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Arts & Letters
Novelists, poets, musicians, actors, directors and designers who made the country's culture.
Role:
Any
Actor 58
Novelist 46
Singer 39
Songwriter 31
Musician 30
Filmmaker 26
Painter 26
Composer 18
Poet 14
Author 11
Photographer 11
Comedian 10
Activist 9
Founder 8
Playwright 8
Sculptor 8
Educator 7
Broadcaster 6
Journalist 6
Rapper 6
Designer 5
Illustrator 5
Producer 5
Choreographer 4
Executive 4
243 people
Elvis Presley 1935–1977MusicThe King of Rock and Roll whose music and style revolutionized American popular culture.
Mark Twain 1835–1910Literature & DramaAuthor of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, often called the father of American literature.
Walt Disney 1901–1966Film, Television & ComedyAnimator and business magnate who created Mickey Mouse and built the world's largest entertainment empire.
Ernest Hemingway 1899–1961Literature & DramaNobel Prize-winning novelist whose spare prose style defined 20th-century American fiction.
Michael Jackson 1958–2009MusicPerformer whose recordings, choreography, and music videos redefined global pop stardom.
Bob Dylan b. 1941MusicSongwriter whose poetic lyrics transformed folk, rock, and the role of popular music in public life.
Louis Armstrong 1901–1971MusicTrumpeter and singer whose innovations and worldwide fame made jazz a central American art form.
Charlie Chaplin 1889–1977Film, Television & ComedyBritish-American actor and filmmaker whose Tramp character became an icon of the silent film era.
Marilyn Monroe 1926–1962Film, Television & ComedyActress and cultural icon whose blend of vulnerability and glamour made her a symbol of Hollywood's golden age.
Edgar Allan Poe 1809–1849Literature & DramaMaster of macabre fiction and poetry who invented the detective story and influenced horror worldwide.
Emily Dickinson 1830–1886Literature & DramaReclusive poet whose innovative use of form and slant rhyme made her one of America's greatest literary voices.
Steven Spielberg b. 1946Film, Television & ComedyDirector and producer whose blockbusters and dramas have defined American cinema for five decades.
Walt Whitman 1819–1892Literature & DramaPoet whose Leaves of Grass celebrated democracy, nature, and the human body in free verse.
Frank Sinatra 1915–1998MusicCrooner and actor whose voice and charisma made him one of the best-selling music artists of all time.
Herman Melville 1819–1891Literature & DramaNovelist whose Moby-Dick is considered one of the greatest works of American literature.
Andy Warhol 1928–1987Visual Arts & DesignPop art pioneer whose Campbell's soup cans and celebrity portraits defined contemporary American art.
F. Scott Fitzgerald 1896–1940Literature & DramaNovelist who captured the Jazz Age in The Great Gatsby, the defining novel of the American Dream.
Taylor Swift b. 1989MusicSinger-songwriter whose commercial reach, fan culture, and control of her catalog reshaped the modern music business.
Alfred Hitchcock 1899–1980Film, Television & ComedyDirector whose Hollywood films and television presence defined modern suspense and influenced generations of American filmmakers.
Toni Morrison 1931–2019Literature & DramaNobel laureate whose novels, including Beloved, explored the African American experience with profound lyricism.
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803–1882Literature & DramaEssayist and philosopher who led the Transcendentalist movement and shaped American intellectual thought.
Robert Frost 1874–1963Literature & DramaFour-time Pulitzer Prize-winning poet whose rural New England verse became synonymous with American poetry.
Dr. Seuss 1904–1991Literature & DramaAuthor and illustrator whose rhythmic books transformed American children’s reading and publishing.
William Faulkner 1897–1962Literature & DramaNobel laureate whose stream-of-consciousness novels set in Yoknapatawpha County reshaped American fiction.
Aretha Franklin 1942–2018MusicSinger whose gospel-rooted artistry made her a defining voice of soul music and Black cultural pride.
Prince 1958–2016MusicSinger, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist whose innovation and fight for artistic control influenced generations.
