List of Famous people who born in 1942

William Campbell Rough Bryden, is a British stage- and film director and screenwriter.

Samuel R. Delany, nicknamed "Chip", is an American author and literary critic. His work includes fiction, memoir, criticism and essays on science fiction, literature, sexuality, and society.

Clement Leroy "Butch" Otter is an American businessman and politician who served as the 32nd governor of Idaho from 2007 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was elected in 2006, and reelected in 2010, and 2014. Otter served as lieutenant governor from 1987 to 2001 and in U.S. Congress from the first district from 2001 to 2007.

Sir Geoffrey Winston Russell Palmer is a New Zealand lawyer, legal academic, and past politician, who was a member of Parliament from 1979 to 1990. He served as the 33rd Prime Minister of New Zealand for a little over a year, from August 1989 until September 1990, leading the Fourth Labour Government. As Minister of Justice from 1984 to 1989, Palmer was responsible for considerable reforms of the country's legal and constitutional framework, such as the creation of the Constitution Act 1986, New Zealand Bill of Rights, Imperial Laws Application Act, and the State Sector Act. He served as president of the New Zealand Law Commission, from 2005 to 2010.

Jacques Revel is a French historian. He is the emeritus director of studies and past president of l'École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS).