Top 10 People Who Can Be Argued to Be Cults of Personality
For those of you who don't know, a cult of personality is anyone who becomes the object of peoples' obsessions as they rise onto the public scene due to their charisma, interests, and methods and become something to defend until the end. This glorification can be inadvertent or it can be entirely in the person's intentions. The person themselves might not be bad at all, or they might exploit those who come to their aid. And the person may not even come to mind when people talk about cults of personality. The last of these is what this list is made to explore.
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur and business magnate. He was the chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), and a co-founder of Apple Inc., chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar, a member of The Walt Disney Company's board of directors following ...read more. His name is a synonym of the phrase "cult of personality". Everyone talks about how he rose onto the scene from Anakin Skywalker beginnings making a multibillion dollar company in his garage, but nobody talks about how rocky his personal relationships were or how he tried to hide scandals in his company such as how it obtained cheap labor by underpaying citizens of third world countries.
Walter Elias Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film producer, he holds the record for most Academy Awards earned ...read more. For a man who a worldwide culture revolves around, there are many morally questionable things he's done. For example, he was instrumental in McCarthyism and could be a jerk to people he didn't like.
He was a complete Nazi, along with many other things. Enough said.
William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. The author of the most famous plays of all time, even to this day, you'd have to be brave to disagree with his work in front of his fans, as famous author Tolkien learned.
Stephen William Hawking (January 8, 1942 - March 14, 2018) was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge. His most famous research was on the theory of Black Holes. His fans make it hard to criticize this person. His tragic backstory and works on physics compel them to exalt him enough that he has a movie based on his love life, which Mrs. Hawking herself likened to fan fiction.
While not a bad person, his followers, who also follow his son and great grandson, take their loyalty to him a wee bit far, which ends up fueling aversion to a decent movement.
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American singer, dancer, and songwriter born on August 29, 1958, in Gary, Indiana, and passed away on June 25, 2009. He donated (at least) a remarkable 500,000,000 dollars to charity. Michael is also known as The King of Pop (a title given to him by Elizabeth Taylor) or ...read more. Even today, it's difficult to criticize him without upsetting a world of fans, so be extra careful if you ever decide to make a joke about him.
Her fans are still alive and well. Fortunately the rocky relationship is warming up.
Gordon James Ramsay is a Scottish-born British chef, restaurateur, and television personality. He is famous for being the host of shows like Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, and Hotel Hell. He tends to have a fiery personality on television. He may not sound like he fits the mold, but there is a huge contrast to how he is in public and how he is in private that pointing out is taken to heart by many of his fans. His biography shows people really will do anything.
John Winston Ono Lennon, MBE (9 October 1940 - 8 December 1980) was an English singer and songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as a co-founder of the Beatles, the most commercially successful band in the history of popular music. He was assassinated by Mark David Chapman on December 8, 1980 at age ...read more. His demise was tragic, yes, and his songs aren't bad, but he is really just like everyone else. His band's famous claim that he is "above Jesus" shows he did have the personality cult undertone in mind. His songs are also formulaic to an extent.
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill was a British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, and a writer. He is great as far as leaders go, but he is in absolute loads upon loads of YouTube videos praising him that don't talk about the rough parts of his rule, how he gave India the cold shoulder and made way for the pet holocaust. His association with anything makes the item's price skyrocket, and people continue to express the same sentiment towards him as they would to someone they'd jump in front of a double decker bus for.
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American businessman, television personality, politician, and the 45th President of the United States. Born and raised in Queens, New York City, Trump received an economics degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1968. In 1971, ...read more.
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was a Georgian dictator, and was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. Holding the post of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he was effectively the dictator of the state.
Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an African American minister and activist who became the most visible spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. King is best known for advancing civil rights through ...read more.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India.
Phillip Jack "Phil" Brooks, also known by the ring name CM Punk, is an American comic book writer, actor, upcoming mixed martial artist and retired professional wrestler who is signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship. ...read more.
Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. He was the first African-American president of the United States. ...read more.
Oprah Gail Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist.
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century. His energized interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined ...read more.
Diego Armando Maradona (October 30, 1960 - November 25, 2020) was an Argentine professional footballer. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the 20th Century award. Maradona was given the nickname "El Pibe ...read more.
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician, journalist, and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country as Prime Minister from 1922 until he was ousted in 1943. He ruled constitutionally until 1925, when he dropped all pretense of democracy and set up a legal dictatorship. ...read more.
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary and founding father of the People's Republic of China, which he governed as Chairman of the Communist Party of China from its establishment in 1949, until his death in 1976. ...read more.
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (22 April 1870–21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924. Under his administration, ...read more.
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, known as Fidel Castro (August 13, 1926 – November 25, 2016), was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who governed the Republic of Cuba as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 and then as President from 1976 to 2008. Politically a Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist, he ...read more.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara, commonly known as El Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist.
Christopher Edward Nolan CBE (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American film director, producer, and screenwriter. His films have grossed more than US$5 billion worldwide, and have garnered 11 Academy Awards from 36 nominations. ...read more.