John Wayne 1907–1979Film, Television & ComedyWestern star whose screen persona became a durable symbol of American masculinity.
Maya Angelou 1928–2014Literature & DramaPoet and memoirist whose I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings broke new ground in autobiographical writing.
Beyoncé b. 1981MusicSinger, songwriter, and performer whose cultural influence extends far beyond music into fashion and activism.
James Baldwin 1924–1987Literature & DramaEssayist and novelist whose searing explorations of race, sexuality, and identity remain profoundly relevant.
Lucille Ball 1911–1989Film, Television & ComedyComedic actress and producer whose I Love Lucy pioneered the sitcom format and changed television.
Georgia O'Keeffe 1887–1986Visual Arts & DesignModernist painter known for her enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes.
Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804–1864Literature & DramaNovelist whose The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables explored Puritan guilt and sin.
Stephen King b. 1947Literature & DramaProlific novelist whose horror and suspense fiction became a major force in American popular culture.
George Lucas b. 1944Film, Television & ComedyFilmmaker who created Star Wars and Indiana Jones, later selling Lucasfilm to Disney for over $4 billion.
Madonna b. 1958MusicThe Queen of Pop who reshaped the music industry and became a symbol of female empowerment and reinvention.
Bruce Springsteen b. 1949MusicSongwriter whose music made working-class life, aspiration, and disappointment central themes of American rock.
Elizabeth Taylor 1932–2011Film, Television & ComedyTwo-time Academy Award winner who turned the largest fame in the world into the first mass-audience campaign against AIDS.
Marlon Brando 1924–2004Film, Television & ComedyActor whose method acting revolutionized film performance and influenced generations of actors.
Humphrey Bogart 1899–1957Film, Television & ComedyStudio-era screen actor identified with Casablanca and the hardboiled detective role.
Jimi Hendrix 1942–1970MusicGuitarist whose sound, technique, and performance style revolutionized rock music.
Fred Astaire 1899–1987Film, Television & ComedyMade dance work on film by winning control of how it was shot.
Harper Lee 1926–2016Literature & DramaAuthor of To Kill a Mockingbird, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that shaped America's conversation on race.
Norman Rockwell 1894–1978Visual Arts & DesignIllustrator whose idealized depictions of American life graced magazine covers for nearly 50 years.
John Steinbeck 1902–1968Literature & DramaNobel Prize-winning novelist whose Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men chronicled American hardship.
James Stewart 1908–1997Film, Television & ComedyThe everyman of American movies, and a combat bomber pilot who rarely mentioned it.
Dolly Parton b. 1946MusicCountry music legend whose Imagination Library has donated over 200 million books to children.
Charles M. Schulz 1922–2000Visual Arts & DesignCartoonist who drew Peanuts for fifty years and made Charlie Brown a national figure.
Tennessee Williams 1911–1983Literature & DramaPlaywright whose A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof defined American theater.
Ray Charles 1930–2004MusicSinger and pianist who fused gospel, blues, jazz, and country into a foundational sound of soul and modern American popular music.
Orson Welles 1915–1985Film, Television & ComedyDirector, actor, and broadcaster whose innovations in film, radio, and theater reshaped American visual and dramatic storytelling.
Ansel Adams 1902–1984Visual Arts & DesignLandscape photographer whose Western images and zone system shaped American photographic practice.
Chuck Berry 1926–2017MusicGuitarist and songwriter whose music established core sounds, themes, and performance styles of rock and roll.
Miles Davis 1926–1991MusicTrumpeter and bandleader who repeatedly redirected jazz through bebop, cool jazz, modal music, and fusion.
Jackson Pollock 1912–1956Visual Arts & DesignAbstract expressionist whose drip painting technique revolutionized modern art.
Stevie Wonder b. 1950MusicSinger-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose innovative recordings expanded soul and popular music.
Louisa May Alcott 1832–1888Literature & DramaAuthor of Little Women and a founding figure of American domestic fiction.
Isaac Asimov 1920–1992Literature & DramaWriter whose science fiction and popular science helped shape public imagination about robots, technology, and the future.
