List of Famous people with last name Willard

Frederick Charles Willard Jr. was an American actor, comedian, and writer. He was best known for his roles in the Rob Reiner mockumentary film This Is Spinal Tap; the Christopher Guest mockumentaries Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind, For Your Consideration, and Mascots; and the Anchorman films.

Aimee Ellen Willard was a college lacrosse player who was murdered by Arthur Bomar near Philadelphia on her way home from a night out with friends. Her car was left running, with the lights on and driver's side door open, on the Exit 5 off-ramp of Interstate 476. Her body was found the next day in North Philadelphia, 17 miles away. She was beaten to death with a tire iron. The beating was so savage that her skull had multiple fractures. The then-unsolved crime was featured on Unsolved Mysteries and later as a solved one on Cold Case Files and The New Detectives. The story of her murder and investigation was also featured on an episode of Forensic Files as well as in the film "The Dark Side of Parole."

Clarence E Willard was an American vaudeville performer. After carrying out stretching exercises, Willard found he was able to increase his height at will by 7 ¹⁄₂ inches (19 cm) and also elongate his arms and legs. He developed this into a freak show act under the name "The Man Who Grows". From around 1910 Willard performed in vaudeville in the United States and was also claimed to have performed at the Berlin Wintergarten theatre. He became associated with Robert Ripley, performing at the Believe It or Not! odditoriums and appearing in a short film. Willard appeared at the 1936–37 Great Lakes Exposition in Cleveland, Ohio, and later ran a restaurant in Alameda, California.

Emma Hart Willard was an American women's rights activist who dedicated her life to education. She worked in several schools and founded the first school for women's higher education, the Troy Female Seminary in Troy, New York. With the success of her school, Willard was able to travel across the country and abroad, to promote education for women. The seminary was renamed the Emma Willard School in 1895 in her honor.

Reverend Samuel Willard was a colonial clergyman. He was born in Concord, Massachusetts, graduated Harvard in 1659, and was minister at Groton from 1663–1676, whence he was driven by the Indians during King Philip's War. Willard was pastor of the Third Church, Boston from 1678 until his death. He opposed the Salem witch trials, and served as acting president of Harvard from 1701. He published many sermons; the folio volume A Compleat Body of Divinity was published posthumously in 1726.

Jess Myron Willard was an American world heavyweight boxing champion billed as the Pottawatomie Giant who knocked out Jack Johnson in April 1915 for the heavyweight title. Willard was known for size rather than skill, and though held the championship for more than four years, he defended it rarely and was in person reserved. In 1919, when he was 37 years of age he lost the title in an extremely one sided loss by declining to come out for the fourth round against Jack Dempsey, who became a more celebrated champion. Soon after the bout Willard began accusing Dempsey of using something with the effect of a knuckle duster. Dempsey did not grant Willard a return match, and at 42 years old he was KO'd, following which he retired from boxing, although for the rest of his life continued claiming Dempsey had cheated. Ferdie Pacheco expressed the opinion in a book that the surviving photographs of Willard's face during the Dempsey fight indicate fractures to Willard's facial bones suggesting a metal implement, and show he was bleeding heavily. The matter has never been resolved, with contemporaneous ringside sports journalist reporting by the NYT that Willard spat out at least one tooth and was "a fountain of blood" increasingly discounted in favor of a view that he had only a cut lip and a little bruising.

Ashbel Parsons Willard was state senator, the 12th Lieutenant Governor, and the 11th Governor of the U.S. state of Indiana. His terms in office were marked by increasingly severe partisanship leading to the breakup of the state Democratic Party in the years leading up to the American Civil War. His brother-in-law John Edwin Cook was involved in John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, and was executed. Willard went to the south to advocate unsuccessfully for his release, and became despised by southerners who accused him of having a secret involvement in the raid. He died two months before the start of the war while giving a speech on national unity, and was the first governor of Indiana to die in office.