List of people widely considered eccentric
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Definition of eccentricity
Eccentricity is necessarily defined relatively. For the purposes of this article, an eccentric is someone whose behaviour, beliefs and/or hobbies deviate in a significant way from the accepted norms of their society, but otherwise can function largely as normal in society.[[Citing sources citation needed]] He or she may be regarded as strange, odd or at least unconventional, irregular and erratic. Other people may regard the eccentric with apprehension but also with amusement.[[Citing sources citation needed]]People behave in "eccentric" ways for many reasons. Sometimes, particular patterns of "eccentric" behavior can be a sign of mental illness. For example, many experts believe Howard Hughes suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder and/or the neurological effects of late-stage syphilis.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
Sometimes eccentricity is clearly intentional. Some comedians behave in eccentric ways even off-stage for professional reasons—to maintain their funny public image. Some entertainers and artists like Salvador Dalí use eccentric lifestyle to draw attention to themselves and exploit the common perception that creativity and madness are closely related. Athletes may behave in aggressive ways because it is part of their image as "tough guys" and as a way to intimidate their opponents.
There are historical cases where an eccentric may have taken the mantle intentionally for religious reasons (Russian Yurodivy, for example) or used it as an unusual way to make a semblance of a living. Some of their contemporaries may have regarded them with religious devotion.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
Other so-called "eccentrics" behave the way they do simply because they care little about societal pressures against their behavior. What other people think often does not matter to them.
Further insight in the complex relations between madness, eccentricity and the perception of deviant behavior by mainstream society can be found in A social history of madness by Roy Porter (1987 - ISBN 0297795716). This book also treats several examples of "famous" people ending up in asylums, as a result of their eccentric behavior, e.g. Robert Schumann.
Persons whose habits, appearance, or beliefs have often been described as eccentric include:[[Citing sources citation needed]] Eccentric, in a sense of " out of the center", normaly self-tought artists that could found a school. Example: Ni Tsan, chinese painter.
Artists, architects and composers
- Oscar Araripe, Brazilian painter and writer
- Aubrey Beardsley, artist, illustrator, writer
- Brigid Berlin, Warhol superstar, actor and artist who obsessively recorded her everyday life.
- John Cage, American composer and artist
- Monte Cazazza, American sound artist who dressed like an old beggar woman and set dead cats on fire.
- Ferdinand Cheval, French Postman who spent 33 years building a huge palace from random stones found during his work
- Nick "Momus" Currie, Berlin-based Scottish "folktronica" musician, design critic, orientalist and "emotional communist".
- Ivor Cutler, Scottish poet, musician and comic.
- Salvador Dalí, Spanish painter noted both for his surrealist, dreamlike imagery and for his bizarre theatrical stunts.
- Henry Darger, American "outsider artist"; author of a 15,143-page novel entitled The Story of the Vivian Girls in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, or the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion.
- Kitty May Ellis, American diarist who wrote a diary upwards of 40,000 pages.
- Antoni Gaudí, Catalan architect.
- Alejandro Jodorowsky, Chilean-born film director, actor and author of graphic novels
- Edward Leedskalnin, Latvian-born sculptor who built a castle in Florida
- Harry Partch, American composer, used a 43-tone scale for which he had his own set of musical instruments, lived as a hobo for ten years
- Gao Qipei, painter who grew his fingernails excessively long to be a better finger painter because a dream told him to.
- Mi Fu, Chinese painter who declared a stone to be his elder brother and bowed to it.
- Charles Ribart, 18th century French architect who designed a building shaped like an elephant
- Erik Satie, unconventional French composer who was found to have had a vast collection of umbrellas as well as musical compositions hidden "behind the piano, in the pockets of the velvet suits, etc."
- Alexander Scriabin, who, some time before his death, had planned a multi-media work to be performed in the Himalayas that would bring about the Armageddon (or so he believed)
- Hugh Troy, US painter (prankster)
- Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch painter
- Louis Wain, English artist who created widely popular illustrations of anthropomorphized cats which later grew progressively more elaborate, psychedelic and disturbing as he descended into madness.
- Andy Warhol, New York artist and social commentator
Athletes
- Muhammad Ali, athlete who attracted much attention with his unorthodox behaviour and style of boxing
- Wade Boggs, athlete who was highly superstitions
- Hector Camacho, world champion boxer
- Dock Ellis, baseball player who pitched a no-hitter while under the influence of the psychedelic drug LSD
- Chris Eubank, world champion boxer who wears a monocle
- Mark Fidrych, baseball pitcher who sometimes talked to the ball
- Naseem Hamed, world champion boxer, famous for his ring entrances
- Rickey Henderson, baseball player known for his malapropisms
- David Icke, English soccer goalkeeper, TV presenter, researcher of unorthodox subjects.
