William Shakespeare

baptized April 26, 1564, died April 23, 1616

English poet, playwright and actor.
Often called the English national poet and considered by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time. In his times people were more sceptical. Robert Greene attacked him in A Groatsworth of Wit as "upstart crow, beautiful in our feathers, that, with his tiger's heart wrapt in a player's hide, supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you, and, being an absolute Johannes Factotum, is, in his own conceit, the only Shakescene in the country". Shakespeare as plagiarist?

Further reading:
Encyclopedia Britannica Online: William Shakespeare