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 |
---|---|---|---|
Devorah Baron [1] | 1887 | 1956 | Hebrew author, Reclusion 1922-1956 |
Syd Barrett [2] [3] | 1946 | 2006 | English singer-songwriter, former leader of the band Pink Floyd |
Marlon Brando [4] [5] | 1924 | 2004 | American actor |
Maria Callas [6] [7] | 1923 | 1977 | Greek opera singer |
Huguette Clark [8] [9] | 1906 | 2011 | American heiress and philanthropist |
John Deacon [10] | 1951 | English musician, songwriter and former member of the band Queen | |
Emily Dickinson [11] [12] | 1830 | 1886 | American poet |
Eliza Emily Donnithorne [13] [14] | 1826 | 1886 | Australian eccentric, rumored model for Miss Havisham in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens |
Enya [15] [16] | 1961 | Irish singer and musician | |
Rod Evans [17] | 1947 | English singer who was the original lead singer of the band Deep Purple | |
Bobby Fischer [18] [19] | 1943 | 2008 | American former world chess champion |
Greta Garbo [20] [21] [22] [23] | 1905 | 1990 | Swedish-American actress |
Glenn Gould [24] | 1932 | 1982 | Canadian pianist |
Alexander Grothendieck [25] [26] [27] | 1928 | 2014 | German-French mathematician |
Mark Hollis [28] | 1955 | 2019 | British singer, instrumentalist and songwriter who was the lead vocalist of the band Talk Talk |
Howard Hughes [20] [29] | 1905 | 1976 | American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film director, and philanthropist |
Ted Kaczynski [30] [31] | 1942 | 2023 | American domestic terrorist known as the Unabomber |
Harper Lee [32] | 1926 | 2016 | American author, wrote To Kill a Mockingbird |
Lee Mavers [33] | 1962 | English singer-songwriter and the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of The La's | |
Pordenone Montanari [34] [35] | 1937 | Italian painter, sculptor and philosopher | |
Richard O'Sullivan [36] | 1944 | English comedy actor | |
William Onyeabor [37] [38] | 1946 | 2017 | Nigerian funk musician |
Marcel Proust [39] [40] | 1871 | 1922 | French novelist of In Search of Lost Time |
Thomas Pynchon [32] | 1937 | American novelist | |
Tommy Quickly [41] | 1945 | British singer, known for hit song "Tip of My Tongue" | |
J. D. Salinger [20] [32] | 1919 | 2010 | American author who wrote The Catcher in the Rye |
Phil Spector [42] | 1940 | 2021 | American record producer, songwriter and convicted murderer |
Layne Staley [43] [44] | 1967 | 2002 | American singer and songwriter who was the original lead vocalist of the band Alice in Chains |
Sly Stone [45] [46] | 1943 | American musician, songwriter and record producer | |
Patrick Süskind [47] | 1949 | German writer and screenwriter | |
John Swartzwelder [48] [49] | 1949 | American comedy writer best known for his work on The Simpsons | |
Akira Toriyama [50] [51] [52] | 1955 | 2024 | Japanese manga artist and character designer, creator of Dragon Ball |
Meg White [53] | 1974 | American musician best known as the drummer of the rock band the White Stripes. | |
Brian Wilson [54] [55] | 1942 | American musician, songwriter and record producer who led the Beach Boys | |
Ida Wood [56] | 1838 | 1932 | American socialite who later chose to remain in seclusion in a New York City hotel suite with two relatives for decades. |
Jocky Wilson [57] | 1950 | 2012 | Scottish former world darts champion |
Name | Work | Author | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Miss Havisham [58] | Great Expectations | Charles Dickens | |
Lestat de Lioncourt [59] | The Vampire Chronicles | Anne Rice | A recluse for extended periods throughout the series. |
Boo Radley [60] | To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | A recluse created by a famous recluse. |
The Grinch [61] | How the Grinch Stole Christmas! and its adaptations | Dr. Seuss | |
Shrek [61] | Shrek and its adaptations | William Steig |
Akira Toriyama was a Japanese manga artist and character designer. He came to be regarded as one of the most important authors in the history of manga, authoring highly influential and popular series, particularly Dragon Ball.
Eithne Pádraigín Ní Bhraonáin, known mononymously as Enya, is an Irish singer and composer. With an estimated 80 million albums sold worldwide, Enya is the best-selling solo artist and the second-best-selling music act from Ireland overall after the rock band U2. Enya's music has been widely recognised for its use of multi-layers of her own vocals and instrumentation, lengthened reverb, and interwoven elements of Celtic music. Her career in music spans four decades; Enya has been composing and recording music since the 1980s.
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pioneered the gritty, rhythmically driven sound that came to define hard rock. Their first stable line-up consisted of vocalist Mick Jagger, guitarist Keith Richards, multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones, bassist Bill Wyman, and drummer Charlie Watts. During their early years, Jones was the primary leader. Andrew Loog Oldham became their manager in 1963 and encouraged them to write their own songs. The Jagger–Richards partnership soon became the band's primary songwriting and creative force.
Sir Michael Philip Jagger is an English musician. He is best known as the lead singer and one of the founder members of the Rolling Stones. Jagger has co-written most of the band's songs with lead guitarist Keith Richards; their songwriting partnership is one of the most successful in rock music history. 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. Early in his 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 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 musician who achieved international fame as the drummer of the rock duo the White Stripes. Though she typically performed backing vocals for the band, she occasionally sang lead on their albums, 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. Known for her autobiographical songwriting, artistic reinventions, and cultural impact, Swift is a leading figure in popular music and the subject of widespread media coverage.
"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 reclusive 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. He is the lead vocalist of the rock band Bleachers, and previously the guitarist and drummer for the pop band Fun and the lead vocalist of the indie rock band Steel Train. Antonoff has produced and co-written songs with other music acts such as Taylor Swift, Lorde, Lana Del Rey, St. Vincent, Kendrick Lamar and Sabrina Carpenter.
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.
Industrial Society and Its Future, also known as the Unabomber Manifesto, is a 1995 anti-technology essay by Ted Kaczynski, the "Unabomber". The manifesto contends that the Industrial Revolution began a harmful process of natural destruction brought about by technology, while forcing humans to adapt to machinery, creating a sociopolitical order that suppresses human freedom and potential.
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