This includes Literature/Music/Acting/Directing/Comedy etc.

No poll cuz I'd get yelled at.

When I saw the title, the first that came to mind was Frank Sinatra. He wasn't the greatest artist by any means but certainly was one of the greatest entertainers.

I second Frank Sinatra. By artist, does it also include painter?

And Shakespeare is definitely here by your classification.

Oh wow you'll have to break this down into disciplines and even then it will be very subjective. Maybe Michaelangelo? For our time, Picasso? Shakespeare gets the crown of literature.

The 20th century giants tend to be the last stepping stones in "tradition", ie. they were the last artists to belong to tradition and they cannibalized it in their works (they were modernists) - Picasso, T.S. Eliot. It's hard to go beyond them and still belong to the traditional canon in an historical context, all the while demonstrating a comparable level of genuine creativity. Not that that matters, but it does come into play if you want to talk "the greatest" or High Art in certain disciplines. In others the rules are different.

Marlon Brando would be my vote for greatest actor.

I thought Perfection right away :mischief:

At a more populist level, you can't leave out the following...

David Garrick.
Noel Coward.
Charlie Chaplin.
Elvis Presley.
Michael Jackson.

Oh wow you'll have to break this down into disciplines and even then it will be very subjective.Totally cool with that :thumbsup:

James Brown.

This guy of course. Just look at all the people who have been influenced by him!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djfUsSC1SsE

bach. hes insane.

The best, and my favorites, by genre:

Literature:
The Best: Shakespeare
My Favorite: Frank Herbert

Painting:
The Best: Hard to say, possibly Michaelangelo?
My Fav: Goya. Very expressive and easy to figure out.

Sculpture:
The best: I have no freakin clue
My Fav: I don't have one

Music:
The Best: Chronologically by era: Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, John Coltrane, Luciano Pavarotti, Weather Report, Frank Zappa
My Favs: Bob Marley, Johnny Cash, Joe Pass, Bill Evans, Burning Spear, The Beatles, Billie Holiday, Hank Williams, Jeff Beck, Jeff Buckley, Sublime

Drama:
The Best: Shakespeare again
My Fav: Arthur Miller

Architecture:
The Best: Frank Lloyd Wright?
My Fav: Don't really have one

oh, and i consider Luo Guangzong (or something like that) also amongst the top - he is the attributed writer of THe Romance of the THree Kingdoms, which is the greatest novel in all East Asia. in fact, its so great that even the traditionalist-hating Chinese communists liked it.

Sid Meier, for obvious reasons.

/facetiousness

chuck norris

Leonardo da Vinci

I would say that Mozart would be up there due to his creativity. But my favourite would Franz Liszt.

Leonardo da Vinci


Seconded...

Hard to go past Shakespeare for entertainers working in the English language.

I bet he and Prince would have gotten along famously.

surprised no one mentioned monty python...

If you've ever actually sat through an entire episode of Monty Python, you'll probably realise why...

It's Chaucer

I thought Perfection right away :mischief:
:stupid::yup:

Adam Sandler

http://www.libertyfilmfestival.com/libertas/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/adam-sandler.jpg

My favorites are:

Historical
-Charlie Chaplin (Hence my avatar) The slapstick comic genius!
-Homer (the poet, not the Simpson) Odysseus is one of my favorite characters ever, and the Iliad and the Odyssey are some of my favorite stories.
-Shakespeare I especially liked reading Macbeth in English!
-Thomas Hardy I also liked doing him in English. And he lived not too far from me :cool:

Modern
-Alexei Sayle
-Adrian Edmondson
-Rik Mayall
-Hell, the entire cast of "The Young Ones" and its kin...

If you've ever actually sat through an entire episode of Monty Python, you'll probably realise why...

you are humourless :p

No, it's just that Monty Python has aged more badly than perhaps any other programme of that era (compare Morecambe and Wise, for example). If you watch an entire episode - and not just the famous bits that everyone quotes ad nauseam - it's really not very funny. And the funny bits aren't funny either because everyone knows them by heart already.

DaVinci's Art/Design
Mozart's Music
Shakespeare's Performing Arts

No, it's just that Monty Python has aged more badly than perhaps any other programme of that era (compare Morecambe and Wise, for example). If you watch an entire episode - and not just the famous bits that everyone quotes ad nauseam - it's really not very funny. And the funny bits aren't funny either because everyone knows them by heart already.

...humorless

Well history isn't over so we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves and have to change our minds later. Like those pesky Christians.

