Internationally Famous Canadians (a list in progress)
Created | Updated May 18, 2010
There have been a large number of citizens and residents of Canada over the years who have become quite well known outside their homeland, usually while being quite quiet about their actual nationality. This entry proposes to be an ongoing highly informal list of some of those individuals and, in some cases, groups. Suggestions of additions should be posted to the conversations list and anhaga will make every effort to update the list regularly. The names are in no particular order. They're in groups of five just because.
The List
Snorri Thorfinnson (first European born in North America)
Stephan Gudmundur Stephansson (Renowned Icelandic poet)
Grand Chief George Manuel
Kroum and Eva Pindoff (Philanthropists)
Maj. Gen. Bert Hoffmeister (War Hero, Conservationist, Child Care Advocate)
Ted Sargent (Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering)
Dan Lee (Animator, creator of Nemo in Finding Nemo)
First Nations Community Planning Project (Winner of the 2005 UN-HABITAT and Dubai International Award for Best Practices to Improve the Living Environment)
Yvonne De Carlo (Actor, Munster)
David James Elliot (Actor)
Doug Henning (Magician, Yogic Flyer)
The Amazing Randi (Magician, Skeptic)
Arthur Kent (Journalist)
James Naismith (Invented basketball)
Leslie Nielsen (Made some movies)
Jann Arden (Sang some songs)
James Doohan
(actor in a short-running '60s TV series)John Hutchison (total fricken flakeoid)
William Shatner (Emmy Award Winning Actor and Recording Artist) (oh. he's got a web page, too.)
Dr. Samantha Nutt (Founder and Executive Director of War Child Canada among other wonderful things)
Long John Baldry
(Influencial[!] Musician )Kim Phuc (The girl in the picture by Nick Ut.)
(Chief)Gordon Lightfoot (Sang some songs)
Naomi Klein (Author, Journalist)
Waneek Horn-Miller (Athlete)
Holly Cole (Singer)
Brent Carver (Tony Award Winner for "The Kiss of the Spider Woman", Gandalf in the musical production of The Lord of the Rings)
Neil Young (Sang some songs)
The Tragically Hip (Sang some songs)
Joni Mitchell (Sang some songs)
Rush (Sang some songs)
Sgt. Marc D. Leger, Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer, Pte. Richard A. Green and Pte. Nathan Smith (Victims of American "friendly fire" in Afghanistan)
Tom Thomson (Artist)
Lorne Greene (Actor)
Jazzy B (musician, "The Crown Prince of Bhangra")
Patricia Conroy (Sang some songs)
Gordon Yellowfly (Piiksa-Pi) (Siksika hero of the Battle of Ortona)
"Bill" (Holder of the world record longest military sniper "kill" [2,430 metres {that's right: more than 2 kilometres!}])
Dana Lewis (NBC Moscow correspondent)
Richard Huziak (Interplanetarily famous Canadian amateur astronomer)
Walter Ostanek (Canada's Polka King)
John (a.k.a. "J.D.") Roberts (News anchor)
David Frum (Right-wing Hack)
Conrad Black (Lord Beaverbrook wannabe)
William Maxwell Aitken (Lord Beaverbrook)
The Kids in the Hall (comedy team)
Barb Tarbox (Social Activist)
Rich Little
Robert Goulet
Igor Gouzenko (diplomat, the man who started the Cold War)
Harry Elton (Television Producer, the man who brought Coronation Street to television.)
Patrick McGoohan (Actor, The Prisoner)(Okay, some say he's not really Canadian - but he should be.)
Linda Thorson (Actor, Tara King in The Avengers)
Lois Maxwell (Made some movies, the original Miss Moneypenny in the Bond movies)
Christopher Plummer (actor, 'Bringing a whisper of infirmity to Lear at his most confident and a glow of grandeur to him at his most abject, Mr. Plummer creates a portrait for the ages, drawn in self-consuming fire')
Mack Sennett (Made some movies)
Kenn Borek Air Ltd. (Antarctic Mid-Winter Medivac fliers, Antarctic Mid-Summer Medivac fliers, general emergency fliers)
Spider Robinson (Science Fiction Writer)
Ryan Hreljac (Humanitarian, founder of the Ryan's Well Foundation
Ayala Sara (Humanitarian, founder of the No Pain Zone and B.E.T.)
