Celebrities I Wish I Could Have Met

1. Jane Austen

Jane Austen was born on December 16th, 1775, to the local rector, Rev. George Austen (1731-1805), and Cassandra Leigh (1739-1827). She was the seventh of eight children. She had one older sister, Cassandra. In 1783 she went to Southampton to be taught by a relative, Mrs. Cawley, but was brought ...

Even the twits at Slate know not to slam her.

2. Josephine Baker

Soundtrack | Zouzou

Josephine Baker was born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, MO, in 1906 to Carrie McDonald, a laundress, and Eddie Carson, a musician. Her early life hinted at her future career. She first danced for the public on the streets of St. Louis for nickels and dimes. Later she became a chorus girl on...

Amazing person. Pity she had to go to Europe in order to be appreciated.

3. Wendy Beckett

Writer | Sister Wendy's Story of Painting

Wendy Beckett was born on February 25, 1930 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She was a writer, known for Sister Wendy's Story of Painting (1996), Songs of Praise (1961) and Gallery (1984). She died on December 26, 2018 in Quidenham, Norfolk, England, UK.

Her love for art was infectious. And her overbite fascinated me.

4. Victor Borge

Actor | Higher and Higher

Pianist, composer, songwriter, entertainer and actor, educated at Borgerdydskolen and the Conservatory of Copenhagen. He studied with Egon Petri and Frederic Lammond. His concert career began in 1922, and he performed in a musical revue in 1934, and in films by 1937. Arriving in the US in 1940, he ...

Funny, funny, funny!

5. Ernest Borgnine

Actor | Marty

Ernest Borgnine was born Ermes Effron Borgnino on January 24, 1917 in Hamden, Connecticut. His parents were Anna (Boselli), who had emigrated from Carpi (MO), Italy, and Camillo Borgnino, who had emigrated from Ottiglio (AL), Italy. As an only child, Ernest enjoyed most sports, especially boxing, ...

Great guy and a terrific actor.

6. James Cagney

Actor | Angels with Dirty Faces

One of Hollywood's preeminent male stars of all time, James Cagney was also an accomplished dancer and easily played light comedy. James Francis Cagney was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, to Carolyn (Nelson) and James Francis Cagney, Sr., who was a bartender and amateur ...

One of my acting idols. Incredible range.

7. Charles Chaplin

Writer | The Great Dictator

Considered to be one of the most pivotal stars of the early days of Hollywood, Charlie Chaplin lived an interesting life both in his films and behind the camera. He is most recognized as an icon of the silent film era, often associated with his popular character, the Little Tramp; the man with the ...

Politics and wild personal life aside, it would have been cool to pick his brain.

8. Cesar Chavez

Self | The Fight in the Fields

Cesar Chavez was born on March 31, 1927 in Yuma, Arizona, USA. He was married to Helen Chavez. He died on April 23, 1993 in San Luis, Arizona, USA.

Probably the only labor leader who wasn't a crook. Certainly, the only one worth admiring.

9. Julia Child

Writer | The French Chef

Julia Child was born on August 15, 1912 in Pasadena, California, USA. She was a writer and director, known for The French Chef (1962), Julie & Julia (2009) and We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993). She was married to Paul Child. She died on August 13, 2004 in Montecito, California, USA.

Everyone's culinary heroine.

10. Winston Churchill

Writer | Matinee Theater

Born in Blenheim Palace, the residence of his grandfather, the 7th Duke of Marlborough. His father was the Duke's third son, Lord Randolph Churchill. His mother, Jennie Jerome, was the daughter of an American financier.

After passing through famous English public schools such as Harrow, he went on ...

Saved the world from absolute evil.

11. Nat 'King' Cole

Soundtrack | The Nat King Cole Show

Nat King Cole was born Nathaniel Adams Coles (he later dropped the "s" in his surname) in Montgomery, Alabama. He received music lessons from his mother and his family moved to Chicago when he was only five, where his father, Edward James Coles, was a minister at the True Light Baptist Church and ...

The perfect singer. Smooth as silk.