Eminem b. 1972MusicBest-selling rapper in history, and the one who forced the argument about who hip-hop belongs to.
Cary Grant 1904–1986Film, Television & ComedyThe definitive Hollywood leading man, and one of the first stars to break the studio contract system.
Langston Hughes 1901–1967Literature & DramaHarlem Renaissance poet and writer whose work celebrated Black life and challenged racial injustice.
Jay-Z b. 1969MusicRapper and entrepreneur whose career helped move hip-hop from a subculture to the center of American business and culture.
Stanley Kubrick 1928–1999Film, Television & ComedyDirector whose technically ambitious films redefined science fiction, war, horror, and cinematic authorship.
Arthur Miller 1915–2005Literature & DramaPlaywright whose Death of a Salesman and The Crucible are cornerstones of American drama.
Johnny Cash 1932–2003MusicSinger-songwriter whose work connected country, gospel, folk, prison reform, and American myth.
George Gershwin 1898–1937MusicComposer who fused jazz, popular song, Broadway, and concert music into a distinctly American style.
Ayn Rand 1905–1982Literature & DramaNovelist and philosopher whose defense of individualism and capitalism deeply influenced American conservative and libertarian thought.
Martin Scorsese b. 1942Film, Television & ComedyDirector and preservation advocate whose films and institutions have shaped both American cinema and understanding of its history.
James Brown 1933–2006MusicSinger and bandleader whose rhythmic innovations created funk and profoundly shaped hip-hop, dance, and popular performance.
Clint Eastwood b. 1930Film, Television & ComedyActor and director whose Westerns and gritty dramas, from Dirty Harry to Unforgiven, defined American masculinity.
Katharine Hepburn 1907–2003Film, Television & ComedyFour-time Oscar-winning actress whose independent spirit and wit made her a screen legend.
Meryl Streep b. 1949Film, Television & ComedyMost nominated actor in Oscar history, renowned for her chameleon-like ability to inhabit diverse roles.
Leonard Bernstein 1918–1990MusicConductor, composer, and educator who brought classical music to mass audiences and reshaped American musical theater.
Jim Henson 1936–1990Film, Television & ComedyCreator of the Muppets and a central figure in Sesame Street and family television.
Billie Holiday 1915–1959MusicJazz singer whose intensely personal phrasing and performances, including 'Strange Fruit,' transformed American vocal music.
Edward Hopper 1882–1967Visual Arts & DesignRealist painter whose depictions of urban isolation, like Nighthawks, became iconic American images.
Whitney Houston 1963–2012MusicSinger whose vocal technique and crossover success set a standard for modern pop and R&B performance.
Quincy Jones 1933–2024MusicArranged for Sinatra and Basie, scored the films, and produced Thriller.
Groucho Marx 1890–1977Film, Television & ComedyComedian who turned the verbal insult into the engine of American comedy, from vaudeville and the Marx Brothers pictures to 14 years of You Bet Your Life.
Willie Nelson b. 1933MusicSongwriter and performer central to outlaw country and to Farm Aid.The Notorious B.I.G. 1972–1997MusicRapper who remade East Coast hip-hop in two albums before his murder at 24
Tupac Shakur 1971–1996MusicRapper and actor whose work and persona became enduring symbols of hip-hop’s social and personal tensions.
Tom Cruise b. 1962Film, Television & ComedyAction superstar and producer whose Mission: Impossible franchise and box office dominance span four decades.
Tom Hanks b. 1956Film, Television & ComedyAcademy Award-winning actor known for his everyman roles and status as one of Hollywood's most beloved stars.
Irving Berlin 1888–1989MusicSongwriter whose vast catalog, from 'God Bless America' to Broadway standards, helped define the American popular songbook.
Ella Fitzgerald 1917–1996MusicSinger whose technical command and interpretations helped define jazz and the Great American Songbook.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807–1882Literature & DramaThe most widely read American poet of the 19th century, and the most argued over since.