Bioware Corp. (Software developer, makers of The Baldur's Gate Series, among other titles.)
Susan Aglukark(Musician)
k.d. lang (Musician)
Daniel David Moses(writer, playwright)
Douglas Cardinal (Architect)
Joanne Shenandoah(Musician)
Walter Chell (Inventer of the Bloody Caesar, more commonly known as the Caesar.)
Howard Shore (Composer, Grammy award-winner for the score of The Lord of the Rings)
Jesse Moses: Delaware: Six Nations of the Grand River : writer (Celestial Bear Comes Down to Earth; with Frank G. Speck), anthropological "informant". In fact, he waslargely uncredited for much of his own work, because, as an "Indian" he was not granted the same status as his White counterpart, Frank Speck. His papers are now held at the National Archives of Canada.
Johnny Moses(Cultural Treasure, holder of sacred traditional knowledge, ambassador for the West Coast Peoples, writer.)
Diana Krall (Musician)
R.K. Gordon (Medieval scholar)
Sheila MacVicar (Journalist)
Eugene Levy (Actor, comic, Grammy award-winner for composition of fake songs.)
Mike Rowe (Student, Internet Forum Administrator, Giant Killer, one time operator of mikerowesoft.com)
Dr. Harold Johns (inventor of the "cobalt bomb" cancer irradiator)
Steve Pasjack (invented the handled beer case)
John Gower(Inventor of the "Jiger" all-terrain vehicle)
Bruce Kirby, Hans Fogh and Ian Bruce (Designed the Laser sailboat)
Dr. James Guillet (Invented UV-degradable plastic)
Bernard Gooden (Soldier, first Canadian combat fatality in the U. S. invasion of Iraq)
Vatche Arslanian (Politician, humanitarian, Red Cross worker, second Canadian combat fatality in the U. S. invasion of Iraq)
Hank Snow (Singer, song writer, humanitarian)
Nelly Furtado (Singer, song writer)
Denny Doherty (musician, actor, one quarter of the Mamas and Papas)
Maurice Strong ("Environmental guru", winner of the 2003 "Public Welfare Medal from the U.S. National Academy of Sciences for his work to promote a sane future, including the promotion of the Kyoto Protocol)
Roland Galarneau (Invented computerized Braille)
Zalman Yanovsky (Half of the core of The Lovin' Spoonful)
Carrie-Anne Moss (Actor)
Frank Brittle (Bellman at the Chateau Frontenac, single-handedly prevented total disaster for the Allies on D-Day)
Rapid Fire Theatre Company (Champion four years out of seven at the World Domination TheatreSports Tournament in Atlanta, U.S.A.)
Jordin Tootoo (first Inuk National Hockey League player)
Wade Davis ([US] National Geographic Society Explorer in Residence, Ethnographer)
Ken Taylor (Former Canadian Ambassador to Iran; rescued six American citizens trapped in Iran during the Revolution)
Robert L. Sawyer (Science Fiction Writer)
Chantal Kreviazuk (Singer/song writer)
Nell Shipman (actor, novelist, screen writer, director, film pioneer)
Roy Brown ( Credited with shooting down the Red Baron April 21, 1918)
Billy Bishop (2nd highest number of kills [72] by an allied fighter pilot in World War I)
Tommy Prince (Most decorated Canadian Aboriginal soldier in World War II)
Zahra Kazemi (photo-journalist)
Martha and the Muffins (sang some songs)
Teresa Stratas (Lena Lotte's favourite for interpreting the songs of Kurt Wiell)
Northrop Frye (Scholar)
Leonard Cohen (Sang some songs)
Hugh LeCaine (Inventor of the voltage-controlled synthesizer)
Peter Lymburner Robertson (inventor of the Robertson Screw, the best screw in the world.)
