Template:In the news/Important living people

This is a list of living people of significant historical importance, influence within their discipline, and popular notability. In connection with an on-going debate about the criteria for inclusion on the ITN main-page portal, it is proposed that the death of a member of this list would warrant inclusion.

Criteria for inclusion include several of the following:

  • Popular notability beyond the boundaries of their field or discipline
  • Enduring notability beyond a generation or popular era
  • Noted for a body of work that singularly altered their field or discipline
  • Holding a prominent and powerful office for an unusual length of time
  • Winning major awards in their field or discipline (Nobel, Oscar, Grammy, Pulitzer, Olympic medal, MVP (Most Valuable Player), etc.)
  • Holding several records in their field or discipline
  • Induction into a professional Hall of Fame, inclusion on a major Top n List

Actors and entertainers

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  1. Woody Allen
  2. Julie Andrews
  3. Richard Attenborough
  4. Lauren Bacall
  5. Amitabh Bachchan
  6. Jeff Bridges
  7. Gay Byrne
  8. Michael Caine
  9. Jim Carrey
  10. Jackie Chan
  11. Julie Christie
  12. Tom Cruise
  13. Billy Connolly
  14. Sean Connery
  15. Stephen Colbert
  16. Michael Crawford
  17. Daniel Day-Lewis
  18. Olivia de Havilland
  19. Robert De Niro
  20. Kirk Douglas
  21. Clint Eastwood
  22. Harrison Ford
  23. Jodie Foster
  24. Morgan Freeman
  25. Stephen Fry
  26. Gene Hackman
  27. Tom Hanks
  28. Dustin Hoffman
  29. Anthony Hopkins
  30. Samuel L. Jackson
  31. Jenna Jameson
  32. Ron Jeremy
  33. Pat Kenny
  34. Nicole Kidman
  35. Dilip Kumar
  36. Jet Li
  37. Christopher Lee
  38. Jay Leno
  39. David Letterman
  40. Sophia Loren
  41. Steve Martin
  42. Mary Tyler Moore
  43. Roger Moore
  44. Jack Nicholson
  45. Chuck Norris
  46. Peter O'Toole
  47. Al Pacino
  48. Gwyneth Paltrow
  49. Sean Penn
  50. Sidney Poitier
  51. Vanessa Redgrave
  52. Julia Roberts
  53. Susan Sarandon
  54. Arnold Schwarzenegger
  55. Jerry Sienfeld
  56. Will Smith
  57. Sissy Spacek
  58. Howard Stern
  59. Jon Stewart
  60. Meryl Streep
  61. Hilary Swank
  62. Shirley Temple
  63. John Travolta
  64. Ryan Tubridy
  65. Dick Van Dyke
  66. Christopher Walken
  67. Denzel Washington
  68. Sigourney Weaver
  69. Betty White
  70. Robin Williams

Artists

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Animators and cartoonists

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  1. Jim Davis
  2. Matt Groening
  3. Frank Miller
  4. Alan Moore
  5. Garry Trudeau
  6. Bill Watterson

Architects

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  1. Frank Gehry
  2. Oscar Niemeyer
  3. I. M. Pei

Dancers and choreographers

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  1. Twyla Tharp
  2. Mikhail Baryshnikov

Fashion

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  1. Giorgio Armani
  2. John Galliano
  3. Valentino Garavani
  4. Hubert de Givenchy
  5. Marc Jacobs
  6. Karl Lagerfeld
  7. Ralph Lauren
  8. Calvin Klein
  9. Vivienne Westwood
  10. Yohji Yamamoto

Graphics and type designers

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  1. Matthew Carter
  2. Adrian Frutiger
  3. Milton Glaser
  4. Steven Heller
  5. Zuzana Licko
  6. Hermann Zapf

Interactive arts and games

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  1. John D. Carmack
  2. Richard Garriott
  3. Shigeru Miyamoto
  4. Sid Meyer
  5. Peter Molyneux
  6. John Romero
  7. Alexey Pajitnov
  8. Will Wright

Painters and sculptors

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  1. Christo
  2. Chuck Close
  3. Helen Frankenthaler
  4. Damien Hirst
  5. David Hockney
  6. Jenny Holzer
  7. Jasper Johns
  8. Frank Stella
  9. Eva Zeisel

