 Notables & Celebrities
-
"The world might, perhaps, be considerably poorer if the great writers had exchanged their books for children of flesh and blood."
--Virginia Woolf
|
The Long List of
Childfree (and Childless)
in History: Part 1
-
- Herbert Samuel Adams
Sculptor
- Scott Adams
Cartoonist, Dilbert
- Charles Addams
Cartoonist, The New Yorker
- Nancy Addison
Soap Opera Actress
- Louisa May Alcott
Author of Little Women
- Cynthia May Westover Alden
Author, Philanthropist
- Grover Cleveland Alexander
Baseball Player
- Suzy Allegra
Author
- Marty Allen
Comedian
- John Murray Anderson
Musical Theatre Producer
- Laurie Anderson
Performance Artist
- Marian Anderson
Concert Singer
- Louis Andriessen
Composer
"Andriessen lives with his wife Jeanette Yanikian, a guitar player whom he met while studying in the Hague 40 years ago, in a vast fourth floor apartment in Amsterdam by the Keizersgracht, looking out over the canals. Having decided not to have children they are devoted to their two cats and to work..."
- Susan B. Anthony
Womans' Suffragist
- Samuel Appleton
Politician/ Philanthropist
"When he reached the age of sixty, Appleton retired from business with the avowed purpose of spending his income upon philanthropies. He became a benefactor and trustee of the Massachusetts General Hospital; he gave to the Boston Female Asylum, New Ipswich Academy, and Dartmouth College; he was a patron of the Boston Athen'um and the Massachusetts Historical Society. Besides providing for his widow, her nieces, and her sister, for the descendants of his four brothers and two sisters, for his servants, and for his friend, Rev. Ephraim Peabody, his will allotted industrial stocks worth about $200,000--nearly a fifth of his fortune--to scientific, literary, religious, and philanthropic endeavors. Knowing his wishes, his executors distributed most of these stocks among the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston Athen'um, Sailors' Snug Harbor, Massachusetts General Hospital, New Ipswich Academy, and Amherst, Dartmouth, and Harvard Colleges. With its share, Harvard built Appleton Chapel in honor of the benefactor."
- Louis Armstrong
Musician
- Boris Artzybasheff
Artist
- Dorothy Arzner
Film Director
- Dr. Robert C. Atkins
Diet Doctor, Author, Creator of the Atkins Diet
- V.C. Andrews
Author
- Jane Austen
Author of Sense and Sensibility
- Max Baer Jr.
Jethro from the Beverly Hillbillies
- Francis Bacon
Politician, Philosopher, Scientist
- Florence Bailey
Author, Naturalist, Ornithologist
- Tallulah Bankhead
Actress
- Abdullah al-Baradouni
Yemeni Poet
- Bob Barker
Former Game Show Host: The Price is Right/ Philanthropist
- Joe Barr
Canadian Politician
- Lynda Barry
Cartoonist
- Kathy Bates
Actress
- Jaya Battacharya
Actress
"I lead a hectic life, with too much to do and too little time. I feel I simply would not be able to give my child the kind of time that I would like to. And I don’t want to be pressured into having a kid just because it’s the done thing.”
- King Baudouin
King of Belgium
- Samuel Beckett
Author, Playwright, Poet
- Ludwig Van Beethoven
Composer
- Joe Besser
Actor, Replaced Shemp Howard as the Third Stooge
- Isabella Bird
Author
- Jacqueline Bisset
Actress
- Lewis Black
Comedian
- Eubie Blake
Musician/ Composer
"Eubie Blake died five days after his 100th birthday...."
- William Blake
Artist
"At 25 Blake married Catherine Boucher. He taught her to read and write and to help him in his work. They had no children. They worked together to produce an edition of Blake's poems and drawings, called Songs of Innocence. Blake engraved both words and pictures on copper printing plates. Catherine made the printing impressions, hand-colored the pictures, and bound the books."
- Brenda Blethyn
Actress
- Marc Blitzstein
Composer, Dramatist
- Baroness Karen Blixen
Author, "Out of Africa"
- Rosa Bonheur
French Painter and Sculptor
- Pierre Bonnard
Artist
- William Edgar Borah
Politician
- Lara Flynn Boyle
Actress
- Nathaniel Branden
Author/ Psychologist
(Has Step-Grandchildren From His Last Marriage)
"I cannot regret not having children of my own because I am so work-focused; I always knew that it would be a major achievement to integrate and do right by my career and my marriage, and that children would spread me too thin and I did not want to be the father who wasn't there."
