews over the years discussing his film making career, with a recent interview with BioGamer Girl Magazine, in which he appeared on the magazine's radio show Undead Noise. Movie Emporium Inc. will released Russo's CD John Russo's Movie Music, his CD is filled with Songs from his films.

Mark Schultz

Martial Artist

Mark Philip Schultz is an Olympic and 2-time World champion freestyle wrestler and a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, the San Jose Sports Hall of Fame, and the California Wrestling Hall of Fame. Schultz is undefeated in Mixed Martial Arts with a record of 1-0.

Jim Dunnigan

Game designer

James F. Dunnigan is an author, military-political analyst, Defense and State Department consultant, and wargame designer currently living in New York City.

Bruce Thomas

Voice actor

Bruce Thomas is an American actor known for portraying the character of Batman in a series of commercials for General Motors' OnStar service that aired from 2000 to 2002. Thomas also played Batman for the pilot and premiere of The WB's Birds of Prey TV series.

Wilton Ivie

Deceased Person

Wilton Ivie was an American entomologist and arachnologist, who described hundreds of new species and many new genera of spiders, both under his own name and in collaboration with Ralph Vary Chamberlin. He was employed by the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He also was a supporter of the Technocracy movement. Wilton Ivie: B.S., M.S. in biology from University of Utah. For the last 9 years of his life he worked at the American Museum of Natural History. He died as a result of an auto accident on 8-Aug-1969.

Pam Brady

TV Writer

Pam Brady is an American writer and television producer, best known for her work with Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

Andrea James

Cinematographer

Andrea Jean James is an American writer, film producer, director, and trans woman who is a LGBT rights activist.

Jenny Bicks

TV Writer

Jenny Bicks is a film producer and screenwriter.

Frank Ferrer

Hard rock Artist

Frank Ferrer is an American rock drummer and session musician. In October 2006, Ferrer became an official member of the American hard rock band Guns N' Roses after serving as the band's emergency substitute drummer for Bryan Mantia on several occasions during the band's summer 2006 European tour. Ferrer is also a member of The Psychedelic Furs as well as a former member of Love Spit Love. He has recorded and worked with several high profile musicians including The Beautiful, Robi "Draco" Rosa, and Sarah Clifford.

Paul Alivisatos

Professor

Armand Paul Alivisatos is an American scientist of Greek descent, researching the structural, thermodynamic, optical, and electrical properties of nanocrystals. In 2009, he was named the Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Alivisatos graduated with a bachelors in chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1981, and with a doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1986, where he worked under Charles Harris. In 1986 he joined AT&T Bell Labs working with Louis E. Brus, and began research in the field of nanotechnology. He returned to Berkeley in 1988 as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry, becoming associate Professor in 1993 and Professor in 1995. He was Chancellor's Professor for 1998-2001. In January 2003 he was appointed director of the Materials Sciences Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He is also director of LBNL's Molecular Foundry. Alivisatos was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and is a co-editor of the scientific journal Nano Letters.

Maude Apatow

Actor

Maude Apatow is an actress.

Patrick St. Esprit

Actor

Patrick St. Esprit is an American actor whose career has spanned 30 years. Patrick's first major role was of Buddy a boxer in the TV comedy Police Squad! in the episode "Ring of Fear". He is currently managed by Justice & Ponder, Los Angeles, USA and Abrams Artists Agency.

Victoria Foyt

Novelist

Victoria Foyt is an American author, novelist, screenwriter and actress, best known for her books The Virtual Life of Lexie Diamond and Save the Pearls: Revealing Eden. Foyt has written articles for magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, O at Home, and Film & Video.

Joel Engle

Christian Artist

Joel Engle is a Christian recording artist living in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. He has recorded the #1 song "Shadow of Your Cross" and the top 10 songs "Louder Than The Angels" and "Be A Father To Her."

