Most of the people on this list weren't diagnosed, but someone thinks that based on behaviors or symptoms, they were/are most likely autistic.

This list makes me feel better. I find myself looking at it most when my son is really trying me.

Historical famous autistic people

• Jane Austen, 1775-1817, English novelist, author of Pride and Prejudice
• Béla Bartók, 1881-1945, Hungarian composer
• Ludwig van Beethoven, 1770-1827, German/Viennese composer
• Alexander Graham Bell, 1847-1922, Scottish/Canadian/American inventor of the telephone
• Anton Bruckner, 1824-1896, Austrian composer
• Henry Cavendish, 1731-1810, English/French scientist, discovered the composition of air and water
• Emily Dickinson, 1830-1886, US poet
• Thomas Edison, 1847-1931, US inventor
• Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, German/American theoretical physicist
• Henry Ford, 1863-1947, US industrialist
• Kaspar Hauser, c1812-1833, German foundling, portrayed in a film by Werner Herzog
• Oliver Heaviside, 1850-1925, English physicist
• Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826, US politician
• Carl Jung, 1875-1961, Swiss psychoanalyst
• Franz Kafka, 1883-1924, Czech writer
• Wasily Kandinsky, 1866-1944, Russian/French painter
• H P Lovecraft, 1890-1937, US writer
• Ludwig II, 1845-1886, King of Bavaria
• Charles Rennie Mackintosh, 1868-1928, Scottish architect and designer
• Gustav Mahler, 1860-1911, Czech/Austrian composer
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1756-1791, Austrian composer
• Isaac Newton, 1642-1727, English mathematician and physicist
• Friedrich Nietzsche, 1844-1900, German philosopher
• Bertrand Russell, 1872-1970, British logician
• George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950, Irish playwright, writer of Pygmalion, critic and Socialist
• Richard Strauss, 1864-1949, German composer
• Nikola Tesla, 1856-1943, Serbian/American scientist, engineer, inventor of electric motors
• Henry Thoreau, 1817-1862, US writer
• Alan Turing, 1912-1954, English mathematician, computer scientist and cryptographer
• Mark Twain, 1835-1910, US humorist
• Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890, Dutch painter
• Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1889-1951, Viennese/English logician and philosopher

Historical autistic people prominent in the late twentieth century (died after 1975)

• Isaac Asimov, 1920-1992, Russian/ US writer on science and of science fiction, author of Bicentennial Man
• Hans Asperger, 1906-1980, Austrian paediatric doctor after whom Asperger's Syndrom is named
• John Denver, 1943-1997, US musician
• Glenn Gould, 1932-1982, Canadian pianist
• Jim Henson, 1936-1990, creator of the Muppets, US puppeteer, writer, producer, director, composer
• Alfred Hitchcock, 1899-1980, English/American film director
• Howard Hughes, 1905-1976, US billionaire
• Andy Kaufman, 1949-1984, US comedian, subject of the film Man on the Moon
• L S Lowry, 1887-1976, English painter of "matchstick men"
• Charles Schulz, 1922-2000, US cartoonist and creator of Peanuts and Charlie Brown
• Andy Warhol, 1928-1987, US artist

Contemporary famous autistic people

• Woody Allen, 1935-, US comedian, actor, writer, director, producer, jazz clarinettist
• Tony Benn, 1925-, English Labour politician
• Bob Dylan, 1941- , US singer-songwriter
• Joseph Erber, 1985-, young English composer/musician who has Asperger's Syndrome, subject of a BBC TV documentary
• Bobby Fischer, 1943- , US chess champion
• Bill Gates, 1955-, US global monopolist
• Genie, 1957-?, US "wild child" (see also L'Enfant Sauvage, Victor)
• Crispin Glover, 1964-, US actor
• Al Gore, 1948-, former US Vice President and presidential candidate
• Jeff Greenfield, 1943-, US political analyst/speechwriter, a political wonk
• David Helfgott, 1947-, Australian pianist, subject of the film Shine
• Michael Jackson, 1958-, US singer
• Garrison Keillor, 1942-, US writer, humorist and host of Prairie Home Companion
• Kevin Mitnick, 1963-, US "hacker"
• John Motson, 1945-, English sports commentator
• John Nash, 1928-, US mathematician (portrayed by Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind, USA 2001)
• Keith Olbermann, 1959-, US sportscaster
• Michael Palin, 1943-, English comedian and presenter
• Keanu Reeves, 1964-, Lebanese/Canadian/US actor
• Oliver Sacks, 1933-, UK/US neurologist, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Awakenings
• James Taylor, 1948-, US singer/songwriter