Donald Sutherland (Made some movies)
Marshall MacLuhan (Scholar)
Lighthouse (Sang some songs)
John Kenneth Galbraith
Yann Martel (Writer)
Judith Merrill (Science fiction writer)
Klaatu (Were thought by many to be The Beatles reunited.)
Wendy Murphy: (Invented theInfant Evacuation Stretcher)
Bob Dickie (invented the flat electric wall plug)
Jeffrey Kofman (ABC News Journalist)
Dorothy Stratten (Playboy Playmate)
Peter Busby and David Craig (Winners of the first annual James Madison Book Prize for American History books for children.)
Elias Koteas (Actor)
Louise Arbour (International War Crimes Chief Prosecutor, Supreme Court Justice, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights)
Nelson Mandela (honorary citizen)
Laura Regan (actor, star of the NBC show Saving Jessica Lynch)
Cirque du Soleil (put on some shows)
Guy Laliberté (founder of Cirque du Soleil, space tourist, marketing genius)
B. P. Nichol (author, poet, scriptwriter for ten classic episodes of Fraggle Rock
Glenn Gould (Pianist)
Ofra Harnoy (Cellist)
Wayne Gretzky
Gordie Howe
Toller Cranston (Skater and Artist)
Irving Layton (Poet)
Norman Bethune (Humanitarian)
Monty Hall
Mike Myers (Made some movies)
Jim Carey (Made some movies)
Thayendanegea/Captain Joseph Brant (Chief of the Mohawk people, Loyalist, fought for the British during the American Revolutionary War.)
Graham Greene: Oneida: Six Nations of the Grand River: actor (father drove the schoolbus on the Reserve)
Jay Silverheels (Harold J. Smith): Six Nations of the Grand River: actor (Tonto)
E. Pauline Johnson: Six Nations of the Grand River: poet, actor
Robbie Robertson: Six Nations of the Grand River: musician
Gary Farmer: Six Nations of the Grand River: actor
Tom Longboat: Olympic medallist, sportsman
Buffy Sainte Marie: Cree: Singer and songwriter
Leonard Pelletier: Turtle Mountain Ojibwa, illegally incarcerated for the last 20 years in the United States making him the longest-held US political prisoner
Chief Dan George: Coast Salish: actor
Shania Twain: enrolled, Red Lake Band Ojibwa: singer
Joe and Annie Henry: Gwich'in First Nation: according to the Guinness Book of Records, longest married couple, 79 years married as of 2000
Adam Beech: Ojibwa: actor
Alex Rice: Mohawk: Kahnawake, Quebec: actress
Annie Galipeau: Algonquin from Maniwaki, Quebec: actress
August Schellenberg: Mohawk: actor
Ben Cardinal: Metis/Cree: actor
Tantoo Cardinal: Metis/Cree: actress
Bradford F. Kelly: Ojibwa: pilot, hockey player (Australia), actor
Buffalo Child: Cree: actor
Carman Moore: Wet'suwet'en: actress
Wes Studi: Cherokee: actor, director, Sculptor, activist
Michael Greyeyes: Plains Cree: actor, dancer, choreographer
Tom Jackson: Metis: actor, singer, songwriter, humanitarian
Beth Brant: Mohawk: Six Nations or Thayendanegea: writer
George Clutesi: (BC): writer, artist, lecturer
Tomson Highway: Cree: writer, playwright, producer
Alootook Ipellie: Inuit: writer, poet, columnist, artist.
