John Hancock (1941 - 1992)

American motion picture and television actor of the 1960s to the 1990s. (bio by: A.J. Marik) Cause of death: Heart attack

John Harold Johnson (1918 - 2005)

Businessman. He was the founder of the Johnson Publishing Company Inc., an international media and cosmetics empire headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, the largest black-owned publishing company in the world.  Also the first African American to appear on the Forbes 400 Rich List in 1982 with a fortune estimated at close to $500 million.  John Harold […]

John Harper (1797 - 1875)

Publisher. Along with his brothers James, Fletcher and Joseph, he founded Harper and Brothers Publishing, which is today Harper Collins, the 5th largest publisher in the world.  Family links:  Children:  John Wesley Harper (1831 – 1915)* *Calculated relationship

John Harris Behan (1845 - 1912)

Lawman. Born in Westport, Missouri in what is now Kansas City, the third of nine children of Peter and Sarah Harris Behan. Johnny moved west to San Francisco, working as a miner and a freighter. During the American Civil War Johnny was a 19-year-old civilian employee of Carleton’s Column of Union Volunteers in California. He […]

John Harron (1903 - 1939)

Actor. The younger brother of actor Robert Harron, he made his screen debut with a small role in D. W. Griffith’s “Hearts of the World” (1918). After Robert Harron’s mysterious death in 1920, John suddenly found himself in demand and he went on to appear in over 160 films. During the 1920s he played wholesome, […]

John Hart (1917 - 2009)

Hart began his screen career in 1937 with a bit part in Daughter of Shanghai. He continued in a variety of B pictures such as Prison Farm and King of Alcatraz before appearing in two of Cecil B. DeMille’s films The Buccaneer (1938) and North West Mounted Police (1940). His acting career was interrupted when he […]

John Hartman (1937 - 2001)

John Hartman John Hartford won Grammy awards in three different decades, recorded a catalog of more than 30 albums, and wrote one of the most popular songs of all time, Gentle On My Mind.  He was a regular guest and contributor on the Glen Campbell Good Time Hour and the Smothers Brothers Show.  He added […]

John Harvey Bailey (1887 - 1979)

Bank Robber. Harvey started his criminal career as a bootlegger. Then graduated to robbing banks, In 1929, small-time crook Tony Serpa was the only man convicted in the Rochester robbery. He served 11 years. Many believe the heist was masterminded by Harvey Bailey. Harvey, called the “dean of American bank robbers,” was a staple of […]

John Hathorne (1641 - 1717)

He was a magistrate who, along with Jonathan Corwin, presided over the pre-trial examinations in Salem Village (now Danvers, Massachusetts) prior to the actual Salem witch trials. (The judge during the trials was William Stoughton, Lieutenant-Governor of the colony.) Great-great-grandfather of writer Nathaniel Hawthorne.  Family links:  Parents:  William Hathorne (1606 – 1681)  Ann Hathorne  Children: […]

John Hay (1838 - 1905)

John Milton Hay (October 8, 1838 – July 1, 1905) was an American statesman and official whose career in government stretched over almost half a century. Beginning as a private secretary and assistant to Abraham Lincoln, Hay’s highest office was United States Secretary of State under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. Hay was also […]

John Heard (1945 - 2017)

In the 1970s, John Heard appeared on the stage, television and film. He appeared off-Broadway in 1974 in Mark Medoff’s play The Wager and at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in 1977 in a series of new plays. In 1979 he played Arthur Dimmesdale in a television production of The Scarlet Letter. Heard won Obie […]

John Heartfield (1891 - 1968)

Photographer, inventor of photo-montage which he often used for satirical purposes. (bio by: David Conway)

John Hemphill (1803 - 1862)

Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, and a United States Senator.  Born in Blackstock, Chester District, South Carolina, the son of John and Jane (Lind) Hemphill. His father was a Presbyterian minister. John attended Jefferson College (now Washington and Jefferson) in Pennsylvania from 1823 to 1825 and graduated second in his class. He taught […]

John Henrik Clarke (1915 - 1998)

By the 1920s, the Great Migration and demographic changes had led to a concentration of African Americans living in Harlem. A synergy developed among the artists, writers and musicians and many figured in the Harlem Renaissance. They began to develop supporting structures of study groups and informal workshops to develop newcomers and young people. Arriving in […]

John Henry Brown (1820 - 1895)

John Henry Brown was born in Pike County, Missouri Territory, the son of Henry S. Brown and Margaret Jones Brown. He received little formal schooling but apprenticed as a youth in a printer’s office and various newspapers in Missouri. At age 17, Brown moved to the Republic of Texas and soon thereafter worked for a […]

John Henry Selman (1839 - 1896)