12. Alistair Cooke

Writer | America

British-born American journalist and broadcaster. Cooke was born in Salford, Manchester: his father was an iron-fitter and Methodist lay-preacher. He grew up in Blackpool where his parents ran a guest house. Here he first came into contact with Americans, in the form of GIs on their way to fight in...

Wrote a piece on Joe DiMaggio titled "A Natural Gentleman". Same can be said of him.

13. Leonardo Da Vinci

Writer | The Year of Living Locked Up

The archetypal "Renaissance Man," Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest scientific minds as well as one of the greatest visual artists the human race has ever produced. The illegitimate son of a wealthy Florentine notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman named Caterina, Leonardo was born in ...

The greatest mind ever. Were he alive today, he'd rule the world.

14. Bette Davis

Actress | All About Eve

Ruth Elizabeth Davis was born April 5, 1908, in Lowell, Massachusetts, to Ruth Augusta (Favor) and Harlow Morrell Davis, a patent attorney. Her parents divorced when she was 10. She and her sister were raised by their mother. Her early interest was dance. To Bette, dancers led a glamorous life, but...

Fantastic on and off screen.

15. Emily Dickinson

Soundtrack | The Bizarre Murder of Mr Tusker

Emily Dickinson, a shy, unassuming, educated woman, was a poet of extraordinary talent. During her lifetime, only seven of her poems were published, although upon her death, she had written an amazing 2,000 poems. Many of these were not finished. Her grandfather, Samuel Fowler Dickinson, was one of...

Got me into poetry. Wanted to go to Amherst College because of her. Crazy-brilliant.

16. Walt Disney

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Walter Elias Disney was born on December 5, 1901 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Flora Disney (née Call) and Elias Disney, a Canadian-born farmer and businessperson. He had Irish, German, and English ancestry. Walt moved with his parents to Kansas City at age seven, where he spent the majority of ...

Visionary. If he knew what these ass-wipes have done to his company, he'd kill them!

17. Amelia Earhart

Writer | Xavier Riddle and the Secret Movie: I Am Madam President!

Amelia Earhart was born on July 24, 1897 in Atchison, Kansas, USA. She was a writer, known for Xavier Riddle and the Secret Movie: I Am Madam President! (2020). She was married to George Palmer Putnam. She died on January 5, 1939 in Pacific Ocean.

Not the first female pilot. Not even the best female pilot. But the gutiest pilot, male or female.

18. Oriana Fallaci

Writer | Teatr Telewizji

Oriana Fallaci was born on June 29, 1929 in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. She was a writer, known for Television Theater (1953), El grito (1968) and Oriana Fallaci intervista Ayatollah Khomeini (1979). She died on September 15, 2006 in Florence, Tuscany, Italy.

Christiane Amanpour for grown ups.

19. Ella Fitzgerald

Soundtrack | Sphere

On Saturday, June 15th, 1996, an era in jazz singing came to an end, with the death of Ella Fitzgerald at her home in California. She was the last of four great female jazz singers (including Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, and Carmen McRae) who defined one of the most prolific eras in jazz vocal ...

If listening to her doesn't make you happy, there is something very wrong with you.

20. Judy Garland

Actress | The Wizard of Oz

One of the brightest, most tragic movie stars of Hollywood's Golden Era, Judy Garland was a much-loved character whose warmth and spirit, along with her rich and exuberant voice, kept theatre-goers entertained with an array of delightful musicals.

She was born Frances Ethel Gumm on 10 June 1922 in ...

A superb talent.

21. Cary Grant

Actor | North by Northwest

Once told by an interviewer, "Everybody would like to be Cary Grant", Grant is said to have replied, "So would I."

Cary Grant was born Archibald Alec Leach on January 18, 1904 in Horfield, Bristol, England, to Elsie Maria (Kingdon) and Elias James Leach, who worked in a factory. His early years in ...

Just the thought of him makes me smile.

22. Helen Hayes

Actress | Airport

Known as "The First lady of the American Theater", Helen Hayes had a legendary career on stage and in films and television that spanned over eighty years. Hayes was born in Washington, D.C., to Catherine Estelle "Essie" Hayes, an actress who worked in touring companies, and Francis van Arnum Brown,...