George Littlechild: Cree (Hobema Reserve): illustrator, author
Joel Monture: Mohawk: Six Nations of the Grand River: author, professor at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM (Native Studies)
Edith Anderson Monture: Mohawk: Six Nations of the Grand River: nurse, veteran of the United States Army (WWI), last surviving member of her unit (died 1996 at 106)
Celine Dion (Sang some songs)
Bryan Adams (Sang some songs)
Michael J. Fox (Made some movies)
The Band (Sang some songs)
Stan Rogers (Sang some songs)
The Guess Who (Sang some songs)
Steppenwolf (Sang some songs)
BTO (Sang some songs)
Sarah McLachlan (Sang some songs)
Alanis Morissette (Sang some songs)
Saul Bellow (Author)
Pierre Berton (Author)
Roch Carrier (Author)
Robertson Davies (Author)
Timothy Findlay (Author)
Anne Hebert (Author)
W. P. Kinsella (Author)
Stephen Leacock (Author)
Malcolm Lowry (Author)
Antonine Maillet (Author)
Margaret Laurence (Author)
John McCrae (Poet)
Frederick Varley (Artist)
Michael Snow (Artist)
Arthur Lismer (Artist)
Yousuf Karsh (Artist)
James MacDonald (Artist)
A. Y. Jackson (Artist)
Lawren Harris (Artist)
Frank H. Johnston (Artist)
Ales Colville (Artist)
Emily Carr (Artist)
Paul-Emile Borduas (Artist)
Frank Carmichael (Artist)
Robert Bateman (Artist)
W. O. Mitchell (Author)
Lucy Maude Montgomery (Author)
Brian Moore (Author)
Alice Munro (Author)
Farley Mowat (Author)
Marc Garneau (Astronaut)
Chris Hadfield (Astronaut)
Roberta Bondar (Astronaut)
Julie Payette (Astronaut)
Robert Thirsk (Astronaut)
Michael McKay (Astronaut)
Steven MacLean (Astronaut)
Bjarni Tryggvason (Astronaut)
Daffyd Williams (Astronaut)
Mordecai Richler (Author)
Michael Ondaatje (Author)
Gabrielle Roy (Author)
Carol Shields (Author)
Elizabet Smart (Author)
Michel Tremblay (Author)
Mavis Gallant (Author)
Sheila Burnford (Author)
Michael Ignatieff (Author)
Hugh MacLennan (Author)
Robert MacNeil (Author)
Guy Vanderhaeghe (Author)
Denys Arcand (Film Director/Producer)
Edward Dmytryk (Film Director/Producer)
George Dunning (Film Director/Producer)
Atom Egoyan (Film Director/Producer)
Arthur Hiller (Film Director/Producer)
Claude Jutra (Film Director/Producer)
Ted Kotcheff (Film Director/Producer)
Robert Lepage (Film Director/Producer)
Louis B. Mayer (Film Director/Producer)
Bruce McDonald (Film Director/Producer)
Allan Moyle (Film Director/Producer)
Daniel Petrie (Film Director/Producer)
Patricia Rozema (Film Director/Producer)
Jack Warner (Film Director/Producer)
Anne Wheeler (Film Director/Producer)
Barenaked Ladies (Sang some songs)
Loreena McKennitt (Sang some songs)
Peter Jennings (Journalist)
Mary Pickford (Made some movies)
Sir Sanford Flemming (Campaigner for Time Zones and Standard Time)
Pamela Anderson
Drs. Banting and Best (Discovered insulin)
James Cameron (Made some movies)
John Candy (Made some movies)
Rick Moranis (Made some movies)
Dan Ackroyd (Made some movies)
J.A. Bombardier (Invented the Snowmobile)
Neve Campbell (Made some movies)
Charles Marius Barbeau (folklorist, anthropologist)
Roloff Beny (artist, photographer)
Hume Cronyn (actor)
Cyrus E. Eaton (Founder of Pugwash Conferances on World Peace)
C. Miller Fisher (Neurologist)
John Kenneth Galbraith (economist, ambassador, professor, editor, activist, and novelist [what DIDN'T he do???])
