Famous Aspies

Famous people who are or were — or almost certainly were* — Aspies

* Because of the reality that Asperger’s Syndrome was not formally recognised until 1992 (World Health Organisation: ICD-10) and 1994 (American Psychiatric Association: DSM-IV), despite it being articulated half a century earlier by Austrian pediatrician Dr Hans Asperger in 1944, many of the individuals on this list were never formally diagnosed while living, but have displayed strong indications of having Asperger’s Syndrome during their lifetimes.

So how does one go about drawing conclusions about people who are no longer alive?

In much the same way as we do with people who ARE alive! By considering WHAT they say and do, HOW they say and do them — and making an educated assessment about WHY they say and do them. Except that we need to assess what they said and did while they lived — including their writings.

Fortunately, these are FAMOUS people, so their achievements and ideas, etc — and the observations and opinions of others who lived at the same time — tend to create a reasonable record upon which we can draw still.   (More…)

This list is alphabetical by family name. Biography links will open in new browser windows/tabs. To return here, close the new window/tab.

*Hans Christian Andersen — Children’s Author

Dan Aykroyd — Comedic Actor

*Isaac Asimov — Science Fiction Author
(Many of the prominent authors of Science Fiction — especially its “Golden Age” — display strong Aspie traits, not only in their writing, but also in their lives.)

*Benjamin Banneker — African American almanac author, surveyor, naturalist, and farmer

Susan Boyle — Singer

Tim Burton — Movie Director

*Lewis Carroll — Author of “Alice in Wonderland”, Mathematician

*Henry Cavendish — Scientist

*Charles Darwin — Naturalist, Geologist, and Biologist

*John Denver — Singer/Songwriter

*Emily Dickinson — Poet

Paul Dirac — Physicist

*Thomas Edison — Inventor (light globe, audio recording, DC electricity distribution, more)

*Albert Einstein — Scientist and Mathematician

Eminem — US rapper

Bobby Fischer — Chess Grandmaster

*Henry Ford — American Automotive Pioneer

*Bill Gates — Co-founder of Microsoft Corporation

*Theodor Seuss ‘Ted’ Geisel — “Dr Seuss”— American children’s author and illustrator, political cartoonist, poet

Temple Grandin — Animal Scientist

Daryl Hannah — Actress and Environmental Activist

*Jim Henson — Puppeteer, film-maker and creator of the Muppets

Sir Anthony Hopkins — British Actor and Composer

Barry Humphries — Australian Comedic Actor, Artist, Writer (creator of Dame Edna Everage, Sandy Stone, Sir Les Paterson, more)

*Thomas Jefferson — Early American Politician, one of the Founding Fathers of the USA, principal author of the US Declaration of Independence, first Secretary of State, US President, much more…

*Steve Jobs — Co-founder and CEO of Apple

*James Joyce — Author of “Ulysses”

*Alfred Kinsey — Sexologist and Biologist

*Stanley Kubrick — Film Director

Courtney Love — lead singer of female rock band Hole and widow of Kurt Cobain of grunge band Nirvana

Barbara McClintock — Scientist and Cytogeneticist

*Michelangelo — Sculptor, Painter, Architect, Poet

*Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Classical Composer

Elon Musk — Engineer, Entrepreneur, Founder of PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX, The Boring Company, Neuralink, OpenAI — World’s Richest Man 2022— (2022 Owner of Twitter Social Network)

*Sir Isaac Newton — Mathematician, Astronomer and Physicist

*The Apostle Paul — (formerly Saul of Tarsus) early Christian church leader and letter writer — Not sure of this one? Click here…

Jordan Peterson — Professor of Psychology, author and speaker

Vladimir Putin — President of the Russian Federation

Jerry Seinfeld — Comedian

Ben Shapiro — American conservative political commentator, writer, and lawyer

*George Bernard Shaw — English Author and Playwright

*Richard Strauss — Composer

Satoshi Tajiri — Creator of Nintendo’s Pokémon

James Taylor — infuential American singer and songwriter

*Nikola Tesla — Inventor (including AC electricity distribution)

*Mark Twain — American Journalist, Author and Philosopher

*Vincent van Gogh — Dutch Artist

*Ludwig von Beethoven — Composer

*Andy Warhol — Artist

*Ludwig Wittgenstein — Philosopher

*William Butler Yeats — Poet and Nobel Prize laureate for Literature

•  What would today’s world be like without Aspies?

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