European

Allan, Jani

Allan was adopted aged one month by a wealthy British-South African couple, John and Janet Fry. John Fry died when she was 10. She has been a model and married a wealthy South African, G... [more]

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Andrews, Ben

Andrews was born in Yugoslavia and adopted by an American diplomatic family there. He became interested in the guitar as a child but did not become entirely focused on the instrument until ... [more]

Anstis, Toby

Anstis began broadcasting while still a comprehensive school-boy in Northampton, where he was born (also representing his county in rugby and cricket). He got a degree in marketing and psyc... [more]

Aristotle

Aristotle was the son of Nicomachus, physician to King Amyntas II. His parents died when he was still a very young boy and he was brought up by a guardian, Proxenus, who sent him to Plato's... [more]

Arthur

King Arthur was born the son of Uther and Igerna, who was the wife of Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall. He was raised by Sir Ector in secret and became king on Uther's death, proving his right to ... [more]

Ashcroft, Edith Margaret Emily

Ashcroft was German Jewish and Danish on her mother's side and English on her father's side. Both her parents (Violetta and William) died before she was 20. She began acting before her p... [more]

Aspinall, John Victor

Aspinall was adopted by a British Indian Army colonel as a very young child and spent most of his childhood in English boarding schools. He was expelled from Cambridge University for faking... [more]

Astor, Joshua

Astor is the birth son of Joe "Gannex" Kagan, friend of the British prime minister Harold Wilson, but was adopted aged three by his step-father, Michael Astor, MP (one of the weal... [more]

Aucoin, Kevyn

Aucoin was born to Nelda Mae Williams in Louisiana, and adopted at a month's age as the first of four children of Thelma and Isidore Aucoin, in Lafayette. From a very early age he showed... [more]

Audubon, John James

Audubon was born in what is now Haiti, the son of a well-to-do married French naval captain and slave trader and his Creole servant-mistress. His mother died soon after his birth and his fa... [more]