Sidney Poitier 1927–2022Film, Television & ComedyFirst Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, breaking barriers in Hollywood.
Duke Ellington 1899–1974MusicComposer and bandleader who expanded the artistic ambition and vocabulary of jazz.
Ray Bradbury 1920–2012Literature & DramaScience fiction writer whose Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles became American classics.
Johnny Carson 1925–2005Film, Television & ComedyHost of The Tonight Show for thirty years and the model for American late-night television.
Judy Garland 1922–1969MusicActress and singer best known for The Wizard of Oz, whose life and talent became emblematic of Hollywood.
Allen Ginsberg 1926–1997Literature & DramaHowl, Kaddish, and the 1957 obscenity trial
Berry Gordy b. 1929MusicFounder of Motown, who turned an 800-dollar family loan into the Sound of Young America
Gene Kelly 1912–1996Film, Television & ComedyDanced in a T-shirt instead of tails, co-directed Singin' in the Rain, and rebuilt how dance is filmed.
Quentin Tarantino b. 1963Film, Television & ComedyDirector of Pulp Fiction
Buster Keaton 1895–1966Film, Television & ComedySilent-film comedian and director whose visual precision, stunts, and deadpan style became foundational to screen comedy.
B.B. King 1925–2015MusicSinger and guitarist whose expressive style brought electric blues to a worldwide audience and influenced generations of musicians.
Henry James 1843–1916Literature & DramaNovelist whose intricate explorations of consciousness and society bridged American and European literature.
Charlie Parker 1920–1955MusicSaxophonist whose virtuosity and harmonic innovations made him a principal creator of bebop and modern jazz.
John Coltrane 1926–1967MusicSaxophonist and composer whose technical and spiritual explorations transformed modern jazz.
Jack Kerouac 1922–1969Literature & DramaNovelist whose spontaneous style and road narratives became defining texts of the Beat Generation.
Vladimir Nabokov 1899–1977Literature & DramaAuthor of Lolita, Pale Fire and Speak, Memory
J. D. Salinger 1919–2010Literature & DramaAuthor whose fiction, especially The Catcher in the Rye, became a lasting touchstone of adolescent alienation.
Stephen Sondheim 1930–2021MusicComposer and lyricist whose formal and psychological innovations transformed the American musical theater.
Denzel Washington b. 1954Film, Television & ComedyAcademy Award-winning actor and director regarded as one of the greatest actors of his generation.
Brian Wilson 1942–2025MusicBeach Boys songwriter and producer who made Pet Sounds and "Good Vibrations" out of the recording studio itself
Francis Ford Coppola b. 1939Film, Television & ComedyDirector and producer whose landmark films helped define the New Hollywood era and modern American epic filmmaking.
Hank Williams 1923–1953MusicCountry songwriter whose brief career set the template for the genre's later stars.
Nat King Cole 1919–1965MusicJazz pianist and singer of "Mona Lisa", "Unforgettable" and "The Christmas Song"
Philip K. Dick 1928–1982Literature & DramaWrote 45 novels asking whether reality is real and who counts as human, and Hollywood has filmed them ever since.
Eugene O'Neill 1888–1953Literature & DramaPlaywright whose psychologically complex dramas established serious American theater on the world stage.
Sylvia Plath 1932–1963Literature & DramaPoet and novelist whose confessional works, including The Bell Jar, broke new ground for women's writing.
Mark Rothko 1903–1970Visual Arts & DesignAbstract expressionist known for his large color-field paintings that evoke deep emotional responses.
Kurt Vonnegut 1922–2007Literature & DramaSatirical novelist whose Slaughterhouse-Five became an anti-war classic of 20th-century literature.
Robert De Niro b. 1943Film, Television & ComedyAcademy Award-winning actor whose method performances in Taxi Driver and Raging Bull defined a generation.
Jack Nicholson b. 1937Film, Television & ComedyThree-time Oscar winner and one of the most celebrated actors in Hollywood history.
Little Richard 1932–2020MusicSinger and pianist whose explosive performances and recordings helped establish the sound and visual style of rock and roll.
