Famous People With the Same Names

The first famous Francis Bacon was a London-born statesman and philosopher, who served as both attorney general and lord chancellor of England. He is best known for having championed the scientific method — the collection and analysis of data and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.

Bacon’s 20th-century namesake, an Englishman born in Ireland, is considered one of the greatest and most influential post-World-War-II British artists, famed for his rough brushwork and distorted figures. He is a collateral (indirect) descendent of his earlier namesake.

Between 1898 and around 1915, an American author named Winston Churchill produced a string of best-selling novels, primarily historical fiction. He served in the New Hampshire legislature, and for a time was managing editor of Cosmopolitan magazine. He was not related to the famed British statesman, who was born three years later, but the two were acquainted.

The more famous Winston Churchill was a military officer, politician, and author, who held the office of prime minister of Great Britain twice — from 1940 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1955. In his first term, during World War II, he was instrumental in engineering the defeat of Nazi Germany. He was a celebrated orator — he coined the term “iron curtain” in a speech in 1945 — and a prolific author of historical works as well as a gifted amateur painter.

Decades before Indiana Jones and Han Solo, a handsome leading man named Harrison Ford, considered one of the biggest stars of his generation, appeared in more than 80 silent films. He retired from movies in 1932, unable, like so many other actors, to make the transition from silent films to talkies.

Today’s Harrison Ford, no relation to the earlier movie star, got his first small roles in 1966 and ’67, but became a star after he appeared in the first several Star Wars films and created the role of archeologist-adventurer Indiana Jones in a series of hit movies beginning with 1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Appearances in other notable films, including “Blade Runner,” “Witness,” and “The Fugitive” helped cement his reputation as a superstar.

An approximate contemporary of Shakespeare’s, English playwright John Ford is best known for his incest tragedy “‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore,” which is still regularly performed and has been adapted several times for films.

The Elizabethan playwright’s unrelated latter-day namesake is considered one of the great American film directors of any era. The winner of six Academy Awards, he specialized in westerns, often starring John Wayne. His best-known films include such classics as “Stagecoach,” “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,” “The Searchers,” and “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” as well as such non-westerns as “The Grapes of Wrath” and “Mr. Roberts.”

The first notable Anne Hathaway was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, and is remembered as the wife of that town’s most famous sometime resident, William Shakespeare. Together, they had two daughters and a son. Her family home, a farmhouse in the village of Shottery, just outside Stratford, is one of the most often visited tourist sites in England.

The Brooklyn-born actress Anne Hathaway, who came to prominence through her roles in “The Princess Diaries” and “The Devil Wears Prada,” went on to star in such films as “The Dark Knight Rises,” “Les Miserables,” and “Ocean’s 8,” among many others. She will appear in a new “Sesame Street” movie in 2021. Hathaway’s parents named her after her illustrious predecessor.

As neither Michael nor Jackson are unusual names, it’s not surprising that there have been a number of Michael Jacksons. Perhaps the best known, after the controversial King of Pop who shares the name, is a British-American radio personality, who hosted numerous highly rated talk shows on a number of different stations in the L.A. area. He has won numerous broadcast awards and boasts a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame.

The really famous Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, creator of the best-selling music album of all time (“Thriller”), had a 46-year career beginning when he joined the family singing group, the Jackson 5, when he was 5 himself. Jackson piled up numerous enduring No. 1 hits and Grammy Awards before dying of a drug overdose in 2009. Accusations of child molestation against him began as early as 1993, culminating after Jackson’s death with a four-hour HBO documentary called “Leaving Neverland,” a reference to his Santa Barbara County estate. His music remains extremely popular; a 2009 documentary about Jackson’s final tour, “This Is It,” became the highest-grossing concert film of all time.

A bass player, actor, music manager, and producer, Randall Darius “Randy” Jackson is best known as one of the judges on the first 12 seasons of the long-running singing competition show “American Idol.” He subsequently returned to the show to replace Jimmy Iovine as an in-house mentor to the performers.

The younger Randy Jackson is one of the late pop star Michael Jackson’s brothers. He performed on occasion with the Jackson 5 and joined the group full-time, replacing his brother Jermains, in the mid-1970s, when the family ensemble changed record labels and renamed themselves simply the Jacksons. He embarked on a solo career in 1989, but it never took off, and he became best-known after his famous brother’s death for inheritance and child custody conflicts with his family.

Known as “the King of Cool,” actor Steve McQueen was one of the most popular American film stars of the ’60s and ’70s — known for his roles in such classics as “The Great Escape,” “The Thomas Crown Affair,” “Bullitt,” and the car race movie “Le Mans.” He was also a serious race car driver himself and owned many classic cars and motorcycles.

The Steve McQueen who’s still with us is a London-born writer and director, whose most famous film is “12 Years a Slave,” which he produced and directed and which won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture of the Year in 2014 as well as three Golden Globes. His latest release is “Widows,” starring Viola Davis and Liam Neeson.

