The Long List of Childfree (and Childless) in History

This list comes from childfreebychoice.com

1. Herbert Samuel Adams
Sculptor

2. Scott Adams
Cartoonist, Dilbert

3. Charles Addams
Cartoonist, The New Yorker

4. Nancy Addison
Soap Opera Actress

5. Louisa May Alcott
Author of Little Women

6. Cynthia May Westover Alden
Author, Philanthropist

7. Grover Cleveland Alexander
Baseball Player

8. Suzy Allegra
Author

9. Marty Allen
Comedian

10. John Murray Anderson
Musical Theatre Producer

11. Laurie Anderson
Performance Artist

12. Marian Anderson
Concert Singer

13. 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..."

14. Susan B. Anthony
Womans' Suffragist

15. 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."

16. Louis Armstrong
Musician

17. Boris Artzybasheff
Artist

18. Dorothy Arzner
Film Director

19. Dr. Robert C. Atkins
Diet Doctor, Author, Creator of the Atkins Diet

20. V.C. Andrews
Author

21. Jane Austen
Author of Sense and Sensibility

22. Max Baer Jr.
Jethro from the Beverly Hillbillies

23. Francis Bacon
Politician, Philosopher, Scientist

24. Florence Bailey
Author, Naturalist, Ornithologist

25. Tallulah Bankhead
Actress

26. Abdullah al-Baradouni
Yemeni Poet

27. Bob Barker
Former Game Show Host: The Price is Right/ Philanthropist

28. Joe Barr
Canadian Politician

29. Lynda Barry
Cartoonist

30. Kathy Bates
Actress

31. 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.”

32. King Baudouin
King of Belgium

33. Samuel Beckett
Author, Playwright, Poet

34. Ludwig Van Beethoven
Composer

35. Joe Besser
Actor, Replaced Shemp Howard as the Third Stooge

36. Isabella Bird
Author

37. Jacqueline Bisset
Actress

38. Lewis Black
Comedian

39. Eubie Blake
Musician/ Composer

"Eubie Blake died five days after his 100th birthday...."

40. 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."

41. Brenda Blethyn
Actress

42. Marc Blitzstein
Composer, Dramatist

43. Baroness Karen Blixen
Author, "Out of Africa"

44. Rosa Bonheur
French Painter and Sculptor

45. Pierre Bonnard
Artist

46. William Edgar Borah
Politician

47. Lara Flynn Boyle
Actress

48. 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."

49. Georges Brassens
Singer

50. Joe Bob Briggs / aka John Bloom
Author, Movie Critic

51. Raymond Briggs
Children's Book Author

52. Poppy Z. Brite
Author

53. Anne Bronte
Author

54. Louise Brooks
Actress

55. 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."

56. Reno Browne
Actress, Equestrian

57. Delta Burke
Actress

58. James Buchanan
15th U.S. President

59. Pat Buchanan
Politician/ Presidential Candidate

60. Sandra Bullock
Actress

61. James Burke
Creator of the PBS Series "Connections"/ Scientific American columnist

62. Raymond Burr
Actor

63. Caryl Lee Burroughs
Hollywood Animal Trainer

64. 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."

65. 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."

66. Maria Callas
Opera Singer

67. Julia Cameron
Director

68. Phyllis Carlyle
Film Producer, Se7en, The Accidental Tourist

69. Dora Carrington
Bloomsbury Artist

70. Laura Carroll
Author, Families of Two

71. Mary Casatt
Artist

72. Roger Casement
Irish Patriot

73. Nina Cassian
Poet

74. Barbara Castle
British Politician

75. Kim Catrall
Actress

76. Mary Chapin Carpenter
Singer / Songwriter

77. Rosamond Halsey Carr
Founder of Rwanda's Imbabazi Orphanage, Author, Fashion Designer

78. Richard Chamberlain
Actor, Star of Shogun

"...the idea of being married, etcetera and having kids, never appealed to me at all. Not at all."

79. Coco Chanel
Fashion Designer, Dancer, Spy

80. Stockard Channing
Actress, Star of Smoke

81. 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."

82. 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."

83. Julia Child
Professional Chef, Cookbook Author

84. 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."

85. Patricia Clarkson
Actress, Far From Heaven

86. Dorothy Clewes
Childrens' Book Author

87. 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."

88. 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."

89. Claudette Colbert
Actress

90. Billy Collins
U.S. Poet Laureate

91. C. Collodi
Author of Pinocchio

92. William Conrad
Actor

93. Frances Conroy
Actress

94. 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."

95. Jill Ker Conway
Author, first woman President of Smith College

96. Anne Cool
Canadian Senator

97. Pat Coombs
Actress

98. Copernicus
Scientist

99. 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.”

100. Joseph Cornell
Artist and Creator of the Cornell Box

101. Ann Coulter Political Commentator

102. 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."

103. 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".

