OTHER FAMOUS PEOPLE THOUGHT TO HAVE ASPERGER’S

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN 1770 – 1827. Composer, pianist 
He was a German composer and virtuoso pianist. He was crucial in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music. He remains one of the most respected and influential composers of all time.

JANE AUSTEN 1775 –1817. Author
Was a British novelist whose realism, biting social commentary, and masterful use of free indirect speech, burlesque, and irony have earned her a place as one of the most widely read and best-loved writers in British literature

MARK TWAIN 1835 – 1910. Author & humorist
Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is extensively quoted. During his lifetime, Twain befriended presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty.
Twain enjoyed immense public popularity. His keen wit and incisive satire earned him praise from critics and peers. William Faulkner called Twain “the father of American literature.”

THOMAS EDISON 1847 – 1931. Inventor, businessman
He was an American inventor and businessman who developed many devices that greatly influenced life worldwide, including the phonograph and the long-lasting light bulb. He was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production to the invention process and is, therefore, often credited with creating the first industrial research laboratory.

SIR ALFRED HITCHCOCK KBE 1899 – 1980. Director and producer
He was an iconic and highly influential director and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and thriller genres. After a substantial film career in his native Britain, he moved to Hollywood and became an American citizen in 1956, although he also remained a British subject. He ultimately directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades, from the silent film era, through the invention of talkies, to the colour era. Hitchcock was among the most consistently successful and publicly recognizable world directors during his lifetime and remains one of the best-known and most popular of all time.

GEORGE ORWELL 1903 – 1950. Author
George Orwell was an English writer and journalist well-known as a novelist, critic, and commentator on politics and culture. He is one of the most admired English-language essayists of the twentieth century. He is most famous for two novels critical of totalitarianism in general (Nineteen Eighty-Four) and Stalinism in particular (Animal Farm), which he wrote and published towards the end of his life.

CHARLES MONROE SHULTZ 1922 –2000. Cartoonist
He was a 20th-century American cartoonist best known worldwide for his Peanuts comic strip. Robert Ripley first published Schulz’s drawings in his Ripley’s Believe It or Not!. His first regular cartoons, Li’l Folks, were published from 1947 to 1950 by the St. Paul Pioneer Press; he first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three boys and one buried in the sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to the Saturday Evening Post; the first of seventeen single-panel cartoons by Schulz that would be published there. 1948 Schulz tried to have Li’l Folks syndicated through the Newspaper Enterprise Association. Schulz would have been an independent contractor for the syndicate, unheard of in the 1940s, but the deal fell through. Li’l Folks was dropped in January 1950

WOODY ALLEN 1935 to present. Actor, writer, director
He is a three-time Academy Award-winning American film director, writer, actor, jazz musician, comedian, and playwright. His extensive work and cerebral film style, mixing satire, wit, and humour, have made him one of the most respected and prolific filmmakers in the modern era. Woody said the following in an interview: I am a neurotic, more benignly. I have a lot of neurotic habits,” the quirky American director and actor told Reuters Television. I don’t like to go into elevators, I don’t go through tunnels, I like the drain in the shower to be in the corner and not in the middle,” Allen said in an interview after showing his new comedy “Anything Else” at the 60th Venice Film Festival.

JAMES MAURY “JIM” HENSON 1936- 1990), Puppeteer
He was the most widely known puppeteer in American television history. He was the creator of The Muppets and the leading force behind their long creative run in the television series Sesame Street and The Muppet Show and films such as The Muppet Movie (1979) and The Dark Crystal (1982). He was also an Oscar-nominated film director, Emmy Award-winning television producer, and the founder of The Jim Henson Company, the Jim Henson Foundation, and Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Henson is widely acknowledged for his ongoing vision of faith, friendship, magic, and love, infusing nearly all of his work.

