Curated playlist

Naturalized citizens of the United States

Albert EinsteinAlbert Einstein once spent his days examining patents for gravel sorters.
Alfred HitchcockAt age five, Alfred Hitchcock was sent to a police station with a note and locked in a cell.
Simon KinbergSimon Kinberg plays a banker in his own script for Mr. & Mrs. Smith. He began that screenplay as a film school thesis.
Christian BaleChristian Bale once lived on black coffee, an apple and a can of tuna each day. The English actor began that regimen with nothing but cigarettes and whiskey. By the end he had lost 63 lb and weighed 121 lb. The script for the psychological…
Rupert MurdochRupert Murdoch kept a bust of Lenin in his rooms at Oxford. Peers called him "Red Rupert".
Nikola TeslaNikola Tesla spent his last decades claiming he had built a death beam. He said it could stop an army 200 miles away.
Elon MuskIn 2001, Elon Musk traveled to Moscow twice to buy missiles, hoping to launch a plant greenhouse to Mars.
Ghislaine MaxwellOn the 29th of December 2021, a federal jury in New York convicted Ghislaine Maxwell of sex trafficking of a minor. Maxwell, a British former socialite, had moved for decades through the social circles of London and Manhattan. Her friends…
Rachel WeiszRachel Weisz first made headlines in 1984 by saying no. She was a teenage model who had started working at the age of 14, and she turned down an offer to star in King David opposite Richard Gere. The British actress, born on the 7th of…
Neil YoungIn April 2026, Neil Young announced a new studio album called Second Song, and three of its tracks were songs he had written in 1963. They had remained unreleased ever since. That detail suits a man who has spent his career refusing to…
Joel EmbiidJoel Embiid scored 70 points against the Spurs on January 22, 2024, breaking a 76ers record from 1967.
Enrico FermiEnrico Fermi won a Nobel Prize partly for new elements that were really fission products.
Marcel DuchampIn 1917, Marcel Duchamp submitted a signed urinal to a New York show, and the committee turned it away.
Saul BellowSaul Bellow learned he had entered the U.S. illegally as a child when he tried to enlist. He became a citizen in 1941.
Patrick EwingPatrick Ewing crossed North Carolina off his list after seeing a nearby Ku Klux Klan rally. He chose Georgetown.
Mila KunisMila Kunis was seven years old when she started school in Los Angeles without knowing a word of English. She has described how fast it all happened. "We arrived in New York on a Wednesday and by Friday morning my brother and I were at…
Seth RogenSeth Rogen was 13 when he co-wrote a rough draft of Superbad with his childhood friend Evan Goldberg. The two had met in bar mitzvah classes. They spent the rest of high school polishing that script. Rogen grew up to be a Canadian actor,…
Salman RushdieA fatwa ordering Salman Rushdie's execution was broadcast on Radio Tehran on Valentine's Day 1989.
Hakeem OlajuwonHakeem Olajuwon did not touch a basketball until he was 15. The Nigerian goalkeeper later won an NBA title.
Ryan ReynoldsRyan Reynolds gave up his usual fee so the Deadpool film would get made.
W. H. AudenW. H. Auden died hours after reading his poems aloud in a Vienna hotel.
Henry KissingerHenry Kissinger made a secret trip to China in July 1971. It helped end 23 years of diplomatic isolation.
Alanis MorissetteAlanis Morissette recorded a demo cassette in August 1989 and sent it to Geffen Records. The tape has never been heard. It was stolen, along with other records, in a burglary of the label's headquarters in October 1989. Whatever it held is…
Mark RonsonMark Ronson was twelve years old when he pestered Jann Wenner, the founder of Rolling Stone, until the magazine gave him an internship. By his own description he was a music nerd, and the persistence paid off. Decades later he had won ten…
Dzhokhar TsarnaevDzhokhar Tsarnaev and his older brother Tamerlan planted two pressure cooker bombs at the 117th Boston Marathon. The bombs exploded at 2:49 in the afternoon on the 15th of April 2013, Patriots' Day. One had been placed at the finish line,…
Daniel CraigIn 2021, the English actor Daniel Craig was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It sits at 7007 Hollywood Boulevard, an address that winks at the code number 007. Two days later his final film as that famous spy opened in the…
John von NeumannJohn von Neumann's father asked Theodore von Kármán to talk his son out of mathematics.
