(Porta Nuova station during the 2006 Torino Games)
SPORTS
Susan Auch (b. 1966) – Olympic speed skater
David Beckham (b. 1975) – Professional soccer player
Jerome Bettis (b. 1972) – NFL halfback
Bruce Davidson (b. 1949) – Olympic equestrian
Tom Dolan (b. 1976) – Olympic swimmer
Kurt Grote (b. 1973) – Olympic swimmer
Nancy Hogshead (b. 1962) – Olympic swimmer
Kirstin Holum (b. 1980) – Olympic speed skater
Jim “Catfish” Hunter (1946-1999) – MLB player and Hall of Famer
Jackie Joyner-Kersee (b. 1962) – Olympic runner
Bill Koch (b. 1956) – Olympic cross-country skiier
Greg Louganis (b. 1960) – Olympic diver
Jordan Malone (b. 1984) – Olympic speed skater
Debbie Meyer (b. 1952) – Olympic swimmer
Art Monk (b. 1958) – NFL wide receiver
Gary Roberts (b. 1966) – NHL player
Dennis Rodman (b. 1961) – NBA player
Alberto Salazar (b. 1958) – New York City and Boston marathon winner
Anton Stralman (b. 1986) – NHL player
Amy Van Dyken (b. 1973) – Olympic swimmer
Dominique Wilkins (b. 1960) – NBA player and Hall of Famer
FILM & TELEVISION
Jason Alexander (b. 1959) – actor
Steve Allen (1921-2000) – actor and comedian
Loni Anderson (b. 1946) – actress
Morgan Fairchild (b. 1950) – actress
Moses Gunn (1929-1993) – actor
Helen Hayes (1900-1993) – actress and Academy Award winner
Bob Hope (1903-2003) – actor, comedian
Diane Keaton (b. 1946) – actress and Academy Award winner
Ricki Lake (b. 1968) – television personality
Lindsay Lohan (b. 1986) – actress
Martin Scorsese (b. 1942) – film director and Academy Award winner
Paul Sorvino (b. 1939) – actor
Sharon Stone (b. 1958) – actress
Elizabeth Taylor (b. 1932) – actress and Academy Award winner
Orson Welles (1915-1985) – screenwriter, film director, producer and actor, Academy Award winner
MUSIC & DANCE
Ludwig von Beethoven (1770-1827) – composer
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) – composer and conductor
Bono (b. 1960) – singer/songwriter, musician, Grammy Award winner
Judy Collins (b. 1939) – folk singer
Coolio (b. 1963) – rap artist, actor
Alice Cooper (b. 1948) – rock musician
Billy Joel (b. 1949) – singer/songwriter and pianist, Grammy Award winner
Robert Joffrey (1930-1988) – dancer, choreographer, founder of the Joffrey Ballet
Liza Minnelli (b. 1946) – singer and actress, Academy Award and Tony Award winner
Pink (b. 1979) – singer, Grammy Award winner
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) – composer
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) – composer and conductor
LITERATURE & JOURNALISM
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) – poet, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) – novelist and short story author
Ambrose Pierce (1842-1914) – journalist, short-story author, and satirist
Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) – Roman scholar and historian
Marcel Proust (1871-1922) – novelist, essayist, and critic
Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911) – publisher and posthumous founder of the Pulitzer Prize
Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) – poet and short story author
Howard Thurman (1900-1981) – author, theologian, and civil rights leader
John Updike (b. 1932) – novelist and Pulitzer Prize winner
Edith Wharton (1862-1937) – novelist and short story author
GOVERNMENT & MILITARY
Martin Van Buren (1782-1862) – 8th U.S. President
Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) – 30th U.S. President
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) – British statesman and author
Che Guevara (1928-1967) – socialist revolutionary
John F. Kennedy (1928-1963) – 35th U.S. President
John Locke (1632-1704) – politician and philosopher
Peter I/Peter the Great (1672-1725) – Russian tsar
Walter Mondale (b. 1928) – 42nd U.S. Vice President
Malia Obama (b. 1998) – daughter of the 44th U.S. President
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) – 26th U.S. President
William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) – Civil War general
Daniel Webster (1782-1852) – lawyer and statesman
William III (1650-1702) – King of England, Scotland, and Ireland
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) – 28th U.S. President
**Portions of this list based on Faces of Asthma at the Breath of Life Project.
***This list is ongoing and updated frequently. You can find the original post here.
I was just about to write something on Susan Auch! She has always been one of my heroes, before I knew that she or I had asthma.
Also, I’m pretty sure that Kerri has a v. v. big crush on Anton Stralman.
D’s right. No secret that I loooooooove Anton Stralman.
I almost died when I found out he wasn’t playing for a canadian team anymore.
and Pink!!! (“So, so what, i’m still a rockstar!”)
you know…it’s so easy to focus on what M CAN’T do, at times. (not that I try and let asthma hold her back…but she says all the time…”I can’t do ‘whatever’ because I won’t be able to breathe”) Now, when she says she can’t do something because she won’t be able to breathe, I can pull up this list of people who do great things even though they have asthma.
So, maybe I won’t have her try to run a marathon when it’s 100 degrees with 90% humidity…but she CAN go outside and play for a little while…even if it’s just swinging a little bit, or even looking at a book in the shade.
Thanks for this!
I LOVE this list, Amy. This is great and has taken you hours of research time. Wow thanks! I also LOVE the fact that we focus so much on what asthma prevents us from doing but id you look at this list, all ages, all careers, all walk of life, and all ACHIEVING. I love this!
BTW: as a musician, my single favourite and most inspirational composer is Vivaldi. I remember reading a book about him when I was barely in double figures and where it was written “Vivaldi was so disabled by his asthma that he could not go out alone with his companions to lean on lest he suffered a paroxysm” I also remember thinking ‘how can anybody be disabled by asthma’?
Sigh. That was about thirty years ago when I was no older than AG. It took me another 25 years to find out first hand what that quotation meant.
This is why I love your list so much! Thanks for sharing it.
Danielle & Kerri–Part of the reason I update this list all the time? When I first put it together, it was VERY U.S.-centric. Been slowly fixing that….
Sara–Or she could focus on being president someday. She’d be in good company, that’s for sure.
Susannah–Proust suffered pretty badly, too. Can you imagine how it must’ve been for them? To have severe asthma at a time w/so few meds and when it was considered a nervous disorder only?
And I’m sorry you’ve had to find out in the worst way possible….
Yup, I love this list. I’ve found a lot of stuff about American, Canadian and British asthmatic celebrities online, but practically nothing about Israelis. Hmm..
Can you provide any verification that Bono has asthma? In all of the research I’ve done (albeit brief), I only find that one of his four children has asthma. That’s a significan difference.
Thanks.
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