104. Quentin Crisp
Author / Actor

105. Tim Curry
Actor

106. Charlotte Curtis
First woman on the masthead of The New York Times

107. Patrika Darbo
Actress

108. 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."

109. Mahmoud Darwish
Palestinian Poet

"The centre of my life is my poetry. What helps my poetry I do; what damages it I avoid."

110. Leonardo Da Vinci
Artist

111. Gray Davis
Governor of California

"The couple, who have no children, enjoy playing golf and renting movies in their free time."

112. Kristin Davis
Actress

113. Ellen Degeneres
Comedian

"Listen, I love kids. But i also like being able to do whatever I want when I want."

114. Bessie and Sadie Delaney
Authors, "Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters' First 100 Years"

115. Jeffery Deaver
Author

116. Eugene Victor Debs
Activist

117. 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."

118. Don DeLillo
Author, White Noise

119. 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."

120. 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."

121. Rene Descartes
Philosopher

122. Loretta Devine
Actress

123. 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."

124. Emily Dickinson
Poet

125. Benjamin Disraeli
Politician, Author

126. Steve Ditko
Cartoonist/ co-creator with Writer Stan Lee, of the Spider-Man Comics

127. Dorothea Dix
Educator, writer, philanthropist

128. Hannah Dobryn
Author of the Katy Green Mysteries

129. Tamara Dobson
Actress: Cleopatra Jones Movies / Guinness Book of World Records-Tallest Leading Lady in Film

130. Elizabeth Dole
Reagan's Secretary of Transportation

131. Richard Donner
Film Director

"I was lucky because I never had kids. I never wanted kids. I wanted dogs."

132. Lizzie Douglas
Singer, Guitarist, Songwriter

133. Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Environmentalist

134. Maureen Dowd
Columnist

135. Sir George Downing
Founder of Downing College/ Cambridge, England

136. Gabriel Dumont
Native American Tribal Leader

137. Francis Drake
Explorer

138. Fran Dresher
Actress

139. Esther Dyson
Author, Internet Expert

140. Amelia Earhart
Aviator

141. Deborah Eisenberg
Author

"I don't have children, I don't understand them, I don't remember my childhood..."

142. Liubov Egorova
Dancer

143. Anita Ekberg
Actress

144. T.S. Eliot
Poet

145. Havelock Ellis
Psychologist, Author

146. Harlan Ellison
Author

147. Elizabeth I
Queen of England

148. Joan Elm
Canadian Politician/ Commiunity Activist

149. 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."

150. (Dame) Edith Evans
British Film and Stage Actress, Star of A Passage to India

151. Linda Evans
Actress, Star of Dallas

152. Rupert Everett
Actor

153. 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."

154. 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."

155. 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."

156. Pamelyn Ferdin
Actress

157. Ralph Fiennes
Actor, Star of The English Patient

"Children? Ewww!"

158. Lynn Fontanne
Actress

159. Margot Fonteyn
British Ballerina

160. Juliana Rieser Force
Whitney Museum Director

161. Richard Ford
Author of The Sportswriter/ Editor of Granta

162. Margaretta Forten
Abolitionist

163. Dian Fossey
Anthropologist

164. Janet Frame
Poet

165. Felix Frankfurter
Supreme Court Justice

166. 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."

167. William Frawley
Actor, Star of I Love Lucy

168. Frank Frazetta
Artist

169. Stephen Frears
Film Director

170. Alice Freeman
First woman to be president of a liberal arts college, (Wellesley)/ Helped establish the University of Chicago.

171. Elsie Freund
Artist, Jewelry Designer

172. Louis Freund
Artist

173. Robert Fripp
Composer/ Musician

174. Eva Gabor
Actress

175. Magda Gabor
Actress

176. Maxwell Gage
Noted New Zealand Geologist

177. Diamanda Galas
Singer

178. 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."

179. Paul William Gallico
Author

180. 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."

181. Greta Garbo
Actress

182. Ava Gardner
Actress

183. Greer Garson
Actress

184. 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.

185. 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."

186. William Schwenck Gilbert
Composer for Gilbert & Sullivan

187. 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,

188. Dorothy Gish
Actress

189. Lillian Gish
Actress

190. Katharine Bruce Glasier
Author

191. Susan Glaspell
Playwright

192. Sharon Gless
Actress

193. Crispin Glover
Actor

194. Christoph Willibald Gluck
Composer

195. 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.

196. Robert Hutchings Goddard
Physicist

197. Kurt Godel
Author

198. Alexander Godunov
Actor/ Dancer

199. 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."

200. Jeff Goldblum
Actor, Star of Jurassic Park

201. 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."

202. Valeria Golino
Actress

203. Jan Goodwin
Author, Travel Writer

204. Edward Gorey
Artist

205. Lotte Goslar
Dancer

206. Martha Graham
Choreographer

207. 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."