- Dennis Rodman, NBA basketball player, known for his controversial behavior and outlandish appearance and for being notoriously prone to cursing in public or on live television during his playing career. He sported numerous tattoos and piercings, and frequently dyed his hair a bright, artificial color. Rodman was also briefly married to Carmen Electra, and famously wore a wedding dress at a public appearance to promote his autobiography As Bad as I Wanna Be, ISBN 0440222664.
- Leigh Richmond Roose, pre First World War Welsh international goalkeeper who refused to wash his undershirt throughout his 17-year career
- Mike Tyson, boxer, who bit an opponent's ear off.
- Michael Waltrip, NASCAR racer, wears shoes too small at road courses, sings to the fans over the radio during red flags, popped out of roof hatch after winning 2003 EA Sports 500 like a Jack-in-the-box.
- Chris Kaman, a professional basketball player in the NBA, is often fidgity when sitting down on the bench as a result of adult ADHD, wears unkempt long hair, and is known to have a fascination with chicken farms, and is current funding the production of one.
- Kenny Wallace, NASCAR driver with a very destinctive laugh, does humorous things constantly, and talks for long amounts of time during interviews and often tries to break his record for longest talking.
Businessmen
- "Judge" Roy Bean, US saloonkeeper and arbitrary judge who called himself "The Law West of the Pecos"
- Steve Ballmer, Microsoft chief executive whose antics in the widely-circulated video clip Dance Monkeyboy became an Internet phenomenon
- Richard Branson, UK entrepreneur and founder of Virgin Records, known to enjoy extreme sports and other wild stunts
- E. H. Bronner, US soapmaker who covered his product's packaging with dense text expounding his philosophical views
- Timothy Dexter, US businessman who literally sold coal to Newcastle and held a mock funeral for himself complete with poetic elegies.
- Hetty Green, US businesswoman famous for her stinginess; her estate was more than $100,000,000
- Brian G. Hughes, US banker and prankster of the greedy
- Howard Hughes, US industrialist and aviator who became a recluse and feared germs
- Bernarr McFadden, US publisher and fanatical fitness proponent
- George Francis Train, US businessman who went around the world four times, then spent his final days handing out dimes and refusing to speak to anyone but children and animals.
Entertainers
- Eden Ahbez, proto-hippie, wrote Nature Boy
- GG Allin, American punk rocker, frequently self-mutilated and defecated on stage, threatened to kill himself whilst performing. Allin was also a drug addict and recorded numerous albums of disputable quality.
- Tori Amos, American musician
- The Great Antonio, Canadian strongman
- Asia Argento, actress, screenwriter, director, novelist
- Leigh Bowery, performance artist.
- Alexis Arquette, actor
- Tom Baker, British actor; former star of Doctor Who and narrator of Little Britain
- Syd Barrett, musician, songwriter, painter, recluse, founding member of Pink Floyd
- Björk, Icelandic singer, recently voted most eccentric celebrity of all time by the BBC
- Marc Bolan, 1970s British rock musician who claimed to have lived with a wizard in Paris
- David Boreanaz, actor
- David Bowie, British singer, musician, whose creativity often goes to the point of eccentricity
- Boy George, androgynous frontman of the pop band Culture Club.
- Buckethead, guitarist who never performs without wearing a kabuki mask and KFC chicken bucket as a hat.
- Tim Burton, film director
- Kate Bush, singer, songwriter, musician
- The Cherry Sisters, whose performances were typically met with a barrage of thrown vegetables
- Les Claypool, frontman of the alternative funk-metal band, Primus.
- George Clinton, leader of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bands Parliament and Funkadelic
- Kurt Cobain, American singer-songwriter, leader of Nirvana.
- Catman Cohen, Canadian singer-songwriter
- Tom Cruise, actor
- Walt Disney, American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, and animator.
- Pete Doherty, British singer and poet, famous in his native country for his open addiction to both crack cocaine and heroin and his tempestuous relationship with supermodel Kate Moss. Doherty is also known for his occasional cross-dressing, violence and alcoholism. He was forced out of his former band, The Libertines, after breaking into his bandmate's flat.
