List of Famous people who born in 1942

Kitanofuji Katsuaki is a former Japanese professional sumo wrestler from Asahikawa, Hokkaidō. He made his professional debut in 1957, reaching the top makuuchi division in 1964. He was the sport's 52nd yokozuna, a rank he attained in 1970. He won ten tournament championships and was known for his rivalry with Tamanoumi. He retired in 1974 and was the head coach of Kokonoe stable from 1977 to 1992. He left the Japan Sumo Association in 1998 but is still prominent in the sumo world as a commentator as of 2020.

Donna Leon is the American author of a series of crime novels set in Venice, Italy, featuring the fictional hero Commissario Guido Brunetti. In 2003, she received the Corine Literature Prize.

Graham William Nash is a British-American singer-songwriter and musician. Nash is known for his light tenor voice and for his songwriting contributions as a member of the English pop/rock group the Hollies and the folk-rock supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash. Nash became an American citizen on 14 August 1978 and holds dual citizenship with the United Kingdom and the United States.

Peter Habeler is an Austrian mountaineer. He was born in Mayrhofen, Austria. He developed an interest in mountain climbing at age six.

Karen Keskulla Uhlenbeck is an American mathematician and a founder of modern geometric analysis. She is a professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of Texas at Austin, where she held the Sid W. Richardson Foundation Regents Chair. She is currently a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study and a visiting senior research scholar at Princeton University.

Muhammadu Buhari, , is a Nigerian politician who has been president of Nigeria since 2015. Buhari is a retired Major General of the Nigerian Army and served as military head of state from 1983 to 1985, after taking power in a military coup d'état.

Eleuterio Sánchez Rodríguez, known as El Lute, was at one time listed as Spain's "Most Wanted" criminal and later became a published writer. He was a legendary Spanish outlaw who escaped several times from prison after being convicted of murder and sentenced at age 23 to 30 years. While in prison, he learned to read, earned a law degree, and became a writer, continuing to protest his innocence of the charges. He was pardoned and released on June 20, 1981, at the age of 39.

Elena Inés Highton de Nolasco is an Argentine lawyer, judge and a member of Supreme Court of Justice of Argentina since 2004.

Juan Diego Ruiz Moreno, is a Spanish actor who has appeared on stage, in television and film productions since 1957. Among his leading roles are San Juan de la Cruz in La noche oscura (1989), Cabeza de Vaca in Cabeza de Vaca (1991), Cochero in Déjeme que le cuente (1998), Gildo in La Vida que te espera (2004); and Damián in Remake (2006). Among his awards is the Silver Biznaga for Best Actor for Smoking Room (2002).

Michael York, OBE is an English actor. A two-time Emmy Award nominee, for the ABC Afterschool Special: Are You My Mother? (1986) and the AMC series The Lot (2001), he has appeared in more than 70 films, including Romeo and Juliet (1968), Cabaret (1972), The Three Musketeers (1973), Logan's Run (1976), and the Austin Powers film series (1997–2002).