208. 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.”

209. 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"

210. Gael Greene
Food Critic, Author

211. (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."

212. John Robert Gregg
Inventor of the Gregg Shorthand Method/ Publisher

213. Joyce Grenfell
British Actress

214. Nanci Griffith
Singer / Songwriter

215. Martha Griffiths
First Female Michigan Lieutenant Governor.

216. 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."

217. James Grout
Actor

218. Mabel Dole Haden
Former President of NABWA

219. 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.

220. Daryl Hall
Singer, Musician

221. 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?"

222. 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."

223. Georg Friedrich Handel
Composer

224. 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."

225. Setsuko Hara
Japanese Actress

226. Warren Gamaliel Harding
29th U.S. President

227. E Chambré Hardman
Photographer

228. Debbie Harry
Singer, Blondie

229. Alex Heard
Author

230. Susan Helms
Astronaut

231. Adrian Henri
Poet/ Painter

232. 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."

233. Katherine Hepburn
Actress, Star of The Lion in Winter

234. 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

235. Lorena Hickok
AP Political Reporter

236. Taiko Hirabayashi
Author

237. Nicole Hollander
Cartoonist

238. Thelma Holt
Actress, Theatre Producer

239. 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."

240. 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.

241. Soad Hosni
Egyptian Actress

242. Lila Kedrova Howard
Actress

243. Mick Hucknall
Singer

244. Bonnie Hunt
Actress

245. 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."

246. Lauren Hutton
Actress / Model

247. 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."

248. 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."

249. 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."

250. Tove Jansson
Childrens' Book Author

251. Randall Jarrell
Poet

252. Joan of Arc
Christian Saint

253. Elton John
Singer

"We are not going to adopt a child."

254. Jack Johnson
First African American to win the heavyweight boxing championship of the world.

255. Margaret Johnston
Actress

256. 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.

257. Richard Mentor Johnson
U.S. Vice-president in Early 1800s

258. Samuel Johnson
Author, Editor

259. William Hugh Johnston
Labor Leader

260. Carolyn Jones
Actress, Morticia from the Addams Family

261. Renee Jones
Soap Actress: Days of Our Lives

262. Spike Jonze
Film Director

263. Madeline Kahn
Actress, Star of Blazing Saddles

264. Immanuel Kant
Philosopher

265. Julie Kavner
Actress

266. Nikos Kazantzakis
Author

267. Odette Keene
Musician

268. Helen Keller
Author

269. Joyce Kennard
Judge

270. Joe Kernan
Politician

271. Maynard Keynes
Bloomsbury Economist. Also founded the Vic-Wells Ballet and financed the establishment of the Arts Theatre in Cambridge, England

272. King Louis XVI
King of France

273. William Lyon MacKenzie King
Former Canadian Prime Minister

274. William Rufus King
U.S. Vice-President in the early 1800s

275. Robert Kiyosaki
Author

276. Caroline Knapp
Author

277. Aleksandra Kollontai
Author

278. Dean Koontz
Author

279. Tadeusz Kosciuszko
Polish Patriot

280. 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."

281. Jonathan Kozol
Author, Activist

"This hasn't been any kind of a sacrifice."

282. Lee Krasner
Artist, Wife of Jackson Pollock

283. 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."

284. Henry Richardson Labouisse
Diplomat/ Former Head of Unicef

285. Princess Lakshmi
Indian Princess

286. Elsa Lanchester
Actress

"I held a baby once. It felt like a bag of hot snakes."

287. 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."

288. Charles Laughton
Actor, Director

289. Dan Lauria
Actor

290. Frank John Lausche
Politician

291. Linda Lavin
Actress

292. 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."

293. Jay Leno
TV Host

294. Richard Lewis
Comedian

295. 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."

296. Queen Liliuokalani
Queen of Hawaii

297. Laura Linney
Actress

298. 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."

299. Carole Lombard
Actress

300. Jack Lord
Actor, Hawaii Five-O

301. Pauline Lord
Actress

302. Patty Loveless
Singer

303. Alfred Lunt
Actor

304. 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."

305. Rose McClendon
Actress

306. Robert McCormick
Former Owner of the Chicago Tribune

307. Mary Jackson McCrorey
Politician, Activist

308. Hattie McDaniel
Actress, Star of Gone With the Wind

309. Roddy McDowall
Actor, Photographer

310. Odd McIntyre
Newspaper Columnist

311. 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."

312. Kristy McNichol
Actress

313. Janet McTeer
Actress

314. Christine McVie
Singer / Songwriter, Fleetwood Mac

315. Dora Maar
Photographer, Lover of Picasso

316. René Magritte
Artist

"The Magrittes had no children, but were devoted to their little Pomeranian dog, Loulou."

317. 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]

318. Katherine Mansfield
Author

319. 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."

320. Francesca Marciano
Actress

321. 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."

