List of Famous people who born in 1942

Nicholas Wade is a British author and journalist. He served as the staff writer for the Science Times section of The New York Times from 1982 to 2012. He is the author of the controversial book A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History (2014).

Sidney Williams is a diplomat and former American football linebacker in the National Football League (NFL) for the Cleveland Browns, Washington Redskins, Baltimore Colts, and the Pittsburgh Steelers. He played college football at Southern University.

Seiji Sakaguchi is a retired Japanese professional wrestler and judoka, Sakaguchi holds a 7th dan red and white belt in Judo. Sakaguchi was a mainstay of New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and also competed for the World Wide Wrestling Federation and the National Wrestling Alliance. His sons are professional wrestler and mixed martial arts fighter Yukio Sakaguchi and television actor Kenji Sakaguchi. Sakaguchi currently works for New Japan as an advisor.

Patricia Joanne "Jenny" O'Hara is an American film, television, and stage actress.

Ataol Behramoğlu is a prominent Turkish poet, author, and Russian-into-Turkish literary translator.

Ingrid Mickler-Becker is a former West German athlete. Her name is sometimes written incorrectly as Ingrid Mickler in result lists. Her international career lasted from 1960 to 1972. She won the pentathlon gold medal at the 1968 Summer Olympics and the 4×100 m relay gold medal at the 1972 Summer Olympics. Becker was the first German woman to clear 1.70 m in high jump (1970) and 6.50 m in the long jump (1967).

Bungle Shama Rao Dwarakanath, better known as Dwarakish, is an Indian actor, director and producer in the Kannada film industry. He was given the name Dwarakish by Kannada film maker C. V. Shivashankar.

Dennis Andrew Canavan is a Scottish politician. He was the Member of Parliament for Falkirk West from 1974 to 2000, first as a member of the Labour Party, and then as an Independent. He then served as an Independent Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Falkirk West from 1999 to 2007.

Michael Vernon Townley is an American-born former agent of the Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional (DINA), the secret police of Chile during the regime of Augusto Pinochet. In 1978, Townley pled guilty to the 1976 murders of Orlando Letelier, former Chilean ambassador to the United States, and Ronni Karpen Moffitt, Letelier's co-worker at the Institute for Policy Studies. He was sentenced to ten years in prison, serving 62 months. As part of his plea bargain, Townley received immunity from further prosecution; he was not extradited to Argentina to stand trial for the 1974 assassination of Chilean General Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires. He has lived under the United States Federal Witness Protection Program since his release from prison in 1983.

Alfred Papapreye Diete-Spiff was the first Military Governor of Rivers State, Nigeria after it was created from part of the old Eastern Region, Nigeria. He held office from May 1967 until July 1975 during the military administration of General Yakubu Gowon. He was also a member of the Supreme Military Council.