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List of famous teachers, with photos, bios, and other information when available. Who are the top teachers in the world? This includes the most prominent teachers, living and dead, both in America and abroad. This list of notable teachers is ordered by their level of prominence, and can be sorted for various bits of information, such as where these historic teachers 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 teachers.

Use every person on this list for yours, from Thomas Jefferson to Lyndon B. Johnson.

From reputable, prominent, and well known teachers to the lesser known teachers of today, these are some of the best professionals in the teacher field. If you want to answer the questions, "Who are the most famous teachers ever?" and "What are the names of famous teachers?" then you're in the right place. (2460 items)

Bill Clinton is listed (or ranked) 1 on the list List of Famous Teachers
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Previously, he served as Governor of Arkansas from ...more

James Franco is listed (or ranked) 2 on the list List of Famous Teachers
James Edward Franco is an American actor, filmmaker, and teacher. His first prominent acting role was the lead character Daniel Desario on the short-lived cult hit television program Freaks and ...more

Albert Einstein is listed (or ranked) 3 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist. Einstein's work is also known for its influence on the philosophy of science. He developed the general theory of relativity, one of the ...more

Gene Simmons is listed (or ranked) 4 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Gene Simmons is an Israeli-born American rock bass guitarist, singer-songwriter, record producer, entrepreneur, actor, and television personality. Known by his stage persona The Demon, he is the ...more

Rupert Boneham is listed (or ranked) 5 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Rupert Boneham is an American mentor for troubled teens, who became known to reality television audiences in 2003 as a contestant on Survivor: Pearl Islands where he placed 8th. He later ...more

Pope Benedict XVI is listed (or ranked) 6 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Pope emeritus Benedict XVI served as pope of the Catholic Church from 2005 until his resignation in 2013. Benedict was elected on 19 April 2005 in a papal conclave following the death of Pope ...more

Thomas Jefferson is listed (or ranked) 7 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third President of the United States. He was a spokesman for democracy, and ...more

Sting is listed (or ranked) 8 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner CBE, known on stage as Sting, is an English musician, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, activist, actor and philanthropist. He was principal songwriter, lead ...more

Henry Kissinger is listed (or ranked) 9 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Henry Alfred Kissinger is an American diplomat and political scientist. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents ...more

Laura Bush is listed (or ranked) 10 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Laura Bush is the wife of the forty third President of the United States George W. Bush and the incumbent First Lady of the United States. Born in 1946 in Midland, Texas, Mrs. Bush always had an ...more

Ben Stein is listed (or ranked) 11 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Benjamin Jeremy "Ben" Stein is an American writer, lawyer, actor, and commentator on political and economic issues. He attained early success as a speechwriter for American presidents ...more

Aristotle is listed (or ranked) 12 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist born in the Macedonian city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was ...more

Gabriel Byrne is listed (or ranked) 13 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Gabriel James Byrne is an Irish actor, film director, film producer, writer, cultural ambassador and audiobook narrator. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined London's ...more

Drew Pinsky is listed (or ranked) 14 on the list List of Famous Teachers
David Drew Pinsky, best known as Dr. Drew, is an American board-certified internist, addiction medicine specialist, and media personality. He has hosted the nationally syndicated radio talk show ...more

Tony Danza is listed (or ranked) 15 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Tony Danza is an American actor known for starring on the TV series Taxi and Who's the Boss?, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award and four Golden Globe Awards. In 1998, Danza won the ...more

Joy Behar is listed (or ranked) 16 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Joy Behar is an American comedian, writer, actress and was a co-host on the ABC talk show The View. She hosted The Joy Behar Show on HLN from 2009 to 2011 and Joy Behar: Say Anything! on Current ...more

Leonard Bernstein is listed (or ranked) 17 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Leonard Bernstein was an American composer, conductor, author, music lecturer, and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive ...more

Lyndon B. Johnson is listed (or ranked) 18 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Lyndon Baines Johnson, often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States, a position he assumed after his service as the 37th Vice President. Johnson, a Democrat from Texas, ...more

James Carville is listed (or ranked) 19 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Chester James Carville, Jr. is an American political commentator and media personality who is a prominent figure in the Democratic Party. Carville gained national attention for his work as the ...more

Ludwig Wittgenstein is listed (or ranked) 20 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From ...more

Charles Durning is listed (or ranked) 21 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Charles Edward Durning was an American actor, with appearances in over 200 movies, television shows and plays. Durning's memorable roles included the Oscar-winning The Sting and Dog Day ...more

Nhat Hanh is listed (or ranked) 22 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Thích Nhất Hạnh is a Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, teacher, author, poet and peace activist. He lives in the Plum Village Monastery in the Dordogne region in the South of France, ...more

Aimee Garcia is listed (or ranked) 23 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Amy Garcia is a screenwriter.

