Famous Louisianans
These are just a few of the famous people who were either born in Louisiana or spent some important time in Louisiana.
Louis Armstrong, jazz trumpeter and singer
John James Audubon, naturalist and artist
Geoffrey Beene, fashion designer
Terry Bradshaw, football player
Aaron Brooks, football player
Truman Capote, novelist and playwright
Kitty Carlisle, actress and singer
Van Cliburn, pianist
Johnnie Cochran, attorney
Harry Connick Jr., musician and actor
Jimmie Davis, country music singer and Louisiana governor
Michael DeBakey, surgeon that developed first artificial heart
Ellen Degeneres, actress
James Dobson, minister and author
Fats Domino, musician
Antoine F, pianist, singer, and songwriter
La'Roi Glover, football player
Louis Moreau Gottschalk, pianist and composer
Bryant Gumbel, TV host
Lillian Hellman, playwright
Marquise Hill, football player
Al Hirt, trumpeter
Horace Lawson Hunley, submarine inventor
Mahalia Jackson, gospel singer
Randy Jackson, record company executive and American Idol judge
William Jefferson, scandal-ridden U.S. representative
Dorothy Lamour, actress
Ali Landry, Miss USA and TV host
John Larroquette, actor
Elmore Leonard, novelist
Jerry Lee Lewis, singer and pianist
Huey Long, Louisiana governor
Karl Malone, basketball player
Branford Marsalis, musician
Delfeayo Marsalis, musician
Ellis Marsalis, jazz pianist
Jason Marsalis, musician
Wynton Marsalis, jazz trumpeter and composer
Tommy Mason, football player
Edmund McIlhenny, inventor of Tabasco sauce
Lil' Romeo, aka Percy Romeo Miller, singer and actor
Percy “Master P” Miller, rapper
Jelly Roll Morton, jazz musician and composer
Lorenzo Neal, football player
Randy Newman, singer and songwriter
Huey Newton, black activist
Lee Harvey Oswald, Kennedy assassin
Pauley Perrette, actress, poet, singer
Homer Plessy, black activist, subject of a major U.S. Supreme Court case
Mark Plotkin, ethnobotanist
Paul Prudhomme, chef
Anne Rice, novelist
Robert Ri'chard, actor
Cokie Roberts, telejournalist
Eddie Robinson, football coach
Britney Spears, singer
Kordell Stewart, football player
Ray Walston, actor
Shane West, actor
Edward Douglas White, judge
Pat Williams, football player