Great actress. Great lady.

23. Jim Henson

Soundtrack | The Muppet Show

Jim Henson never thought that he would make a name of himself in puppetry; it was merely a way of getting himself on television. The vehicle that achieved it was Sam and Friends (1955), a late-night puppet show that was on after the 11:00 news in Washington DC. It proved to be very popular and ...

What Disney has done to his Muppets is a travesty.

24. Katharine Hepburn

Actress | The Lion in Winter

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was born on May 12, 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut to a suffragist, Katharine Martha (Houghton), and a doctor, Thomas Norval Hepburn, who both always encouraged her to speak her mind, develop it fully, and exercise her body to its full potential. An athletic tomboy as a ...

Like I really need to explain.

25. Charlton Heston

Actor | Ben-Hur

With features chiseled in stone, and renowned for playing a long list of historical figures, particularly in Biblical epics, the tall, well-built and ruggedly handsome Charlton Heston was one of Hollywood's top leading men of his prime and remained active in front of movie cameras for over sixty ...

Epic and fearless.

26. Bob Hope

Actor | The Ghost Breakers

Comedian Bob Hope was born Leslie Townes Hope in Eltham, London, England, the fifth of seven sons of Avis (Townes), light opera singer, and William Henry Hope, a stonemason from Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. His maternal grandmother was Welsh. Hope moved to Bristol before emigrating with his parents...

Entertainer of the 20th Century.

27. Chuck Jones

Actor | Gremlins

Starting as a cel washer, Chuck Jones worked his way up to animator and then director at the animation division of Warner Bros. He is famous for creating such beloved cartoon characters as Wile E. Coyote, Henery Hawk, Pepé Le Pew, Marvin the Martian, Ralph Wolf, Road Runner, Sam Sheepdog, Sniffles,...

Genius. Made the best cartoon shorts ever.

28. Jack Lemmon

Actor | The Apartment

Jack Lemmon was born in Newton, Massachusetts, to Mildred Lankford Noel and John Uhler Lemmon, Jr., the president of a doughnut company. His ancestry included Irish (from his paternal grandmother) and English. Jack attended Ward Elementary near his Newton, MA home. At age 9 he was sent to Rivers ...

Had more range in his pinkie than most actors have in their bodies! And, by all accounts, a great guy.

29. Liberace

Soundtrack | Behind the Candelabra

Most remembered for his extravagant costumes and trademark candelabra placed on the lids of his flashy pianos, Liberace was loved by his audiences for his music talent and unique showmanship. He was born as Wladziu Valentino Liberace on May 16, 1919, into a musical family, in Wisconsin. His mother, ...

How the Left can claim to be the champion of people who ID as LGBTQQ, and bash him is beyond me. A brilliant musician and a kind man.

30. Art Linkletter

Actor | Champagne for Caesar

Art Linkletter was born on July 17, 1912 in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. He was an actor and producer, known for Champagne for Caesar (1950), Philippine Adventure (1964) and The Jack Benny Program (1950). He was married to Lois Marguerite Foerster. He died on May 26, 2010 in Bel-Air, California...

Wonderful man.

31. Michael Maltese

Soundtrack | Son of the Mask

During the heyday of cartoon slapstick in Hollywood, one basic tenet held precedence: namely, that an inseparable connection existed between perennial antagonists like Tom and Jerry, Sylvester and Tweetie, Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam (or Elmer Fudd). In other ...

One of my writing idols. Writing cartoon shorts is a specialty. And he did it better than anyone.

32. Marilyn Monroe

Actress | Some Like It Hot

Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, comedienne, singer, and model. Monroe is of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh descent. She became one of the world's most enduring iconic figures and is remembered both for her winsome embodiment of the Hollywood sex symbol and her tragic personal and ...

That the world is still fascinated by her 60 years after her death tells you how amazing she was.

33. Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Self | Saturday Night Live

Daniel Patrick Moynihan was born on March 16, 1927 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. He was married to Elizabeth Therese Brennan. He died on March 26, 2003 in Washington, District of Columbia, USA.

