WAlan Alan was a British escapologist and magician. He originated tricks that have subsequently become familiar features of the repertoire of other performers and he was honoured by The Magic Circle.
WNorman Barrett is a veteran British circus ringmaster who made many appearances on television, notably with Charlie Cairoli in the children's television series Right Charlie.
WLars "Lasse" Nils Berghagen is a Swedish singer, songwriter and actor.
WJoseph Bonomo was a famous American weightlifter, strongman, film stunt performer and actor.
WYves Brunier is a French puppeteer. He is best known for his character, Casimir, an orange colored dinosaur who appears on French Children's TV. He played Chelli in Sacatruc, the French version of Big Bag. Brunier later went to perform on 5, Rue Sésame as Yoyo. He also performed on the Muppet Show TV pilot.
WIrina Bugrimova was the first female lion tamer in the Soviet Union. Called a "circus legend" by sources such as the BBC, Bugrimova was the first woman in Russia and the then-Soviet Union to work with lions, tigers, and ligers in a variety of performing acts, and trained more than 70 big cats during her career.
WRobert Cadman or Robert Kidman(1711–1739) was an 18th-century steeplejack and ropeslider who between 1732 and 1739 performed feats of daring by sliding or flying down a rope from St Mary's Church, Shrewsbury to the Gay Meadow across the River Severn. He also performed the stunt in other locations, for example an 1828 history of Dover (Batcheller) records that he "amused the people of Dover, by flying across the harbour, from the highest point of the cliff, towards the lower extremity of Snargate-street .....Thousands were assembled from all parts to view this novel sight." A History of Lincoln (1815) notes that, in this period, he went from a cathedral tower "to the castle hill near the Black Boy Inn"" and another descent from 'Newark spire'.
WChristian Chelman is a Belgian magician born in 1957. He specializes in close-up magic, card magic, mentalism, bizarre magic, storytelling magic and fantastic illusionism.
WJosé de Jesus Medrano, better known as Chuchín, was a Mexican clown and star attraction of many circuses in Mexico from the late 1960s to 1984, when he died while on tour in Africa. He toured Peru as the Circo Bell's Main attraction. Chuchin appeared in the 1983 Mexican film, Esta y L'otra con un solo boleto. While performing at the Royal Show, Chuchin fell to his death on May 29, 1984 in South Africa. Ironically, his fall occurred not during his high wire bicycle act, but rather as he was descending from the platform after completing the act.
WThomas Taplin Cooke (1782–1866) was an eminent English showman, born in Warwick, who toured in America as well as his own country. In 1997 Cooke was inducted into the Circus Hall of Fame.
WStuart Cumberland (1857–1922) was an English mentalist known for his demonstrations of "thought reading".
WAndrew Ducrow (1793–1842) was a British circus performer, often called the "Father of British circus equestrianism" and the "Colossus of equestrians". He was the originator of horsemanship acts and proprietor of Astley's Amphitheatre.
WLarry Edwards, also known by his drag persona Hot Chocolate, is an American entertainer. Known for his performances in Las Vegas, primarily as a Tina Turner female impersonator. Edwards has also competed in national pageants, being crowned as Miss Gay America in 1980.
WRickard Engfors is a Swedish model, stylist and former drag queen.
WThe Fratellini Family was a famous European circus family in the late 1910s and 1920s. An engagement at the Circus Medrano in Paris, France, after World War I was so successful that it sparked a strong resurgence of interest in the circus. By 1923, the Fratellini brothers had become the darlings of the Parisian intellectuals. They were lauded in print and worshiped by adoring fans who would show up at the circus just in time for the Fratellini entree, which sometimes ran as long as forty-five minutes.
WAlbert Fratellini was a famous circus clown who helped to redefine the role of the Auguste. He was a member of the Fratellini Family. Albert was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1886. He died in Épinay, France, in 1961. He had two brothers: François Fratellini and Paul Fratellini.
WFrançois Fratellini (1879-1951) was a French circus clown. He performed as an elegant Whiteface. He was a member of the Fratellini Family. François was born in Paris, in 1879, and died there in 1951. He had two brothers: Paul Fratellini and Albert Fratellini.
WPaul Fratellini (1877-1940) was a famous French-Italian circus clown. He was a member of the Fratellini Family. Paul Fratellini was born in Catania and died in Perreux, France. His brothers were François Fratellini and Albert Fratellini.
WLewis Jack Ganson was an English magician who became one of the most prolific writers in magic, going on to write more than sixty books on the subject.
WGunther Gebel-Williams was an animal trainer for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from 1968-1990.
WSven Lennart Green is a Swedish world champion close-up/card magician, a title which he won in 1991 at the FISM convention in Lausanne, Switzerland. He is known for his seemingly chaotic routines which, in spite of first appearances, display great skill. His original techniques and presentation style form an unorthodox and innovative contribution to sleight of hand magic.
WClaire Heliot was a German lion tamer.
WGiacomo Inaudi, also known as Jacques Inaudi in France, was an Italian calculating prodigy.
WLa Bella Ingeborg, was a Swedish circus princess, introduced as "The Prodigy Child".
WGunn Junhavat nickname Gunn, is a Thai actor, host and singer. He is best known for his role as Tar in the 2015 GTH's Hormones: The Series.
WRishi Kumaar is a Singaporean actor,musician,lyricist, known for acting in the Vasantham drama Vettai. He was the second runner-up of Vasantham Star 2005 organized by MediaCorp Vasantham.