John Ford 1894–1973Film, Television & ComedyDirector of Westerns and Depression dramas who won four directing Academy Awards.
Woody Guthrie 1912–1967MusicDust Bowl balladeer whose songs shaped American folk and protest music for later generations.
Truman Capote 1924–1984Literature & DramaWriter of Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood — an early nonfiction novel.
Henry Fonda 1905–1982Film, Television & ComedyPlayed the plain American conscience for five decades — Tom Joad, Juror 8, Mister Roberts — and won his only Oscar at 76.
Dizzy Gillespie 1917–1993MusicJazz trumpeter who co-founded bebop and invented Afro-Cuban jazz
Benny Goodman 1909–1986MusicClarinetist and bandleader who touched off the Swing Era
Winslow Homer 1836–1910Visual Arts & DesignPainter and illustrator whose seascapes and scenes of American life captured the nation's spirit.
Rock Hudson 1925–1985Film, Television & ComedyHollywood leading man and the first major American public figure to disclose an AIDS diagnosis
Zora Neale Hurston 1891–1960Literature & DramaNovelist and folklorist whose work preserved Black Southern speech and culture and became central to the American canon.
Scott Joplin 1868–1917MusicRagtime composer whose piano rags were among the first widely sold American popular sheet music.
Loretta Lynn 1932–2022MusicCountry singer and songwriter who wrote Coal Miner's Daughter and The Pill
Muddy Waters 1913–1983MusicChicago bluesman who electrified Delta blues and supplied a foundation for rock music.
Cole Porter 1891–1964MusicComposer and lyricist of Broadway standards including Anything Goes and Kiss Me Kate.
Richard Pryor 1940–2005Film, Television & ComedyComedian whose candid treatment of race, class, addiction, and personal experience transformed American stand-up.
Ginger Rogers 1911–1995Film, Television & ComedyActress and dancer of Hollywood's Golden Age
Nina Simone 1933–2003MusicSinger and pianist who joined classical training to jazz and civil rights protest songs.
Spike Lee b. 1957Film, Television & ComedyFour decades of American films about race that refuse to end in reconciliation.
George Carlin 1937–2008Film, Television & ComedyComedian whose linguistic precision and challenges to censorship made him a defining voice in modern American stand-up.
Al Pacino b. 1940Film, Television & ComedyLegendary actor whose roles in The Godfather and Scarface made him an icon of American cinema.
Richard Rodgers 1902–1979MusicWrote the scores that turned the Broadway musical into a form that could carry a story.
Edith Wharton 1862–1937Literature & DramaFirst woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, known for The Age of Innocence and Gilded Age novels.
Leonardo DiCaprio b. 1974Film, Television & ComedyOscar-winning actor and environmental activist whose career spans blockbusters and prestige dramas.
Count Basie 1904–1984MusicKansas City bandleader whose rhythm section reset what a big band could swing like.
Frank Capra 1897–1991Film, Television & ComedyThree directing Oscars in five years, and the Christmas film nobody wanted in 1946.
Bette Davis 1908–1989Film, Television & ComedyStudio-era actress who won two Academy Awards and fought Warner Bros. over contract terms.
Robert A. Heinlein 1907–1988Literature & DramaScience fiction novelist — Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land
Kendrick Lamar b. 1987MusicRapper whose albums won a Pulitzer Prize and multiple Grammy Awards.
Cormac McCarthy 1933–2023Literature & DramaNovelist whose stark, violent prose in Blood Meridian and The Road earned him a Pulitzer Prize.Sam Phillips 1923–2003MusicFounder of Sun Records
John Singer Sargent 1856–1925Visual Arts & DesignPainted the Gilded Age at full length, then closed the portrait studio at the height of the demand.
Alice Walker b. 1944Literature & DramaThe first Black woman to win the Pulitzer for fiction, and the writer who recovered Zora Neale Hurston.
Morgan Freeman b. 1937Film, Television & ComedyAcademy Award-winning actor whose commanding voice and gravitas made him a beloved cultural figure.
