Famous left-handed people: 70+ iconic southpaws

Who are the most famous left-handed people? Around 10% of the global population is left-handed — roughly 800 million people — and that 10% includes an outsized share of US presidents, Renaissance painters, rock-and-roll guitarists, Olympic athletes, and Hollywood stars. Names that show up on almost every list: Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton, Barack Obama, Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey, Jimi Hendrix, Lady Gaga, Babe Ruth, and Prince William.

This page collects 70+ verified famous lefties across every major field, organized by category. Each entry includes a short note on why their handedness matters or how it shaped their craft. Entries are cross-linked to our deeper category guides — musicians, scientists, actors, US presidents, and others — for fuller treatments.

A visual roll call of famous left-handers

Portraits via Wikipedia (CC BY-SA / public domain).

Famous left-handed actors

Hollywood is full of southpaws. The percentage of left-handed actors is roughly proportional to the general population, but several A-listers have made their handedness visible on screen.

• Keanu Reeves — left-handed, though most of his action heroes (Neo, John Wick) are written as right-handed.
• Julia Roberts — left-handed signer and writer, despite often being shot using her right on screen.
• Nicole Kidman — well-documented lefty.
• Angelina Jolie — left-handed; visibly so in Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
• Jennifer Lawrence — left-handed in real life; trained to handle weapons right-handed for The Hunger Games.
• Hugh Jackman — left-handed; trained ambidextrous for stage and stunt work.
• Scarlett Johansson — lefty; uses her left hand consistently in interviews and signings.
• Morgan Freeman — left-handed; injured his left arm in a 2008 car accident, which he has discussed publicly.
• Sarah Jessica Parker — left-handed; visible across the run of Sex and the City.
• Will Ferrell — left-handed; has joked about it in interviews.
• Tom Cruise — left-handed (though writes with his right after early-childhood training).
• Robert De Niro, Whoopi Goldberg, Bruce Willis, and Jim Carrey are all left-handed. We have a fuller breakdown in our list of iconic left-handed actors and a dedicated page on whether Jim Carrey is left-handed.

Famous left-handed musicians

Music is one of the few fields where being left-handed visibly changes the craft, because right-handed instruments dominate. Some lefties play flipped, some restring, and a few — Paul McCartney, Hendrix — became iconic for it.

• Jimi Hendrix — restrung a right-handed Stratocaster and played it upside down. His unique tone owes partly to that flipped configuration.
• Paul McCartney — the most famous left-handed bassist ever; played a left-handed Höfner violin bass throughout the Beatles era.
• Kurt Cobain — left-handed; played a left-handed Mustang and modified Jaguar.
• David Bowie — left-handed in life but right-handed on guitar.
• Ringo Starr — naturally left-handed but plays a right-handed drum kit, which is widely credited as the source of his unusual style.
• Phil Collins — left-handed drummer playing a right-handed kit; another stylistic-by-accident lefty.
• Lady Gaga — left-handed pianist and singer.
• Justin Bieber — left-handed; tried to play guitar left-handed but eventually learned right-handed.
• Eminem — left-handed; visible in writing scenes from his lyrics process.
• Cardi B — left-handed.
• Billy Ray Cyrus, Adam Levine, Billy Corgan, Glen Campbell, and Albert King are all left-handed. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was likely left-handed based on biographer accounts. The full list is in our deep dive on famous left-handed musicians, with guitarists and drummers covered separately.

Famous left-handed athletes

Left-handers are heavily overrepresented in interactive sports — boxing, tennis, baseball, fencing — because right-handed opponents practice against right-handed opponents and struggle with the mirrored angles a lefty produces.

• Babe Ruth — left-handed batter and pitcher; arguably the most famous lefty in baseball history.
• Sandy Koufax — Hall of Fame Dodgers pitcher; one of the greatest left-handed pitchers ever.
• LeBron James — naturally left-handed but shoots right-handed in the NBA. Whether he is "really" lefty is a perennial debate; we cover it in is LeBron James left-handed.
• Rafael Nadal — naturally right-handed but trained to play tennis with his left, the most famous example of a deliberately switched lefty.
• John McEnroe and Rod Laver — genuine left-handed tennis greats.
• Phil Mickelson — left-handed golfer (though right-handed in daily life), six-time major champion.
• Bubba Watson — naturally left-handed, two-time Masters champion. See more in greatest left-handed golfers.
• Manny Pacquiao — left-handed boxer; one of the all-time southpaw greats. More in our left-handed boxers list.
• Oscar De La Hoya, Marvin Hagler, and Vasiliy Lomachenko are all famous left-handed boxers.
• Tim Tebow, Steve Young, and Michael Vick are notable left-handed quarterbacks (see best left-handed quarterbacks).
• Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi (left-footed), Pelé, and Johan Cruyff all favor the left foot. See best left-footed soccer players.
• Randy Johnson — Hall of Fame pitcher (see best left-handed pitchers).
• Wayne Gretzky shoots left in hockey; most NHL goal-scorers are left-handed shooters.

