Famous Catholics

I am collecting a list of famous Catholics and plan on elaborating on some of their stories. Check back soon for the first of a series of posts on famous Catholics.

Catholic Musicians
Bono – lead singer for Irish rock band U2; humanitarian (father was a lapsed Catholic)
Arlo Guthrie – American folk singer (convert)
Aaron Neville

Catholic Artists
Salvador Dali – Surrealist painter (convert)
Pablo Picasso – (1881-1973) famous painter
Michelangelo  – Michelangelo di Lodovico
Henri Matisse – famous French painter
Pierre-Auguste Renoir – influential French Impressionist painter
Raphael – famous Italian painter
Paul Gauguin – celebrated French painter known for his warm paintings of Polynesian people and scenes (raised Catholic, convert to Theosophy)
Edgar Degas – famous French painter
Francisco De Goya – famous Spanish painter
Leonardo da Vinci – artist, scientist, inventor

Catholic Writers / Film
William Shakespeare – playwright
J.R.R. Tolkien – fantasy writer
Anne Rice – gothic vampire novelist
Jack Kerouac – author (lapsed)
Martin Scorsese – film director
Federico Fellini – influential Italian film director

Catholic Actors / Actresses
Jack Nicholson – actor
Dan Aykroyd – comedian, actor (lapsed)
Nicolas Cage – Oscar-winning actor, Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
Al Pacino  – Oscar-winning actor, Scent of a Woman (1992)
Nicole Kidman – actress
Mel Gibson – actor, film director (traditionalist Catholic)
Bing Crosby – actor, singer, movie star
Sean Connery – movie star
Robert De Niro – actor, movie star (non-practicing)

Other Catholics
John F. Kennedy Jr. – 35th U.S. President
Galileo Galilei – influential scientist, astronomer
Rene Descartes – influential philosopher and mathematician
Nicholas Copernicus – astronomer
Augustine – influential Christian philosopher
Lawrence Kudlow – economist-commentator (convert)
Buffalo Bill

What do Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, Saint Francis, Saint Augustine and Mother Theresa have in common?

Resources
Post on Famous Catholics:
adherents.com/largecom/fam_catholic.html
Underlying themes of the beat generation:
sfmission.com/famous/lipstick_traces.htm

Another series will be on famous Christians

Famous Christian Musicians
Jerry Garcia – Co-founder of the Grateful Dead