MICHAEL EDWARD PALIN CBE, 1943 to present. Comedian, actor, traveller
An English comedian, actor, writer, and television presenter, best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries. Palin wrote most of his material with Terry Jones. Before Monty Python, they had worked on other shows such as The Ken Dodd Show, The Frost Report, and Do Not Adjust Your Set. Palin appeared in some of the most famous Python sketches, including “The Dead Parrot”, “The Lumberjack Song”, “The Spanish Inquisition” and “Spam”. Palin continued to work with Jones, co-writing Ripping Yarns. He has also appeared in several films directed by fellow Python Terry Gilliam and made notable appearances in films such as A Fish Called Wanda, for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

ANNE HEGERTY 1958 to present, TV game host
Anne Hegerty is one of the chasers on the ITV game show The Chase, known as “The Governess”. She made appearances on many other quiz shows, including Mastermind, Fifteen to One, Today’s the Day, Are You an Egghead? And the Brain of Britain. In an interview, Hegerty stated that she has Asperger’s syndrome, with which she was diagnosed in 2005 in a candid interview on the This Morning TV Show. She has since finished 7th on the reality TV show I’m a Celebrity… Could you get me out of here?

GARY NUMAN 1958 to present. Singer and composer
Born Gary Webb, he is an English singer, composer, and musician. Numan has Asperger’s syndrome. In a 2001 interview, he said: “Polite conversation has never been one of my strong points. Just recently, I found out that I’d got a mild form of Asperger’s syndrome, which means I have trouble interacting with people. I couldn’t understand why people thought I was arrogant for years, but now it all makes more sense.

PETER HOWSON OBE, 1958 to present. Painter
He is a Scottish painter. He was an official war artist in the 1993 Bosnian Civil War. He has produced some of his most shocking and controversial work detailing the atrocities at the time. One painting in particular Croatian and Muslim, detailing a rape created controversy partly because of its explicit subject matter but also because Howson had painted it from the accounts of its victims rather than witnessing it firsthand. Much of his work cast stereotypes on the lower social groups; he portrayed brawls, including drunken, even physically deformed men and women.
His work is exhibited in many significant collections and is in the private collection of celebrities such as David Bowie, Mick Jagger, and Madonna, who inspired several paintings in 2002
Howson was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2009 Birthday Honours.

MICHAEL JACKSON 1958 – 2009. Musician, songwriter
Known as the King of Pop, he was an American musician and one of the most commercially successful and influential entertainers ever. His unique contributions to music and dance, and his highly publicized personal life, have made him a prominent figure in popular culture for over four decades.
Michael Jackson certainly shows signs of Asperger’s Syndrome (AS). His unusual behaviour has often been blamed on his upbringing; however, his siblings are relatively normal, with a similar upbringing, so I do not feel this is the cause. Michael is often seen as shy and has difficulty relating to many people. His friends are a few people with whom he has common interests, especially his background as a child star. He mostly seems able to relate to children; however, this perhaps reflects the social immaturity that may be seen in Asperger’s. Regardless of maturity level, people with Asperger’s seem to be more comfortable with those older or younger than their peer group. This has never been confirmed, but many sources feel there was a possibility he might have had Asperger’s Syndrome.

CHRIS PACKHAM 1961 to present. TV presenter
He is an English naturalist, nature photographer, television presenter, and author, best known for his television work, including the children’s nature series The Really Wild Show in the late 1980s. He has presented the BBC nature series Springwatch since 2009
Chris has talked about his Asperger’s and how he deals with the condition in many of the UK papers.

GARY McKINNON 1966 to present. Computer hacker
Is a Scottish hacker facing extradition to the United States on charges of perpetrating what one US prosecutor claims is the “biggest military computer hack of all time” McKinnon had been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome? His diagnosis was made in August 2008 by the Cambridge University psychologist Prof Simon Baron-Cohen. The computer networks he is accused of hacking include networks owned by NASA, the US Army, the US Navy, the Department of Defence, and the US Air Force. If he is extradited to the US and charged, McKinnon faces up to 70 years in jail and has expressed fears that he could be sent to Guantanamo Bay.