Harrison Ford b. 1942Film, Television & ComedyIconic actor whose roles as Han Solo and Indiana Jones made him a global superstar for decades.
Thelonious Monk 1917–1982MusicPianist and composer whose distinctive harmonies, rhythms, and repertory became central to modern jazz.
Dorothea Lange 1895–1965Visual Arts & DesignDocumentary photographer whose Depression-era images defined the visual record of the 1930s.
Robert Altman 1925–2006Film, Television & ComedyMade overlapping dialogue, drifting cameras and enormous casts into an American film language, lost Hollywood for a decade, and came back at 67.
Warren Beatty b. 1937Film, Television & ComedyProducing Bonnie and Clyde and directing Reds
Mary Cassatt 1844–1926Visual Arts & DesignImpressionist painter and printmaker who depicted the intimate bonds between mothers and children.
James Dean 1931–1955Film, Television & ComedyActor whose brief career and rebellious image in Rebel Without a Cause made him a symbol of teenage disillusionment.
Ralph Ellison 1913–1994Literature & DramaAuthor of Invisible Man, a landmark exploration of race, identity, and democracy.
William Gibson b. 1948Literature & DramaNeuromancer and the word cyberspaceRobert Johnson 1911–1938MusicDelta blues guitarist whose small recorded output influenced generations of blues and rock players.
Elia Kazan 1909–2003Film, Television & ComedyDirected A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman and On the Waterfront, and named names to HUAC.Robert Mapplethorpe 1946–1989Visual Arts & DesignPhotographer whose retrospective set off the 1989 fight over public arts funding
Philip Roth 1933–2018Literature & DramaNovelist whose explorations of Jewish American identity and sexuality earned him a Pulitzer Prize.
Billy Wilder 1906–2002Film, Television & ComedyHollywood writer-director of Sunset Boulevard — Some Like It Hot and Double Indemnity.
Patsy Cline 1932–1963MusicTook country music onto the pop charts and became the standard every female singer in it is measured against
Grace Kelly 1929–1982Film, Television & ComedyFilm star turned Princess of Monaco
Joan Rivers 1933–2014Film, Television & ComedyComedian and the first woman to host a late-night network talk show
Jean-Michel Basquiat 1960–1988Visual Arts & DesignNeo-expressionist painter who rose from graffiti artist to one of the most celebrated artists of the 1980s.
Willa Cather 1873–1947Literature & DramaNovelist whose work made immigrant settlement and the Great Plains central subjects of American literature.
Sinclair Lewis 1885–1951Literature & DramaFirst American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, whose satirical novels critiqued American capitalism.
Marvin Gaye 1939–1984MusicSinger-songwriter whose Motown recordings expanded soul music through intimacy, political commentary, and studio experimentation.
Bessie Smith 1892–1937MusicLeading blues recording artist of the 1920s known as the Empress of the Blues.
Don DeLillo b. 1936Literature & DramaNovelist of American crowds, media saturation and disaster
Walker Evans 1903–1975Visual Arts & DesignPhotographer of the Depression-era American South
Ursula K. Le Guin 1929–2018Literature & DramaWriter who used speculative fiction to examine gender, power, culture, and alternative social arrangements.
Lenny Bruce 1925–1966Film, Television & ComedyProsecuted into bankruptcy for obscenity, and modern stand-up runs directly from him.
Montgomery Clift 1920–1966Film, Television & ComedyScreen actor who brought an interior, self-doubting style to Hollywood before Brando or Dean
Samuel L. Jackson b. 1948Film, Television & ComedyHighest-grossing actor of all time whose prolific career spans blockbusters and indie films.
Edward Albee 1928–2016Literature & DramaWrote Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, won three Pulitzer Prizes, and never one for that play.Diane Arbus 1923–1971Visual Arts & DesignPhotographer whose square-format portraits remade American documentary photography
Alexander Calder 1898–1976Visual Arts & DesignSculptor who invented the mobile and whose kinetic sculptures changed modern art.