Brilliant. One of the few on the Left I respect.

34. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Soundtrack | Amadeus

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart grew up in Salzburg under the regulation of his strict father Leopold who also was a famous composer of his time. His abilities in music were obvious even when Mozart was still young so that in 1762 at the age of six, his father took him with his elder sister on a concert ...

'Nuff said.

35. Joseph Papp

Soundtrack | A Chorus Line

Theatrical producer and director; founder in 1954 of the New York Shakespeare Festival and in 1967 of the Public Theatre. Through his efforts and foresight, "Hair" (1967) and "A Chorus Line" (1975), among other productions, came to the Broadway stage. (The latter became the longest-running musical ...

True champion of the theater.

36. George S. Patton

Self | Nazi Concentration Camps

George S. Patton III was a highly successful and highly controversial general who held Corps- and Army-level commands during World War II. Because of his great competence as a battlefield commander, Patton might have led the American troops during the invasion of Normandy; however, his impolitic ...

Only Allied commander the Nazis feared. Wrote the book on kicking ass and taking names.

37. George Plimpton

Actor | Good Will Hunting

George Plimpton was born on March 18, 1927 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for Good Will Hunting (1997), Nixon (1995) and Just Cause (1995). He was married to Sara Whitehead Dudley and Freddy Medora Espy. He died on September 26, 2003 in Manhattan, New York City, ...

Great intellect. Co-founded The Paris Review, best literary magazine ever.

38. Pope John Paul II

Writer | La bottega dell'orefice

Pope John Paul II was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his death in 2005. He was elected pope by the second papal conclave of 1978, which was called after John Paul I, who had been elected in August to succeed Pope Paul VI, died after 33 days. ...

When I read he liked to kick back with a beer during his down time, I thought "way cool".

39. Elvis Presley

Soundtrack | Girls! Girls! Girls!

Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935 in East Tupelo, Mississippi, to Gladys Presley (née Gladys Love Smith) and Vernon Presley (Vernon Elvis Presley). He had a twin brother who was stillborn. In 1948, Elvis and his parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee where he attended Humes High School. ...

My mother met him before he hit it big. One of those figures so larger-than-life, you don't think they could die.

40. Fred Rogers

Actor | Mister Rogers' Neighborhood

Fred Rogers was the host of the popular long-running public television children's show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. The show debuted in Pittsburgh in 1967 and was picked up by PBS the next year, becoming a staple of public TV stations around the United States. Rogers' mild manner, cardigan sweaters...

Reminds me that once upon a time, kids TV wasn't loud and stupid and pushing an agenda.

41. Mickey Rooney

Actor | It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

Mickey Rooney was born Joe Yule Jr. on September 23, 1920 in Brooklyn, New York. He first took the stage as a toddler in his parents vaudeville act at 17 months old. He made his first film appearance in 1926. The following year, he played the lead character in the first Mickey McGuire short film. ...

Nothing he couldn't do. What a talent.

42. Vin Scully

Actor | For Love of the Game

Vin Scully was born on November 29, 1927 in Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for For Love of the Game (1999), Secret in Their Eyes (2015) and Fireball 500 (1966). He was married to Sandra Jean Hunt and Joan Louise Crawford. He died on August 2, 2022 in Hidden Hills, ...

Best sportscaster of all time.

43. Louis Rukeyser

Actor | Big Business

Louis Rukeyser was born on January 30, 1933 in New York City, New York, USA. He was an actor, known for Big Business (1988), Wall $treet Week with Louis Rukeyser (1970) and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1968). He was married to Alexandra Rukeyser. He died on May 2, 2006 in Greenwich, Connecticut, ...

Made me feel I was a Wall Street insider.

44. Charles M. Schulz

Writer | The Peanuts Movie

Charles Monroe Schulz (nicknamed "Sparky") was an American comic strip writer and artist from Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was primarily known for creating the long-running comic strip "Peanuts" (1950-2000), and serving as its sole artist for the strip's entire run. His comic strip was known for its ...

As Comic Book Guy would say, "Greatest... cartoonist... ever".