Famous left-handed royalty

The British royal family has a notable left-handed streak — three generations of Windsors include lefties, despite King George V having forced his son George VI to switch hands.

• Queen Victoria — left-handed; wrote with her right after being trained to switch.
• King George VI — naturally left-handed; forced to switch as a child, contributing to his stutter (depicted in The King's Speech).
• Prince William — left-handed; the future king's handedness has been visible at every public signing since the 1990s. Full coverage in is Prince William left-handed.
• Prince George — appears to be left-handed based on recent photographs, though the palace has not confirmed.
• Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh — left-handed.
• Prince Charles (King Charles III) — listed as left-handed in some sources, though he writes with his right.

Famous left-handed US presidents

Five of the last nine US presidents have been left-handed — a striking 56% versus the population baseline of 10%. The streak is one of the strongest pieces of evidence cited (often misleadingly) for the "lefties are smarter" myth.

• James A. Garfield (20th)
• Herbert Hoover (31st)
• Harry S. Truman (33rd) — naturally left-handed, trained to write with his right.
• Gerald Ford (38th)
• Ronald Reagan (40th) — naturally left-handed, switched as a child.
• George H.W. Bush (41st)
• Bill Clinton (42nd)
• Barack Obama (44th) — the most recent left-handed president and the most visibly so.

The full breakdown is in left-handed presidents of the United States.

Famous left-handed world leaders

• Napoleon Bonaparte — French emperor; long-claimed lefty, though biographers debate it.
• Winston Churchill — British prime minister.
• Fidel Castro — Cuban revolutionary leader.
• David Cameron — UK prime minister 2010–2016.
• Benjamin Netanyahu — Israeli prime minister.

Famous left-handed artists

The Renaissance produced an unusual cluster of left-handed masters. Whether that reflects something genuinely linked to handedness or just survivorship bias in historical record-keeping is unclear, but the names are real.

• Leonardo da Vinci — wrote in mirror script with his left hand. The single most famous lefty in art history.
• Michelangelo — most scholars consider him left-handed based on chisel-mark analysis.
• Raphael — left-handed, per Vasari's contemporary account.
• Albrecht Dürer — left-handed Northern Renaissance master.
• M.C. Escher — Dutch graphic artist whose impossible-geometry drawings owe partly to his lefty perspective.
• Paul Klee and Pablo Picasso are sometimes listed as lefties, though the evidence is mixed (Picasso was probably ambidextrous).

More in famous left-handed artists.

Famous left-handed scientists and inventors

• Isaac Newton — left-handed physicist and mathematician.
• Nikola Tesla — left-handed inventor; his notebooks show distinct lefty hand-bias.
• Benjamin Franklin — left-handed polymath. He wrote a famous satirical petition in the voice of his "left hand" complaining about being neglected.
• Alan Turing — listed as left-handed in several biographical sources.
• Marie Curie — often claimed as left-handed, but evidence suggests right-handed.

More in famous left-handed scientists and left-handed architects.

Famous left-handed business and tech leaders

• Bill Gates — left-handed Microsoft co-founder.
• Mark Zuckerberg — left-handed Meta CEO.
• Henry Ford — left-handed auto pioneer.
• Steve Forbes — left-handed publisher.
• Oprah Winfrey — left-handed media mogul; the richest left-handed woman in the world.
• Ted Turner — left-handed CNN founder.

More in left-handed CEOs.

Famous left-handed authors

• Mark Twain — left-handed.
• H.G. Wells — left-handed.
• Lewis Carroll — left-handed; the mirror-world themes in Alice have invited speculation about whether handedness shaped his imagination.
• James Baldwin — left-handed.
• Helen Keller — left-handed.