Casey Bond

Actor

Casey Bond is an American actor and retired professional baseball player. He is most noted for playing Chad Bradford in the Academy Award-nominated film Moneyball. Before becoming an actor, Bond played in minor league baseball as an outfielder for the San Francisco Giants organization. Bond attended Birmingham–Southern College and Lipscomb University, playing college baseball for both schools, before he was drafted by the Giants in 2007. After playing in minor league baseball for two seasons, the Giants released Bond in 2009. Rather than continue to pursue his baseball career, Bond chose to become an actor. In addition to Moneyball, Bond has appeared in Gene Simmons Family Jewels, Nashville, and various commercials.

Doug Besterman

Orchestrator

Douglas "Doug" Besterman is an American orchestrator, musical arranger and music producer. He is the recipient of three Tony Awards out of five total nominations and two Drama Desk Awards out of six total nominations, and was a 2009 Grammy Award nominee.

Gina Prince-Bythewood

Film Director

Gina Prince-Bythewood is an American film director and writer. Her primary credits as a director include the films Disappearing Acts and Love & Basketball, produced by Spike Lee and starring Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan, which won her the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. Bythewood attended UCLA's film school, where she also ran competitive track. At UCLA, she received the Gene Reynolds Scholarship for Directing and the Ray Stark Memorial Scholarship for Outstanding Undergraduates. She graduated in 1991. Along with her friends Mara Brock Akil, Sara Finney Johnson and Felicia D. Henderson, she endows The Four Sisters Scholarship. She directed The Secret Life of Bees which was adapted from the best-selling book by Sue Monk Kidd. It was released by Fox Searchlight in October 2008, and debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival and Urbanworld Film Festival that same year. Her husband is Reggie Rock Bythewood, also a film director and writer. Gina is currently in pre-production for a new feature film, Blackbird, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Will Janowitz

Actor

Will Janowitz is an American film, television and stage actor as well as writer. He is a first generation American, with his mother having been born in the Czech Republic and his father in Berlin, Germany.

Frederick Rentschler

Organization founder

Frederick Brant Rentschler was an American aircraft engine designer, aviation engineer, and industrialist. A talented inventor of aviation equipment, Rentschler founded Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. which created and manufactured many revolutionary aircraft engines, including those used in the aircraft of Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart and James Doolittle. His is also the co-founder of United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, the predecessor of United Technologies Corporation.

John Clauser

Physicist

John Francis Clauser is an American theoretical and experimental physicist known for contributions to the foundations of quantum mechanics, in particular the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt inequality. Clauser received his B.S. in physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1964. He received his M.A. in physics in 1966 and his Ph.D. in physics in 1969 from Columbia University. From 1969 to 1996 he worked mainly at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the University of California, Berkeley. He was a member of the Berkeley Fundamental Fysiks Group, founded in May 1975 by Elizabeth Rauscher and George Weissmann, an informal group of physicists who met weekly to discuss philosophy and quantum physics. He was awarded the Wolf Prize in Physics in 2010 together with Alain Aspect and Anton Zeilinger. In 1972 working with Stuart Freedman, he carried out the first experimental test of the CHSH-Bell's theorem predictions. This was the world's first observation of quantum entanglement, and was the first experimental observation of a violation of a Bell inequality. In 1974 working with Michael Horne he first showed that a generalization of Bell's Theorem provides severe constraints for all local realistic theories of nature. That work introduced the Clauser–Horne inequality as the first fully general experimental requirement set by local realism. It also introduced the "CH no-enhancement assumption", whereupon the CH inequality reduces to the CHSH inequality, and whereupon associated experimental tests also constrain local realism. In 1974 he made the first observation of sub-Poissonian statistics for light, and thereby, for the first time, demonstrated an unambiguous particle-like character for photons. In 1976 he carried out the world's second experimental test of the CHSH-Bell's Theorem predictions.

Ben Best

Actor

Ben Best is an American screenwriter and actor. He is the co-creator and co-writer of the television show Eastbound & Down. He also co wrote the films The Foot Fist Way and Your Highness. As an actor he appears in The Foot Fist Way as washed-up martial arts movie star Chuck "The Truck" Wallace. He also appears in Superbad, What Happens in Vegas, Observe and Report and Eastbound & Down.