Folk Figure. ‘Old John’ Selman was an American frontier character who spent time on both sides of the law. He was an outlaw in the John Larn gang in Shackelford County, Texas, barely escaping with his life after Larn was dispatched by vigilantes. Old John later served as a city constable in El Paso, Texas, […]

John Henry Stanford (1938 - 1998)

US Army Major General. Born in Darby, Pennsylvania, he had a distinguished military career as Deputy Commanding General of US Army Aviation Systems Command and as Executive Secretary to Secretary of Defense in the 1980s. He retired from active service a Major General in 1991. In 1995, he was the first African American in Washington […]

John Herbert Dillinger (1903 - 1934)

John Dillinger Career Criminal. John Dillinger was made an outlaw hero during the depths of the Depression by Americans mired in financial ruin, loss of hope and simply frustrated by desperation brought on by the times.  He was hardly a “Robin Hood” figure envisioned by the public.  John was a cold-blooded killer.  In one year, […]

John Hessin Clarke (1857 - 1945)

Born in New Lisbon, Ohio, Clarke was the third child and only son of John Clarke, a lawyer and judge, and his wife Melissa Hessin. He attended New Lisbon High School and Western Reserve College, where he became a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1877. Clarke did not […]

John Hilton (1942 - 2017)

John Hilton (March 12, 1942 – February 2, 2017) was a tight end in the National Football League who played from 1965 to 1973 for four teams, most notably the Pittsburgh Steelers (1965-1969). He played college football for the University of Richmond. He prepared for college by attending Fork Union Military Academy as a postgraduate in […]

John Hodiak (1914 - 1955)

John Hodiak was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of Walter Hodiak (October 25, 1888 – August 21, 1962) and Anna Pogorzelec (February 28, 1888 – October 17, 1971). He was of Ukrainian and Polish descent. Hodiak grew up in Hamtramck, Michigan. Hodiak had his first theatrical experience at age 11, acting in Ukrainian and Russian […]

John Hope (1868 - 1936)

John Horne Burns (1916 - 1953)

John Horne Burns was born in 1916 in Andover, Massachusetts. He was the eldest of seven children in an upper-middle-class Irish Catholic family. He was educated by the Sisters of Notre Dame at St. Augustine’s School and then Phillips Academy, where he pursued music. He attended Harvard, where he became fluent in French, German, and […]

John Horton Slaughter (1841 - 1922)

Western Lawman. He was a rancher and a Texas Ranger when he enlisted in the Confederate Army at the start of the Civil War. Enlisted in Nov 1863 as a pvt in Company E, 36th Woods Cavalry, Texas before moving on to the unit that is currently listed.  Mustered out May 15, 1865. Serving in […]

John Houseman (1902 - 1988)

Houseman produced numerous Broadway productions, including Heartbreak House, Three Sisters, The Beggar’s Opera and several Shakespearean plays, including a famous “Blackshirt” Julius Caesar directed by Orson Welles in 1937. He also directed Lute Song, The Country Girl and Don Juan in Hell, among others.  Houseman himself worked as a speculator in the international grain markets, […]

John Howard Davies (1939 - 2011)

Child Actor, Television Producer and Director. The son of motion picture screenwriter Jack Davies, he found instant success as a child actor playing the title role in David Lean’s “Oliver Twist” (1948). This was followed by parts in the pictures “The Rocking Horse Winner” (1949), “Tom Brown’s Schooldays” (1951, title role) and “The Magic Box” […]

John Hunter (1931 - 2016)

John Hunter Jr. (July 13, 1931 – January 4, 2016), known by the stage name Long John Hunter, was an American Texas blues and electric blues guitarist, singer and songwriter. He released seven albums in his own name, and in his later years found critical acknowledgement outside of his homeland. Hunter’s best known tracks are […]

John Huston (1906 - 1987)

John Huston John Huston, the legendary director and scenarist who made such classic films as ”The Maltese Falcon,” ”The Treasure of the Sierra Madre,” ”The Asphalt Jungle” and ”The African Queen,” died yesterday in Middletown, R.I., at the age of 81. Associates said he had died in his sleep of complications from emphysema. The film […]

John Ignatius Nolan (1874 - 1922)

US Congressman. Educated at public schools, he worked as an iron molder, was a member of the board of supervisors for the City and County of San Francisco in 1911 and Secretary of the San Francisco Labor Council, in 1912. In 1913, he was elected as a Republican to the Sixty-third Congress and to the […]

John II of Aragon (1398 - 1479)

John was born at Medina del Campo. In his youth he was one of the infantes (princes) of Aragon who took part in the dissensions of Castile during the minority and reign of John II. Till middle life he was also lieutenant-general in Aragon for his brother and predecessor Alfonso V, whose reign was mainly […]