Famous Eastern Orthodox Christians

• Tom Hanks - actor, movie star
• Tina Fey - Saturday Night Live TV series writer and on-screen co-host of "Weekend Update" segment
• John Belushi - comedian; Saturday Night Live star; film actor (raised Albanian Orthodox)
• Joseph Stalin - brutal Communist leader (left Church, embraced atheism)
• Vladimir Lenin - Communist leader of Russia (embraced atheism)
• John Cassavetes - influential film director (marginal Greek Orthodox)
• Michael Dukakis - Massachusetts governor; unsuccessful Democratic nominee for President (1988)
• Olympia Dukakis - Academy Award-winning actress
• Sergei Eisenstein - influential Russian film director, pioneer of montage film editing
• Elia Kazan - film director; On the Waterfront; Gentleman's Agreement; etc. (lapsed Greek Orthodox)
• Frank Schaeffer - acclaimed author (convert to Greek Orthodoxy)
• Nikos Kazantzakis - Greek writer; author of The Last Temptation of Christ (excommunicated from Greek Orthodox Church)
• Vladimir Nabokov - influential Russian-American writer best known for Lolita (1955) and Pale Fire (1962)
• Igor Stravinsky - celebrated Russian-American composer of modern classical music (Russian Orthodox)
• Christopher Orr - actor, The Mighty Ducks, etc. (convert from Lutheran to Orthodox)
• Cyril Lucaris / Cyril I - became Patriarch of Constantinople as Cyril I in 17th Century, first great leader of Church since since fall of Constantinople in 1453
• Spencer Abraham - U.S. Secretary of Energy for Pres. George W. Bush
• George Stephanopoulos - communication director for Pres. Clinton; news show host
• Darrell Issa - U.S. Representative from California; wealthy businessman; personally financed 2003 recall election that ended Gov. Gray Davis's term early
• George Tenet - CIA director from 1997 to 2004
• Paul Weyrich - powerful conservative American activist; founder of the Heritage Foundation
• Terry Mattingly - nationally prominent syndicated religion journalist
• Jaroslav Jan Pelikan - religious scholar, Yale professor, co-editor of 55-volume Luther's Works (convert from Lutheran to Orthodox)
• William A. Dembski - a leading proponent of Intelligent Design theory (raised Catholic; became an Evangelical; converted to Eastern Orthodoxy in 1997; returned to Evanglicalism in 1999; now teaches at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY)
• Leonty Filippovich Magnitsky (1669-1739) - mathematician, navigator (Russian Orthodox)

• Rod Blagojevich - governor of Illinois
• Paul Sarbanes - U.S. Senator from Maryland
• Olympia Snowe - U.S. Senator from Maine
• Michael Huffington - U.S. Representative from California
• Melissa Bean - U.S. Representative from Illinois
• Michael Bilirakis - U.S. Representative from Florida

Notable Eastern Orthodox Politicians
Source: http://politicalgraveyard.com/group/eastern-orthodox.html; viewed 12 July 2005
Mary V. Beck
Adam Benjamin, Jr.
Helen Delich Bentley
Gus Michael Bilirakis
Michael Bilirakis
Edwin J. Bowman
Katherine Czarnecki
Paul Louis Douglas
Michael Stanley Dukakis
Nick Galifianakis
Jack J. Garris
George William Gekas
George P. Harlamon
George Zaven Hart
E. N. Karay
Nicholas James Mavroules
Michael Novak
George Panichas
Peter J. Pitchess
Paul Spyros Sarbanes
Olympia Jean Bouchles Snowe
Sam Solon
Harry Vaios Spanos
Callie Tsapis
Gus Yatron
Paul Zakaib, Jr.
George N. Zenovich


Notable Members of the Russian Orthodox Church
Sources: NNDB.com (http://www.nndb.com/lists/868/000071655/; viewed 5 July 2005); "Category: Russian Orthodox Christians" page on Wikipedia.com (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Russian_Orthodox_Christians; viewed 12 August 2005)

Abram Samoilovitch Besicovitch
Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Nedoshivin
Aleksandr Pushkin
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Alexander Schmemann
Andronic Nikolsky
Anna Akhmatova
Anthony Bloom
Basil Fool for Christ
Catherine the Great
Dmytro Bortniansky
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Grigori Rasputin
Ivan the Terrible
Jaroslav Pelikan
John (Maximovitch) of Shanghai and San Francisco
John Tavener
Konstantin of Murom
Leo Tolstoy
Leonid Kuchma
Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Lermontov
Natalie Wood
Nikolai Berdyaev
Nikolai Gogol
Nikolai Novikov
Nikolai of Japan
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Oksana Baiul
Peter the Great
Philaret
Seraphim Rose
Sergei Averintsev
Theodosius Dobzhansky
Theophan the Recluse
Tikhon of Zadonsk
Tsar Alexander I
Tsar Nicholas I
Tsar Nicholas II
Tsar Paul I
Tsar Peter II
Viktor Yanukovych
Viktor Yushchenko
Vladimir Putin

Category:Metropolitans and Patriarchs of Moscow (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Metropolitans_and_Patriarchs_of_Moscow; viewed 12 August 2005): Alexius, Metropolitan of Moscow; Cyprian, Metropolitan of Moscow; Daniel, Metropolitan of Moscow; Dionysius I, Metropolitan of Moscow; Gerontius, Metropolitan of Moscow; Isidore the Apostate; Jonas; Maximus, Metropolitan of all Rus; Metropolitan German; Metropolitan Peter; Metropolitan Philip; Patriarch Adrian; Patriarch Alexius I; Patriarch Alexius II; Patriarch Filaret (Feodor Romanov); Patriarch Hermogenes; Patriarch Ignatius; Patriarch Joasaphus I; Patriarch Jove; Patriarch Nikon; Patriarch Pimen I; Philip I, Metropolitan of Moscow; Photius, Metropolitan of Moscow; Pitirim of Krutitsy; Saint Innocent of Alaska; Simon, Metropolitan of Moscow; Theodosius, Metropolitan of Moscow; Theognostus; Tikhon of Moscow; Zosimus, Metropolitan of Moscow