Jane Seymour was the Queen of England for 17 months as the third wife of King Henry VIII. Unlike several of the monarch’s other spouses, she was able to keep her head. Henry seemed genuinely fond of her, not least because she managed to do what his first two wives couldn’t — give him a legitimate male heir, the future King Edward VI. Seymour died 12 days after her son was born of puerperal fever, a post-childbirth infection.

The contemporary actress known as Jane Seymour was born Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg but took Jane Seymour as a stage name because she thought it would be easy to remember. Throughout her long career, Seymour has appeared in countless movies and TV shows — perhaps most memorably “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman,” which ran for five years in the 1990s (she also played the same character in three follow-up TV movies). Seymour remains active, appearing with Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin in the Netflix comedy series “The Kominsky Method,” among other projects.

Inevitably referred to as “the other Elizabeth Taylor,” the English author of that name wrote about a dozen popular novels and published more than 30 short stories in The New Yorker. A much better-known English writer, Kingsley Amis, called her “one of the best English novelists born in [the 20th] century.” Taylor is widely considered to have been underrated as a literary talent.

The far more famous and glamorous Elizabeth Taylor, also English-born, was one of the 20th century’s most famous actresses and was widely considered one of the most beautiful women on Earth. She became a star following her performance in “National Velvet,” when she was only 14. Many lead roles followed, including in such classic films as “Giant,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Suddenly, Last Summer, “BUtterfield 8,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” and maybe most famously of all “Cleopatra.” In that film and a number of others, Taylor co-starred with Welsh actor Richard Burton — whom she subsequently married, and divorced, twice.

Complaining that he couldn’t find a good hamburger in Columbus, Ohio, where he was living, Dave Thomas — a onetime Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise owner — launched his own fast-food place in 1969, dubbing it Wendy’s, after his young daughter’s nickname. Though he gave up active control of the chain in the early 1980s, he returned to the spotlight in 1989 as the star of the era’s Wendy’s TV commercials. A survey in the 1990s found that 90% of Americans knew who he was. He made more than 800 spots for Wendy’s, which grew to the No. 3 burger chain in America.

The Wendy’s founder’s namesake is a Canadian-born actor, comedian, writer, and producer, who first came to prominence in the 1980s as part of the SCTV troupe, where his colleagues included such future stars as John Candy, Martin Short, Rick Moranis, and Catherine O’Hara. He and Moranis were particularly known on the show for their “Great White North” spoof, spun off into a 2009 series “Bob & Doug.” Thomas has subsequently had roles in many movies and TV series, including “Arrested Development,” “King of the Hill,” and “Bounty Hunters.”

A reedy-voiced rock singer and musician who first attracted attention as a member of the James Gang and later joined the Eagles, the elder Joe Walsh also had hits as a solo artist. “All Night Long” from the “Urban Cowboy” soundtrack was one of them, but his biggest song was “Life’s Been Good,” a tongue-in-cheek celebration of pop star success. In 1979, he announced that he was running for president on a platform of “free gas for everyone.” (He lost.)

The other Joe Walsh recently announced that he was running for president, too — in this case challenging Donald Trump in the Republican primary for the 2020 election, with no mention of gratis fuel. A one-term member of the House of Representatives from Illinois, Walsh became a Tea Party advocate and a conservative radio talk show host, though he has given up his program while running for office.

A singer and actress, the (slightly) older Michelle Williams was part of the phenomenally successful R&B group Destiny’s Child, which sold over 35 million records while she was a member. She had later success as a solo artist and sang twice for the Obamas at the White House. Williams subsequently transitioned to Broadway and television as an actress. Earlier this year, she played Diana Ross in BET’s “American Soul” series.

The singer/actress’s namesake was a TV and film performer from the beginning. This Michelle Williams came into the spotlight when she was still a teenager with a leading role on “Dawson’s Creek.” At the age of 25, she received her first Academy Award nomination for “Brokeback Mountain.” WIlliams portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in “My Week with Marilyn” won her a Golden Globe for Best Actress. After winning a Tony Award for her part in “Blackbird,” she portrayed dancer Gwen Verdon in this year’s miniseries “Fosse/Verdon.”

It is widely agreed that the Brian Wilson who is a singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer — and was the co-founder of the Beach Boys — is a musical genius. He wrote or co-wrote more than two dozen Top 40 hits for that definitive surf (and post-surf) group, and was their bassist, keyboard player, and co-lead vocalist. He is considered one of the most original and influential pop songwriters and was a major innovator in music production. His career in later years has included solo tours and albums, reunion projects with the Beach Boys, and collaborations with people like Elton John, Paul McCartney, and Eric Clapton.

Brian Wilson, the baseball player, was a relief pitcher for the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers, easily recognizable on the mound by his immense black beard. He played in three All-Star games and pitched in three games in the 2010 World Series, when the Giants won their first championship since 1954. His win-loss record before he retired in 2014 was 24-25, with 407 strikeouts.