Keith Haring 1958–1990Visual Arts & DesignStreet artist whose bold, cartoon-like figures addressed social issues and brought art to public spaces.
Washington Irving 1783–1859Literature & DramaEarly American storyteller whose Sketch Book gave the country Rip Van Winkle and Sleepy Hollow.
Norman Mailer 1923–2007Literature & DramaNovelist and journalist who won two Pulitzer Prizes and helped establish literary nonfiction.
Flannery O'Connor 1925–1964Literature & DramaSouthern Gothic writer whose darkly comic short stories and novels explored faith and morality.
Sam Cooke 1931–1964MusicSinger-songwriter who helped transform gospel into soul music and used artistic independence to advance Black performers.
Dustin Hoffman b. 1937Film, Television & ComedyTwo-time Oscar winner whose roles in The Graduate and Rain Man showcased extraordinary range.
Richard Avedon 1923–2004Visual Arts & DesignPut movement into fashion photography, then stripped his subjects bare against white paper.
Isabella Stewart Gardner 1840–1924Visual Arts & DesignArt collector who built and filled Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Roy Lichtenstein 1923–1997Visual Arts & DesignPop artist whose comic-strip-inspired paintings became icons of 1960s American art.
Ahmet Ertegun 1923–2006MusicCo-founder of Atlantic Records
Aaron Copland 1900–1990MusicComposer whose accessible modernist works created an enduring musical language associated with American landscapes and identity.
Will Smith b. 1968Film, Television & ComedyActor and rapper who transitioned from Fresh Prince to one of Hollywood's biggest box office draws.
Gene Hackman 1930–2025Film, Television & ComedyTwo-time Academy Award winner whose everyman intensity made him one of Hollywood's most respected actors.
Annie Leibovitz b. 1949Visual Arts & DesignPortrait photographer whose Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair work defined American celebrity imagery.
Thomas Pynchon b. 1937Literature & DramaThe great American postmodern novelist, who has not been photographed in public since the 1950s.
Jimmie Rodgers 1897–1933MusicThe Singing Brakeman, whose six recorded years made country music a commercial form.
Saul Bellow 1915–2005Literature & DramaNovelist whose intellectually rich fiction explored individuality, urban life, and the immigrant experience in modern America.
Johnny Depp b. 1963Film, Television & ComedyVersatile actor known for transformative roles from Edward Scissorhands to Pirates of the Caribbean.
James Whistler 1834–1903Visual Arts & DesignPainter and etcher best known for Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, commonly called Whistler's Mother.
Richard Wright 1908–1960Literature & DramaNovelist whose works exposed the psychological and structural violence of racism and urban poverty in America.
Octavia E. Butler 1947–2006Literature & DramaScience-fiction author whose explorations of race, gender, hierarchy, and survival became foundational to Afrofuturism.
Grant Wood 1891–1942Visual Arts & DesignRegionalist painter best known for American Gothic, one of the most parodied images in American art.
Stella Adler 1901–1992Film, Television & ComedyActing teacher who trained Marlon Brando and broke with Lee Strasberg
Gordon Parks 1912–2006Visual Arts & DesignPhotographer for Life magazine and first Black director of a major Hollywood studio film.
Charlie Christian 1916–1942MusicBenny Goodman Sextet guitarist who made the electric guitar a solo voice
Willem de Kooning 1904–1997Visual Arts & DesignAbstract expressionist whose gestural paintings helped define the New York School.
Phyllis Diller 1917–2012Film, Television & ComedyStand-up comedy
Jeff Koons b. 1955Visual Arts & DesignSculptor of Rabbit, Balloon Dog and Michael Jackson and Bubbles
Lee Strasberg 1901–1982Film, Television & ComedyTaught the Method to two generations of American actors, and made affective memory the centre of it.
Frederic Remington 1861–1909Visual Arts & DesignPainter and sculptor whose depictions of the American West defined the cowboy mythos.
Julia Roberts b. 1967Film, Television & ComedyAcademy Award-winning actress whose smile and charm made her America's sweetheart of the 1990s.
Louise Bourgeois 1911–2010Visual Arts & DesignFrench-American sculptor whose giant spider sculptures and psychologically intense works explored trauma.
Jasper Johns b. 1930Visual Arts & DesignPainter and printmaker whose Flag and Target paintings bridged Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art.
Thomas Eakins 1844–1916Visual Arts & DesignRealist painter celebrated for his anatomically precise portraits and scenes of athletes and surgeons.Barbara Kruger b. 1945Visual Arts & DesignText-over-photograph art that addresses the viewer directly
Cindy Sherman b. 1954Visual Arts & DesignPhotographed herself as hundreds of other women and insisted that none of it was a self-portrait.
Gwendolyn Brooks 1917–2000Literature & DramaPoet whose precise portrayals of Black life made her the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize.
Jacob Lawrence 1917–2000Visual Arts & DesignPainter whose Migration Series chronicled the Great Migration of African Americans to the North.
John Updike 1932–2009Literature & DramaPulitzer Prize-winning novelist whose Rabbit series chronicled the anxieties of suburban American men.
Charles Eames 1907–1978Visual Arts & DesignDesigner who with Ray Eames produced molded plywood and fiberglass furniture for American manufacturers.
John Hammond 1910–1987MusicRecord man who signed Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Aretha Franklin, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen.Sanford Meisner 1905–1997Film, Television & ComedyActing teacher who created the Meisner technique
Robert Rauschenberg 1925–2008Visual Arts & DesignMixed-media artist whose Combines broke down boundaries between painting and sculpture.
Brad Pitt b. 1963Film, Television & ComedyActor and producer whose roles in Fight Club and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood made him a global star.August Wilson 1945–2005Literature & DramaPlaywright whose ten-play cycle chronicled African American life across the twentieth century.
Isamu Noguchi 1904–1988Visual Arts & DesignSculptor and designer whose works blend Japanese and American modernist traditions.
Lorraine Hansberry 1930–1965Literature & DramaPlaywright whose 'A Raisin in the Sun' brought Black family life, housing discrimination, and aspiration to Broadway.
Alfred Stieglitz 1864–1946Visual Arts & DesignPhotographer and gallerist who established photography as fine art and promoted American modernists.
Romare Bearden 1911–1988Visual Arts & DesignArtist who used collage to depict African American life and culture in the 20th century.
Emma Lazarus 1849–1887Literature & DramaPoet whose sonnet The New Colossus gave the Statue of Liberty its meaning as a refuge for immigrants.
Harold Clurman 1901–1980Film, Television & ComedyCo-founder of the Group Theatre and drama critic of The Nation
William Gaddis 1922–1998Literature & DramaNovelist of The Recognitions and J R
Chuck Jones 1912–2002Film, Television & ComedyWarner Bros. animator who directed many of the studio's Bugs Bunny and Road Runner shorts.
David Foster Wallace 1962–2008Literature & DramaNovelist and essayist whose Infinite Jest became a defining postmodern American novel.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens 1848–1907Visual Arts & DesignSculptor whose public monuments, including the Shaw Memorial, are among America's finest.
Studs Terkel 1912–2008Literature & DramaOral historian and Chicago broadcaster who recorded working Americans in book-length interview collections.
Faith Ringgold 1930–2024Visual Arts & DesignArtist and author whose story quilts combine painting, quilting, and narrative to explore Black identity.
Chuck Close 1940–2021Visual Arts & DesignPhotorealist painter who created monumental portrait grids and continued working after paralysis.
Paul Rand 1914–1996Visual Arts & DesignGraphic designer who created corporate identities for IBM — UPS and ABC.
Kara Walker b. 1969Visual Arts & DesignContemporary artist whose silhouette installations confront the brutal history of American slavery and racism.
Charles Burchfield 1893–1967Visual Arts & DesignPainter known for his visionary watercolors of nature and American small-town life.Benny Andrews 1930–2006Visual Arts & DesignAfrican American painter and sculptor whose collage works addressed civil rights and social justice.