Famous people with asperger's - Where's a list of them?

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To put a murderer at the top of the list doesn't necessarily mean someone hates Aspies. It can simply mean that whomever put the list together was doing a fair one, not based on whether or not the 'famous' person would be liked or not.

That said, I too am highly skeptical of every list I've come across. Most seem to slap the label on everyone who was the least bit eccentric. Most artists are eccentric to some extent. Most of them do not have AS.

The only contemporary celebrity I know of (scratch that - have heard from second hand sources which appear reliable) who is confirmed to have AS is Dan Akroyd. Bill Gates and Daryl Hannah are strongly suspected to have it, but neither have said so to my knowledge.

Finally, I'd be careful with using celebrities to validate one's own measure of success. Rather, when I get into a discussion with someone who learns I'm AS and yet, "But you're so normal!" I use that and a celebrity reference or three to illustrate that "Autism" isn't always "Dustin Hoffman in Rainman." That yes, we often struggle - hard - to fit into the definition of 'normal,' sometimes with success, sometimes not so much. Yes, we're capable of being actors or software moguls, or murders or dictators, or humble Joe Schmos on the unemployment line!

- Jo (Schmo?)

Doctors do it too. They have slapped labels on the dead. What they do is read about them and it says how they functioned and acted, so it spells out AS to them.

That murderer sure looked different it in the photo. His eyes and the way he was sitting and his facial expression looked weird. I don't see many aspies looking this way in photos.

Some of these are insane. I mean, Cleopatra?!?! You've got to be kidding me!! !

I have the feeling that people are just trying to make it so that they have the "famous peoples' syndrome". Granted, some of them are probably true, like Albert Einstein and Bill Gates, but still...

Seems like lot of celebraties have AS.


Shall I say Vanessa Redgrave has it just because she pisses people off with the things she said in the 60's and 70's? I was told that by a couple people.

Shall I assume one her daughters has it because she is shy?


Not enough to assume they have it.


Shall I say Mary Stuart Masterson has it because she was stuck on that "I'm Gonna be (500 Miles)" song? She played it over and over on the set of Benny & Joon because it was her favorite song so she asked for it to be in the movie. Still, not enough to say she has it.


I don't know if lot of celebs genuinely have it or it's just assumptions people make over a trait they show or a few.

Last edited by Spokane_Girl on 07 Jan 2009, 10:27 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Seems to me like one might merely ask living celebrities, and it is impolite to include them on any such list without doing so and recieiving an affirmative reply.

As for the dead people, heh. The list posted on this thread is absurd. Wikipedia's list is fairly sensible.

Abraham Lincoln had syphilis. There is fine historical evidence of this. Practically any weird behavior can be explained by it. And really, since it was so prevailant from the 1490's until the discovery of penicillin, practically any historical figure speculated to have a mental illness or a neurological condition is more likely to have had the pox, unless symptoms were reported in childhood and didn't progress properly.

Hey, according to the article that list comes from, Marilyn Monroe had Asperger's because she "had a history of emotional instability, depression, and suicide." (Yes, that is the reason given in the article in its entirety). If depression is sufficient to diagnose someone with Asperger's why not shyness? With depression and shyness I think we can "diagnose" half of America with Asperger's...Given that they say

The article is truly pathetic. It shows active attempts to *mislead*. Well, either that or the author has zero knowledge of history. For example Socrates was an Aspie because,

"Socrates committed suicide (Botham, 2006, p. 16), indicating potential depression stemming from difficulties with understanding social conventions, a development of “compensatory thoughts and attitudes for feeling alienated, socially isolated and not understood,” (Attwood, 2006, p. 14). The suicide rate in people with Asperger’s is higher than that of the neurotypical population."

No, as is *famously* known, Socrates was *forced* to commit suicide (drinking the poison hemlock) as his sentence for being found guilty of corrupting the minds of the young. Besides there is the ridiculousness of diagnosing someone solely on the basis that they committed suicide.

I like the note, "Also included are famous people for whom there is a lot of speculation that they have or had Aspergers Syndrome, but who may not have (or have had) Aspergers at all." Besides a few names like Albert Einstein, Newton and Gates the *only* source I've seen speculate on a lot of these names is the article itself. So saying that there is a "lot of speculation that they have or had Aspegers Syndrome" is disingenuous at best.

The most ridiculous "diagnosis" is Harry Truman. The reason why he had Asperger's was because of his middle name. You see his middle name is just "S" because his parents couldn't decide on a middle name. This (and only this) is a sign that they were Aspie's and hence Harry Truman was an Aspie. QED. OK...right...

Last edited by AnnieK on 08 Jan 2009, 1:28 am, edited 2 times in total.

Bran Cohen. the guy who invented bittorrent.

none of them had Aspeger's. yee

he is self-diagnosed, so it's hard to tell.

At least it's not a random internet guy diagnosing him for stupid reasons

I think Steve Wozniak may have Asperger's from quite a few things in his auto-biography, although I could easily be wrong.

Socrates wasn't actually forced to drink hemlock. He could have skipped town, and pretty much everyone wanted him to, including the people who sentenced him. But he chose to annoy people by sticking around and dying for a cause. Overaged idealistic teenager!

He did actually have spells of some sort - petit mal epilepsy? hallucinations? It's hard to be sure, just that he used to have to go off by himself until they wore off (he'd feel them coming, I guess).

Marilyn Munroe being autistic is pretty funny. I think the woman who wrote that list was just being sloppy and hopeful. More rigorous criteria, please!

I was watching the makeup and costume test on Benny & Joon on the DVD and I see Mary Stuart Masterson twirling her hair and making funny faces. But she could just be doing that for her role of Joon to test out the dress she has on so the costume designer can decide if the color goes with the character. Actors do that so it's hard to tell if they are being genuine or not when they aren't shooting a scene.

Yeah, somehow I can´t believe Marilyn Monroe would have AS...pretty funny, yes...

I didn´t know about Daryl Hannah. Is that true? I knew about Dan Akroyd.

I´m also pretty sure I read that Carl Sagan had it, in more than 1 source. However, I wouldn´t swear by that, I just read it somewhere. Also the woman who wrote "The Midwive´s Tale" (I just forgot her name, damn!)

Can´t say much for dead famous people, although I do suspect that Vincent Van Gogh had it...it makes sense, anyway.

[quote="Morgana"]Yeah, somehow I can´t believe Marilyn Monroe would have AS...pretty funny, yes...

who knows?
but i cannot see why the possibility is so funny.
to me it is plausible....That is...if i were interested in pondering the lives of celebrities. (see my jett travolta posts......)

Both Clark Gable and Howard Huges have been quoted as saying that they thought Marilyn had 'autistic' characteristics but who knows.