Barry Davis

Olympic athlete

Barry Davis is an Olympic silver medalist and World champion medalist in freestyle wrestling. Since 1994, he has served as head wrestling coach at the University of Wisconsin.

Leslie Glass

Playwright

Leslie Glass is an American novelist, playwright, and journalist.

Bruce Hart

TV Writer

Bruce Hart was an American songwriter and screenwriter perhaps best known for composing the lyrics to the theme song to Sesame Street.

DJ Smash

Musical Artist

DJ Smash aka Smash Hunter is a DJ, music producer, remixer and project consultant.

Christin Hinojosa

Actor

Christin Hinojosa is an American actress best known for her role as Sabrina in Dazed and Confused. After a few other small roles in films and on television, Hinojosa left acting in the late 1990s and became an anti-war activist. In 2004, as a member of the American Friends Service Committee, she was the first coordinator of the Eyes Wide Open installation in Chicago. She currently works as Director of Communications for Solidarity Bridge, a Christian medical charity focused on Latin America.

Ronald M. Evans

Professor

Ronald M. Evans, a professor in the Gene Expression Laboratory, is the March of Dimes Chair in Developmental and Molecular Biology. Evans is an authority on hormones, both their normal activities and their roles in disease. A major achievement in Evans' lab was the discovery of a large family of molecules, named receptors, that respond to various steroid hormones, Vitamin A and thyroid hormones. These hormones help control sugar, salt, calcium and fat metabolism; thus, they impact on our daily health as well as treatment of disease. The receptors Evans discovered are primary targets in the treatment of breast cancer, prostate cancer and leukemia, as well as osteoporosis and asthma. In addition, Evans' studies led to a new hormone that appears to be the molecular trigger controlling the formation of fat cells. This hormone and its chemical derivatives represent one of the newest and most important advances in understanding problems arising from excess weight and obesity and the potential treatment of adult onset diabetes (Type II diabete

Fred Cole

Musician

Fred Cole is the singer, guitarist, and songwriter of the band Pierced Arrows and formerly Dead Moon.

Crystal Mantecón

Film Actor

Crystal Mantecon is an actress.

Guy Hoffman

Drummer

Guy Hoffman is a drummer and vocalist, formerly of such bands as Oil Tasters, BoDeans, Violent Femmes and Absinthe. He is a composer for such films as Field Day and a founding member of Radio Romeo.

Sue Rose

TV Producer

Susan "Sue" Rose is an American television animator, producer and writer. She is best known for work on children's television series Angela Anaconda, Pepper Ann and Unfabulous. Rose also co-created the fictional character Fido Dido. An animated character that was used in PepsiCo products and CBS's Saturday morning lineup in early 1990s.

Kevin Dooley

Cartoonist

Kevin Dooley is a former editor at DC Comics.

Stanley M. Brooks

Film Producer

Stanley M. Brooks is a film and television producer.

James Henry Emerton

Deceased Person

James Henry Emerton was an American arachnologist.

Amanda Ripley

Journalist

Amanda Ripley is an American journalist and author.

Julius Tennon

Actor

Julius Tennon is an actor.

Shira Piven

Actor

Shira Piven is an actress and film director.

Bobby Weaver

Olympic athlete

Robert Brooks Weaver, Sr. was a freestyle wrestler who won a gold medal at 48 kg at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He also won a silver medal at the 1979 world championships and was a member of the 1980 Olympic team that boycotted the Moscow Olympics.

