List of Famous people named William

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. They also continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

William Shatner is a Canadian actor, author, producer, director, screenwriter, and singer. In his seven decades of acting, Shatner became a cultural icon for his portrayal of Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise in the Star Trek franchise. He has written a series of books chronicling his experiences playing Captain Kirk, being a part of Star Trek, and life after Star Trek. Shatner has also co-written several novels set in the Star Trek universe, and a series of science fiction novels called TekWar, that were adapted for television.

William Joseph Baldwin is an American actor, producer and writer. A member of the Baldwin family, he is the third-oldest of the four Baldwin brothers. He has starred in the films Flatliners (1990), Backdraft (1991), Sliver (1993), Virus (1999), The Squid and the Whale (2005), played himself in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and currently stars in and produces the Netflix show Northern Rescue. Baldwin is married to singer Chynna Phillips.

William Randolph Hearst Sr. was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboyant methods of yellow journalism influenced the nation's popular media by emphasizing sensationalism and human interest stories. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887 with Mitchell Trubitt after being given control of The San Francisco Examiner by his wealthy father, Senator George Hearst.

William Murdoch was a Scottish engineer and inventor.

William George Zabka also known as Billy Zabka, is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Johnny Lawrence in The Karate Kid (1984) and the TV series Cobra Kai (2018–present). In 2004, he was nominated for an Academy Award for co-writing and producing the short film Most.

William "Bill" Lucking is an American film, television, and stage actor, best known for his role as Piney Winston in Sons of Anarchy (2008–2011), and for his movie roles in The Magnificent Seven Ride (1972), and The Rundown (2003).

William IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded his elder brother George IV, becoming the last king and penultimate monarch of Britain's House of Hanover.

William Pelham "Bill" Barr is an American attorney who served as the 77th and 85th United States Attorney General, in the administrations of Presidents George H. W. Bush and Donald Trump.

Sir William Wallace was a Scottish knight who became one of the main leaders during the First War of Scottish Independence.

William Hall Macy Jr. is an American actor and director. His film career has been built on appearances in small, independent films, though he has also appeared in action films. Macy has described himself as "sort of a Middle American, WASPy, Lutheran kind of guy... Everyman". Macy has won two Emmy Awards and four Screen Actors Guild Awards, as well as a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Fargo. Since 2011, he has played Frank Gallagher, a main character in the Showtime adaptation of the British television series Shameless. Macy has been married to Felicity Huffman since 1997.

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne,, in some sources called Henry William Lamb, was a British Whig statesman who served as Home Secretary (1830–1834) and Prime Minister. He is best known for being prime minister in Queen Victoria's early years and coaching her in the ways of politics, acting almost as her private secretary. Historians have concluded that Melbourne does not rank highly as a Prime Minister, for there were no great foreign wars or domestic issues to handle, he lacked major achievements, he enunciated no grand principles, and he was involved in several political scandals in the early years of Victoria's reign.

William Walter "Pudge" Heffelfinger (Hafelfinger) was an American football player and coach. He is considered the first athlete to play American football professionally, having been paid to play in 1892.

William McKinley was the 25th president of the United States from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. During his presidency, McKinley led the nation to victory in the Spanish–American War, raised protective tariffs to promote American industry, and kept the nation on the gold standard in a rejection of the expansionary monetary policy of free silver.

William Gutiérrez-Levy, is a Cuban-American actor and former model.

William Selby Harney was a Tennessee-born cavalry officer in the US Army, who became known during the Indian Wars and the Mexican–American War. One of four general officers in the US Army at the beginning of the American Civil War, he was removed from overseeing the Department of the West because of his Confederate sympathies early in the war although he kept Missouri from joining the Confederacy. Under President Andrew Johnson, he served with on the Indian Peace Commission, negotiating several treaties before spending his retirement partly in St. Louis and partly trading reminiscences with Jefferson Davis and Ulysses S. Grant in Mississippi.

William James Sidis was an American child prodigy with exceptional mathematical and linguistic skills. He is notable for his 1920 book The Animate and the Inanimate, in which he speculates about the origin of life in the context of thermodynamics.

Sir William Henry Perkin, was a British chemist and entrepreneur best known for his serendipitous discovery of the first synthetic organic dye, mauveine, made from aniline. Though he failed in trying to synthesise quinine for the treatment of malaria, he became successful in the field of dyes after his first discovery at the age of 18.

William Henry Harrison was an American military officer and politician who served as the ninth president of the United States in 1841. He died of either typhoid, pneumonia, or paratyphoid fever 31 days into his term, becoming the first president to die in office and the shortest-serving U.S. president in history. His death sparked a brief constitutional crisis regarding succession to the presidency.

William I, usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman King of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. He was a descendant of Rollo and was Duke of Normandy from 1035 onward. His hold was secure on Normandy by 1060, following a long struggle to establish his throne, and he launched the Norman conquest of England six years later. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his continental lands, and by difficulties with his eldest son, Robert Curthose.