322. 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.

323. Steve Martin
Comedian, Actor, Star of Housesitter

"...you don't want one of those things."

324. Vito Anthony Marcantonio
Politician

325. Wink Martindale
Game Show Host

326. 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."

327. Mari Matsunaga
Creator of i-mode, Named One of the Top 25 Tech Women of the Web

328. Giuseppe Mazzini
Italian Patriot

329. Fradique de Menezes
President of Sao Tome and Principe

330. Melina Mercouri
Greek Actress

331. Freddie Mercury
Musician

332. Angela Merkel
German Chancellor

333. George Michael
Musician

334. Oscar Micheaux
Film Director/ Producer, Authror

335. Alyssa Milano
Actress

336. Edna St. Vincent Millay
Poet

337. Alley Mills
Actress

338. 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."

339. 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...."

340. Margaret Mitchell
Author

341. Eugenio Montale
Nobel Prize Winner, Poet, Author, Editor, Translator

342. Vicki Moore
Spanish Animal Rights Philanthropist

343. Esai Morales
Actor, Star of La Bamba

344. John Morgan
Founder of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, and Medical Director of the Continental Army

345. Lady Morgan (Sydney Owenson)
Author

346. Morrissey
Musician

347. 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."

348. Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam
Britain's Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

349. Diana Muldaur
Actress

350. Ona Munson
Actress, Gone With the Wind

351. Haruki Murakami
Author, Former Tokyo Jazz Club Owner

352. Iris Murdoch
Author

353. Mikayil Mushfig
Poet

354. Modest Mussorgsky
Composer

355. Kanagarajah Muthiah
Tamil Activist

356. Mike Myers
Actor
1. Ralph Nader
Activist

"Not having a family was clearly a choice, a sacrifice," Nader has admitted. "If you want to deal with these corporate abuses, you have to give up things."

2. Taslima Nasrin
Author

3. Alla Nazimova
Actress

4. Noel Neill
Actress, "Lois Lane" on TV's Superman

5. Bebe Neuwirth
Actress, Star of Cheers

6. Sir Isaac Newton
Scientist

7. Stevie Nicks
Singer, Fleetwood Mac

"For me, the price was that I never married and never had children because there was never time. And if I had ever decided to do any of that it would have taken Fleetwood Mac off for two years and the band would have broken up. So that wasn't even acceptable. That wasn't even a choice."

8. Friedrich Nietzsche
Philosopher

9. Florence Nightingale
Nurse

10. Ursula Nordstrom
Childrens' Book Editor/ Harper & Row

"During her 40-year career as children's editor at Harper & Row, Nordstrom published most of the best and the brightest writers and illustrators for children: Margaret Wise Brown, E.B. White, Maurice Sendak, Garth Williams, Charlotte Zolotow, Louise Fitzhugh, Russell Hoban and Shel Silverstein. Once asked by a critical librarian what qualified her to publish children's books, Nordstrom pointedly replied: 'Well, I am a former child, and I haven't forgotten a thing.'"

11. Jessye Norman
Opera Singer

12. Hermione Norris
Actress

13. Kim Novak
Actress

14. Rudolph Nureyev
Dancer

"They wouldn't be as good as I am, and then I wouldn't know what to do with the little imbeciles."

15. Anita O'Day
Jazz Singer

“Ethel Kennedy dropped 11. There are enough people in the world. I did my part by raising dogs.”

16. Georgia O'Keeffe
Artist

17. Frederick D. O'Neal
Actor/ Playwright

18. Joyce Carol Oates
Author

19. Beth Ostrosky
Actress, Model

20. Claire Parker
Director, Animator

"Having no children of their own, which had been part of their marriage agreement, Claire and Alosha welcomed into their animation family a young Canadian animator, Jacques Drouin."

21. Dorothy Parker
Author

Having no children, Dorothy Parker left the NAACP the rights to her literary estate.

22. Suzanne-Lori Parks
Playwright

23. Rosa Parks
Activist

24. Dolly Parton
Singer / Actress

"I was feeling guilty about not having kids, about having a career, that I'm not the woman I should be because I don't have a desire to have them, that I was selfish."

25. Julia Pascal
Playwright

"I’ve never wanted children..."

26. Ann Patchett
Author

"The thing in my life that is most extraordinary is that I have always known what I have wanted to do...I have never wavered. I never wanted to get married, I never wanted children, I never wanted to be rich, I never wanted a big house… everything was designed for this one thing: I wanted to write."

27. Alicia Patterson
Editor

28. Wolfgang Pauli
Physicist

29. Linus Pauling
Winner of Nobel Prizes in Chemistry and Peace

30. Michelle Paver
Author

31. Anna Pavlova
Dancer

32. Molly Peacock
Poet/ President Emerita of the Poetry Society of America, Wrote a memoir called Paradise, Piece by Piece about her decision not to have a child.