PATRICK GEORGE “PADDY” CONSIDINE 1973 to present. Actor, musician.
Paddy Considine is an English actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, and musician. He has starred in films such as In America, Dead Man’s Shoes, The Cry of the Owl, Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee, Hot Fuzz, as well as in television films such as The Red Riding Trilogy, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, and PU-239. In 2010, aged 36, Considine was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. In a candid interview with The Telegraph, he revealed that he suffered from “a debilitating sense of detachment; from both the people around him and his surroundings and that he struggled on a practical level too certain noises, bright lights, and even wallpaper and fabrics presented problems.” Of the diagnosis, Considine revealed that discovering that he had Asperger’s was a relief.

CRAIG NICHOLLS 1977 to present. Singer, songwriter
He is an Australian singer, songwriter, and guitarist for the Vines alternative rock group. During a promotional show for Triple M radio, bass player Patrick Matthews walked off stage after Nicholls bleated at the audience and demanded that the crowd not talk during the performance. Nicholls said to the crowd, “Why the fuck are you laughing? You’re all a bunch of sheep. Can you go baa?” Nicholls was even accused of kicking a photographer, and charges were pressed. As a result, Patrick Matthews never played with The Vines again (he has since joined Youth Group and Triple M banned The Vines from being played on their radio station indefinitely. Nicholls was accompanied by his brother Matt, and his manager and friend Andy Kelly in Balmain Local Court in Sydney on 19 November 2004. There, it was revealed that Nicholls has Asperger’s syndrome

LADYHAWKE 1979 to present. Singer, songwriter
Phillipa Margaret “Pip” Brown, better known by her stage name Ladyhawke, is a New Zealand singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Brown has been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. She believes that a large amount of her childhood she spent absorbed in music, whether listening to the radio or her mother’s Beatles and Pretenders albums, was attributable to this syndrome.

GUY MARTIN from 1981 to the present. Motorcycle racer, TV personality
Guy Martin is a British lorry mechanic better known publicly as a motorcycle racer and a television personality. Martin started racing in 1998, debuting on road circuits at the Isle of Man TT events in 2004, gaining 17 podium finishes. He has broken his back twice in racing accidents. After struggling to come to terms with the fame brought about by his media work, Martin was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome.

ADAM YOUNG 1986 to present. Musician, songwriter
Adam Young is an American musician, multi-instrumentalist, producer, songwriter, vocalist, and the founder of Owl City.  Adam has mentioned he has Asperger’s syndrome, and he has often referred to himself as being deeply shy and socially introverted.

HEATHER KUZMICH 1986 to present. Model
Heather Kuzmich is an art student and an American fashion model. Heather is best known for being a contestant on America’s Next Top Model, where she was the fourth runner-up of the show. During the show, it was revealed that Kuzmich has Asperger’s syndrome and ADHD. Kuzmich was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome when she was fifteen years old. Heather signed with the women’s division of Elite Model Management in Chicago and Hong Kong. She has also appeared on the cover and inside Spectrum Magazine, a magazine for families and individuals with autism.
Just shows people with Asperger Syndrome can have both Beauty and brains…

LUKE JACKSON 1988 to present. Author
Luke Christopher Jackson is an author who rose to fame at age 13 when he wrote a book based on his first-hand experience with Asperger’s syndrome. The book, Freaks, Geeks, and Asperger Syndrome: A User Guide to Adolescence, created a sensation and significantly increased general awareness of the condition.

ROBERT WHITE Comedian
Robert Stars appeared on the UK’s biggest television talent competition, Britain’s Got Talent 2018, and finished 2nd place. Robert White is the only gay, Aspergic, quarter-Welsh comic on the British comedy circuit (as stated on his website) and is known for his brilliant timing and performance style. Robert’s chaotic stage presence, improvisational skills, and delivery won him the 2010 Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality. In the same year, he wrote one of Dave’s Top Ten Jokes of The Fringe.