This is a list of notable people who have been described as recluses, individuals who live in voluntary seclusion from the public and society. Excluded are religious hermits, as well as people who live otherwise normal lives but value their privacy.
Name | Year of birth | Year of death | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Syd Barrett [1] [2] | 1946 | 2006 | English singer-songwriter, former leader of the band Pink Floyd |
Marlon Brando [3] [4] | 1924 | 2004 | American actor |
Maria Callas [5] [6] | 1923 | 1977 | Greek opera singer |
Huguette Clark [7] [8] | 1906 | 2011 | American heiress and philanthropist |
John Deacon [9] | 1951 | English musician, songwriter and former member of the band Queen | |
Emily Dickinson [10] [11] | 1830 | 1886 | American poet |
Eliza Emily Donnithorne [12] [13] | 1826 | 1886 | Australian eccentric, rumored model for Miss Havisham in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens |
Enya [14] [15] | 1961 | Irish singer and musician | |
Rod Evans [16] | 1947 | English singer who was the original lead singer of the band Deep Purple | |
Bobby Fischer [17] [18] | 1943 | 2008 | American former world chess champion |
Greta Garbo [19] [20] [21] [22] | 1905 | 1990 | Swedish-American actress |
Glenn Gould [23] | 1932 | 1982 | Canadian pianist |
Alexander Grothendieck [24] [25] [26] | 1928 | 2014 | German-French mathematician |
Mark Hollis [27] | 1955 | 2019 | British singer, instrumentalist and songwriter who was the lead vocalist of the band Talk Talk |
Howard Hughes [19] [28] | 1905 | 1976 | American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film director, and philanthropist |
Ted Kaczynski [29] [30] | 1942 | 2023 | American domestic terrorist known as the Unabomber |
Harper Lee [31] | 1926 | 2016 | American author, wrote To Kill a Mockingbird |
Pordenone Montanari [32] [33] | 1937 | Italian painter, sculptor and philosopher | |
William Onyeabor [34] [35] | 1946 | 2017 | Nigerian funk musician |
Marcel Proust [36] [37] | 1871 | 1922 | French novelist of In Search of Lost Time |
Thomas Pynchon [31] | 1937 | American novelist | |
Tommy Quickly [38] | 1945 | British singer, known for hit song "Tip of My Tongue" | |
J. D. Salinger [19] [31] | 1919 | 2010 | American author who wrote The Catcher in the Rye |
Phil Spector [39] | 1940 | 2021 | American record producer, songwriter and convicted murderer |
Layne Staley [40] [41] | 1967 | 2002 | American singer and songwriter who was the original lead vocalist of the band Alice in Chains |
Sly Stone [42] [43] | 1943 | American musician, songwriter and record producer | |
Patrick Süskind [44] | 1949 | German writer and screenwriter | |
John Swartzwelder [45] [46] | 1949 | American comedy writer best known for his work on The Simpsons | |
Akira Toriyama [47] [48] [49] | 1955 | 2024 | Japanese manga artist and character designer, best known for creating Dragon Ball |
Bill Watterson [50] [51] | 1958 | American cartoonist and the creator of Calvin and Hobbes | |
Brian Wilson [52] [53] | 1942 | American musician, songwriter and record producer who led the Beach Boys | |
Ida Wood [54] | 1838 | 1932 | American socialite who remained in seclusion in a New York City hotel suite with two relatives for decades. |
Jocky Wilson [55] | 1950 | 2012 | Scottish former world darts champion |
Name | Work | Author | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Miss Havisham [56] | Great Expectations | Charles Dickens | |
Lestat de Lioncourt [57] | The Vampire Chronicles | Anne Rice | A recluse for extended periods throughout the series. |
Boo Radley [58] | To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | A recluse created by a famous recluse. |
The Grinch [59] | How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and its adaptations | Dr. Seuss | |
Shrek [59] | Shrek and its adaptations | William Steig |
Akira Toriyama was a Japanese manga artist and character designer. He first achieved mainstream recognition for creating the popular manga series Dr. Slump, before going on to create Dragon Ball and acting as a character designer for several popular video games such as the Dragon Quest series, Chrono Trigger, and Blue Dragon. Toriyama came to be regarded as one of the most important authors in the history of manga with his works highly influential and popular, particularly Dragon Ball, which many manga artists cite as a source of inspiration.
Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin, known mononymously as Enya, is an Irish composer and singer-songwriter. Her career as a solo artist, now over four decades long, is a notably atypical path to success in the music industry. As the second-best-selling Irish music act overall, after the rock band U2, Enya is the best-selling Irish solo artist, believed to have sold over 80 million albums worldwide.The music of Enya has been widely recognised for featuring multi-layers of her vocals, varied instrumentation, lengthened reverb, and interwoven elements of Celtic music.
Sir Michael Philip Jagger is an English singer. He is the front man and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. Jagger has written most of the band's songs alongside lead guitarist Keith Richards; their songwriting partnership is one of the most successful in history, and they continue to collaborate musically. His career has spanned over six decades, and he has been widely described as one of the most popular and influential front men in the history of rock music. His distinctive voice and energetic live performances, along with Richards' guitar style, have been the Rolling Stones' trademark throughout the band's career. Jagger gained notoriety for his romantic involvements and illicit drug use, and has often been portrayed as a countercultural figure.