- Georges Brassens
Singer
- Joe Bob Briggs / aka John Bloom
Author, Movie Critic
- Raymond Briggs
Children's Book Author
- Poppy Z. Brite
Author
- Anne Bronte
Author
- Louise Brooks
Actress
- Helen Gurley Brown
Feminist, Editor
"My sister, Mary, had polio and was in a wheelchair all her life," Brown says. "I know what it is to care for somebody. I didn't want the responsibility for any other little creatures. I have never regretted that decision."
- Reno Browne
Actress, Equestrian
- Delta Burke
Actress
- James Buchanan
15th U.S. President
- Pat Buchanan
Politician/ Presidential Candidate
- Sandra Bullock
Actress
- James Burke
Creator of the PBS Series "Connections"/ Scientific American columnist
- Raymond Burr
Actor
- Caryl Lee Burroughs
Hollywood Animal Trainer
- Leo Buscaglia
Author
"I think we have to make choices in life, and the choice for me was to embrace all person-kind rather than concentrate on one single individual...the universal is what I've selected."
- Brett Butler
Actress, Comedian
"I knew there was some place inside myself that I was running like hell to avoid, and drugs and drink helped me keep running. I dislike talking about feeling pain in my childhood, but I think that’s why I never had children. I just wouldn’t want to give birth to anything that could hurt that much, and then wait to see someone I loved so much have to wait so long to find the key to healing."
- Maria Callas
Opera Singer
- Julia Cameron
Director
- Phyllis Carlyle
Film Producer, Se7en, The Accidental Tourist
- Dora Carrington
Bloomsbury Artist
- Laura Carroll
Author, Families of Two
- Mary Casatt
Artist
- Roger Casement
Irish Patriot
- Nina Cassian
Poet
- Barbara Castle
British Politician
- Kim Catrall
Actress
- Mary Chapin Carpenter
Singer / Songwriter
- Rosamond Halsey Carr
Founder of Rwanda's Imbabazi Orphanage, Author, Fashion Designer
- Richard Chamberlain
Actor, Star of Shogun
"...the idea of being married, etcetera and having kids, never appealed to me at all. Not at all."
- Coco Chanel
Fashion Designer, Dancer, Spy
- Stockard Channing
Actress, Star of Smoke
- Judy Chicago
Artist
"You don't have to experience something to show it (in art), and you'd lose a lot if you did. Crucifixions, for instance."
- Margaret Cho
Comedian
"I do not want children. When I see children, I feel nothing. I have no maternal instinct. I am barren. I ovulate sand...I look at children and feel no pull toward them, no desire whatsoever. Actually, my fiance‚ and I have seen some very interesting personal ads of 50-year-olds that like to wear diapers. So we're thinking of adopting one of these guys. A baby by choice."
- Julia Child
Professional Chef, Cookbook Author
- Helen Clark
New Zealand Prime Minister
"I actually have great faith in the common sense of Kiwis and I think these days most people are going to say 'For God's sake, people are entitled to choice about their life, Helen's made her choice, that's fine with us'. "So what are they getting at? Am I supposed to not be a real woman because I haven't had children? It's all bizarre and I don't think most people relate to it."
- Patricia Clarkson
Actress, Far From Heaven
- Dorothy Clewes
Childrens' Book Author
- George Clooney
Actor, Star of Ocean's Eleven
"Where is it written that you have to have kids? You can easily borrow other people's and give them back later."
- Imogene Coca
Actress
"A lover of pets, she formed the Imogene Coca Charitable Foundation, which donates proceeds to the Humane Society and human and civil rights groups."
- Claudette Colbert
Actress
- Billy Collins
U.S. Poet Laureate
- C. Collodi
Author of Pinocchio
- William Conrad
Actor
- Frances Conroy
Actress
- Storm Constantine
Fantasy Writer
"I don't like dogs very much, but I do like individual dogs. There are certain dogs I meet and I think 'Yeah, you're okay, I get on with you.'. It's the same with children for me. There are some children I'm very fond of, children of friends, I love them, but I don't like them as a whole and I certainly wouldn't want any of my own. But I'm a very good auntie and best friend."