- Christine Ebersole, actress
- Roky Erickson, American rock singer and drug addict. Arrested in 1972 for cannabis possession, pleaded to innocent due to insanity and spent the remainder of the decade in an institution. Upon his release he recorded several albums that have attained a cult audience.
- Flavor Flav, rap artist and member of Public Enemy.
- Crispin Glover, actor, writer, musician
- Antony Hegarty, singer and frontman of Antony and the Johnsons
- Werner Herzog, German film director, walked to Paris from Munich and describes chickens as demonic
- Michael Jackson, US pop singer
- Jandek, reclusive musician
- Andy Kaufman, American "song and dance man" known for his bizarre anti-humor and many elaborate hoaxes.
- Tony Kaye, director, musician
- Klaus Kinski, German actor
- John Lennon, musician, member of The Beatles
- Long Gone John, US label owner Sympathy for the Record Industry, art collector, and writer
- Courtney Love, singer of the rock band Hole, widow of Kurt Cobain
- David Lynch, film director
- John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten), former lead singer of the Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd (PiL) - also an Irish individualist and anarchist.
- Marilyn Manson, musician, author, visual artist
- John McCririck, English television horse racing pundit
- Freddie Mercury, singer of the rock band Queen.
- Russ Meyer, American cult film director and photographer
- Thelonious Monk, jazz musician
- Keith Moon, drummer for The Who
- Patrick Moore, English tv astronomer and writer.
- Morrissey (Steven Patrick Morrissey), former lead singer of the highly influential English indie band The Smiths and is now a successful solo artist.
- Anton Newcombe, US rock singer, of the Brian Jonestown Massacre
- Ted Nugent, US guitarist, Heavy Metal musician, hunter, beef jerky maker, and star of VH1's Supergroup
- Ol' Dirty Bastard, US rapper famous for a series of bizarre public actions and legal trouble
- Ozzy Osbourne, singer of Black Sabbath
- Lucia Pamela, American musician
- Mike Patton, singer of Faith No More, Mr Bungle, Tomahawk and Fantomas, amongst others
- Lee "Scratch" Perry, developer of dub music
- Elvis Presley, visited morgues and cemeteries at night, "The King"'s most prized possession was said to be his bag of sheriff badges that he collected from around the country.
- Prince, American musician, also formerly known as "The Artist Formerly Known As Prince"
- Sun Ra, American jazz musician
- W. Axl Rose, singer of Guns N' Roses
- Jimmy Savile, British DJ and television personality
- Bon Scott, original lead singer of AC/DC
- Edie Sedgwick, model, actor
- Kevin Shields, Irish lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of the Irish-British shoegazing group My Bloody Valentine
- Robert Smith, singer of The Cure
- Edward Askew Sothern, British actor
- Phil Spector, producer
- Vivian Stanshall, British Musician
- Billy Bob Thornton, actor
- Tiny Tim, US musician
- Stanley Unwin, comedian and wordsmith
- Don Van Vliet, musician known as Captain Beefheart, visual artist
- Larry Wachowski, writer, director
- John Waters, American film director
- Brian Wilson, songwriter and former member of The Beach Boys
- Ed Wood, independent film director
- Steven Wright, comedian
- Frank Zappa, American rock/jazz fusion musician, composer, and satirist
- Vivian Stanshall, English musician, painter, singer, songwriter, poet, writer, wit, and raconteur, best known for his work with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.
Inventors
- Alex Chiu, "discoverer" of "immortality rings"
- Lyman Gilmore, inventor, possibly the first man to fly a plane. He did not bathe, and carried a pair of pistols.
- Troy Hurtubise, an obsession with bears led him to invent a suit that could protect him from grizzly bears. He claims his latest invention "can make blind men see and lame men walk."
- Raymond Kurzweil, inventor and futurist, author of The Age of Spiritual Machines and The Singularity is Near. He claims human intelligence will be surpassed by artificial intelligence in the near future. Takes 250 vitamin supplements daily.
- Alfred Lawson, ballplayer, economic theorist, founder of Lawsonomy
- Yoshiro Nakamatsu winner of Ig Nobel for cataloguing his meals for 34 years.
- Nikola Tesla, Croatian-born obsessive-compulsive who feared pearl earrings
- John Ward, British-born inventor of the bra-warmer, hand-held portable barbeque and simulated miniature marine mine to prevent others from stealing your cup of tea.
Politicians, aristocrats and rulers
- Abdelaziz of Morocco, Moroccan sultan who obsessively collected toys and gadgets.
- Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Husband and consort of Queen Victoria.