Photographers

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  1. Annie Leibovitz

Other

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  1. Yoko Ono

Athletes

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Football/soccer

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  1. Michelle Akers
  2. Gordon Banks
  3. Franz Beckenbauer
  4. David Beckham
  5. Bobby Charlton
  6. Johan Cruijff
  7. Eusébio
  8. Alex Ferguson
  9. Mia Hamm
  10. Thierry Henry
  11. Kevin Keegan
  12. Marcello Lippi
  13. Diego Maradona
  14. Jose Mourinho
  15. Pelé
  16. Michel Platini
  17. Ronaldinho
  18. Ronaldo
  19. Alfredo di Stéfano
  20. Zinedine Zidane
  21. Dino Zoff

Baseball

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  1. Hank Aaron
  2. Ernie Banks
  3. Yogi Berra
  4. Barry Bonds
  5. Steve Carlton
  6. Roger Clemens
  7. Rickey Henderson
  8. Reggie Jackson
  9. Sandy Koufax
  10. Greg Maddux
  11. Willie Mays
  12. Stan Musial
  13. Cal Ripken Jr.
  14. Nolan Ryan
  15. Tom Seaver
  16. Joe Torre

American football

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  1. Bobby Bowden
  2. Tom Brady
  3. Jim Brown
  4. Dick Butkus
  5. John Elway
  6. Brett Favre
  7. Peyton Manning
  8. Dan Marino
  9. Joe Montana
  10. Joe Paterno
  11. Jerry Rice
  12. Barry Sanders
  13. O. J. Simpson
  14. Emmitt Smith
  15. Lawrence Taylor

Basketball

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  1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
  2. Larry Bird
  3. Kobe Bryant
  4. Julius Erving
  5. Magic Johnson
  6. Michael Jordan
  7. Shaquille O'Neal
  8. Oscar Robertson
  9. John Stockton

Ice hockey

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  1. Scotty Bowman
  2. Martin Brodeur
  3. Don Cherry
  4. Ken Dryden
  5. Phil Esposito
  6. Wayne Gretzky
  7. Gordie Howe
  8. Bobby Hull
  9. Mario Lemieux
  10. Mark Messier
  11. Mike Modano
  12. Bobby Orr
  13. Patrick Roy
  14. Joe Sakic
  15. Vladislav Tretiak
  16. Steve Yzerman

Rugby

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  1. Paul O'Connell
  2. Brian O'Driscoll
  3. Ronan O'Gara

Cricket

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  1. Ricky Ponting
  2. Sachin Tendulkar
  3. Viv Richards
  4. Glenn McGrath
  5. Brian Lara
  6. Muttiah Muralitharan
  7. Sir Garfield Sobers

Tennis

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  1. Andre Agassi
  2. Björn Borg
  3. Margaret Court
  4. Roger Federer
  5. Steffi Graf
  6. Billie Jean King
  7. Rod Laver
  8. John McEnroe
  9. Martina Navratilova
  10. Pete Sampras
  11. Serena Williams

Golf

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  1. Pádraig Harrington
  2. Jack Nicklaus
  3. Greg Norman
  4. Arnold Palmer
  5. Gary Player
  6. Annika Sörenstam
  7. Tom Watson
  8. Kathy Whitworth
  9. Tiger Woods
  10. Mickey Wright

Gaelic Games

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  1. Peter Canavan
  2. DJ Carey
  3. Eddie Keher
  4. Christy Ring
  5. Henry Shefflin

Olympians

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  1. Evelyn Ashford
  2. Roger Bannister
  3. Bonnie Blair
  4. Usain Bolt
  5. Nadia Comăneci
  6. Peggy Fleming
  7. Haile Gebrselassie
  8. Hicham El Guerrouj
  9. Janet Evans
  10. Michael Johnson
  11. Marion Jones
  12. Olga Korbut
  13. Michelle Kwan
  14. Pat McCormick
  15. Shannon Miller
  16. Michael Phelps
  17. Paula Radcliffe
  18. Steve Redgrave
  19. Mary Lou Retton
  20. Michelle Smith
  21. Mark Spitz
  22. Ian Thorpe

Professional wrestling

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  1. Steve Austin
  2. Ric Flair
  3. Hulk Hogan
  4. Dwayne Johnson
  5. Vince McMahon

Boxing

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  1. Muhammad Ali
  2. George Foreman
  3. Joe Frazier
  4. Evander Holyfield
  5. Mike Tyson

Other

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  1. Lance Armstrong
  2. Jeff Gordon
  3. Garry Kasparov
  4. Danica Patrick