- Jill Ker Conway
Author, first woman President of Smith College
- Anne Cool
Canadian Senator
- Pat Coombs
Actress
- Copernicus
Scientist
- John Corbett
Actor
“I’m 41-years-old, I’m single, I own my own house, I don’t have any kids. I can make decisions other people might not have the freedom to make.”
- Joseph Cornell
Artist and Creator of the Cornell Box
- Ann Coulter
Political Commentator
- Simon Cowell
Actor
"I don't want children; I'd like a puppy. My brother's having a baby so I'll be an uncle - that will do me."
- Alec Sadler Craig
Australian Politician / Philanthropist
"Although Alec Sadler Craig and his wife Grace were active in Bendigo civic life from the 1950s until the late 1970s, having served as mayor and mayoress three times, they left their biggest contribution to the city until last.
Yesterday the Bendigo Art Gallery announced that it was the beneficiary of a $2.7 million bequest from Mrs Craig, who died in March last year, four years after her husband. The couple, who lived into their 80s, had no children.
Their bequest will give the gallery about $130,000 a year, which, according to the terms of the trust fund, must be used to buy paintings and drawings of "considerable merit".
- Quentin Crisp
Author / Actor
- Tim Curry
Actor
- Charlotte Curtis
First woman on the masthead of The New York Times
- Patrika Darbo
Actress
- Simone de Beauvoir
Author of The Second Sex
De Beauvoir dismissed motherhood as, "...'a strange mixture of narcissism, altruism, idle daydreaming, sincerity, bad faith, devotion and cynicism."
- Mahmoud Darwish
Palestinian Poet
"The centre of my life is my poetry. What helps my poetry I do; what damages it I avoid."
- Leonardo Da Vinci
Artist
- Gray Davis
Governor of California
"The couple, who have no children, enjoy playing golf and renting movies in their free time."
- Kristin Davis
Actress
- Ellen Degeneres
Comedian
"Listen, I love kids. But i also like being able to do whatever I want when I want."
- Bessie and Sadie Delaney
Authors, "Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years"
- Jeffery Deaver
Author
- Eugene Victor Debs
Activist
- Dana Delany
Actress
"I think it's pretty evident that my parent's divorce had a profound effect on me. Between that and growing up in the 70's, marriage has never been that important to me. But love is."
- Don DeLillo
Author, White Noise
- Del Rubio Triplets
1950's Musical Group
"They [husbands] want a home and children and so forth," Elena Del Rubio once said, "and we really don't want that. We want our music really to come first, until we feel we've had enough."
- Bo Derek
Actress, Star of 10
"I thought I really didn't necessarily have that drive and that desire to have a child that I think you should have. I wasn't ready to make the commitment."
- Rene Descartes
Philosopher
- Loretta Devine
Actress
- Portia De Rossi
Actress
"As for reports the new couple (Ellen DeGeneres and Portia De Rossi) are planning for a baby, a source says, "Portia has said many times she does not want to have a baby. She's only interested in her career right now and doesn't really even want kids in the long run. Francesca wanted a baby badly, and that was a huge issue for them."
- Emily Dickinson
Poet
- Benjamin Disraeli
Politician, Author
- Steve Ditko
Cartoonist/ co-creator with Writer Stan Lee, of the Spider-Man Comics
- Dorothea Dix
Educator, writer, philanthropist
- Hannah Dobryn
Author of the Katy Green Mysteries
- Tamara Dobson
Actress: Cleopatra Jones Movies / Guinness Book of World Records-Tallest Leading Lady in Film
- Elizabeth Dole
Reagan's Secretary of Transportation
- Richard Donner
Film Director
"I was lucky because I never had kids. I never wanted kids. I wanted dogs."
- Lizzie Douglas
Singer, Guitarist, Songwriter
- Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Environmentalist
- Maureen Dowd
Columnist
- Sir George Downing
Founder of Downing College/ Cambridge, England
- Gabriel Dumont
Native American Tribal Leader
- Francis Drake
Explorer
- Fran Dresher
Actress
- Esther Dyson
Author, Internet Expert
- Amelia Earhart
Aviator
- Deborah Eisenberg
Author
"I don't have children, I don't understand them, I don't remember my childhood..."