- Idi Amin, president-for-life of Uganda, self-proclaimed "Conqueror of the British Empire" and "King of Scotland"; rumored to be a cannibal
- Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, Fatimid caliph, suffering from insomnia; ordered his people to sleep during the day and stay awake at night
- William Thomas Beckford, builder of Fonthill Abbey.
- William John Cavendish Bentinck-Scott, 5th Duke of Portland, who liked to live underground, preferring not to be seen. He also built an entire underground mansion, painted it pink, and filled it with brown wigs packed lovingly in cardboard boxes.
- Jean-Bédel Bokassa, President of the Central African Republic who declared himself Emperor. Few attended the coronation, but he wore a pair of pearl-studded shoes — among the most expensive shoes in history — for the occasion. He also collected French military uniforms and allegedly fed people to crocodiles.
- Caligula, Roman Emperor who ordered troops to collect sea-shells as spoils of war and appointed his favorite horse as a consul.
- Lord George Gordon, who insisted on reading out long irrelevant pamphlets in Parliament, and led a riot which killed or injured 450
- John Hagelin, perennial Natural Law Party candidate who believed the Maharashi University's meditation reduced DC crime
- Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party, obsessed with alternative medicine
- Kim Jong Il, leader of North Korea, noted for his movie collection, cognac consumption, platform shoes, and "pleasure squad"
- Boris Johnson, Conservative politian in the UK
- William Lyon Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada who consulted mediums to communicate with his deceased mother
- Ludwig II of Bavaria, also known as "Ludwig the Mad", 19th-century king of Bavaria who built the fairy-tale-style Neuschwanstein castle.
- Matayoshi Mitsuo, Japanese politician who calls himself Matayoshi Jesus
- John Mytton, English squire who once arrived at a dinner party riding a bear and later in life attempted to cure a case of hiccups by lighting his shirt on fire.
- Joshua A. Norton, who declared himself "His Imperial Majesty Norton I, by the Grace of God, Emperor of the United States, and Protector of Mexico"
- Ne Win - Burmese dictator who was so obsessed with numerology he worsened the economy by creating 45 and 90 as currency denominations because 9 was his lucky number. He allegedly walked backward at times to avoid curses and supposedly came to believe Burma would find salvation by combining socialism with "magic"
- Nero, Roman Emperor who caused scandal by performing as a public entertainer and building an extravagant golden palace covering a third of the city of Rome.
- Saparmurat Niyazov, President of Turkmenistan, renamed months of the year after his family and declared himself "President for Life" and "Father of All Turkmen," among other things
- Henry Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey, Welsh Peer who squandered his inheritance on clothes, jewels and partying and was obsessed with the theatre
- Pascual Racuyal, Filipino mechanic and folk icon who ran for President in every presidential election from 1935 to 1986 on a platform that included the construction of pothole-free roads out of plastic.
- Miguel Primo de Rivera, Prime Minister of Spain, known for walking around in his underwear and never bathing.
- Matthew Robinson, 2nd Baron Rokeby, English nobleman who spent as much time as possible underwater.
- Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor, devouted occultist, and collector of satanic and alchemy-oriented paraphanalia
- Screaming Lord Sutch, British rock musician and founder of the Monster Raving Loony Party
- Charles Taylor, President of Liberia Considered eccentric for a series of bizarre pronouncements in his career.
- Stephen Tennant, English aristocrat who spent much of his life in bed.
- Tianqi Emperor, Ming emperor who considered carpentry a better use of his time than politics.
- James Traficant, US Congressman from Ohio and law enforcement official, known for outrageous mannerisms and speeches in Congress
- Brinsley Le Poer Trench, 8th Earl of Clancarty, who dedicated his life to promoting the Hollow Earth theory and claimed that he could trace his descent from 63,000BC, when beings from other planets had landed on Earth in spaceships
- Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, who for 20 years after the death of her husband Albert continued to have his place set at dinner.
- Hong Xiuquan Before leading the Taiping Rebellion he believed Christian pamphlets contained coded messages specifically for him, fought imaginary dragons, wore his hair in an illegal fashion, and believed he spoke to his brother's wife in Heaven. (His brother being of course Jesus, but his alleged heavenly wife was not any known figure) At that point he had not harmed anyone, but did have some political anti-Manchu goals.
- Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, President of the Russian Republic of Kalmykia and FIDE President.
- Muammar al-Gaddafi, the 'Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution', de facto leader of Libya. Noted for his unorthodox clothing, bedouin diplomat tents, passion for camel milk and female bodyguards clad in blue camouflage.