"We live in a pronatalist culture, so when you decide not to have children, you find yourself at the far edge of the bell curve. How do you live happily there? Well, you live happily there if you are comfortable with your own nature. And that requires talking about how to separate motherhood from female identity. It's still a taboo subject -- not even discussed in women's studies programs. And endlessly fascinating to me, especially as the Census Bureau tells us we will be seeing increasing numbers of people making this decision."

33. Minnie Pearl
Singer

34. Samuel Pepys
Author

35. Bernadette Peters
Actress, Star of Impromptu

36. Arthur Phillip
First British Administrator Sent to Australia

37. Wendell Phillips
Orator and Reformer

38. William Phillips
Cofounder and Editor of Partisan Review , Writer, Critic

39. Marge Piercy
Author/ Poet

40. Plato Philosopher

41. Edgar Allan Poe
Author

42. Katherine Ann Porter
Author

43. Parker Posey
Actress

44. Beatrix Potter
Children's Book Author

45. Charles Edward Potter
Politician/ Philanthropist/ Administrator of the Cheboygan County Bureau of Social Aid from 1938 to 1942

46. Joyce Purnick
Former New York Times Metro Editor, Journalist

"Dedicated to the principle of fairness, Purnick, decreed that all reporters would have to work their share of weekends and holidays. She further fanned the flames when she gave a graduation speech at Barnard College in which she had the temerity to suggest that it wasn't necessarily possible to have it all. According to Burkett, Purnick said, "If I had left the Times to have children and then come back to work a four-day week the way some women reporters on my staff now do, or if I had taken long vacations and leaves to be with my family, or left the office at six o'clock, instead of eight or nine, I wouldn't be metro editor. Should women and men who have taken the detour of the Mommy-Daddy track be as far along as those who haven't? Would that be fair? I reluctantly have to say that it would not be fair."

47. Edna Purviance
Silent Movie Actress

48. Colin Quinn
Comedian

49. Robin Quivers
Radio Host

50. Raffi
Childrens' Musician

51. Bonnie Raitt
Singer / Songwriter

52. Joey Ramone
Musician

53. Ayn Rand
Writer / Philosopher, Author of Atlas Shrugged

54. A. Philip Randolph
Politician

55. Jeanette Rankin
1st Female US Representative

56. Man Ray
Artist

57. Rachel Ray
Celebrity Chef

"I don't have time. I work too much to be an appropriate parent. I feel like a bad mom to my dog some days because I'm just not here enough. I just feel like I would do a bad job if I actually took the time to literally give birth to a kid right now and try and juggle everything I'm doing."

58. Lou Reed
Singer, Musician

59. George Reeves Actor, Star of the Superman television series

60. Frances Reid
Soap Opera Actress

"But thanks to her father, Reid didn't follow the conventional social wisdom. Although she was married to the late actor Phillip Bourneuf for 43 years, the couple never had children. Most people might find it hard to believe, considering she epitomizes matriarchy on Days of our Lives...When not acting, Frances is an inveterate traveler. Her vacations find her in such exotic locales as South Africa, Peru, China and Egypt and the more mundane but no less exciting cities of Europe, most recently those in Italy."

61. Leni Riefenstahl
Filmmaker

62. Janet Reno
Former U.S. Attorney-General

63. Judith Resnick
Astronaut

64. Jennifer Rhodes
Actress, T.V. Show Charmed

"I was in my dentist’s office in the waiting room and somebody walked by and said, ‘Hi, Grams.’ Having never had children, that always sort of startles me."

65. Condoleezza Rice
National Security Advisor

66. Cliff Richards
Musician

"Well, there was a time, when… you know, everybody goes through that thing about, 'Oh, I'd like to be a father and make sure that the bloodline goes on', but, you know, as I've got older, I thought, 'Perhaps that's the wrong reason to have children. Maybe that's why we do have a lot of children who are out in the streets, because that's wanting a child for my sake, whereas a couple who give birth to a child, they should be doing it not only for their sake but mostly for the fact that they are bringing another human being into the world. And that other human being needs to be grown-up sensible, balanced, sane and… you know, in the mad world, but nevertheless able to combat it. So, less and less now do I feel that feeling of 'Well, I've never had a child and I regret it.' I've enjoyed having children around, but, you know, it's wonderful, they all go home and I can eat my porridge and watch the telly!"

67. Miranda Richardson
Actress

68. Alan Rickman
Actor / Director

"Not having had children has given me more space to work, I'm sure that's true, and when I work I'm very driven, but otherwise I don't sit around missing acting."

69. Elizabeth Riddell
Journalist

"I never wanted children. I wanted to have my own life and then I wanted my life with Blue...when my relatives had children and sometimes bring them round, I say, 'Look I'll give them money, and when they're older, we'll talk', but they're bored stiff and so am I."