Miss Havisham is a character in the Charles Dickens' 1861 novel Great Expectations. She is a wealthy spinster, once jilted at the altar, who insists on wearing her wedding dress for the rest of her life. She lives in a ruined mansion with her adopted daughter, Estella. Dickens describes her as looking like "the witch of the place". In the novel, she schemes to have the young orphan, Pip, fall in love with Estella, so that Estella can "break his heart."
Megan Martha White is an American retired musician who served as the drummer and occasional singer of the rock duo the White Stripes. A key artist of the 2000s garage rock revival, White is noted for her "primal" style of playing and elusive media image. Though she typically performed backing vocals for the band, she occasionally sang lead for one song on each album, including "In the Cold, Cold Night" and "Passive Manipulation".
Emily Olivia Laura Blunt is a British actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and four British Academy Film Awards. Forbes ranked her as one of the highest-paid actresses in the world in 2020.
John Joseph Swartzwelder Jr. is an American comedy writer and novelist, best known for his work on the animated television series The Simpsons. Born in Seattle, Washington, Swartzwelder began his career working in advertising. He was later hired to work on comedy series Saturday Night Live in the mid-1980s as a writer. He later contributed to fellow writer George Meyer's short-lived Army Man magazine, which led him to join the original writing team of The Simpsons, beginning in 1989.
William Andrews Clark Sr. was an American entrepreneur, involved with mining, banking, and railroads, as well as a politician.
Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. A subject of widespread public interest with a vast fanbase, she has influenced the music industry, popular culture and politics through her songwriting, artistry, entrepreneurship, and advocacy.
"Ready or Not" is a song by American hip-hop group Fugees, from their second studio album, The Score (1996). The song contains a sample of "Boadicea" (1987) by Irish singer Enya, and its chorus is based on "Ready or Not Here I Come " by the Delfonics.
Theodore John Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, was an American mathematician and domestic terrorist. He was a mathematics prodigy, but abandoned his academic career in 1969 to pursue a primitive lifestyle.
Evelyn Juers is an Australian writer and publisher.
Penske Media Corporation is an American mass media, publishing, and information services company based in Los Angeles and New York City. It publishes more than 20 digital and print brands, including Variety, Rolling Stone, Women's Wear Daily, Deadline Hollywood, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Boy Genius Report, Robb Report, Artforum, ARTNews, and others. PMC's Chairman and CEO since founding is Jay Penske.
William Ezechukwu Onyeabor was a Nigerian funk musician and businessman. His music was widely heard in Nigeria in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Despite his success, he remained an enigmatic, private, and reclusive figure.
Huguette Marcelle Clark was an American painter, heiress, and philanthropist, who became well known again late in life as a recluse, living in hospitals for more than 20 years while her various mansions remained unoccupied.
"Fading" is a song by Barbadian recording artist Rihanna from her fifth studio album, Loud (2010). The song was written by Darnell Dalton, Jamal Jones, Lamar Taylor, Quinton Amey and William Hodge, with production by Kuk Harrell, Willy Will, Veronika Bozeman and Jones under his production moniker Polow da Don. Originally, the song sampled Irish instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Enya's "One by One", though this was later removed post-album release. Lyrically, the song is about leaving a man in a relationship. After Loud had strong digital download sales in the United Kingdom, "Fading" charted at number 187 on that country's singles chart in November 2010. The song received generally positive reviews from music critics, who praised da Don's production, but one critic criticized Rihanna for copying herself and failing to create something different. Some critics also compared it to one of Rihanna's previous singles, "Take a Bow". The song has also been performed on select dates of the Loud Tour (2011).
Jack Michael Antonoff is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Antonoff is the lead vocalist of rock band Bleachers, was the guitarist and drummer for the pop rock band fun., and previously the lead vocalist for the indie rock band Steel Train. Aside from his work with the three groups, Antonoff has been prolific in songwriting and production for various music industry acts, including Taylor Swift, Sara Bareilles, the 1975, Lorde, St. Vincent, Florence and the Machine, Lana Del Rey, Fifth Harmony, Kevin Abstract, Carly Rae Jepsen, the Chicks, Tegan and Sara, and Clairo. Antonoff is credited with impact on the sound of contemporary popular music throughout the 2010s and 2020s.
Who is William Onyeabor? is a 2013 compilation album by William Onyeabor released by Luaka Bop. The music was compiled by Uchenna Ikonne and was the first official re-issue of his music. Metacritic described the album as receiving "Universal acclaim" with Pitchfork citing it as one of the "best reissues" and NPR listing it as one of the best albums of 2013.
Charles Onyekachi Onyeabor is an Italian-Nigerian singer, songwriter and businessman. He is the eldest son of electro Afro-funk pioneer William Onyeabor. After debuting in 2020, his debut studio album, Like Father, Like Son was released in November 2023. As described by BBC, Charles Onyeabor continues to keep his father's legacy alive in his music.
The reclusive genius kept the behind-the-scenes aspects of his life tightly under wraps and was even rumoured to have fired a cleaning lady for her loose tongue.
he lived like a hermit in his home, which was open to a few privileged friends