- Napoleon Bonaparte
Religious figures and occultists
- David Bawden who was "elected" "Pope Michael I" in his family's store in Belvue, Kansas (three of the six "electors" were his relatives)
- Vasily Blazhenny, Basil Fool for Christ (see also yurodivy)
- Cross Carrier Chuck Johnson [link]
- Ior Bock, Finnish new age figure
- Nathan Lloyd Braun, Christian vegetarian/polygamist theologian
- Aleister Crowley, British occultist
- Onisaburo Deguchi, flamboyant, dressed as female deities, jested about remaking the world
- Justo Gallego Martinez, Spanish builder of his own cathedral
- Dr. George King (Aetherius Society), British taxi driver who claimed that Master Jesus was born on the planet Venus and sent him special messages. He received his doctorate either from spirits or the aliens.
- L. Ron Hubbard, invented a religion
- G. I. Gurdjieff, Armenian-born mystic
- Leonard Knight, chief architect and custodian of Salvation Mountain
- Anton LaVey, founder and High Priest of the Church of Satan
- Grigory Rasputin, Russian monk who became the advisor of the last czar
- Hester Stanhope, who wanted to carry a child of a messiah
- St. Simeon Stylites said to have lived on a pillar for 36 years
- Cyrus Teed, US proponent of a Hollow Earth theory
- Dwight York, man of many names & costumes, inventor of United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors, et al.
Scholars, philosophers and scientists
- Jeremy Bentham, British philosopher who wanted himself mummified
- James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, Scottish judge and scholar
- Martin van Butchell, British dentist who put his dead wife on display
- Diogenes of Sinope ("the Cynic")
- Horace Donisthorpe, myrmecologist
- Albert Einstein, physicist whose appearance is perhaps that of the stereotypical eccentric scientist. Einstein was known not to wear socks, and to wear a duplicate version of the same outfit the next day.
- Paul Erdős, Hungarian mathematician
- Richard Feynman, American physicist noted also for his free-spirited nature
- Francis Galton, British statistics and eugenics pioneer who once resolved to taste everything in the local hospital pharmacy in alphabetical order [link] and made a beauty map of Britain counting the number of attractive women he saw in each city.
- Oliver Heaviside, British scientist who replaced his furniture with giant granite blocks
- Arthur Koestler, Hungarian born writer who studied human levitation, and Lamarckianism
- Karl Kruszelnicki, noted for his "loud" shirts, study of belly button fluff, and multiple careers.
- Patrick Moore, British astronomer noted for hoaxes, wearing a monocle for a time, and playing the xylophone
- Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher who attacked the "herd mentality" and revolutionized philosophy as we know it today
- Charles Ogden developed Basic English and wore masks because he believed fresh air was bad for you. (In other words he was a claustrophiliac)
- Gene Ray, discoverer of the Time Cube
- Wilhelm Reich, discoverer of hypothetical Orgone energy; he attempted to "measure" the male orgasm
- Charles Waterton, Catholic naturalist who allegedly turned "animal corpses into effigies of famed Protestants" and "Occasionally he would hide behind couches and attack guests like a dog, chewing at their ankles."[link]
- Josef Maria Wronski, Polish mathematician who made grandiose claims and worked on perpetual motion
- Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian-born philosopher, schoolteacher, would-be aviator and western movie enthusiast
- John Nash, American mathematician and Nobel prize winner, famous for his contributions to game theory development
- Claude Shannon see [sciam_article] -- developer of Information theory; rode unicycle in halls of MIT.
Writers
- Oscar Zeta Acosta, American author, lawyer, and activist
- Pita Amor, Mexican poet
- Antonin Artaud, French playwright, director, and actor
- Michael "Atters" Attree, British satirist
- Jeffrey Bernard, British journalist
- William Blake, British poet and Artist
- William S. Burroughs, American Beat Generation author
- Truman Capote, American author
- Lewis Carroll, author
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, British poet
- Jake Cohen, American author
- Harry Crosby, American poet
- Gabriele D'Annunzio, Italian poet, playwright and adventurer
- Philip K. Dick, American science fiction author
- Edward Gorey, American author and illustrator
- Jemmy Hirst, English trainer of unusual animals
- Robert E. Howard, American writer, creator of Conan the Barbarian.
- Alfred Jarry, French playwright.
- Patricia Kennealy-Morrison, writer, "widow" of Jim Morrison.
- Florence King, Southern American humourist, social commentator, and misanthrope
- Comte de Lautreamont, Uruguayan-French poet
- H.P. Lovecraft, American writer, creator of the Cthulhu Mythos.
