Curated category
American people of German descent
- Christopher WalkenChristopher Walken was born Ronald Walken on the 31st of March 1943, in Astoria, Queens, New York City. His parents were Rosalie Russell, a Scottish…
- German AmericansGerman Americans make up roughly 41 million people in the United States today, or about 12 percent of the entire population.
- Donald TrumpDonald Trump was born on the 14th of June 1946 at Jamaica Hospital in Queens, New York, the fourth child of a family that was already wealthy.
- Barack ObamaBarack Obama was born on the 4th of August 1961 at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children in Honolulu, Hawaii, making him the only person to become…
- George LucasGeorge Lucas was nearly killed before he ever made a film. On the 12th of June 1962, a few days before his high school graduation in Modesto, California…
- Meryl StreepMeryl Streep walked into a casting meeting with Dino De Laurentiis in 1976, hoping to audition for his King Kong remake.
- John SteinbeckJohn Steinbeck once stole bacon from a local produce market to survive. During the Great Depression, he and his first wife lived on fish and crabs he…
- Kurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut survived the firebombing of Dresden by hiding in a meat locker three stories underground, surrounded by hanging cadavers.
- Marlon BrandoMarlon Brando Jr. was born on the 3rd of April 1924 in Omaha, Nebraska, and by the time he died on the 1st of July 2004, he had remade what it means to act…
- Ron PaulRon Paul delivered babies for decades in Brazoria County, Texas, and one of those deliveries was famous Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla.
- Dr. SeussTheodor Seuss Geisel was born on the 2nd of March, 1904, on Fairfield Street in Springfield, Massachusetts, within walking distance of a road called Mulberry…
- Harrison FordHarrison Ford was born on the 13th of July, 1942, at the Swedish Covenant Hospital in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Chicago.
- Stephen ColbertStephen Colbert walked to the podium at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, stood a few yards from President George W.
- Gwyneth PaltrowGwyneth Kate Paltrow was born on the 27th of September 1972 into a family already at home in Hollywood: her mother, Blythe Danner, was a stage and screen…
- Jack NicholsonJack Nicholson improvised a single line for a 1980 horror film, and it outlived almost everything else he ever filmed. "Here's Johnny!" was not in Stanley…
- Brad RutterBrad Rutter walked into a Jeopardy! studio on the 30th of October 2000 and never lost a game against a human opponent for nearly two decades.
- Roger EbertRoger Ebert typed his last blog post two days before he died on the 4th of April 2013, signing off with words that could have come from any of his 46 years…
- Bruce LeeBruce Lee was born in San Francisco on the 27th of November, 1940, during the hour of the Dragon, in the year of the Dragon.
- Tom BradyTom Brady arrived at the New England Patriots' old Foxboro Stadium as a sixth-round draft pick, carrying a pizza box and wearing the look of someone who had…
- David FincherDavid Andrew Leo Fincher was born on the 28th of August 1962, in Denver, Colorado, and grew up to become one of the most recognizable directors working in…
- Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth Warren once described her childhood family as teetering "on the ragged edge of the middle class" and "kind of hanging on at the edges by our…
- Jack SwigertJack Swigert was born on the 30th of August, 1931, in Denver, Colorado, and he died on the 27th of December, 1982, seven days before he was supposed to be…
- Brian WilsonBrian Douglas Wilson was born on the 20th of June, 1942, in Inglewood, California, and by the age of two he could reproduce a melody after hearing only a few…
- Neil ArmstrongNeil Armstrong set his left boot on the lunar surface at 02:56 UTC on the 21st of July 1969, and said seven words that an estimated 530 million people heard…
- Henry Edward KrehbielHenry Edward Krehbiel spent more than forty years as the chief music critic of The New York Tribune, and in all that time he never stopped picking fights.
- Harry S. TrumanHarry S. Truman became the 33rd president of the United States not by winning an election, but by walking into a room where Eleanor Roosevelt told him her…
- Alex JonesAlex Jones was born on the 11th of February 1974, in Dallas, Texas, and by the time he reached middle age, juries had ordered him to pay more than a billion…
- Robert Downey Jr.Robert Downey Jr. was born on the 4th of April 1965 in Manhattan, into a world already saturated with film sets and controlled substances.
- Walt DisneyWalt Disney holds the record for most Academy Awards won by an individual, with 22 wins from 59 nominations. Yet the man behind that record was, in private…
- Bill GatesBill Gates was born on the 28th of October, 1955, in Seattle, Washington, and by age 31 he had become the world's youngest-ever billionaire.
- Frank BormanFrank Borman received a telegram after returning from the Moon. It was from a stranger, and it said simply: "Thank you Apollo 8.
- Ron HowardRon Howard was five years old when he stood on a set holding a toy turtle, pretending it was dead. He had to cry. The director helping him through the scene…
- Walter CronkiteWalter Cronkite took off his glasses, glanced at the clock, and told a watching nation that President Kennedy had died at 1 p.m.
- Tony GilroyTony Gilroy was born in Manhattan on the 11th of September, 1956, into a household where storytelling was not a hobby but a profession. His father, Frank D.
- Carl WiemanCarl Wieman grew up in Corvallis, Oregon, in a family with an unusual range of intellectual passions. His paternal grandfather, Henry Nelson Wieman, was a…
- David J. PetersonDavid J. Peterson built languages for worlds that do not exist. In 2009, HBO needed a language for the Dothraki people in Game of Thrones, and they turned to…
- George R. R. MartinGeorge Raymond Richard Martin was born on the 20th of September, 1948, in Bayonne, New Jersey, the son of a longshoreman.
- Claude ShannonClaude Elwood Shannon was born on the 30th of April 1916, in a hospital in Petoskey, Michigan, and by the time he died on the 24th of February 2001, he had…
- Steve BannonSteve Bannon sat aboard a luxury yacht off the coast of Connecticut on the 20th of August 2020, when federal agents arrived to arrest him.
- Paul NitzePaul Henry Nitze was born on the 16th of January 1907 in Amherst, Massachusetts. His parents were both of German descent and his father worked as a professor…
- James IrwinJames Benson Irwin told his mother, when he was about 12 years old, that he wanted to go to the Moon and might be the first person to do so.
- Deborah Ann WollDeborah Ann Woll was born on the 7th of February 1985 in Brooklyn, New York, and she has spent her career crossing boundaries that most performers would…
- Jonathan DavisJonathan Howsmon Davis was born in Bakersfield, California, on the 18th of January 1971. His childhood began with severe asthma that forced him into the…
- Rasmus B. AndersonRasmus Bjørn Anderson was born on the 12th of January 1846 in the Town of Albion, Dane County, Wisconsin, to Norwegian immigrant parents who had crossed the…
- Allan NevinsAllan Nevins grew up on a farm in Camp Point, Illinois, the son of a stern Presbyterian farmer of Scottish descent and a German-heritage mother named Emma.
- Phil JacksonPhil Jackson holds eleven NBA championships as a head coach, a record no other coach in league history has matched. Born on the 17th of September, 1945, in…
- Richard D. WolffRichard David Wolff was born on the 1st of April 1942 in New Rochelle, New York. His parents had fled Nazism to escape Germany during World War II.
- Fritz LeiberFritz Reuter Leiber Jr. was born on the 24th of December 1910, in Chicago, Illinois, into a household where Shakespeare was practically a family business.
- Joe ManganielloJoseph Michael Manganiello arrived in the world on the 28th of December 1976. He grew up in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, an affluent suburb bordering…
- Linus PaulingLinus Carl Pauling stands alone in the history of Nobel Prizes. He is the only person ever to have been awarded two unshared Nobel Prizes, one for Chemistry…