List of Famous people born in United States of America
Buckwheat Zydeco
Stanley Dural Jr., better known by his stage name Buckwheat Zydeco, was an American accordionist and zydeco musician. He was one of the few zydeco artists to achieve mainstream success. His music group was formally billed as Buckwheat Zydeco and Ils Sont Partis Band, but they often performed as merely Buckwheat Zydeco.
John Dos Passos
John Roderigo Dos Passos was an American novelist, most notable for his U.S.A. trilogy.
Conrad McRae
Conrad Bastien McRae was an American professional basketball player who had a successful career in Europe, for teams in France, Italy, Greece and Turkey. He was also selected by the Washington Bullets, in the second round of the 1993 NBA draft.
Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Craig Roberts is an American economist and author. He formerly held a sub-cabinet office in the United States federal government as well as teaching positions at several U.S. universities. He is a promoter of supply-side economics and an opponent of recent U.S. foreign policy.
Billy Strayhorn
William Thomas Strayhorn was an American jazz composer, pianist, lyricist, and arranger, who collaborated with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington for nearly three decades. His compositions include "Take the 'A' Train", "Chelsea Bridge", "A Flower Is a Lovesome Thing", and "Lush Life".
David Meltzer
David Meltzer was an American poet and musician of the Beat Generation and San Francisco Renaissance. Lawrence Ferlinghetti described him as "one of the greats of post-World-War-Two San Francisco poets and musicians". Meltzer came to prominence with inclusion of his work in the anthology, The New American Poetry 1945–1960.
Derek Cianfrance
Derek M. Cianfrance is an American film director, cinematographer, screenwriter, and editor. He is best known for writing and directing the films Blue Valentine and The Place Beyond the Pines, as well as the HBO miniseries I Know This Much Is True.
Caryl Chessman
Caryl Whittier Chessman was a convicted robber, kidnapper and rapist who was sentenced to death for a series of crimes committed in January 1948 in the Los Angeles area. Chessman was charged with 17 counts and convicted under a loosely interpreted "Little Lindbergh law" – later repealed, but not retroactively – that defined kidnapping as a capital offense under certain circumstances. His case attracted worldwide attention, and helped propel the movement to end the use of capital punishment in the state of California.
Pierre Salinger
Pierre Emil George Salinger was an American journalist, author and politician. He had served as the ninth White House Press Secretary for United States Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. Salinger served as a United States Senator in 1964 and as campaign manager for the 1968 Robert F. Kennedy presidential campaign.
Tom McClung
Tom McClung was an American jazz pianist and composer.