Writers

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  1. Chinua Achebe
  2. Cecelia Ahern
  3. Edward Albee
  4. Mitch Albom
  5. Maya Angelou
  6. Margaret Atwood
  7. David Attenborough
  8. Maeve Binchy
  9. Ray Bradbury
  10. Peter Carey (novelist)
  11. Tom Clancy
  12. Bryce Courtenay
  13. John Maxwell Coetzee
  14. Joan Didion
  15. Jules Feiffer
  16. Lawrence Ferlinghetti
  17. Gabriel García Márquez
  18. Günter Grass
  19. John Grisham
  20. Seamus Heaney
  21. Thomas Keneally
  22. Marian Keyes
  23. Stephen King
  24. Doris Lessing
  25. Colleen McCullough
  26. David McCullough
  27. John Montague (poet)
  28. Toni Morrison
  29. Joyce Carol Oates
  30. Thomas Pynchon
  31. Philip Roth
  32. J. K. Rowling
  33. Salman Rushdie
  34. Danielle Steel
  35. Gore Vidal
  36. Elie Wiesel

Journalists

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  1. Christiane Amanpour
  2. Carl Bernstein
  3. Charlie Bird
  4. Tom Brokaw
  5. Bob Costas
  6. Robert Fisk
  7. Jason O'Toole (journalist)
  8. Dan Rather
  9. Bob Woodward

Composers and musicians

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Rock, punk, alternative

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  1. AC/DC
  2. Aerosmith
    Steven Tyler
    Joe Perry
  3. The Beatles
    Paul McCartney
    Ringo Starr
  4. Jeff Beck
  5. Chuck Berry
  6. Ian Brown
  7. Chris de Burgh
  8. Eric Clapton
  9. The Clash
  10. Alice Cooper
  11. Elvis Costello
  12. Pink Floyd
    Roger Waters
    David Gilmour
    Nick Mason
  13. Glen Hansard
  14. Chrissie Hynde
  15. John Lydon
  16. Morrissey
  17. Sinéad O'Connor
  18. The Rolling Stones
    Mick Jagger
    Keith Richards
    Charlie Watts
    Ronnie Wood
    Mick Taylor
    Bill Wyman
  19. Grace Slick
  20. Patti Smith
  21. Bruce Springsteen
  22. Michael Stipe
  23. U2
    Bono
    The Edge
    Adam Clayton
    Larry Mullen Jr.
  24. Van Morrison
  25. Velvet Underground
    John Cale
    Lou Reed
    Maureen Tucker
  26. Paul Weller
  27. The Who
    Pete Townshend
    Roger Daltrey
  28. Neil Young

Rap, Hip-hop

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  1. 50 Cent
  2. Jay-Z
  3. Dr. Dre
  4. Nas
  5. Grandmaster Flash
  6. Eminem
  1. The Beach Boys
  2. David Byrne
  3. Cher
  4. Petula Clark
  5. The Everly Brothers
  6. Boy George
  7. Elton John
  8. Bette Midler
  9. Joni Mitchell
  10. Moby
  11. Cliff Richard
  12. Little Richard
  13. Britney Spears
  14. Ronnie Spector
  15. Barbra Streisand
  16. Jimmy Webb
  17. Stevie Wonder
  18. Robbie Williams

Classical & opera

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  1. Milton Babbitt
  2. John Barry
  3. Pierre Boulez
  4. Philip Glass
  5. James Levine
  6. Yo-Yo Ma
  7. Lorin Maazel
  8. Kurt Masur
  9. Ennio Morricone
  10. Itzhak Perlman
  11. André Previn
  12. Leontyne Price
  13. Steve Reich
  14. Kiri Te Kanawa
  15. John Williams

Jazz, soul, blues, R&B

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  1. B. B. King
  2. The Supremes
    Diana Ross
    Mary Wilson (singer)
  3. Tina Turner
  4. The Four Tops
    Abdul "Duke" Fakir
  5. Martha Reeves
  6. Etta James
  7. Booker T. Jones
  8. Smokey Robinson
  9. Ornette Coleman

Folk, country, funk

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  1. Garth Brooks
  2. Rosanne Cash
  3. George Clinton
  4. Leonard Cohen
  5. Bob Dylan
  6. Jerry Lee Lewis
  7. Dolly Parton
  8. Simon & Garfunkel
    Art Garfunkel
    Paul Simon

Other

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  1. Enya
  2. Meredith Monk
  3. Asha Bhosle
  4. Lata Mangeshkar

