List of Famous people named William

William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire,, was a British nobleman, aristocrat, and politician. He was the eldest son of William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, by his wife, the heiress Lady Charlotte Boyle, suo jure Baroness Clifford, who brought in considerable money and estates to the Cavendish family. He was invited to join the Cabinet on three occasions, but declined each offer. He was Lord High Treasurer of Ireland and Governor of Cork, and Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire. The 5th Duke is best known for his first wife Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. At the age of about twenty, Devonshire toured Italy with William Fitzherbert which is where they commissioned the pair of portraits by Pompeo Batoni.

William Denby Hanna was an American animator, director, producer, voice actor, cartoon artist, and musician whose film and television cartoon characters entertained millions of people for much of the 20th century.

William Lloyd Brill, & Bar was a senior officer and bomber pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Born in the Riverina district of New South Wales, he was a farmer and a member of the Militia before joining the RAAF in 1940. After training in Australia and Canada, he was posted to Britain in 1941 to take part in the air war over Europe. Brill first saw combat with No. 460 Squadron RAAF, flying Vickers Wellington medium bombers. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) in May 1942 for attacking a target after his plane was badly damaged by anti-aircraft fire. Following assignment as an instructor with the Royal Air Force (RAF), he returned to the bombing campaign in January 1944 as a flight commander with No. 463 Squadron RAAF, flying Avro Lancaster heavy bombers.

William Cuthbert Faulkner was an American writer and Nobel Prize laureate from Oxford, Mississippi. Faulkner wrote novels, short stories, screenplays, poetry, essays, and a play. He is primarily known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where he spent most of his life.

Sir William Gerald Golding, was a British novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel Lord of the Flies (1954), he would go on to publish another twelve volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 1980, he was awarded the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage, the first novel in what became his sea trilogy, To the Ends of the Earth. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983.

William Jaird Levitt was an American real-estate developer. As president of Levitt & Sons, he is widely credited as the father of modern American suburbia. He was named one of Time Magazine's "100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century." Levitt has been under criticism for his racially discriminatory policies when providing housing, which have been especially discriminatory to African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans.

William Gladstone Stewart was an English television producer, director, and television presenter, best known as the presenter and producer of the Channel 4 quiz show Fifteen to One from 1988 to 2003.

William "Bill" Mason Gray was emeritus professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University (CSU), and the head of the Tropical Meteorology Project at CSU's Department of Atmospheric Sciences. He is widely regarded as a pioneer in the science of tropical cyclone forecasting and one of the world's leading experts on tropical storms. After retiring as a faculty member at CSU in 2005, Gray remained actively involved in both climate change and tropical cyclone research until his death.

William Smith Clark was an American professor of chemistry, botany and zoology, a colonel during the American Civil War, and a leader in agricultural education. Raised and schooled in Easthampton, Massachusetts, Clark spent most of his adult life in Amherst, Massachusetts. He graduated from Amherst College in 1848 and obtained a doctorate in chemistry from Georgia Augusta University in Göttingen in 1852. He then served as professor of chemistry at Amherst College from 1852 to 1867. During the Civil War, he was granted leave from Amherst to serve with the 21st Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, eventually achieving the rank of colonel and the command of that unit.

William Theodore Mueller is an American professional wrestler best known for his time in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) as Trevor Murdoch. He also wrestled as Stan Dupp, one of the kayfabe cousins stable The Dupps in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). He's also appeared in WCW, and Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). He is currently working for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), where he is the current NWA National Champion in his first reign.