- Liubov Egorova
Dancer
- Anita Ekberg
Actress
- T.S. Eliot
Poet
- Havelock Ellis
Psychologist, Author
- Harlan Ellison
Author
- Elizabeth I
Queen of England
- Joan Elm
Canadian Politician/ Commiunity Activist
- Bonnie Erbe
PBS Commentator and Columnist
"My husband and I affirmatively chose not to have children, so we could devote ourselves to our beloved work, extensive worldwide travel, our favorite pastimes, friends and family. We have a lifestyle most of our married-with-children friends can only dream about. And it's one we could only have dreamed about, too, if we had had children."
- (Dame) Edith Evans
British Film and Stage Actress, Star of A Passage to India
- Linda Evans
Actress, Star of Dallas
- Rupert Everett
Actor
- Anne Ewers
CEO of the Utah Symphony & Opera
"I really don't regret it. There would be no time to raise children properly. It would be a disservice to them," says Ewers, 50. "Besides, I get so much fulfillment from what I'm doing now."
- Chow Yun-Fat
Actor
"It was never a question for us because my wife has her hands full taking care of me. Look at my life. I'm always on the go. If it isn't the United States, it's Canada. When a movie gets released, we have to go all over the place to promote it. When would we find time to have kids. Raising children under these conditions, no matter how well they were treated, would be unfair to them. My biggest worry is that I would have no time for them. I've still got a long way to go in Hollywood so I'll be even more busy later on. Besides it's not in her nature or my nature. We have to focus all our energy into one direction. If we had kids, we wouldn't know what to take care of first, the kids or the career! So, we decided not to have children."
- Barbara Feldon
Actress, Agent 99 on the TV Series, Get Smart
"She clearly likes candles in silver holders, and books, lots of books, the kind that look as if they've been avidly read. (Edith Wharton seems to be a particular favorite.) During her talk Feldon cited the example of Thoreau, quoted Montaigne and recited a poem by Apollinaire, leaving her guests slightly stunned. To meet Feldon in person is to wonder why you ever thought Agent 99 with her doltish spouse and two squalling infants was cool; the real thing's so much more awesome."
- Pamelyn Ferdin
Actress
- Ralph Fiennes
Actor, Star of The English Patient
"Children? Ewww!"
- Lynn Fontanne
Actress
- Margot Fonteyn
British Ballerina
- Juliana Rieser Force
Whitney Museum Director
- Richard Ford
Author of The Sportswriter/ Editor of Granta
- Margaretta Forten
Abolitionist
- Dian Fossey
Anthropologist
- Janet Frame
Poet
- Felix Frankfurter
Supreme Court Justice
- Tanya Franks
Actress
"The most challenging storyline thing for me at the moment is the surrogacy story. I personally don't want children but my character really does, so surrogacy as an issue is not really something I can relate to."
- William Frawley
Actor, Star of I Love Lucy
- Frank Frazetta
Artist
- Stephen Frears
Film Director
- Alice Freeman
First woman to be president of a liberal arts college, (Wellesley)/ Helped establish the University of Chicago.
- Elsie Freund
Artist, Jewelry Designer
- Louis Freund
Artist
- Robert Fripp
Composer/ Musician
- Eva Gabor
Actress
- Magda Gabor
Actress
- Maxwell Gage
Noted New Zealand Geologist
- Diamanda Galas
Singer
- Tess Gallagher
Author
"Children? I think there was a period where I might have had some regrets. Feeling that the war had cheated me out of having children, because I didn’t feel it was a time to be having them. That there was something morally wrong with me being unwilling to have them because they were being destroyed in that country called Vietnam. It was very present to me and painfully clear from photographs and film coverage at the time that we were bombing the children of another country and I really couldn’t conscience being able to carry a child of my own, knowing this, that I was a part of why this was happening, and that my own husband was over there, asked to perform this cruel act by our government. He was a pilot. And he was a considered and wonderful person--but throughout the war and afterwards, we both carried such a deep sadness about the whole thing--it was very difficult to go forward. It was such a brutal thing in our young lives."
- Paul William Gallico
Author
- Janeane Garafalo
Actress, Comedian
"I thought that I did. Now I realize that I don't. People think that you are a nasty, selfish person if you don't want to have children."
- Greta Garbo
Actress
- Ava Gardner
Actress
- Greer Garson
Actress
- Gloria Gaynor
Singer
Gaynor works with numerous charities, including The United Cerebral Palsy Organization, the Rita Hayworth Gala for Alzheimer's, Revlon's Annual Walk For Life, and The Michael Bolton Foundation.
