The Fractal Geometry of Nature, a 1982 book on the continual reappearance of fractals in nature, made him famous.

FORBES: Mandelbrot: A Math Maverick Takes Stock

It wasn't climbing, though, but metallurgy that made him famous.

FORBES: The World According to Yvon

And his latest book called The Best of Worlds is set in Barcelona, but in a way he merely uses Barcelona as a kind of back drop for the black humour which has made him famous.

BBC: Sense of the City: Barcelona

Fitzgerald's remark about there being no second acts in American lives is so good, one almost hates to cite counter examples, but Robert Mondavi founded the winery that made him famous at the age of 53, after a successful career at Charles Krug.

WSJ: Tim Mondavi of Continuum Estate, Making the Mondavi Legacy New Again | On Wine by Jay McInerney

He proved his post-Harry Potter mettle in the hit horror The Woman in Black, but now Daniel Radcliffe has moved even further away from the role that made him famous - playing poet Allen Ginsberg in the low-budget, independent thriller, Kill Your Darlings.

BBC: Daniel Radcliffe on playing Allen Ginsberg

This all makes sense when you consider that his very first restaurant, the one that made him globally famous and is still going strong, Spago in Beverly Hills, is just down the street.

FORBES: Wolfgang Puck Takes LA -- And London

Although not all of them were successful, they made him not only famous but wealthy too.

ECONOMIST: Handel's anniversary

He devised the sauces that helped to make him famous that were lighter than those made with butter and cream.

ECONOMIST: Bernard Loiseau

It invited its "famous son" to visit following his moon walk in 1969 and made him the first Freeman of Langholm.

BBC: Neil Armstrong links celebrated in Langholm exhibition

Balian depicted him as a fabulist, a liar who made up extravagant stories about being a famous film director, the heir to a South African fortune and a descendant of British royalty.

WSJ: Impostor's lawyer suggests missing wife as killer