Famous people with 'disabilities'

[Oneeyedvic]

I am doing a presentation to a group of 13/14 year olds - it is meant to be inspiring. I want to mention a lot of people who have either overcome adversity / disabilities to become very famous - eg:

Albert Einstein / Tom Cruise / Jamie Oliver - dyslexia
Beethoven / deaf
Sir Steven Redgrave / Dennis Rodman - asthmatic
Julius Caesar / Danny Glover - epilepsy
Stevie Wonder - blind

any other people (preferably ones that 13/14 year olds will know / relate to)?

[teddybon]

Bill Gates autistic
tammi grey thompsom paraplegic
steven fry, billy piper ,sharon osborne bipolar (Very 'in' at moment)
Gareth gates speech impediment
Simon cowell irreversible smugness

[shammydodger]

Redgrave is also a diabetic.
Helen Keller
Christy Brown - portrayed by Daniel Day Lewis in the film "My Left Foot." Don't say "who?" cos you might offend our Irish friends.

[B00]

Stephen Hawking.

[sddsddean]

Ian Dury - polio (though I don't suppose they will have heard of him)

Evelyn Glennie - A deaf musician! How inspiring is that!

Douglas Bader

Nelson

[shammydodger]

Franklin Roosevelt - polio

[makemesmile]

I've gone a bit blank! Can only think of Heather Mills McCartney

Did a bit of a search, there's a female surfer Bethany Hamilton, she looks like a positive inspiration!
info here: http://www.bethanyhamilton.com/

[gazzawazza]

Michael J Fox, Ray Charles.

[dot.hawkes]

The Queens father, King George V1 had a speech impediment that he worked hard to overcome, especially for the Christmas broadcasts on the radio.

[dot.hawkes]

(I never heard one though as i was born after he died, just)

[willa]

Keanu Reeves is also dyslexic.

[Oneeyedvic]

Thanks good people - knew I could count on a few good suggestions.

Jade Goody sprung to my mind as well!

[saxy_jag]

Frank Sinatra was partially deaf.

Stephen Fry is in the news at the moment - he has BPD - not a disability, but it does make life difficult.

Someone mentioned Evelyn Glennie. There's a bit on her website about disability, deafness and her work. My husband has met her and says she's lovely, and from shet he says, I'm sure she'd be happy for you to contact her.

[saxy_jag]

Sorry - Evelyn's website:

http://www.evelyn.co.uk/

[Oneeyedvic]

Thank you - also thought about Fred Astaire - "Can't sing, can't dance, can act a little...."

That's fairly inspirational - to be given a review like that but to get on with your career.

Any more suggestions, gratefully received.

[wilsarnie]

Ade Adepitan - Basketball player, CBBC presenter and he's on that BBC trailer.

He's quite 'street', they may identify with that!

Further to teddybon's reply it's Tanni-GT not Tammi but I have no correction on Simon Cowell's irreversible smugness, an absolute disability in my eyes!!

[kick3m0n]

The boys may like to know of somw footballers who've overcome disability....Kanu (now of Portsmouth, ex Arsenal and WBA) led Nigeria to Olympic gold and then was diagnosed with a career threatening heart condition. A successful op allowed him to continue playing, but he set up a heart foundation to help children in africa with heart problems.
There's a footballer plays for Hibernian up here in Scotland, name's Dean Shields, and he only has one eye. His other had been severely damaged for years and at the start of 2006 he finally admitted his problem seeing properly. He took the brave step to have the eye removed and is now back playing, and scoring regualrly for Hibs.

[Octavius]

Ade Adepitan - Met him recently, a very nice friendly bloke.
Albert Einstein - apparently had Aspergers
Henry Ford - Dyslexic
Isaac Newton - Stutter and epilepsy
Paul Newman - Colour blind
Stlvester Stallone - paralysis of face and speech disability
Lord Byron - had epilepsy and a club foot
David Blunkett - blind
Winston Churchill - had a lisp
.......and I am running out of steam, but thought it worth mentioning Rick Allen who is/was the Def Leppard drummer. He lost an arm and so rearranged his drum kit to compensate and thus continued to beat the rhythm of rock one handed.

[Oneeyedvic]

cheers people - forgot about Rick Allen

[-Zorro-]

Alesandro del Pierro (Italian World Cup player) is epileptic I believe...so may be a good choice as he is doing very physically tuff career