More in famous left-handed authors.

Famous left-handed comedians and TV personalities

• Jerry Seinfeld — left-handed (as is his Seinfeld co-star Jason Alexander).
• Tina Fey — left-handed.
• Jay Leno — left-handed late-night host.
• Jon Stewart — left-handed.
• Drew Carey — left-handed.
• Wanda Sykes — left-handed.
• Seth Rogen — left-handed.

Other notable left-handed figures

• Buzz Aldrin — second man on the moon and left-handed (Neil Armstrong was right-handed). More in left-handed astronauts.
• Joan of Arc — left-handed by some accounts; the imagery of her wielding her sword in her left hand is contested.
• Ruth Bader Ginsburg — left-handed Supreme Court Justice.
• Caitlyn Jenner — left-handed Olympic decathlon gold medalist.
• Helen Keller — left-handed author and activist.
• Gordon Ramsay — left-handed chef. More in famous left-handed chefs.

What gender is mostly left-handed?

Men are more often left-handed than women. Across large meta-analyses, men are about 1.23 times more likely to be left-handed — roughly 12% of men compared to 10% of women. The gap is consistent across cultures and has shown up in samples covering more than two million participants. The reason is debated; prenatal testosterone exposure is one leading hypothesis. We cover the data in detail in how rare left-handed women are.

The famous-people lists reflect this — men outnumber women among historical lefty greats, partly because of the underlying gender gap and partly because women have been systematically underrepresented in the public record.

Is left-handedness linked to ADHD?

Slightly, but the link is small. A 2018 meta-analysis found that ADHD diagnoses are modestly more common among left- and mixed-handed people — around 17 to 20 percent of ADHD patients are non-right-handed, compared to the general-population rate of about 10 to 12 percent. Most left-handers do not have ADHD. The same weak association shows up for autism and dyslexia, and likely reflects shared neurodevelopmental factors rather than handedness causing the conditions. We cover the full picture in left-handedness and ADHD.

Why are there so many famous left-handed people?

There aren't, statistically. Left-handers make up about 10% of any large group of accomplished people — Nobel laureates, Mensa members, PhDs, professional athletes — which matches their share of the general population almost exactly. The exception is interactive sports (boxing, tennis, baseball) and US presidents from the modern era, where the rates are noticeably higher.

The reason famous lefties feel overrepresented is memory bias. When a Hollywood star or an emperor is left-handed, it stands out and gets noted. Right-handed celebrities are the unmarked default, so their handedness is invisible. We unpack the IQ and creativity claims in are left-handed people smarter and are left-handed people more creative.

Frequently asked questions

Who is the most famous left-handed person?

By global recognition, the leading candidates are Leonardo da Vinci, Barack Obama, and Paul McCartney. Da Vinci is probably the single most cited example because of his mirror writing and Renaissance-spanning influence, but Obama is the most recognizable living lefty.

What percentage of famous people are left-handed?

Roughly the same as the general population — about 10%. The notable exceptions are US presidents (5 of the last 9), elite tennis players (15–20%), and elite boxers (20–30%). In most other fields, the percentage of left-handers tracks the population baseline closely.

What does the Bible say about left-handed people?

The Bible mentions left-handed people positively in the Book of Judges — Ehud, a left-handed Israelite judge, used his hand to conceal a dagger and assassinate the Moabite king Eglon. The tribe of Benjamin is described as having 700 elite left-handed slingers. The negative connotations of "left" in Western culture come more from later Greek and Latin tradition than from the Bible itself. More in left-handed people in the Bible.

Are most criminals left-handed?

No. The popular myth that serial killers are disproportionately left-handed is not supported by data. Some famous criminals were left-handed — Jack the Ripper has been speculated to be, the Boston Strangler was, John Dillinger was — but the rate among convicted criminals tracks the 10% population baseline. The myth persists because of the historical association of "left" with "sinister" (the Latin word for "left").

How do we know which historical figures were left-handed?

For modern figures, photographs and direct accounts. For pre-photographic figures, evidence comes from a mix of sources: contemporary biographer notes (Vasari on Michelangelo and Raphael), analysis of artistic technique (chisel-mark direction, brush-stroke patterns), surviving handwriting samples, and in rare cases, mirror writing (Leonardo da Vinci). For some commonly listed historical lefties — Napoleon, Joan of Arc — the evidence is genuinely contested.