George Mostow

Mathematician

George Daniel Mostow is an American mathematician, renowned for his contributions to Lie theory. He is the Henry Ford II Professor of Mathematics at Yale University, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the 49th President of the American Mathematical Society, and former Trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ The rigidity phenomenon for lattices in Lie groups he discovered and explored is known as Mostow rigidity. His work on rigidity played an essential role in the work of three Fields medalists, namely Grigori Margulis, William Thurston, and Grigori Perelman. In 1993 he was awarded the AMS Leroy P. Steele Prize for Seminal Contribution to Research. In 2013, he was awarded the Wolf Prize in Mathematics.

Gordon L. Kane

Academic

Gordon Kane has been the Victor Weisskopf Collegiate Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan and the Director of the Michigan Center for Theoretical Physics, a leading center dedicated to the advancement of theoretical physics. He is now Victor Weisskopf Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan and MCTP Director Emeritus, and received the 2012 Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society. Professor Kane is an internationally recognized scientific leader in theoretical and phenomenological particle physics, and theories for physics beyond the Standard Model and in recent years has been a leader in string phenomenology. Kane has been with the University of Michigan since.

Tom Schanley

Actor

Thomas Lee "Tom" Schanley is an American actor who has appeared in a number of television series and feature films. His television credits include roles in Castle, Dexter, The Forgotten, Criminal Minds, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, The Yellow Rose, Fame, T. J. Hooker, Dynasty, Murder, She Wrote, Baywatch, Melrose Place, JAG, ER and Star Trek: Enterprise. His feature film credits include roles in A Better Life, Get the Gringo, Conspiracy Theory, Courage Under Fire, Fever Pitch and Nothing Underneath.

David M. Potts

US Congressperson

David Matthew Potts was a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York. Born in New York City, he attended the public schools and the College of the City of New York from 1927 to 1929. He graduated from Brooklyn Law School of St. Lawrence University in 1932, was admitted to the New York bar in 1933 and commenced practice in New York City. He was counsel to the New York Senate Committee on Affairs of the City of New York during the 1945 session, and was elected as a Republican to the Eightieth Congress, holding office from January 3, 1947 to January 3, 1949. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1948 to the Eighty-first Congress and resumed the practice of law. Potts was appointed surrogate of Bronx County by Governor Dewey and held that office from November 1951 to January 1953. He was a special referee of the Appellate Division, First Department, Supreme Court of State of New York during the June 1953 term and was a senior partner of Kadel, Wilson & Potts, until his death in 1976 in Bronxville. Interment was in Ferncliff Mausoleum, Hartsdale.

Eddie Crook, Jr.

Professional Boxer

Edward "Eddie" Crook, Jr. won a gold medal for the United States as a boxing teammate of Muhammad Ali in the 1960 Summer Olympics. Crook was also a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity.

Monty Byrom

Musical Artist

Monty Curtis Byrom is an American rock, blues and country guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer. He fronted bands Billy Satellite, New Frontier, and the Academy of Country Music nominated Big House. Earlier in his career Byrom co-produced and co-wrote hit songs for Eddie Money while a member of Money's band. Money had earlier covered Byrom's Billy Satellite song, "I Wanna Go Back." Later while leading the "soul country" band Big House, Byrom made a signicant contribution to the new Bakersfield Sound, with a nod to his Bakersfield roots. In early 2007 Byrom was invited to join Buck Owens' band The Buckaroos at The Crystal Palace in Bakersfield, California, fronting the band one weekend a month. Byrom was born in Corpus Christi, Texas and raised in Bakersfield, California. In addition to Eddie Money, Byrom worked with a number of other performers including Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, David Lee Roth, Rita Coolidge, Barbra Streisand, Brad Gillis, Don Felder, Jay Boy Adams, Timothy B. Schmit, and Johnny Van Zant. He has also worked on many television and movie soundtracks.

John Dennis Johnston

Actor

John Dennis Johnston is an actor.

John William Lambert

Inventor

John William Lambert was an American automotive pioneer, inventor, and automobile manufacturer.

Marlon Shirley

Man

Marlon Shirley is a paralympic athlete from the United States competing mainly in category T44 events.

Edward Samuel Corwin

Author

Edward Samuel Corwin was president of the American Political Science Association.