- Anthony Geary
Soap Opera Actor
"Those of us who don't have children, we either have to live without a legacy, or find something else. I'm really much more interested in living than I am in leaving anything behind."
- William Schwenck Gilbert
Composer for Gilbert & Sullivan
- Althea Gibson
Tennis Pioneer who broke the color line on the Grand Slam tennis circuit and won consecutive women's singles titles at Wimbledon and at the U.S. national championships,
- Dorothy Gish
Actress
- Lillian Gish
Actress
- Katharine Bruce Glasier
Author
- Susan Glaspell
Playwright
- Sharon Gless
Actress
- Crispin Glover
Actor
- Christoph Willibald Gluck
Composer
- Paulette Goddard
Actress
At her death at 79 in 1990, since Paulette Goddard did not have any immediate family (she was an only child), she left $20 million dollars to NYU.
- Robert Hutchings Goddard
Physicist
- Kurt Godel
Author
- Alexander Godunov
Actor/ Dancer
- Stephen Goldin
Author
"...our books are our children. They make no demands on us, don't eat, wear clothes, or have problems with members of the opposite sex. They also leave home very early and begin supporting us, which children seldom do."
- Jeff Goldblum
Actor, Star of Jurassic Park
- Emma Goldman
Activist, Feminist
"The woman, instead of being the household queen, told about in story books, is the servant, the mistress, and the slave of both husband and children. She loses her own individuality entirely, even her name she is not allowed to keep. She is the mistress of John Brown or the mistress of Tom Jones; she is that and nothing else. That is the way I think of her."
- Valeria Golino
Actress
- Jan Goodwin
Author, Travel Writer
- Edward Gorey
Artist
- Lotte Goslar
Dancer
- Martha Graham
Choreographer
- Hugh Grant
Actor, Star of About a Boy
“I have so many friends who live in small houses in south London with all these babies underfoot and it’s just not attractive. I’m selfish and I can’t bear mess and ugliness and those things come hand-in- hand with children."
- Cecil Green
Former CEO of Texas Instruments, Philanthropist
“Cecil and Ida Green were two of the most extraordinary philanthropists in the world. They created facilities and endowed programs in education, science, medicine, social services and the arts at universities and medical centers throughout this country, England, Canada and Chile. Their contributions to MIT were vitally important in many fields. They were especially supportive of women graduate students and faculty.”
- Johnny Green
Musician
His young bride Carol (to whom he dedicated "Out of Nowhere") encouraged him to leave Wall Street and cultivate his many musical talents. She remarked, "We didn't have children, we had songs"
- Gael Greene
Food Critic, Author
- (Baroness) Susan Greenfield
Director of the Royal Institution/ Professor of Synaptic Pharmacology at Oxford University, Neurologist
"You don’t wake up and say: “Right, today I’ve decided I’ll never have children.” Obviously it doesn’t work like that. What happens, I suppose, is sometimes people actively want children, and I know some women get extremely broody. That never happened to me, partly because I have this horrible brother who’s 13 years younger than me."
- John Robert Gregg
Inventor of the Gregg Shorthand Method/ Publisher
- Joyce Grenfell
British Actress
- Nanci Griffith
Singer / Songwriter
- Martha Griffiths
First Female Michigan Lieutenant Governor.
- Terry Gross
NPR Host, Fresh Air
"I always felt like I couldn't imagine doing the show and having children. I think people who have children and have complicated jobs are amazing. I don't know how they do it."
- James Grout
Actor
- Mabel Dole Haden
Former President of NABWA
- Catherine Hakim
British Sociologist
Although she says she wrote six books in 10 years precisely because her energies were not diverted by childrearing, she is sympathetic to parents.
- Daryl Hall
Singer, Musician
- Celia Hammond
Former Model and PBS Reality Show Regency House Star, Owner of 100 Cats
"People say to me that obviously you've become what you are because you've never had children. But that's not fair at all. All sorts of people have an emotional attachment to their animals, not just childless people. Some people think I'm mad or that the cats are a child substitute, but is there anything so wrong with getting emotional feedback from an animal?"
- Lionel Hampton
Musician
"Hampton used part of his fortune to build affordable housing in Harlem and to encourage musical studies at a jazz festival that bears his name in Moscow, Idaho. He made his last public appearance at the festival, this year."