70. Sally Ride
First American Female Astronaut

71. Bridget Riley
Artist

72. John Ringling
Founder, Ringling Brothers Circus

73. Morgan Andrew Robertson
Author

74. Debbie Rochon
B Movie Actress

75. Norman Perceval Rockwell
Illustrator

76. Eric Rohmann
Author, Winner of the 2003 Caldecott Medal for Best Illustrated Children's Book

77. Joey Ramone
Musician

78. Ginger Rogers
Actress

79. Richard Roeper
Film Reviewer, Chicago Sun-Times

"Lately it seems as if everybody I know is having a baby, thinking about having a baby, talking about their babies, e-mailing digital photos of their babies to the world, or consulting with their babies about having more babies. ('Dylan, I know you're only 7 months old but you're the smartest boy who ever lived. Would you like a little brother named Tyler, or a sister named Hunter?') Except me, of course."

80. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos
Actress

"I have nine horses. Whenever I think I might want to have a child, I buy a horse instead."

81. Wilhelm Rontgen
Awarded the first Nobel Prize for Physics in 1901, discoverer of X-Rays

82. Mickey Rourke
Actor/ Boxer

83. Patricia Routledge
Actress

84. Joan Ruddock
Activist

85. John Ruskin
Author

86. Winona Ryder
Actress

87. Dr. Lee Salk
Child Psychologist

88. Renu Saluja
Indian Film Editor

89. Diana Sands
Actress

90. Aligi Sassu
Artist

91. John Sayles
Director

92. Jean-Paul Sartre
Existential Philosopher

93. Diane Sawyer
TV News Anchor

94. Rosika Schwimmer
Author, Activist

95. Ed and Thelma Schoenberger
Co-founders of the Indiana Flower & Patio Show

"Ed recently donated $1 million to the St. Vincent Foundation, designating the money to be used to create and maintain gardens of flowers and trees at St. Vincent Hospice in Indianapolis. Schoenberger viewed the gift as a tribute to his wife, Thelma, who died at the hospice in 1997. The Schoenbergers began dating at Broad Ripple High School -- a budding romance that grew into more than 50 years of marriage. They had no children, so they poured their love into an event that brought hope and joy to millions of people. In 1958, the Schoenbergers started the Flower & Patio Show, which runs through Sunday at the Indiana State Fairgrounds."

96. Ellen Browning Scripps
Newspaper Columnist, Philanthropist

"She picked a cause or institution she found deserving of her support, set the level of her gift, and stuck to her decision. In accordance with her wishes, no public record was kept of her gifts, so the entirety of her philanthropy will probably never be known."

97. Joel Schumacher
Film Director

98. Maurice Sendak
Children's Book Author, Where the Wild Things Are

"He chose not to have children of his own, fearing that "to fail as a parent is to fail on the highest level."

99. George Bernard Shaw
Playwright

100. Lionel Shriver
Author

"For me, establishing myself as a writer was so important, and took so long, that it consumed my entire reproductive lifetime ... I didn't feel I could afford the distraction and emotional energy that it would have taken to try and raise a family at the same time."

101. Michael Sinelnikoff
Actor

102. Siouxsie
Singer/ Musician, Siouxsie and the Banshees

"I've never wanted children, only cats. I'll cross the street to stroke one."

103. Robert Smith
Singer/ Musician, The Cure

"I'm big in the uncle department...I like having kids for weekends...I just like taking them out and teaching them bad tricks...I hate the idea of being a dad. I'm too undisciplined and too selfish to be a father."

104. David Shogren
Bassist, Doobie Brothers

105. Betty Smith
Author

106. Dodie Smith
Playwright, Author of The Hundred and One Dalmatians

107. Howard Worth Smith
Politician

108. Kate Smith
Singer

109. Lemony Snicket (Real Name: Daniel Handler)
Childrens' Book Author

110. David Souter
Supreme Court Justice

111. Jill St. John
Actress

112. Mabel Stark
World's Greatest Female Tiger Trainer

113. Gertrude Stein
Author, Patron of the Arts

114. Victor Strauss
WWII Journalist

115. Gloria Steinem
Activist/ Writer

116. Maria W. Stewart
Author, Activist

117. Lily Strickland
Composer, Writer, Artist

118. Patrick Swayze
Actor, Star of Donnie Darko

119. Loretta Swit
Actress

120. Wanda Sykes
Stand Up Comic

121. Henrietta Szold
Holocaust Heroine

During the 1930s, Szold involved Hadassah in a program to rescue Jewish youth from Germany, and later from all of Europe. It is estimated that the program she created, Youth Aliyah, saved some 22,000 Jewish children from Hitler's concentration camps.

122. Wislawa Szymborska
Nobel Prize Winning Poet

"There are people who say, 'Let more people be born, because the earth can sustain them all.' I don't agree with that. We all know how many people die of malnutrition and diseases that should be extinct."