Ewan McGregorEwan McGregor rode motorcycles 22,345 miles from London to New York City in 2004.
Helena BlavatskyA 1885 report accused Helena Blavatsky of faking paranormal phenomena. It was retracted in 1986.
Igor KokoškovA 1990 car crash shattered Igor Kokoškov's knees and ended his playing career. He became a coach instead, at age 24.
Vladimir NabokovNovelist Vladimir Nabokov also named butterfly species, and later genetic research backed his theory.
Pierce BrosnanPierce Brosnan once lost the part of James Bond because his television show was too popular to cancel. In 1986, NBC ended his detective series Remington Steele. Then the producers of the Bond films offered him the role of 007. News of the…
Slash (musician)Slash, the guitarist born Saul Hudson in Hampstead, London, on the 23rd of July 1965, owes his famous name to a restless child. The actor Seymour Cassel gave him the nickname because the boy was "always in a hurry, zipping around from one…
Andrew CarnegieAndrew Carnegie sat down in 1868, at the age of 33, and wrote himself a memo that read like a vow. He called the piling up of wealth one of the worst forms of idolatry. He planned to cap his income at $50,000 a year and retire from…
Charlize TheronCharlize Theron landed in Los Angeles in 1994 on a one-way ticket her mother had bought, carrying a budget of $300. She lived in a motel and went from paycheck to paycheck. At one point she took bread from a restaurant basket to get by.…
Melania TrumpMelania Trump holds a set of firsts that no earlier first lady of the United States shares. She is the first naturalized citizen to hold the title. She is also the first first lady whose native language is not English. Other names mark…
Liam NeesonLiam Neeson, born William John Neeson, first saw great acting in a church he had no business being in. Ian Paisley, founder of the Democratic Unionist Party, led the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, and the young Neeson sneaked into it.…
Flea (musician)Flea, the bassist born Michael Peter Balzary, once played so hard that he wore a hole through his thumb. Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins first saw him perform in 1984 and remembered him crying out in pain between songs. Someone kept…
Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Schwarzenegger broke into a locked gym on weekends as a teenager. He later became California's governor.
Shawn LevyShawn Levy once played a morgue worker on Stranger Things. He later helped run the show as executive producer.
Eugene WignerPhysicist Eugene Wigner found that neutron radiation could make the graphite in a reactor swell.
Grace JonesGrace Jones once slapped the chat-show host Russell Harty on live television. She was promoting a record, and she felt ignored when he turned away to interview other guests. The moment suits a performer who has never been easy to look…
Gene SimmonsGene Simmons was born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel, on the 25th of August 1949. He grew up to become the bassist and co-lead singer of the hard rock band Kiss, where he plays a stage character called the Demon. Rock stardom has a reputation…
Helen MirrenDame Helen Mirren was born Ilyena Lydia Mironoff on the 26th of July 1945, at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in the Hammersmith district of London. Neither the first name nor the surname on that record would last. The woman who…
Lupita Nyong'oAfter her Oscar, Lupita Nyong'o says she was offered another slave role, this time on a slave ship.
Junot DíazJunot Díaz arrived in New Jersey at six unable to speak English. He later won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov coined the word "robotics" in a 1941 story, thinking it was just a natural term.
Joseph SchumpeterJoseph Schumpeter did not coin "creative destruction", the phrase he made famous. He borrowed it from Werner Sombart.
George SorosAt 14, George Soros posed as the Christian godson of a government official to survive the Nazi occupation of Hungary.
Lorne MichaelsLorne Michaels once offered The Beatles $3,000 to reunite on live TV. It came in Saturday Night Live's first season.