Keith Greenaway (Aviator, aerial photographer, Arctic aerial exploration)
Samuel I. Hayakawa (US Statesman)
Edward Johnson (Opera singer)
Lynn Johnston (cartoonist)
Allen David Jones (Apiarist [bee keeper], introduction of the first bee colonies as a commercial venture)
Paul Kane (artist)
Karen Kain (Dancer)
Wilber Keon (Heart surgeon)
Bobby Kerr (sports)
John Korda (space technology)
Guy Lombardo (orchestra leader)
Beatrice Lillie (actor, comic)
Robert McLure (surgeon)
John Molson (brewer)
Robert Munsch (children's writer)
Margaret Newton (identification of wheat rust disease)
Daniel David Palmer (Father of Chiropractic)
Laurence J. Peter ("The Peter Principle")
Robert Service (poet)
Sam McGee (Subject of Robert Service's poem, "The Cremation of Sam McGee".
Mary Ann Shadd (First Black Woman publisher in North America)
Douglas Shearer (pioneered sound for movies)
Percy Williams (gold medalist)
Matthew Perry (Made some movies)
Jason Priestly (Made some movies)
David Cronenberg (Made some movies)
William Gibson (Author)
Douglas Coupland (Author)
Tommy Chong (Comic)
Margot Kidder (Made some movies)
Leslie MacFarlane (aka Franklin W. Dixon, author of the Hardy Boys)
Shannon Tweed (Playboy Playmate)
David Foster (Wrote some songs)
Phil Hartman (Made some movies)
Linda Evangelista (Model and humanitarian)
Natasha Henstridge (Made some movies)
Alex Trebek
Jill Hennessy (Made some movies)
Shalom Harlow
Kieffer Sutherland (Made some movies)
Margaret Atwood (Author)
Norman Jewison (Made some movies)
Lorne Michaels (Creator of Saturday Night Live)
Paul Anka (Singer, song writer)
Intrepid (the man called)(Helped save Britain's butt)
Craig Kielburger (founder of "Free the Children", activist for the rights of child labourers)
Fred and Bonnie Cappuccino (Humanitarians. Pacifists. Bonnie founded Child Haven International, which runs seven childrens' homes for destitute and homeless children in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Tibet )
J.W. Elliott (invented the Compound Revolving Snow Shovel)
Arthur Sicard (invented the first mechanical snowblower)
Jacques Plante (introduced the hockey face mask into regular play)
Donald L. Hings (created a walkie talkie for the Canadian Forces in 1942)
Wilbur Frank (invented the "G suit" - a pressure suit used by Allied fighter pilots regularly after 1942)
James Hillier (co-inventor of the electron microscope)
David Fife (developed Red Fife Wheat)
James Gosling (at Sun Microsystems developed Java, a computer language)
Graeme Ferguson, Roman Kroitor, William Shaw and Robert Kerr (invented the IMAX large-screen film system)
Drs. Drake, Tisdall and Brown (invented Pablum)
John McIntosh (developed the McIntosh Apple [the edible kind])
Samuel Cunnard (First Trans-Atlantic Steamship)
Charles Fenerty (invented newsprint paper)
Dr. Abraham Gesner (developed kerosene)
Fredrick Gisbourne (laid the first undersea telegraph cable in North America)
Samuel Sharp (built the world's first railway sleeping-car)
James Miller Williams (drilled the world's first oil well)
George-Edouard Desbarats (invented the half-tone printing process)
Alexander Graham Bell (invented the telephone and hydrofoil)
John Connor (invented the panoramic camera)
Reginald Fessenden (first wireless voice transmission)
Tommy Ryan (invented five-pin bowling)
Dr. Cluny Maspherson (invented a gas mask used in World War I)
Sir John McLellan (developed a practical helium production method)
Sir William Stevenson (developed wireless transmission of photographs in 1923)
Ted Rogers (invented the AC radio tube)
Morse Robb (invented the electric wave organ)
Wallace Turnbull (invented the variable pitch propeller)
Dr. Archibald Huntsman (developed frozen fish fillets)
Don Munro Sr. (invented table hockey)
John Joseph Wright (builder of the first commercial electric street car)
Robert Noorduyn (designer of the first bush plane)