WHéctor René Lavandera, known as René Lavand, was an Argentine magician, specialising in close-up magic. He appeared in Ed Sullivan's and Johnny Carson's television shows as well as shows at Hollywood's Magic Castle.
WHarry Lester, born Maryan Czajkowski in Poland, best known by his stage name The Great Lester, was a seminal vaudeville ventriloquist.
WLaurel Martyn was an Australian ballerina.
WMoi-Yo Miller was the stage name of Mona Loretta Miller, an Australian entertainer who toured the world as a magician's assistant and illusionist of the stage magician Dante, during the 1930s and 1940s
WBobby Norfolk is an American storyteller and arts educator.
WHanka Ordonówna or Ordonka was a Polish singer, dancer and actress. She began her career at age the age of 16 in the Warsaw cabaret Sfinks and then the theater Wesoły Ul in Lublin under the stage name Anna Ordon. singing hits still popular today: "O mój rozmarynie", "Rozkwitały pęki białych róż", and "Ułani, ułani".
WA.R. (Alexis) Philpott, also known as Pantopuck the Puppet Man or Panto to his friends, was a performer, teacher and researcher/writer on the subject of puppets and puppetry. He wrote several books on the subject, and was instrumental in the development of puppets for educational and therapeutic uses, as well as entertainment, through the Educational Puppetry Association (EPA) and its magazine Puppet Post, which he edited.
WVijaya Lakshmi Prakash, popularly known as Viji Prakash, is an Indian Bharata Natyam dancer, instructor, choreographer, and founder of the Shakti Dance Company and Shakti School of Bharata Natyam. Prakash has worked in the USA since 1976.
WRoman Rabinovich is an Israeli pianist. He studied at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv. He was the winner of the 2008 Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition. He has performed in the United States, Europe, and Israel at places such as Gewandhaus, Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Seymour Lipkin.
WMilan Radonjić, better known as Milan Tarot, born on 11 April 1973 in Belgrade, SFR Yugoslavia, is a known TV personality, comedian, satirist and tarot card reader in the Balkan region.
WRosella O'Connor Russell was a vaudeville star from about 1912 to the late 1940s on the Columbia circuit.
WKamron Samboonnanon was a musician and actor born 7 January 1920, in Sampanthawong. Some dispute this, claiming he was born in Suphanburi after analyzing his accent. He graduated from Chang Korsang Utentawai School. He had many popular songs, such as Political mantra, Tasikumsorn, Oder Father, Life of farmhouse and more.
WGeorge Shapiro is an American talent manager and television producer. He is among the most successful managers in show business, best known for representing Jerry Seinfeld, Carl Reiner and Andy Kaufman, and served as a producer for the sitcom Seinfeld.
WGary Hall, also known as Shequida Hall or mononymously as Shequida, is a classically trained opera singer, songwriter, playwright, and drag artist, born in Jamaica.
WMaria Spelterini was an Italian tightrope walker who was the only woman to cross the Niagara gorge on a tightrope, which she did on July 8, 1876 as part of a celebration of the U.S. Centennial. She used two and a quarter inch wire and crossed just north of the lower suspension bridge. She crossed again on July 12, 1876, this time wearing peach baskets strapped to her feet. She crossed blindfolded on July 19, and on July 22 she crossed with her ankles and wrists manacled.
WJoseph J. Sullivan was a blackface comedian and acrobat in New York. He composed the song Where Did You Get That Hat? and first performed it in 1888. It was a great success and he performed it many times thereafter.
WJuan Tamariz-Martel Negrón known professionally as Juan Tamariz or just Tamariz, is a Spanish magician.
WGary Turner is a sideshow performer. He holds the current Guinness World Record for the stretchiest skin, caused by a serious form of Ehlers Danlos syndrome. On October 29, 1999, in Los Angeles, he stretched the skin on his abdomen to a total length of 6.25 inches, earning him the record. He performed in the short film He Took His Skin Off For Me. He was also a member of The Circus of Horrors in 2005.
WMichel Velleman, known by his stage name Professor Ben Ali Libi, was a Jewish magician who was murdered in the Sobibor death camp during World War II. Dutch poet Willem Wilmink wrote a poem about his being murdered by the Nazis.
WValentine Augustus Walker was an English magician, escape artist and illusion designer. He was born in Moseley, Birmingham to Joseph Walker, a landscape gardener, and his wife Emma. Val Walker worked as an electrical apparatus maker, later serving in the Royal Navy and was billed as the "Wizard of the Navy". Walker is credited as the designer of the Radium Girl illusion. His most famous escape was "The Tank in the Thames" where he was bolted into a steel tank lowered into the river Thames from the Sea-Scout Training Ship, Northampton on 20 August 1920. He escaped in 20 seconds. He was married in 1913 to Ethel Dora Harris, the daughter of Thomas Daniel Harris and his wife Emma Ellson. He retired from the stage in 1924, returning briefly in 1939, under the name of 'Val Enson', with an illusion called "The Aquamarine Girl"
WWanda Wisdom is the female impersonation persona of Bradley Traynor. She is a drag queen entertainer and a podcaster from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
WJohn Bertil "Beppe" Wolgers was a Swedish author, poet, translator, lyricist, actor, entertainer and artist.
WCharles-Joseph Zidler (1831–1897) was a French impresario. He co-founded the Paris cabaret Moulin Rouge with Joseph Oller.