William Shakespeare ( baptised 26 April 1564 - 23 April 1616) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime, and in 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's.

Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world.

William Shakespeare was the stage name of Australian singer born Johnny Cabe (also known as John Cave).

He had two big Australian hits: Can't Stop Myself From Loving You in 1974 and My Little Angel, which made number one on the Australian charts in 1975 for 3 weeks.

In 1974, in the planning stages for the ABC TV Series Countdown, it was suggested that William Shakespeare host the show. However, this was rejected, with Ian Meldrum becoming a regular contributor instead. A number of guest hosts such as Shirley Strachan, John Paul Young and Daryl Braithwaite compered the show in its early days on an ad hoc basis.

William Shakespeare (September 27, 1912 - January 17, 1974) was an American football player.

He was drafted in the 1936 NFL Draft by the Pittsburgh Steelers but never played a game in the NFL. In World War II, Shakespeare went from private to captain, won four battle stars and the Bronze Star for gallantry in action. He was also president of the Cincinnati Rubber Manufacturing Company.

William Harold Nelson Shakespeare (24 August 1893 - 10 July 1976) was an English cricketer who played 26 first-class matches for Worcestershire between 1919 and 1931.

Born in Worcester, Shakespeare made his first-class debut in August 1919 against Warwickshire; this was a friendly match as Worcestershire did not enter the County Championship that season. Opening the batting with Alfred Cliff he had a fine match, scoring 62 in the first innings and 67 not out in the second. He played one further match that year and three in 1920 but could not replicate his initial form, with a top score of only 11 in six innings.

Four years later, Shakespeare finally returned to the side, scoring 62* against Glamorgan, and this time — although he never made any really big scores — he contributed useful thirties and forties fairly often. From 1926 onwards, however, his powers left him and he passed 20 only once in his last 14 innings. His first-class career really ended in 1928, but he did make one final appearance three years later.

Although he never played at such a high level again, Shakespeare did appear for Worcestershire's second XI in the Minor Counties Championship as late as July 1949, when he was nearly 56. He also umpired one first-class game, that between Worcestershire and Combined Services at New Road in May 1950.

Shakespeare died aged 82 in Whittington, Worcestershire.

William Shakespeare (1849-1931) was an English tenor, pedagogue, and composer.

William Shakespeare was born in England on 16 June, 1849. He studied in London, at the Royal Academy of Music with William Sterndale Bennett. He travelled to Leipzig to study with composer, pianist, conductor, and pedagogue Carl Reinecke, but soon left Leipzig for Milan, to study under the guidance of the singing teacher Francesco Lamperti. He appeared in England once again as a tenor in 1875. In 1878, he was appointed as a professor of singing at the Royal Academy of Music. He died in the year 1931.

In addition to singing and composition, William Shakespeare wrote and published several books. These include The Art of Singing, a three-part series published from 1898 to 1899, Singing for Schools and Colleges, published in 1907, Plain Words on Singing in 1924, and The Speaker's Art in 1931. William Shakespeare's style of vocal pedagogy mirrored closely that of his Italian mentor Lamperti, as evidenced from his direct reference to la lotte vocal, a concept taken directly from the nineteenth-century Italianate school of vocal development.