- Hugh MacDiarmid, Scottish poet, also wrote Scottish Eccentrics reflecting his self-identification as such.
- Effie Ross, French journalist and prostitute
- William McGonagall, Scottish poet
- Gerard de Nerval, French poet and lobster fancier
- Nadeem F. Paracha, notorious Pakistani music critic and short story writer
- Jim Morrison, American poet
- Mervyn Peake, English writer, creator of Gormenghast
- Daniel Pellizzari, Brazilian author and translator
- Edgar Allan Poe, American author, critic and poet
- Charles Baudelaire, French poet
- Arthur Rimbaud, French poet
- Frederick Rolfe, English novelist also known as Baron Corvo
- J.D. Salinger, American author and recluse
- Marquis de Sade, French author, philosopher and political prisoner
- Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist
- Kurt Vonnegut, American author; satirist.
- Horace Walpole, British novelist
- Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright and poet
- Tom Wolfe, American author
Others
- Patch Adams, US doctor and clown
- David Belasco, US writer and producer, wandered New York dressed as the Bishop of Broadway
- Harry Bensley, UK adventurer known for being the subject of a notorious wager
- Blackwolf the Dragonmaster, self-proclaimed Unofficial Wizard of New York City
- Bill Boaks, UK road safety campaigner and election candidate who set records for the fewest votes
- Robert "Gypsy Boots" Bootzin, American fitness pioneer
- Ian Brackenbury Channell, "The Wizard of New Zealand"
- Beau Brummell, British fop
- Frank Chu, San Francisco protestor and political activist
- Collyer brothers, US recluses and hoarders
- Fred Crisman, paranormal enthusiast
- John Patrick Ennis, known as Sollog
- Bobby Fischer, chess prodigy
- Chuck Farnham, covers himself in food to feed the homeless and bring light to their plight
- James Hampton, janitor who secretly built a throne from scavenged materials
- Ben Hana, a homeless man in Wellington New Zealand who only wears a blanket and a loin cloth
- Ultimate Warrior (Jim Hellwig), professional wrestler and public speaker
- Florence Foster Jenkins, a soprano famous for her lack of singing ability
- Charles K. Johnson, president and promoter of the Flat Earth Society
- Marshall Ledbetter, temporary occupier of the Florida State Capitol
- Lobsang Rampa (nee Cyril Hoskins), British plumber who claimed to have been a Tibetan Lama
- Stanley Marsh 3, best known as sponsor of the Cadillac Ranch
- Prince Mongo, nee Robert Hodges, a fringe politician from Memphis, Tennessee who claims to be the ambassador of the Planet of Zambodia.
- Edward Wortley Montagu, who wanted to be an Ottoman prince
- Cecil G. Murgatroyd, Australian/New Zealand satirical political candidate
- Daniel Pratt, “The Great American Traveller”
- Dr. William Price, who refused to treat smokers and carried out an impromptu cremation of his baby son
- Geoffrey Nathaniel Pyke, tried to use opinion polls to prevent World War II, among other unusual ideas
- John Roche, Irishman who built a castle for himself in County Cork
- Richard S. Shaver, US author who believed the earth to be controlled by sadistic inner-earth dwellers operating mind-controlling ray machines
- William James Sidis, US secluded autistic genius
- Edith Sitwell, British poet who recited her first poem through a curtain and claimed to be descended from Plantagenets
- Joey Skaggs, US media prankster
- Viv Stanshall, notable English eccentric
- Harry Truman (volcano victim)
- John Cleves Symmes Jr, US proponent of Hollow Earth theory
- Tagish Elvis Presley, believes himself to be the reincarnation of Elvis Presley and ran for the leadership of the Yukon Liberal Party
- Orelie-Antoine de Tounens, French lawyer and adventurer
- Edmund Trebus, Polish-British compulsive hoarder
- Sarah L. Winchester, US heiress who continued construction of her house for 38 years to confuse the spirits
- Alfred Wintle, British Colonel who served in both World War I and World War II who regarded the period between as "intensely boring"
- Theodore Kaczynski, former brilliant American scholar who protested against the development of modern industrial society by sending letter-bombs.
See also
- List of occultists
- Impostor
- Mad scientist
- Fantastic Architecture: Personal and Eccentric Visions by George R. Collins et al. ISBN 0810909146
Bibliography
- Le livre des bizarres (in French) - Guy Bechtel and Jean-Claude Carrière, Robert Laffont, Paris (1981)
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