123. Quentin Tarantino
Director of Pulp Fiction

124. Sara Teasdale
Poet

125. Toni Tennille
Singer, Captain and Tennille

126. Nikola Tesla
Scientist, Inventor

127. Theodora
Empress and wife of Justinian I

128. Marlo Thomas
Actress

129. Susanna Thompson
Actress

130. Georgianne Thon
Actress

131. M. Carey Thomas
President of Bryn Mawr College

132. Willie Mae Thornton
Singer/ Songwriter

133. Jennifer Tilly
Actress

134. Wendy Tokunaga
Author

135. Lily Tomlin
Actress, Playwright

136. Ann Turkel
Model

137. Randy Travis
Singer

138. Edward Tylor
Anthropologist

139. Andrew Vachss
Novelist

140. Vivian Vance
Actress, Star of I Love Lucy

141. Zebulon Baird Vance
Politician

142. Luthur Vandross
Singer

143. Ann Van Dyk
Cheetah Preservationist

144. Reginald VelJohnson
Actor

145. Mariska Veres
Singer, The Shocking Blue

146. Amerigo Vespucci
Navigator

147. Carl Vinson
Politician

148. Monica Vitti
Actress

149. Larry Wachowski
Film Director

150. Christopher Walken
Actor, Star of Pulp Fiction

"I'm too selfish to have children," Walken once said. "Besides, my wife has enough trouble with me."

151. Bob Wallace
Computer Shareware Pioneer, Philanthropist, Founding Employee of Microsoft

152. Nina Wang
Ranked by Forbes Magazine as Asia's 35th Richest Person and Asia's Richest Woman

153. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward
Author

154. Ethel Waters
Actress, Evangelist, Singer

155. John Waters
Director

156. Alberta Watson
Canadian Actress

"Watson, who has no children but "lots of animals, dogs and cats," grew up in Toronto and came to the United States about 13 years ago."

157. Bill Watterson
Cartoonist, Creator of Calvin and Hobbes

158. Dawn Wells
Actress, Gilligan's Island

Recently she took a trip to Africa, joining climbers on an excursion to the lair of mountain gorillas. "I climbed from eight thousand to twelve thousand feet in one day, hacking through the jungle, and I got ten feet from the silverback gorilla and the whole family. Even now I get goose bumps - it's like taking yourself back to prehistoric times. This five-hundred pound creature looking you in the eye - no hostility - gentleness, curiosity, total trust. It was really something, it almost changes your life. I've traveled a lot, to Russia and all of that, but Africa - that was a real experience for me."

159. Eudora Welty
Author

160. Mae West
Actress, Comedian

"I never wanted children. I thought it would change me--mentally, physically and psychologically. I was always too absorbed in myself and I didn't have time for anybody else. I was talked into marriage once and maybe it was a good thing--I might have gotten married 10 times if I had been free all those years. But you know, a woman becomes a different person when she gets married. She lives for her husband and her family. I wanted to live for myself."

161. Edith Wharton
Author

162. Raymond Milner Wheeler
Civil Rights Activist

163. Alan Whicker
TV Host/ Documentarian

"...I think what you’ve never had you never miss and I’ve never had a family Christmas...it’s always been a twosome. I know it’s a naughty thing to say but I don’t feel deprived. I’ve been asked in the past and said I’m sure I’ll regret it some day but I must confess I haven’t. I don’t think the world would be a better place if there were lots of little Whickers running about."

164. Baroness White
Former UK Labour Government Minister

165. Betty White
Actress, Star of The Mary Tyler Moore Show

166. Margaret Bourke-White
Photographer

167. Sarah Helen Power Whitman
Poet, Essayist, Transcendentalist

168. Walt Whitman
Poet

169. Richard (Dick) Whittington English Philanthropist made famous by the children's book, Dick Whittington

170. Ann Widdecombe
UK Member of Parliament

171. Toyah Wilcox
Punk Rocker, Activist

172. Thornton Wilder
Playwright

173. Barry Williams
Actor, The Brady Bunch

174. Lucinda Williams
Musician

175. Robbie Williams
Musician

"I don't believe that to be fulfilled you have to have kids. What's the point? I can't guarantee my child won't suffer pain because that kid's going to be in pain at some point in their life. I don't want to see that. It's too much."

176. Wendy O. Williams
Singer, The Plasmatics

177. August Wilson
Pulizer Prize Winning Playwright

178. Bill W. (Wilson)
Founder of Alcoholics Anonymous

179. Oprah Winfrey
Talk Show Host

"Balance? That's why I don't have children...With a net worth of more than $1 billion, Oprah says she is focusing her resources to help "the world's children." Oprah is devoting her private time to help build 12 schools for girls in Africa within the next two years."

180. Barbara Windsor
Actress: Eastenders

"I never wanted children," she says. "My aunt said that whenever a new baby arrived in the family, I was nowhere to be seen. I got into showbiz young and that became my family. I've given 101 per cent to my career, there wasn't any room left for children."