Directors, playwrights, and screenwriters

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  1. Mel Brooks
  2. Mark Burnett
  3. Ken Burns
  4. James Cameron
  5. John Carpenter
  6. Ethan Coen
  7. Joel Coen
  8. Francis Ford Coppola
  9. Peter Jackson
  10. George Lucas
  11. Sam Mendes
  12. Hayao Miyazaki
  13. Martin Scorsese
  14. Ridley Scott
  15. Steven Spielberg
  16. Oliver Stone
  17. Wachowski Brothers
  18. Andrew Lloyd Webber
  19. Shyam Benegal

Entrepreneurs and businesspeople

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  1. Anil Ambani
  2. Mukesh Ambani
  3. Jeff Bezos
  4. Richard Branson
  5. Sergey Brin
  6. Michael Bloomberg
  7. Warren Buffett
  8. Michael Dell
  9. Bernard Ebbers
  10. Lawrence Ellison
  11. Larry Flynt
  12. Bill Gates
  13. Andy Grove
  14. Carlos Slim Helú
  15. Stan Lee
  16. Ingvar Kamprad
  17. Hugh Hefner
  18. Carl Icahn
  19. Robert Metcalfe
  20. Michael Milken
  21. Lakshmi Mittal
  22. Gordon Moore
  23. Rupert Murdoch
  24. Denis O'Brien
  25. Michael O'Leary
  26. Larry Page
  27. T. Boone Pickens, Jr.
  28. Sumner Redstone
  29. Charles Schwab
  30. Jeffrey Skilling
  31. Martha Stewart
  32. Donald Trump
  33. Ted Turner
  34. Jack Welch
  35. Oprah Winfrey
  36. Meg Whitman
  37. Steve Wynn
  38. Hiroshi Yamauchi
  39. Muhammad Yunus

Explorers

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  1. Buzz Aldrin
  2. Neil Armstrong
  3. John Glenn
  4. Chuck Yeager
  5. Ranulph Fiennes
  6. Andy Green
  7. Joseph Kittinger
  8. Reinhold Messner
  9. Mark Pollock
  10. E. Lee Spence
  11. Robert Ballard

Inventors, scientists and mathematicians

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  1. Ralph H. Baer
  2. Jacque Fresco
  3. Tim Berners-Lee
  4. Vint Cerf
  5. Richard Dawkins
  6. Freeman Dyson
  7. Douglas Engelbart
  8. Charles Geschke
  9. Jane Goodall
  10. Brian Greene
  11. Stephen Hawking
  12. David Ho
  13. Bob Kahn
  14. Dean Kamen
  15. C. Everett Koop
  16. Raymond Kurzweil
  17. Richard Leakey
  18. Benoît Mandelbrot
  19. Marvin Minsky
  20. John Forbes Nash
  21. Jakob Nielsen
  22. Richard Stallman
  23. Linus Torvalds
  24. Steven Pinker
  25. Grigori Perelman
  26. Gene Spafford
  27. Ivan Sutherland
  28. Dennis Ritchie
  29. Ken Thompson
  30. Neil deGrasse Tyson
  31. Craig Venter
  32. John Warnock
  33. James D. Watson
  34. Andrew Wiles
  35. Niklaus Wirth

Philosophers, jurists, social scientists

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  1. Kenneth Arrow
  2. Gary Becker
  3. Judith Butler
  4. Ronald Coase
  5. Noam Chomsky
  6. Alan Dershowitz
  7. René Girard
  8. Ruth Bader Ginsburg
  9. Jürgen Habermas
  10. Paul Krugman
  11. Ernesto Laclau
  12. Lawrence Lessig
  13. Alasdair MacIntyre
  14. Charles Murray
  15. Sandra Day O'Connor
  16. Seymour Papert
  17. Richard Posner
  18. Robert D. Putnam
  19. Paul Samuelson
  20. Joseph E. Stiglitz
  21. Amartya Sen
  22. Robert Solow
  23. Laurence Tribe
  24. Slavoj Žižek

Politicians and leaders

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European

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France

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  1. Jacques Chirac
  2. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
  3. Nicolas Sarkozy

Germany

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  1. Helmut Kohl
  2. Angela Merkel
  3. Helmut Schmidt
  4. Gerhard Schröder

Iceland

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  1. Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir

Ireland

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  1. Bertie Ahern

Italy

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  1. Giuliano Amato
  2. Giulio Andreotti
  3. Silvio Berlusconi
  4. Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
  5. Francesco Cossiga
  6. Romano Prodi
  7. Oscar Luigi Scalfaro

Russia

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  1. Mikhail Gorbachev
  2. Dmitry Medvedev
  3. Vladimir Putin

Spain

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  1. José María Aznar
  2. Juan Carlos I of Spain
  3. Felipe González
  4. José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero

