General articles: Arts and culture
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William Empson
Sir William Empson (1906–1984), English poet and critic, author of Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930), a foundation of New Criticism and close reading; professor at Sheffield, knighted 1979.
William Ernest Henley
William Ernest Henley (1849-1903), English poet, critic, and editor, author of "Invictus"; wrote it while Joseph Lister saved his leg; edited the National Observer and inspired Long John Silver.
William Faulkner
William Faulkner (1897–1962), American novelist of Oxford, Mississippi, Nobel laureate in Literature 1949, creator of Yoknapatawpha County and stream-of-consciousness works such as The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom!.
William Fichtner
William Fichtner, American character actor born 1956 in East Meadow, New York, raised in Cheektowaga; known for Heat, Armageddon, Go, Crash, The Dark Knight, Prison Break, and directing debut Cold Brook.
William Forsythe (actor)
William Forsythe (born 1955, Brooklyn) is an American character actor known for tough-guy roles in Once Upon a Time in America, Raising Arizona, Dick Tracy, The Rock, and The Devil's Rejects, and TV's Boardwalk Empire. Distinct from choreographer William Forsythe and director Bill Forsyth.
William Forsythe (choreographer)
William Forsythe, born 1949 in Long Island, New York, is an American choreographer who led Ballet Frankfurt from 1984 and created works in nearly every major ballet company's repertoire.
William Fox (producer)
William Fox (Wilhelm Fried, 1879–1952), Hungarian-born American film mogul; founded Fox Film Corporation 1915, broke Edison's Trust, pioneered Movietone sound newsreels, lost his empire in 1930, imprisoned for bribing a judge.
William Franklyn-Miller
William Franklyn-Miller (Will Franklyn-Miller), British actor and model born 2004, known for Medici's Giovanni de' Medici, Arrow's Young Joseph Wilson, and as George Washington in Young Washington (2026).
William Frawley
William Frawley (1887–1966), American vaudevillian and character actor from Burlington, Iowa, played landlord Fred Mertz on I Love Lucy (1951–1957, five Emmy nominations) and Bub O'Casey on My Three Sons, after more than 150 Hollywood films.
William Friedkin
William Friedkin (1935–2023), American New Hollywood director of The French Connection and The Exorcist; Oscar for Best Director; also made Sorcerer, Cruising, To Live and Die in L.A., Bug, Killer Joe.
William G. Stewart
William G. Stewart (William Gladstone Stewart, 1933–2017), English TV producer-director and host of Channel 4's Fifteen to One (1988–2003, 2,265 episodes); also produced Bless This House, Family Fortunes, and The Price Is Right.
William Gaddis
William Gaddis (1922–1998) was an American novelist whose long, dialogue-driven satires of fraud, money, and language include The Recognitions, J R, and A Frolic of His Own; he won the National Book Award twice.
William Gaunt
William Gaunt (William Charles Anthony Gaunt, born 3 April 1937, Pudsey, Yorkshire) is an English actor: Richard Barrett in The Champions, Arthur Crabtree in No Place Like Home, Next of Kin with Penelope Keith, plus RSC and National Theatre stage work.
William Gibson
William Gibson, born 1948, American-Canadian author of Neuromancer, founding father of cyberpunk, coined 'cyberspace' in 'Burning Chrome' (1982); Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Award winner living in Vancouver.
William Gilmore Simms
William Gilmore Simms (1806–1870) was an American poet, novelist, historian, and editor from Charleston, South Carolina, regarded as the leading man of letters of the antebellum South.
William Golding
William Golding (1911–1993), British novelist, Nobel laureate 1983 and Booker winner 1980 for Rites of Passage; author of Lord of the Flies (1954), a rebuttal of The Coral Island that sold over fifty million copies.
William Goldman
William Goldman (1931–2018), American screenwriter and novelist, won Oscars for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men, wrote The Princess Bride and Adventures in the Screen Trade, and coined "Nobody knows anything."
William Goldsmith
William Goldsmith (born 1972) is a Seattle drummer, founding member of Sunny Day Real Estate and original Foo Fighters drummer, who left in 1997 after Grohl re-recorded The Colour and the Shape drums, later playing in The Fire Theft and Assertion.
William Grant & Sons
William Grant & Sons, independent family-owned Scottish spirits distiller founded 1887 by William Grant, maker of Glenfiddich, The Balvenie, Grant's, Hendrick's, Monkey Shoulder and Tullamore D.E.W.; six generations of family ownership, 2025 turnover £1.76bn.
William Grant Still
William Grant Still (1895-1978), the 'Dean of African-American Composers', an American composer of over 150 concert works; his Afro-American Symphony (1931) was the first by a Black composer performed by a major American orchestra.
William H. Gass
William H. Gass, born William Howard Gass (1924–2017), was an American novelist, essayist, and philosopher who coined the word metafiction and won the American Book Award for The Tunnel.
William H. Macy
William H. Macy, born William Hall Macy Jr. in 1950, is an American actor known for anxious everymen: Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo (1996) and Frank Gallagher on Shameless (2011–2021).
William Haines
William (Billy) Haines, 1900–1973, American silent film star and interior designer, MGM's top box-office draw around 1930; refused Louis B. Mayer's demand to enter a sham marriage, left films, and ran William Haines Designs with partner Jimmie Shields.
William Hanna
William Denby Hanna (1910-2001), American animator and producer, co-created Tom and Jerry at MGM with Joseph Barbera, winning seven Oscars, then co-founded Hanna-Barbera Productions, pioneer of limited television animation with The Flintstones.
William Hanson (author)
William Hanson, British etiquette coach born in Bristol, director of The English Manner, author of five books including Just Good Manners, and co-host of Help I Sexted My Boss with Jordan North since 2018.
William Hartnell
William Hartnell (1908–1975), English actor, the original First Doctor in Doctor Who (1963–1966, 1973), also a prolific British film star known for Brighton Rock and The Army Game.
William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt (1778–1830), English Romantic essayist, literary critic, and radical journalist; author of Characters of Shakespeare's Plays, Table Talk, and The Spirit of the Age; son of a Unitarian minister and admirer of Napoleon.
William Heinesen
William Heinesen (1900–1991) was a Faroese writer who composed his entire oeuvre in Danish; he won the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 1965 for Det gode håb.
William Henry Fox Talbot
William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–1877) was a British scientist, mathematician, and politician who invented the calotype, patented in 1841, whose negative-positive process underpinned photography until the digital era.
William Henry Jackson
William Henry Jackson (1843–1942) was an American painter and photographer who took the first photographs of Yellowstone, helping persuade Congress to create the world's first national park in 1872.