Famous People with Epilepsy

Famous people with epileptic seizures Epilepsy has nothing to do with mental disease or retardation. This has been proved beyond all doubt by the "epileptic geniuses", people who achieved great things in spite of suffering from epilepsy.The following selection shows people who had epileptic seizures at a certain stage in their life or who suffered from a chronic form of epilepsy for many years. Some historical researchers believe there is evidence to suggest that the following famous figures may have also suffered from seizure disorders:

Some historical researchers believe there is evidence to suggest that the following famous figures may have also suffered from seizure disorders:-

• Alexander the Great, king of Macedonia
  
• Aristotle, Greek philosopher/scientist
  
• Napoleon Bonaparte, French general/emperor
  
• Buddha, founder of Buddhism
  
• Julius Caesar, Roman emperor
  
• Hannibal, Carthaginian general
  
• Michelangelo, Italian painter/sculptor
  
• Mohammed, prophet of Islam
  
• Sir Isaac Newton, British mathematician
  
• Pythagoras, Greek mathematician
  
• Saint Paul the Apostle, a father of the early Catholic Church
  
• Socrates, Greek philosopher
  
• Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect and engineer

Many famous people have suffered from the disorder and excelled in spite of it. They include:-

• Bud Abbott, American comedian of Abbott and Costello fame
  
• Richard Burton, Welsh actor
  
• Truman Capote, American author
  
• Lewis Carroll, English author and mathematician
  
• Dante Alighieri, Italian author
  
• Charles Dickens, English author
  
• Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian author
  
• Danny Glover, American actor
  
• Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter
  
• Margaux Hemingway, American actress, granddaughter of author Ernest Hemingway
  
• Elton John, English pop singer
  
• James Madison, fourth U.S. president
  
• Guy de Maupassant, French author
  
• Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist, engineer and founder of the Nobel Prize awards
  
• Niccolo Paganini, Italian violinist
  
• Peter the Great, Russian czar
  
• Edgar Allen Poe, American author
  
• Neil Young, Canadian rock musician
  
• Jonathan Swift, English author
  
• Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer
  
• Alfred Lord Tennyson, English poet
  
• Lord Byron, English poet
• Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, Russian Revolutionist
• Socrates, Greek Philosopher
• Hansjakob

Research done on the information available about the 'famous people with epilepsy' who are usually listed in literature on the subject has shown that some of them definitely did suffer from epilepsy (e.g. Caesar, Grand Duke Karl, Pope Pius IX., Flaubert, Dostoyevsky). Other people (e.g. King Saul, Napoleon, van Gogh, St. Paul) are suspected of having had epilepsy, but research cannot prove this definitively.It is clear that some famous people (e.g. Lord Byron, Nobel) did not have a chronic form of epilepsy but temporarily suffered epileptic seizures at certain periods in their lives.


The interest shown in famous people who had epilepsy once again makes it clear that people with the chronic disease epilepsy or who suffer occasional epileptic seizures can still be highly intelligent and achieve great things.