Famous People with Special Needs

The following people did not let their disability stop them in achieving their dreams.

Ludwig Van Beethoven – musician, (deaf)

Ray Charles – musician, composer, singer (blind)

Cher – singer, actress (LD)

Tom Cruise – actor (LD)

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec – artist (physically challenged)

Walt Disney – animator, cartoonist, created Disneyland

(labeled “slow”)

Thomas Edison – inventor, industrialist (LD)

Albert Einstein – scientist (LD)

Jim Eisenreich – baseball althlete (Tourette syndrome)

Whoopi Goldberg – actress, comedian (LD)

James Earl Jones – actor (stutter from age of 6 to 14)

John Lennon – singer, musician, songwriter with Beatles (LD)

Marlee Matlin – actress (deaf)

Isaac Newton – scientist (mentally ill)

Itzhak Perlman – concert violinist (paralyzed from waist down)

Richard Pryor – actor, comedian (multiple sclerosis)

Theodore Roosevelt – 26th U.S. President

(asthma, partially sighted)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt – 32nd U.S. President,

(had polio at age 39, paralyzed)

Vincent Van Gogh – artist (mentally ill)

Stevie Wonder – musician (blind)

LD – learning differences or disability