List of Famous people who born in 1926

Harry Dean Stanton was an American actor, musician, and singer. In a career that spanned more than six decades, Stanton played supporting roles in films such as Cool Hand Luke (1967), Kelly's Heroes (1970), Dillinger (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), Alien (1979), Escape from New York (1981), Christine (1983), Repo Man (1984), One Magic Christmas (1985), Pretty in Pink (1986), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Wild at Heart (1990), The Straight Story (1999), The Green Mile (1999), Alpha Dog (2006) and Inland Empire (2006). He had rare lead roles in Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas (1984) and Lucky (2017), his last film.

Joseph Vincent Paterno, sometimes referred to as JoePa, was an American college football player, athletic director, and coach. He was the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions from 1966 to 2011. With 409 victories, Paterno is the most victorious coach in NCAA FBS history. He recorded his 409th victory on October 29, 2011; his career ended with his dismissal from the team on November 9, 2011, as a result of the Penn State child sex abuse scandal. He died 74 days later, of complications from lung cancer.

Rafael Calixto Escalona Martinez was a Colombian composer and troubadour. He was known for being one of the most prominent vallenato music composers and troubadours of the genre and for being the co-founder of the Vallenato Legend Festival, along with Consuelo Araújo and Alfonso López Michelsen.

Carrie Mae Pittman Meek was an American politician from Florida. A member of the Democratic Party, she served from 1979 to 1982 as a representative to the Florida house of representatives, from 1982 to 1992 as a senator to the Florida senate, and, from 1993 to 2003, as a representative to the United States House of Representatives, representing Florida's 17th congressional district.

John David Dingell Jr. was an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1955 until 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he holds the record for longest-serving member of Congress in American history, representing Michigan for more than 59 years. He most recently served as the representative for Michigan's 12th congressional district. A longtime member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Dingell was the chairman of the committee from 1981 to 1995 and 2007 to 2009.

Svetlana Iosifovna Alliluyeva, later known as Lana Peters, was the youngest child and only daughter of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and his second wife Nadezhda Alliluyeva. In 1967, she caused an international furore when she defected to, and in 1978 became a naturalized citizen of, the United States. From 1984 to 1986, she briefly returned to the Soviet Union and had her Soviet citizenship returned. She was Stalin's last surviving child.

Lenny Montana was an American actor who played the role of feared hitman Luca Brasi in The Godfather. Prior to becoming an actor, he had a successful career as a professional wrestler as well as an enforcer for the Colombo family.

Leslie William Nielsen was a Canadian actor, comedian and producer. With a career spanning 60 years, he appeared in more than 100 films and 150 television programs, portraying more than 220 characters.

Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom was a United States Air Force (USAF) pilot and a member of the Mercury Seven selected by National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) as Project Mercury astronauts to be the first Americans in outer space. He was a Project Gemini and an Apollo program astronaut. As a member of the NASA Astronaut Corps, Grissom was the second American to fly in space. He was also the second American to fly in space twice, beaten only by Joe Walker with his sub-orbital X-15 flights.

Nina Fyodorovna Agapova is a Soviet/Russian actress.