List of Famous people who born in 1956

Thomas Jeffrey Hanks is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, Hanks is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Hanks's films have grossed more than $4.9 billion in North America and more than $9.96 billion worldwide, making him the fourth-highest-grossing actor in North America.

Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson is an American actor, film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his action hero roles, particularly his breakout role as Max Rockatansky in the first three films of the post-apocalyptic action series Mad Max and as Martin Riggs in the buddy cop film series Lethal Weapon.

Christoph Waltz is an Austrian-German actor and director. Since 2009 he has mainly been active in the United States. His accolades include two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two British Academy Film Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Owen William Paterson is a British Conservative Party politician who was the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2012 to 2014. He was first elected as the Member of Parliament for North Shropshire at the 1997 general election.

Rachel L. Levine is an American pediatrician who has served as the Pennsylvania Secretary of Health since 2017. She is a Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine, and previously served as the Pennsylvania Physician General from 2015 to 2017. She is one of only a handful of openly transgender government officials in the United States. President Joe Biden has nominated Levine to be Assistant Secretary for Health. She would be the first openly transgender federal official to be confirmed by the Senate.

Theresa Mary May, Lady May is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. May served as Home Secretary from 2010 to 2016 in the Cameron government and has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Maidenhead in Berkshire since 1997. Ideologically, she identifies herself as a one-nation conservative.

Kim Victoria Cattrall is a British-born Canadian-American actress. She is best known for her role as Samantha Jones on HBO's Sex and the City (1998–2004), for which she received five Emmy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning the 2002 Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. She reprised the role in the films Sex and the City (2008) and Sex and the City 2 (2010).

Richard Holt Madeley is an English journalist, television presenter and writer. Alongside his wife Judy Finnigan, Madeley presented This Morning and the chat show Richard & Judy. Madeley's solo projects include the ITV series Fortune: Million Pound Giveaway and standing in on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show for BBC Radio 2.

Bo Derek is an American film and television actress, film producer, and model perhaps best known for her breakthrough film role in the sex comedy 10 (1979). She was directed by husband John Derek in Fantasies, Tarzan, the Ape Man, Bolero (1984) and Ghosts Can't Do It (1989), all of which received negative reviews. A widow since 1998, she lives with actor John Corbett. Now in semi-retirement, she makes occasional film, television, and documentary appearances.

Gary Michael Cole is an American television, film and voice actor. Cole began his professional acting career on stage at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1985. On television, he has had starring roles in the TV series Midnight Caller, American Gothic, The West Wing, Crusade, The Good Wife, The Good Fight, Veep, Chicago Fire, and Mixed-ish. In film, he has appeared in The Brady Bunch Movie, One Hour Photo, Office Space, Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. He is also known for voicing the title character on the Adult Swim series Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law and James Timothy Possible on Kim Possible.