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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
8 people
Tennessee Williams 1911–1983Literature & DramaPlaywright whose A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof defined American theater.
Langston Hughes 1901–1967Literature & DramaHarlem Renaissance poet and writer whose work celebrated Black life and challenged racial injustice.
Arthur Miller 1915–2005Literature & DramaPlaywright whose Death of a Salesman and The Crucible are cornerstones of American drama.
Stephen Sondheim 1930–2021MusicComposer and lyricist whose formal and psychological innovations transformed the American musical theater.
Eugene O'Neill 1888–1953Literature & DramaPlaywright whose psychologically complex dramas established serious American theater on the world stage.
Edward Albee 1928–2016Literature & DramaWrote Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, won three Pulitzer Prizes, and never one for that play.August Wilson 1945–2005Literature & DramaPlaywright whose ten-play cycle chronicled African American life across the twentieth century.
Lorraine Hansberry 1930–1965Literature & DramaPlaywright whose 'A Raisin in the Sun' brought Black family life, housing discrimination, and aspiration to Broadway.