45. William Shakespeare

Writer | The Tragedy of Macbeth

William Shakespeare's birthdate is assumed from his baptism on April 25. His father John was the son of a farmer who became a successful tradesman; his mother Mary Arden was gentry. He studied Latin works at Stratford Grammar School, leaving at about age 15. About this time his father suffered an ...

For obvious reasons.

46. Barbara Stanwyck

Actress | Double Indemnity

Today Barbara Stanwyck is remembered primarily as the matriarch of the family known as the Barkleys on the TV western The Big Valley (1965), wherein she played Victoria, and from the hit drama The Colbys (1985). But she was known to millions of other fans for her movie career, which spanned the ...

One of my acting idols. Unbelievable talent.

47. James Stewart

Actor | Vertigo

James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, to Elizabeth Ruth (Johnson) and Alexander Maitland Stewart, who owned a hardware store. He was of Scottish, Ulster-Scots, and some English descent. Stewart was educated at a local prep school, Mercersburg Academy, where he ...

One of my acting idols. Never phoned it in.

48. Mother Teresa

Self | Mother Teresa

Mother Teresa also known as Saint Teresa of Calcutta, was an Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun who in 1950 founded and was an active member of the Missionaries of Charity. Although her passport name was Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu, she was born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (Skopje, capital of North Macedonia. ...

As close to a saint as you and I will ever know.

49. Nikola Tesla

Self | Return of Tesla

Nikola Tesla (28 June 1856 - 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.

Born and raised in the Austrian Empire, Tesla studied ...

Never got the props he deserved.

50. Margaret Thatcher

SDI Star Wars

Margaret Thatcher was born on October 13, 1925 in Grantham, England, the younger daughter of Alfred and Beatrice Roberts. Her father was a greengrocer and respected town leader, serving as lay-leader with their church, city-alderman and then as mayor. He taught Margaret never to do things because ...

Whatever your politics, she was a leader.

51. Mark Twain

Writer | Big River

Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Missouri in 1835, grew up in Hannibal. He was a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. Throughout his career, Twain served as a writer, lecturer, reporter, editor, printer, and prospector. Twain took his pen name from an alert cry used on his...

Not only our greatest writer, but seemed like a real fun guy to hang out with.

52. Antonio Vivaldi

Soundtrack | Runaway Train

Being the son of a violinist Vivaldi started playing the violin himself early in his life. In 1703 he became priest and in 1716 the director of a conservatory of the church in Venice. Being a famous violinist he gave concerts all over Europe also composing a lot of violin concerts and other string ...

His music is epic.

53. Voltaire

Writer | Prostodushnyy

Future proponent for victims of injustice and tyranny during the years prior to the French Revolution, Voltaire (born François Marie Arouet on November 21, 1694 in Paris) was educated in Paris by the Jesuits. For a time he studied law, then decided to become a writer. Witty, thought-provoking and ...

Got to love a guy who called Shakespeare "a drunken savage".

54. John Wayne

Actor | True Grit

John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison in Iowa, to Mary Alberta (Brown) and Clyde Leonard Morrison, a pharmacist. He was of English, Scottish, Ulster-Scots, and Irish ancestry.

Clyde developed a lung condition that required him to move his family from Iowa to the warmer climate of southern ...

American. 'Nuff said.

55. Robin Williams

Actor | Mrs. Doubtfire

Robin McLaurin Williams was born on Saturday, July 21st, 1951, in Chicago, Illinois, a great-great-grandson of Mississippi Governor and Senator, Anselm J. McLaurin. His mother, Laurie McLaurin (née Janin), was a former model from Mississippi, and his father, Robert Fitzgerald Williams, was a Ford ...

One of a handful of performers who could truly be called a genius.

56. Billy Graham

Writer | Wiretapper

Billy Graham was arguably the most successful Christian evangelist in the world. He was born William Franklin Graham, Jr., on Thursday, November 7th, 1918 on a dairy farm near Charlotte, North Carolina, to Morrow (Coffey) and William Franklin Graham, who were dairy farmers. Billy was an unofficial ...

I'm not religious, but I admire him for the sincerity of his faith.