I think the contributions of blues guitarist Robert Johnson are kind of underrated. He was a frail, thin man from the Mississippi who recorded a few blues albums in the 1930s and then died a sudden and suspicious death. However his records ended up directly inspiring Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and many other musicians from the 60s.

Robert Johnson was arguably the most important musician of the twentieth century. He didn't record any albums though - just twenty-nine songs, only one of which was a moderate hit in his lifetime.

Impossible to tell. The question should have been 'greatest entertainer since 1900',-since artist born since then have a considerable advantage over whoever invented art in the first place (and who is, unfortunately, anonymous).
And because most people could only think of people since then -Michelangelo and others aside-, and have never heard of the earliest known composer, who's name I dont remember (but I do remember that she had a name-which is still remembered-,she was Egyptian, had her picture carved, and a woman).
And another advantage that singers since 1900 is that we still have recordings of their voices, but not of soprano Jenny Lind. And no one living actually knows how good an actress Nell Gwynn was-what with no one living having seen her act.
But thats all obvious -any random joe knows that. Im just saying that 20th century artist people will have a massive, overwhelming advantage over everyone else (other than writers, painters, sculpters, etc.)-what with people actually remembering them and there being a lot more of them.So this little thread thing is completely unfair. Im surprised Im the first to mention this, actually...

Robert Johnson was arguably the most important musician of the twentieth century. He didn't record any albums though - just twenty-nine songs, only one of which was a moderate hit in his lifetime.

Sweet Home Chicago?

No, it's just that Monty Python has aged more badly than perhaps any other programme of that era (compare Morecambe and Wise, for example). If you watch an entire episode - and not just the famous bits that everyone quotes ad nauseam - it's really not very funny. And the funny bits aren't funny either because everyone knows them by heart already.

I disagree! I watch the episodes in full and find them hilarious.

Maybe you just got sick of it all from watching it too much ;)

JK rowling (adding her to the list not saying she wins)

Hitler...the Third Reich and WWII were actually a giant art performance piece.

Sweet Home Chicago?

Terraplane Blues.

To head in a different direction then most people are thinking, what about Shigeru Myamoto? (I dont know if its spelled right).

He has created the video game franchises of Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong and many others. In a large way, he was responsible for pulling nintendo up from the ashes of the great videogame crash of 1983.

Video Games are so new they have yet to be seen as real art yet, but they are, just like a movie or anything else.

I can't decide between John Belushi or Dan Aykroyd. ;)

For architects/engineer I'd have to say Sinan.

Most of my others have already been mentioned, cept Homer I believe. Oh and let's not forget homer (simpson) too.

Terraplane Blues.
Ohh, right. I should have known that. :blush:

I think you're absolutely right that Johnson is one of the most, if not the most, influential Musicians of the 20th century. Certainly guitar giants like Eric Clapton have not been shy in proclaiming his works across the land. I think its difficult to evaluate his influence as an entertainer though, since records of actual life performances are pretty few and far between, unlike say, Chuck Berry or James Brown.

I can't decide between John Belushi or Dan Aykroyd. ;)
Haha, now this is a correct answer :)

George W. Bush. Just look at the sheer amount of (entertaining) political cartoons!

For architects/engineer I'd have to say Sinan.

Most of my others have already been mentioned, cept Homer I believe. Oh and let's not forget homer (simpson) too.

I'd already said Homer :)

i hereby dedicate the thread to the unknown, unheard, unspoken and unsung actress/models of Porn Industry.

Amen

Terraplane Blues.

For me, the best of all, and covered by more people;
"Cross Road Blues", "Dust My Broom", "Love in Vain"
and of course, "Sweet Home Chicago". :)

But my vote goes to my favourite songwriter and entertainer,
who, last i heard, is still on the road performing,at over 80,
the immortal CHUCK BERRY!

Its hard to choose, I have to say that some names I have never heard. So So entertainer Homer Simpson and artists? I think about The Beatles.

Kurt Cobain.

Books - Tolstoy
Music - Beethovan (:rockon:)
Art - Van Gogh (I usually don't like any sort of impressionism, but this guy was a genius)
Acting - Reagan, obviously. :rolleyes: (Just Kidding, he wasn't all that great as an actor. IN ALL SERIOUSNESS - I don't know)

Architecture, Mimar Sinan

Drama, Shakespeare

Michael Jackson.

I second this one. Michael Jackson was a world-wide sensation, over multiple genres and forms, and partly defined the 80's himself.