List of Famous Lecturers

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Updated June 9, 2017 30.7K views327 items

List of famous lecturers, with photos, bios, and other information when available. Who are the top lecturers in the world? This includes the most prominent lecturers, living and dead, both in America and abroad. This list of notable lecturers is ordered by their level of prominence, and can be sorted for various bits of information, such as where these historic lecturers were born and what their nationality is. The people on this list are from different countries, but what they all have in common is that they're all renowned lecturers.

The list you're viewing is made up of many different people, including Helen Keller and Ralph Nader.

From reputable, prominent, and well known lecturers to the lesser known lecturers of today, these are some of the best professionals in the lecturer field. If you want to answer the questions, "Who are the most famous lecturers ever?" and "What are the names of famous lecturers?" then you're in the right place. {#nodes}
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  • Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was lauded as the "greatest humorist this country has produced", and William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature". His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), the latter often called "The Great American Novel". Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He served an apprenticeship with a printer and then worked as a typesetter, contributing articles to the newspaper of his older brother Orion Clemens. He later became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River before heading west to join Orion in Nevada. He referred humorously to his lack of success at mining, turning to journalism for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. His humorous story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", was published in 1865, based on a story that he heard at Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, where he had spent some time as a miner. The short story brought international attention and was even translated into French. His wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty. Twain earned a great deal of money from his writings and lectures, but he invested in ventures that lost most of it—such as the Paige Compositor, a mechanical typesetter that failed because of its complexity and imprecision. He filed for bankruptcy in the wake of these financial setbacks, but he eventually overcame his financial troubles with the help of Henry Huttleston Rogers. He eventually paid all his creditors in full, even though his bankruptcy relieved him of having to do so. Twain was born shortly after an appearance of Halley's Comet, and he predicted that he would "go out with it" as well; he died the day after the comet returned.
  • Helen Adams Keller (June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. The story of Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, was made famous by Keller's autobiography, The Story of My Life, and its adaptations for film and stage, The Miracle Worker. Her birthplace in West Tuscumbia, Alabama, is now a museum and sponsors an annual "Helen Keller Day". Her June 27 birthday is commemorated as Helen Keller Day in Pennsylvania and, in the centenary year of her birth, was recognized by a presidential proclamation from Jimmy Carter. A prolific author, Keller was well-traveled and outspoken in her convictions. A member of the Socialist Party of America and the Industrial Workers of the World, she campaigned for women's suffrage, labor rights, socialism, antimilitarism, and other similar causes. She was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1971 and was one of twelve inaugural inductees to the Alabama Writers Hall of Fame on June 8, 2015.
  • Ralph Nader (; born February 27, 1934) is an American political activist, author, lecturer, and attorney, noted for his involvement in consumer protection, environmentalism and government reform causes. The son of Lebanese immigrants to the United States, Nader was educated at Princeton and Harvard and first came to prominence in 1965 with the publication of the bestselling book Unsafe at Any Speed, a highly influential critique of the safety record of American automobile manufacturers. Following the publication of Unsafe at Any Speed, Nader led a group of volunteer law students—dubbed "Nader's Raiders"—in an investigation of the Federal Trade Commission, leading directly to that agency's overhaul and reform. In the 1970s, Nader leveraged his growing popularity to establish a number of advocacy and watchdog groups including the Public Interest Research Group, the Center for Auto Safety, and Public Citizen. Nader's activism has been directly credited with the passage of several landmark pieces of American consumer protection legislation including the Clean Water Act, the Freedom of Information Act, the Consumer Product Safety Act, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the Whistleblower Protection Act, and the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. He has been repeatedly named to lists of the "100 Most Influential Americans", including those published by Life Magazine, Time Magazine, and The Atlantic, among others. He ran for President of the United States on several occasions as an independent and third party candidate, using the campaigns to highlight under-reported issues and a perceived need for electoral reform. His 2000 candidacy stirred controversy, with several studies suggesting that Nader's candidacy helped Republican George W. Bush win a close election against Democrat Al Gore. During the election, Nader had stated that he preferred Bush to win over Gore, though the Nader campaign later clarified that the statement was not meant to indicate Bush was a better choice over Gore.A two-time Nieman Fellow, Nader is the author or co-author of more than two dozen books, and was the subject of a documentary film on his life and work, An Unreasonable Man, which debuted at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.
  • Gregory Walter Graffin, Ph.D (born November 6, 1964) is an American punk rock singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, college lecturer, and author. He is most recognized as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and only constant member of the noted Los Angeles band Bad Religion, which he co-founded in 1980. He also embarked on a solo career in 1997, when he released the album American Lesion. His follow-up album, Cold as the Clay was released nine years later. Graffin obtained his PhD in the history of science at Cornell University and has lectured courses in natural sciences at both the University of California, Los Angeles and at Cornell University.
  • Beverley June Hughes, Baroness Hughes of Stretford (born 30 March 1950) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Stretford and Urmston from 1997 to 2010. In 2004, she was appointed to the Privy Council. From 2005 to 2009, she served in the Government as the Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families.On 6 May 2017, Hughes was appointed as Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime by Greater Manchester Combined Authority Mayor, and former Shadow Home Secretary, Andy Burnham.
  • Peter Frederick Weller (born June 24, 1947) is an American film and stage actor, television director, and art historian. Weller has appeared in more than 70 films and television series, including RoboCop (1987) and its sequel RoboCop 2 (1990), in which he played the title character, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). He has also appeared in such films as Woody Allen's Mighty Aphrodite (1995), the Oliver Stone-produced The New Age (1994), and David Cronenberg's adaptation of William Burroughs's novel Naked Lunch (1991). Aside from a Saturn Award nomination for his RoboCop role, Weller received an Academy Award nomination for his 1993 short Partners, in which he also acted. In television, he hosted the program Engineering an Empire on the History Channel from 2005 to 2007. He also played Christopher Henderson in the fifth season of 24, Stan Liddy in the fifth season of the Showtime original series Dexter, as well as Charles "Charlie" Barosky in 11 episodes in (Season 6) of Kurt Sutter 's long running Sons of Anarchy. Since 2012, Weller has been involved in the A&E (now Netflix) series Longmire both as a director and an actor. In 2017, Weller appeared on The Last Ship as Dr. Paul Vellek.