List of Famous people who born in 1942

Richard Marvin Butkus is an American former football player, sports commentator, and actor. He played professional football as a linebacker for the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) from 1965 to 1973. Through those nine seasons he was invited to eight Pro Bowls, named a first-team All-Pro six times, and was twice recognized by his peers as the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year. Renowned as a fierce tackler and for the relentless effort with which he played, Butkus is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most intimidating linebackers in pro football history.

David John Bradley is an English actor. He is known for playing Argus Filch in the Harry Potter film series, Walder Frey in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones, and Abraham Setrakian in the FX horror series The Strain. He is also an established stage actor, with a career that includes a Laurence Olivier Award for his role in a production of King Lear. Other acting credits include the BBC Two series Our Friends in the North, the ITV series Broadchurch, the BBC One miniseries Les Misérables, the comedy series After Life and the films Hot Fuzz, The World's End and Captain America: The First Avenger.

Judith Cynthia Aline Keppel is a British quiz show contestant who was the first person to win one million pounds on the British television game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. She has appeared on the BBC Two quiz show Eggheads since 2003.

Guion Stewart Bluford Jr. is an American aerospace engineer, retired U.S. Air Force officer and fighter pilot, and former NASA astronaut, who is the first African American and the second person of African descent to go to space. Before becoming an astronaut, he was an officer in the U.S. Air Force, where he remained while assigned to NASA, rising to the rank of colonel. He participated in four Space Shuttle flights between 1983 and 1992. In 1983, as a member of the crew of the Orbiter Challenger on the mission STS-8, he became the first African American in space as well as the second person of African ancestry in space, after Cuban cosmonaut Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez.

Isao Aoki is a Japanese professional golfer. He was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2004.

Michel Gustave Édouard Mayor is a Swiss astrophysicist and professor emeritus at the University of Geneva's Department of Astronomy. He formally retired in 2007, but remains active as a researcher at the Observatory of Geneva. He is co-laureate of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics along with Jim Peebles and Didier Queloz, and the winner of the 2010 Viktor Ambartsumian International Prize and the 2015 Kyoto Prize.

Dany Saval is a French former actress.

Ricardo Valentín Rodríguez de la Vega was a Mexican racing driver who competed in the 1961 and 1962 Formula One seasons. His elder brother, Pedro, was also a noted racing driver who had much success in sports car racing and Formula One. At the age of 19 years and 208 days when first racing for them at the 1961 Italian Grand Prix, he became the youngest Formula One driver ever to race for Ferrari, a title he still holds today. At this Grand Prix he also became the youngest driver to start a Formula One race until the 1980 Canadian Grand Prix and the youngest driver to start from the first row until the 2016 Belgian Grand Prix, and at the 1962 Belgian Grand Prix he became also the youngest driver to score points in Formula One until the 2000 Brazilian Grand Prix. He was also the first Mexican driver ever to take part in a Formula One Grand Prix.

Yasuko Ikenobō is a Japanese politician.

Barry Charles Diller is an American businessman. He is Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC/InterActiveCorp and Expedia Group and founded the Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting. Diller was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1994.