List of Famous people named William

William Kempe, commonly referred to as Will Kemp, was an English actor and dancer specialising in comic roles and best known for having been one of the original players in early dramas by William Shakespeare. Roles associated with his name may include the great comic creation, Falstaff, and his contemporaries considered him the successor to the great clown of the previous generation, Richard Tarlton.

William Dubois was an American civil servant who served as Chief Usher of the White House in Washington, D.C., from June 1896 to January 1901. He was the first person to formally receive the title Chief Usher, although in previous years it had been used unofficially and in press reports.

Sir William Scott was an English lawyer, and Chief Justice of the King's Bench from 8 January 1341 to 26 November 1346. Originally from Yorkshire – probably Birthwaite in Kexbrough – Scott as Chief Justice presided over trials resulting from Edward III's purge of the administration the previous years. Among those tried was William de la Pole. After retiring from this position, Scott largely withdrew from public life, probably because of ill health. He returned to Yorkshire to attend to his estates. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says that he "was still alive on 10 March 1352...but was certainly dead by 11 May 1356, and probably by 1354".

William Snyder is an American photojournalist and former Director of Photography for The Dallas Morning News. Snyder won a Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Journalism in 1989 along with reporter David Hanners and artist Karen Blessen for their special report on a 1985 airplane crash, the follow-up investigation, and the implications for air safety. In 1991, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for his pictures of ill and orphaned children living in desperate conditions in Romania. In 1993, Snyder and Ken Geiger won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography for their photographic coverage of the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. As Photo Director he oversaw the Morning News photo staff's 2006 Pulitzer-winning coverage of Hurricane Katrina. In the Spring of 2008, Snyder took the buyout at The Dallas Morning News and returned to his alma mater, the Rochester Institute of Technology, where he is now the chair in the Photojournalism BFA program.

William Stacy was an officer of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and a pioneer to the Ohio Country. Published histories describe Colonel William Stacy's involvement in a variety of events during the war, such as rallying the militia on a village common in Massachusetts, participating in the Siege of Boston, being captured by Loyalists and American Indians at the Cherry Valley massacre, narrowly escaping a death by burning at the stake, General George Washington's efforts to obtain Stacy's release from captivity, and Washington's gift of a gold snuff box to Stacy at the end of the war.

William Kirkpatrick Magee, was an Irish author, editor, and librarian, who as an essayist and poet adopted the pen-name of John Eglinton. He became head librarian of the National Library of Ireland, after opposing the "cultural nationalism" of his time. From 1904 to 1905 he edited the literary journal Dana and was the biographer of George William Russell ("Æ").

William Wang is an American billionaire entrepreneur, and the founder and CEO of Vizio.

William Ripley Nichols was a noted American chemist.

William Voris Gregory was an attorney and politician, serving as a United States Representative from Kentucky from 1927 to his death in office. He was a member of the Democratic Party.

William Fernando Souza Bezerra is a Brazilian former professional boxer who held the WBA Fedelatin cruiserweight title from 2012 to 2013. In addition, he held WBA Fedebol, WBC Mundo Hispano and South American titles in the same weight class. At one point he was ranked the fourth-best cruiserweight in the world by the WBA.