- Georg Friedrich Handel
Composer
- Howard Harold Hanson
Pulitzer-Prize Winning Composer
"The Hansons had no children and enjoyed spending vacations on Bold Island (off the Maine coast), which they owned."
- Setsuko Hara
Japanese Actress
- Warren Gamaliel Harding
29th U.S. President
- E Chambré Hardman
Photographer
- Debbie Harry
Singer, Blondie
- Alex Heard
Author
- Susan Helms
Astronaut
- Adrian Henri
Poet/ Painter
- Marguerite Henry
Children's Book Author
""Henry's husband, Sidney Crocker Henry, died in 1987. They had been happily married for 64
years. They had no children, but shared numerous pets like a pony, a horse, a burro, three
fox pups, a dachshund, and a mom cat who never stopped having kittens."
- Katherine Hepburn
Actress, Star of The Lion in Winter
- Milton S. Hershey
Founder of the Hershey Chocolate Company
"Sometime before 1909, Milton and Kitty realized their money was accumulating faster than they could spend it. Kitty suggested that they provide a home for boys who were unfortunate. Milton seized on the idea eagerly. Childhood security and good schooling he could never recover for himself, but this was an opportunity to secure them for other boys. On November 15, 1909, Milton and Catherine signed the document that deeded 486 acres of farm land to Hershey Trust Company as trustee “with the purpose of founding and endowing in perpetuity an institution to be known as Hershey Industrial School (later renamed Milton Hershey School) to be located in Derry Township for the benefit of orphan boys.” On November 13, 1918, Milton Hershey gifted Hershey Chocolate Company stock (valued at $60 million) to the trust. In addition to the Milton Hershey School Trust, Mr. Hershey also established two other trusts - one for the benefit of the Derry Township School District (a public school system) and another to the M.S. Hershey Foundation."
--The Hershey Heritage
- Lorena Hickok
AP Political Reporter
- Taiko Hirabayashi
Author
- Nicole Hollander
Cartoonist
- Thelma Holt
Actress, Theatre Producer
- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Justice
"Though he and his wife Fanny had no children, he acted as mentor to many young intellectuals, liberals and progressives such as economist Richard Ely, political theorist Harold Laski, philosopher Morris Cohen, and lawyers Felix Frankfurter and Learned Hand."
- Grace Murray Hopper
Often referred to as the "mother of the computer'. Hopper was arguably the world's most famous programmer and the most influential woman in the history of computing. She also was a Rear Admiral in the Navy.
- Soad Hosni
Egyptian Actress
- Lila Kedrova Howard
Actress
- Mick Hucknall
Singer
- Bonnie Hunt
Actress
- Kristin Hunter
Childrens' Author
"It has often seemed to me that I have hundreds of children--thousands, if I count the young readers of my books, especially The Soul Brothers and Sister Lou, who have formed intense personal bonds with my characters, and then with me through their letters. This responsive audience, the fans and the critics alike, is one of the greatest rewards I have gained from writing for children."
- Lauren Hutton
Actress / Model
- Patricia Ireland
President of the National Organization for Women/ NOW
"I think you have to make choices. And my mother really made us the center of her life. I always felt that if I was going to have kids, I would want to do it right, to take three or four years off from my career. And that was something I wasn't ready to do."
- George J. Irbe
Creator of the Great Lakes water temperature climatology
"We decided not to have children. I particularly doubted my abilities to be a good father...We don't regret our decision, seeing how much effort it takes to make a child fly straight nowadays."
- John A. "Jack" Jackson
Philanthropist/ Oilman
"Jackson and his wife made a joint decision to leave their entire estate, conservatively valued at more than $150 million, to the University of Texas, Austin."
- Tove Jansson
Childrens' Book Author
- Randall Jarrell
Poet
- Joan of Arc
Christian Saint
- Elton John
Singer
"We are not going to adopt a child."
- Jack Johnson
First African American to win the heavyweight boxing championship of the world.
- Margaret Johnston
Actress
- Martin and Osa Johnson
Authors, Photographers, explorers, and naturalists. Best remembered for their numerous movies and books about the wildlife and people of Africa, Borneo, and the South Seas.