Poland

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  1. Wojciech Jaruzelski
  2. Tadeusz Mazowiecki
  3. Donald Tusk
  4. Lech Wałęsa

United Kingdom

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  1. Tony Blair
  2. Gordon Brown
  3. John Major
  4. Margaret Thatcher
  5. Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
  6. Prince Charles

Heads of state

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  1. Eddie Fenech Adami
    Valdas Adamkus
    Albert II of Belgium
    Traian Băsescu
    Beatrix of the Netherlands
    Carl XVI Gustaf
    Dimitris Christofias
    Heinz Fischer
    Ivan Gašparovič
    Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg
    Tarja Halonen
    Toomas Hendrik Ilves
    Lech Kaczyński
    Václav Klaus
    Horst Köhler
    Margrethe II of Denmark
    Mary McAleese
    Giorgio Napolitano
    Karolos Papoulias
    Georgi Parvanov
    Mary Robinson
    Aníbal Cavaco Silva
    László Sólyom
    Danilo Türk
    Valdis Zatlers

North American

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Canada

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  1. Kim Campbell
  2. Jean Chrétien
  3. Joe Clark
  4. Stephen Harper
  5. Paul Martin
  6. Brian Mulroney
  7. John Turner

Mexico

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  1. Felipe Calderón
  2. Luis Echeverría
  3. Miguel de la Madrid
  4. Carlos Salinas de Gortari
  5. Ernesto Zedillo
  6. Vicente Fox

United States

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  1. George H. W. Bush
  2. George W. Bush
  3. Jimmy Carter
  4. Bill Clinton
  5. Barack Obama

Latin American

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Argentina

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  1. Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner
  2. Néstor Kirchner
  3. Eduardo Duhalde
  4. Adolfo Rodríguez Saá
  5. Fernando De La Rua
  6. Carlos Saul Menem
  7. Jorge Rafael Videla
  8. Isabel Martínez de Perón

Brazil

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  1. Fernando Henrique Cardoso
  2. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

Bolivia

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  1. Juan Evo Morales Ayma

Cuba

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  1. Fidel Castro
  2. Raul Castro

Peru

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  1. Alberto Fujimori

Venezuela

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  1. Hugo Chavez

Asian & Oceanian

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Australia

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  1. Malcolm Fraser
  2. Bob Hawke
  3. John Howard
  4. Paul Keating
  5. Kevin Rudd
  6. Gough Whitlam

New Zealand

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  1. Jim Bolger
  2. Helen Clark
  3. Mike Moore
  4. Geoffrey Palmer
  5. Jenny Shipley

Indian subcontinent

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  1. Hamid Karzai
  2. Atal Bihari Vajpayee
  3. Dr. Manmohan Singh

Middle East

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  1. Benjamin Netanyahu
  2. Ariel Sharon
  3. Shimon Peres
  4. King Abdullah II
  5. Bashar al-Assad

Other

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  1. Akihito
  2. Bhumibol Adulyadej
  3. Hassanal Bolkiah
  4. Hu Jintao
  5. Wen Jiabao
  6. Kim Jong-il
  7. Junichirō Koizumi
  8. Mahathir bin Mohamad
  9. Lee Myung-bak
  10. Jiang Zemin
  11. Lee Kuan Yew

African

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  1. Muammar al-Gaddafi
  2. Omar Hassan al-Bashir
  3. Joseph Kabila
  4. Nelson Mandela
  5. Thabo Mbeki
  6. Mohammed VI of Morocco
  7. Hosni Mubarak
  8. Robert Mugabe
  9. Hailemariam Desalegn
  10. Umaru Yar'Adua

Other

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  1. Ban Ki-moon
  2. Boutros Boutros-Ghali
  3. Javier Pérez de Cuéllar

Religious leaders

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  1. Pope Benedict XVI
  2. Billy Graham
  3. Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
  4. Patriarch Kirill I of Moscow
  5. Desmond Tutu
  6. Rowan Williams

Revolutionaries and activists

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  1. Joan Baez
  2. Jim Bakker
  3. Matt Drudge
  4. Betty Ford
  5. Bob Geldof
  6. Al Gore
  7. Aung San Suu Kyi
  8. Rush Limbaugh
  9. Markos Moulitsas
  10. Nicholas Negroponte
  11. Pat Robertson
  12. Jack Thompson (attorney)
  13. George Soros

Other

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  1. The last surviving veteran of World War I.
  2. The last surviving veteran of World War II.
  3. The last surviving veteran of the Korean War.
  4. The last surviving veteran of the Spanish Civil War.