Jeff Conaway is listed (or ranked) 24 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Jeffrey Charles William Michael "Jeff" Conaway was an American actor known for his roles in the movie Grease and two US television series Taxi and Babylon 5. Conaway was also featured ...more

Charles Laughton is listed (or ranked) 25 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Charles Laughton was an English stage and film actor and director. Laughton was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and first appeared professionally on the stage in 1926. In ...more

Brendan Gleeson is listed (or ranked) 26 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Brendan Gleeson is an Irish actor. His best-known performances include supporting roles in films such as Braveheart, Gangs of New York, 28 Days Later, Troy, and the Harry Potter films and ...more

H. G. Wells is listed (or ranked) 27 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Herbert George Wells — known as H. G. Wells — was a prolific English writer in many genres, including the novel, history, politics, and social commentary, and textbooks and rules for war games. ...more

Howard Zinn is listed (or ranked) 28 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Howard Zinn was an American historian, author, playwright, and social activist. He was a political science professor at Boston University. Zinn wrote more than 20 books, including his ...more

Cornel West is listed (or ranked) 29 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Cornel Ronald West is an American philosopher, academic, activist, author, public intellectual, and prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America. The son of a Baptist minister, West ...more

Franz Schubert is listed (or ranked) 30 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer. Schubert died at 31 but was extremely prolific during his lifetime. His output consists of over six hundred secular vocal works, seven complete ...more

Jeffrey Tambor is listed (or ranked) 31 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Jeffrey Michael Tambor is an American actor and voice actor, best known for his roles as Hank Kingsley on The Larry Sanders Show, as well as George Bluth Sr. and Oscar Bluth on Arrested ...more

Cass Sunstein is listed (or ranked) 32 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Cass Robert Sunstein is an American legal scholar, particularly in the fields of constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, and law and behavioral economics, who was the ...more

George McGovern is listed (or ranked) 33 on the list List of Famous Teachers
George Stanley McGovern was an American historian, author, U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 presidential election. McGovern grew up in ...more

Aiden Shaw is listed (or ranked) 34 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Aiden Shaw is a British author, musician, model and former gay pornographic film actor.

Ed Koch is listed (or ranked) 35 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Edward Irving "Ed" Koch was an American lawyer, politician, political commentator, movie critic and reality television arbitrator. He served in the United States House of ...more

Charles Nelson Reilly is listed (or ranked) 36 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Charles Nelson Reilly was an American actor, comedian, director and drama teacher, known for his comedic roles in stages, films, children's television and cartoons, and as a game show panelist.

Margaret Hamilton is listed (or ranked) 37 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Margaret Brainard Hamilton was an American film character actress best known for her portrayal of the Wicked Witch of the West in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's classic film The Wizard of Oz. A former ...more

Robby Benson is listed (or ranked) 38 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Robby Benson is an American film and television actor, television director, educator and singer.

Erich Segal is listed (or ranked) 39 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Erich Wolf Segal was an American author, screenwriter, and educator. He was best known for writing the novel Love Story, a best-seller, and writing the motion picture of the same name, which was ...more

Dmitri Shostakovich is listed (or ranked) 40 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Russian composer and pianist, and a prominent figure of 20th-century music. Shostakovich achieved fame in the Soviet Union under the patronage of Soviet ...more

Craig Robinson is listed (or ranked) 41 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Craig Phillip Robinson is an American actor, stand-up comedian, and singer. He is best known for his role as Darryl Philbin on The Office, and his roles in the films Pineapple Express, Miss ...more

Anne Meara is listed (or ranked) 42 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Anne Meara is an American actress and comedian. She and Jerry Stiller were a prominent 1960s comedy team, appearing as Stiller and Meara, and are the parents of actor and comedian Ben and ...more

Tom Lehrer is listed (or ranked) 43 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Thomas Andrew Lehrer is an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, and mathematician. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater. He is best known for the pithy, humorous songs he ...more

Rafe Judkins is listed (or ranked) 44 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Rafe Lee Judkins was a contestant on the 11th season of Survivor, which took place in Guatemala. He is now a working TV and travel writer with credits on shows such as My Own Worst Enemy, Chuck, ...more

Henry Cowell is listed (or ranked) 45 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Henry Cowell was an American composer, music theorist, pianist, teacher, publisher, and impresario. His contribution to the world of music was summed up by Virgil Thomson, writing in the early ...more

Golda Meir is listed (or ranked) 46 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Golda Meir was an Israeli teacher, kibbutznik, politician and the fourth Prime Minister of Israel. Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel on March 17, 1969, after serving as Minister of ...more

Frank McCourt is listed (or ranked) 47 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Francis "Frank" McCourt was an Irish-American teacher and writer. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel Angela's Ashes, a tragicomic memoir of the misery and squalor of his childhood.

Milton Friedman is listed (or ranked) 48 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician and writer who taught at the University of Chicago for more than three decades. He received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic ...more

Maxine Waters is listed (or ranked) 49 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Maxine Moore Waters is the U.S. Representative for California's 43rd congressional district, and previously the 35th and 29th districts, serving since 1991. She is a member of the Democratic ...more

Hugh Hewitt is listed (or ranked) 50 on the list List of Famous Teachers
Hugh Hewitt is an American radio talk show host with the Salem Radio Network, lawyer, academic, and author. A conservative, a Catholic, he comments on society, politics, and what he regards as ...more