actorBorn: 12/31/1937Birthplace: Port Talbot, Wales Academy Award-winning British film and stage actor whose performance in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) made him one of the most respected film…
actressBorn: 5/26/1966Birthplace: London, England British actress best known for her work in romantic Edwardian period dramas. Her films include A Room With a View (1986), Howard's End (1992), The…
producer, directorBorn: 12/25/1936Birthplace: Bombay, India Already a successful producer of short films, Merchant teamed up with James Ivory in 1961 to form Merchant-Ivory Productions, a name now…
zoologistBorn: 1889Birthplace: Clifton Forge, Va. Roger Arliner Young overcame racial and sexual barriers to become the first African-American woman to be awarded a Ph.D. in zoology, which she…
actressBorn: 2/8/1953Birthplace: Newport, Arkansas This appealing, versatile actress won an Academy Award for her role in Melvin and Howard (1980). She also appeared in Ragtime (1981), A Midsummer'…
physicistBorn: 1914Birthplace: Pocahontas, Va. As chair of the Department of Physics at Howard University, Herman Branson helped the scientific community gain new insight into organic molecules and…
civil rights leaderBorn: 1920Birthplace: Marshall, Tex. The son of a preacher, Farmer attended Howard University's School of Divinity. In 1942 he founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a…
actorBorn: 11/28/1950Birthplace: Englewood, New Jersey Highly respected, Oscar-nominated character actor who has played both the hero—John Glenn in The Right Stuff (1983)—and the antihero—E.…
writer, educatorBorn: 1886Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pa. In addition to his long list of academic honors, Locke is credited with helping to initiate and propel the Harlem Renaissance. Locke graduated…
writerBorn: 10/18/1948Birthplace: Trenton, New Jersey Born Paulette Williams, she graduated from Barnard College in 1970, and later earned an MA from the University of Southern California. It was…