- Richard Mentor Johnson
U.S. Vice-president in Early 1800s
- Samuel Johnson
Author, Editor
- William Hugh Johnston
Labor Leader
- Carolyn Jones
Actress, Morticia from the Addams Family
- Renee Jones
Soap Actress: Days of Our Lives
- Spike Jonze
Film Director
- Madeline Kahn
Actress, Star of Blazing Saddles
- Immanuel Kant
Philosopher
- Julie Kavner
Actress
- Nikos Kazantzakis
Author
- Odette Keene
Musician
- Helen Keller
Author
- Joyce Kennard
Judge
- Joe Kernan
Politician
- Maynard Keynes
Bloomsbury Economist. Also founded the Vic-Wells Ballet and financed the establishment of the Arts Theatre in Cambridge, England
- King Louis XVI
King of France
- William Lyon MacKenzie King
Former Canadian Prime Minister
- William Rufus King
U.S. Vice-President in the early 1800s
- Robert Kiyosaki
Author
- Caroline Knapp
Author
- Aleksandra Kollontai
Author
- Dean Koontz
Author
- Tadeusz Kosciuszko
Polish Patriot
- Jerzy Kosinski
Author
"As I have no children, no family, no relatives, no business or estate to speak of, my books are my only spiritual accomplishment, my life's most private frame of reference, and I would gladly pay all I earn to make it my best."
- Jonathan Kozol
Author, Activist
"This hasn't been any kind of a sacrifice."
- Lee Krasner
Artist, Wife of Jackson Pollock
- Albert Kroc
Co-Developer of McDonald's Fast Food Chain
"He celebrated his seventieth birthday by giving more than $7 million to such Chicago institutions as Children's Memorial Hospital, the Lincoln Park Zoo, and the Harvard Congregational Church in Oak Park, which he had attended as a child...In 1976 Kroc established the Kroc Foundation in Santa Ynez to support research in diabetes, arthritis, and multiple sclerosis."
- Henry Richardson Labouisse
Diplomat/ Former Head of Unicef
- Princess Lakshmi
Indian Princess
- Elsa Lanchester
Actress
"I held a baby once. It felt like a bag of hot snakes."
- Philip Larkin
Author, Poet
"Man hands on misery to man. It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early
as you can, and don't have any kids yourself."
- Charles Laughton
Actor, Director
- Dan Lauria
Actor
- Frank John Lausche
Politician
- Linda Lavin
Actress
- Tom Lehrer
Singer/ Musician
"Tom still happily splits his time between Massachusetts and California, spending summer and fall in the former and winter and spring in the latter. He is very content in doing what he does, which is teaching half the year and goofing off the other half."
- Jay Leno
TV Host
- Richard Lewis
Comedian
- Lyn Lifshin
Poet
"I think my decision to not have children came from seeing my mother, who was a vibrant woman, fun loving, a free spirit. She went to college and then lived in New York City. She went to lectures, danced all night, enjoyed life. She wanted to marry someone other than my father. She did what was expected, rather than what she wanted to do...Because of my mother's history, I decided I wanted to follow my own desires, and that did not include children."
- Queen Liliuokalani
Queen of Hawaii
- Laura Linney
Actress
- Sian Lloyd
Weather Broadcaster
"My mother was a militant, independent woman. "She raised me to believe that marriage and children were not everything for women. I've never wanted children. I was not brought up to aspire to that. I work hard and see my friends and walk a lot in Wales, so I don't feel a gaping hole in my life."
- Carole Lombard
Actress
- Jack Lord
Actor, Hawaii Five-O
- Pauline Lord
Actress
- Patty Loveless
Singer
- Alfred Lunt
Actor
- John Lyon
Philanthropist, Regarded as the Founder Of The Great Public School Of Harrow
"In 1572 he obtained a royal charter from Elizabeth I for the pre-Reformation school at Harrow, which he supported with endowments to guarantee its continuation. In 1590 he drew up statutes and a course of Classical education for the school."
- Rose McClendon
Actress
- Robert McCormick
Former Owner of the Chicago Tribune
- Mary Jackson McCrorey
Politician, Activist
- Hattie McDaniel
Actress, Star of Gone With the Wind
- Roddy McDowall
Actor, Photographer
- Odd McIntyre
Newspaper Columnist
- Ian McKellen
Actor, Star of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
"...having no one dependent on me has meant I've been able to pursue my career in the way I've wanted...I used to be rather relieved that kids weren't a possibility. Being a parent means keeping a tight rein on your selfishness. Though I don't suppose many parents do. Why isn't parenting taught? Why is it assumed that just because you can procreate you can be a good parent? Anyway, I'm too frail to be changing nappies."