181. Simpson Windsor
Duchess of Windsor

182. Edgar Winter
Musician

"On one hand, I can see how that would be a wonderful rewarding thing, but I think there are enough people in the world. I think we have a great relationship and it's enough for us."

183. Jeanette Winterson
Author

184. Estelle Winwood
English Actress

185. Kim Woodburn
Co-Star of TV Cleaning Duo Kim and Aggie

186. Robert Winship Woodruff
Former CEO of Coca Cola/ Philanthropist

"Mr. Woodruff gave anonymously to many institutions, a number of which owe their very existence to his generosity. Much of his philanthropy was directed through the Trebor Foundation, established in 1937 (renamed the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation following his death). The Foundation received funds from the estate of Mr. Woodruff's wife, Nell Hodgson Woodruff, who died in 1968, and from Mr. Woodruff's estate. The Woodruffs had no children."

187. Leonard Woolf

Having a child is problematic. It concerns the "new human being" as much as its parents, since this new human being is born without having given its consent. One should think twice, "from the point of view of the hypothetical child."

188. Virginia Woolf
Author, Mrs. Dalloway

189. Orville Wright
Aviator

190. Stephen J. Wright
College President/ Fisk University

191. Wilbur Wright
Aviator

192. Yanni
Composer

193. Dwight Yokam
Singer, Actor

194. Marguerite Yourcenar
Author/ First Woman To Be Elected To The Academie Francaise

"Leaving behind books is even more beautiful -- there are far too many children.."

195. David Young
Almanac Maker, Astronomer, Poet

196. YuPen
Chinese Actor, Singer

"Because my parent's marriage was an unhappy one that resulted in a divorce because of their difference of personality, I've decided not to have children when I marry." [But what if his future wife wants children?] "Then I guess I won't marry and will just leave the duty of producing grandchildren on my younger brother!"

197. Babe Didrikson Zaharias
Olympic Athlete/ Greatest female athlete in the first half of the 20th Century

198. Billy Zane
Actor

199. Renee Zellweger
Actress

200. Stephanie Zimbalist
Actress

201. Émile Zola
Author

thanks for posting this

Even if you accept that a percentage of them couldnt/wanted but didnt have kids, its still an impressive list. Somehow we dont end up sociopaths after all!

157. Ralph Fiennes
Actor, Star of The English Patient

"Children? Ewww!"

HAHAHAHA

131. Richard Donner
Film Director

"I was lucky because I never had kids. I never wanted kids. I wanted dogs."


My type of guy!

286. Elsa Lanchester
Actress

"I held a baby once. It felt like a bag of hot snakes."








339. 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...."


I know how she feels.

Some of them are a push, Hellen Keller was deaf and blind, its a bit harder to decide to have a child in those circumstances, and Rebecca Romijn actually has kids now, so the list needs an update Also, many gays and lesbians here, i wonder how being homosexual influences the need to have kids. I only have one good homosexual friend that I could ask and he absolutely doesnt want or feelt he need to have kids, similar with gay guys in his social circle.

The gay guys I know (and are close friends) are still in the closet , and there is huge pressure from their families to get married and have children. My cousin got married for this reason alone, and one of my good friends proposed to me in a state of panic 9 years ago. He had a rough time at home and he had just started making amends with his parents and they convinced him he should marry "a nice girl" and have kids, and pointed me (of all women). It was a huge let down I didn't want to get married to a gay guy and have kids with him... Lol, the irony.

I didn' have time to read the list carefully I only scanned for ppl I admire. Among those are Haruki Murakami, Georgia O'Keefe, Anna Pavlova, Oprah, and so many scientists!

I met Ralph Fiennes this past Febr in Berlin during the Berlinale film festival and he is the coolest guy alive.
Also another "famous" friend that I know he is child free and wants to stay that way is Tre Cool from the Green Day.

I'm lucky to live in San Francisco; all my lesbian and gay friends are out. Some have kids and some don't, it's a mixed bag just like it is for straight people. One of my gay male friends was a sperm donor to a lesbian couple and now they all have two daughters. he is very active in their lives, they know he's their dad, and he takes them out all the time. I think even for LGBT people these days, it's a choice.

Thanks for posting the list!

I noticed that Rebecca Romijn was on the list. I think she just had twins. So I guess her opinion changed. But that's her choice.

I think other ppl from the list had kids too, the list is a little old, but I can't proof read it. I just copied it and pasted it.

The pressure is huge even for the rich and famous. I think they deal with bigger pressure because they have the means to bring up 100 kids not only 1. One of my excuses to not have kids is that I'm not employed at the moment and have no income.

You're right that there probably is more pressure on the rich and/or famous to have children. That's really got to suck to have that extra pressure. What I have is bad enough