- Kristy McNichol
Actress
- Janet McTeer
Actress
- Christine McVie
Singer / Songwriter, Fleetwood Mac
- Dora Maar
Photographer, Lover of Picasso
- René Magritte
Artist
"The Magrittes had no children, but were devoted to their little Pomeranian dog, Loulou."
- Bill Maher
Former Host of Politically Incorrect
"When I was 28 years old and a girl said to me, 'Do you like children?' I'd go, 'Well, you know, not right now, but I think someday.' That was a complete lie. I never liked children. I never wanted children, and I was just saying that because I didn't want to lose the fish that was on the end of my hook."
[More quotes from Bill Maher on children]
- Katherine Mansfield
Author
- Shirley Manson
Singer
“What I find incredibly funny is people who say, ‘Oh you must have children otherwise you’re being incredibly selfish.’ As if having children stops selfishness. I know hundreds of parents and they’re the most selfish people I have ever met. As wonderful as I think child-rearing is for some, it’s not for everybody."
- Francesca Marciano
Actress
- Miriam Margoyles
Actress
"I never wanted children and I don't terribly like them. I don't wish them any harm but I don't want them around me. I was never domestic."
- Mary Ellen Mark
Award-Winning Photographer
"I didn't want to have them if I couldn't provide a great, nurturing home life. So I put all the energy of raising a child into my work." Not surprisingly, Mark has devoted much of her career to photographing children who have had bad breaks in life-the autistic, the blind, the poor, the cancer-ridden, and the drug-addicted.
- Steve Martin
Comedian, Actor, Star of Housesitter
"...you don't want one of those things."
- Vito Anthony Marcantonio
Politician
- Wink Martindale
Game Show Host
- Bobbie Ann Mason
Childrens' Book Author
"She was such a wonderful mother and so maternal, and yet we saw her sacrifice and slaving and suffering and that didn't give me a good image of having children and neither did the culture in general."
- Mari Matsunaga
Creator of i-mode, Named One of the Top 25 Tech Women of the Web
- Giuseppe Mazzini
Italian Patriot
- Fradique de Menezes
President of Sao Tome and Principe
- Melina Mercouri
Greek Actress
- Freddie Mercury
Musician
- Angela Merkel
German Chancellor
- George Michael
Musician
- Oscar Micheaux
Film Director/ Producer, Authror
- Alyssa Milano
Actress
- Edna St. Vincent Millay
Poet
- Alley Mills
Actress
- Brenda Milner
Renowned Professor of Neuro-Psychology: Mcgill's Faculty Of Medicine And At The Montreal Neurological Institute
"I never wanted children," says the British-born academic. "I knew I wanted a career."
- Helen Mirren
Actress, Star of Gosford Park
"It's just that I never wanted children. I don't know why, I've never been shrunk so I've never gone into it. I was never drawn to babies. The only dolls I played with as a child were grown up dolls. I would have loved a Barbie if they'd been around when I was a little girl. And my skin still crawls when I see a little girl hauling around a big baby doll. You see this little five-year-olds with huge, great, monstrous, disgusting baby dolls. I want to go up and rip them out of their hands...."
- Margaret Mitchell
Author
- Eugenio Montale
Nobel Prize Winner, Poet, Author, Editor, Translator
- Vicki Moore
Spanish Animal Rights Philanthropist
- Esai Morales
Actor, Star of La Bamba
- John Morgan
Founder of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, and Medical Director of the Continental Army
- Lady Morgan (Sydney Owenson)
Author
- Morrissey
Musician
- Rob Morse
Columnist/ San Francisco Chronicle
"This year, I'm celebrating Non-Father's Day with a vengeance. I have no regrets about not having children, and I'm very happy not to be getting any Father's Day presents."
- Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam
Britain's Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
- Diana Muldaur
Actress
- Ona Munson
Actress, Gone With the Wind
- Haruki Murakami
Author, Former Tokyo Jazz Club Owner
- Iris Murdoch
Author
- Mikayil Mushfig
Poet
- Modest Mussorgsky
Composer
- Kanagarajah Muthiah
Tamil Activist
- Mike Myers
Actor
- bandar slot games
|
