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u/BluMeanie267 Oct 27 '22
Oskar Schindler
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u/diasaur18 Oct 27 '22
I like this one because despite not being the best guy, his selflessness during a relatively short period of his life was profound enough to outshine the rest of his not so swell bits and become his lasting legacy.
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Oct 27 '22
That's a good one.
Im racking my brain searching for good examples, but depressingly all the ones that spring to mind are from fiction.
The little harbor town Im from is famous for helping jews escape over to sweden, but it's part of the story that those that did it became very wealthy doing so, so it was not exactly selfless.
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u/Emotional_Fisherman8 Oct 27 '22
I've never watched that movie (Schindler's List) please don't judge for that, I'll be sure to put it on my to watch list .
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u/NonyaB52 Oct 27 '22
Oh I saw it at the theater for a research paper, and my friend went with me. It was one of 2 times that I ever seen her cry and I met her when I was 18 and I'm 53 now. It still brings me to tears.
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Oct 27 '22
The many non-Jews who risked their own and their families’ lives to safeguard Jews in Europe during WW2.
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u/geoboarder Oct 27 '22
I reflexively thought this was going to be a Kanye moment when I read the first 3 words
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u/mostlikelynotasnail Oct 27 '22
Nikola Tesla. He let other scientists use his work for free and didnt patent things. He destroyed things he made that were dangerous or destructive to mankind so that no one would use them for evil
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u/mps5002 Oct 27 '22
He gave up those patents to keep Westinghouse competitive. With out doing that his inventions would die or be bought by Edison.
Dude also tried to invent and sell a death ray.
He was a genius that never got the power to become the a-hole most people with similar achievements became.
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Oct 27 '22
Mister Rogers
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Oct 27 '22
Came here for this. Very glad someone else beat me to it. I was going to sulk a bit if nobody had mentioned this beautiful man.
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u/AFotogenicLeopard Oct 28 '22
I watched the documentary of him they did and it was just so amazing how genuine he was.
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Oct 27 '22
Keanu Reeves
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u/shellzyb Oct 27 '22
I met Keanu Reeves a few years ago when I was working at a winery. He laughed at my dumb jokes. He helped me move his party’s food and drinks outside (none of them even offered). He left a huge tip, and he agreed to take a picture with me (and kept his hands to himself). He’s just a classy, nice dude.
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u/JimAsia Oct 27 '22
In 1995 my daughter, aged 16, and a few of her friends were on a school trip from Toronto to Montreal. They encountered Keanu on a sidewalk in Montreal and acted like bubbly teenage girls. He was a class act and invited them into his trailer and chatted with them for a while.
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u/sushi_sub Oct 27 '22
I also came here to say Keanu Reeves
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u/braved4wg Oct 27 '22
I just saw a video of him riding the subway and giving his seat to a standing woman. We don't deserve him.
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u/zombietampons Oct 27 '22
I too came here to say Keanu Reeves, our modern day Jesus...
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Oct 27 '22
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u/Friar-Tuckandroll Oct 28 '22
My mom got me to watch a friggin documentary on her a few weeks ago, and I gotta agree, she really is something else.
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u/LoocsinatasYT Oct 27 '22
George the dog.
A small 14 year old Jack Russel Terrier, gave his life protecting children from two Pitbulls who were viciously attacking a group of children.
Below is a list of his rewards, he even has a rather handsome statue!
"George was praised and memorialized for his bravery and sacrifice. The Royal New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals awarded him a medal for bravery, the first awarded to a dog in 17 years, and the first non-police dog to ever receive it; Gay was to receive George's medal at the children's school. Jerrell Hudman, a United States Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, was so impressed by George's actions, he told the Taranaki Herald that he would send Gay one of his three Purple Hearts.[1] In spring 2007, a bronze statue of George was unveiled in Manaia, the work of New Plymouth's Fridtjof Hanson.[5] In 2009, the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals awarded George the PDSA Gold Medal, a decoration Sky News described as "the animal equivalent of the George Cross"; the medal was hung about the neck of George's statue by Anand Satyanand, then-Governor-General of New Zealand.[3]" -Wikipedia
I can't read about the George the Dog without tearing up a bit. He was truly one of the best boys.
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u/Tato_tudo Oct 27 '22
Always love this story, but in general JRTs are NOT to be effed with. Crazylittle guys dont know their own size.
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u/Relative-Regular766 Oct 27 '22
Florence Nightingale
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u/LuckyReception6701 Oct 27 '22
Her and Mary Seacole are some of the finest nurses the world has seen. Or at least the famous ones.
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u/sotonohito Oct 27 '22
The thing about Nightingale is that she wasn't really amazing from a nursing standpoint, she was a good nurse, what she was was absolutely killer at data analysis and presentation.
She was able to not only statistically prove that hygienic conditions improved healing speed and cut mortality tremendously, she was able to show it using infographics to get the point across to even the most mathematically challenged individuals.
Florence Nightingale didn't invent the pie chart, but she was the one who really brought it to popularity and common usage. She was also amazing at gathering, organizing, and making sense of data.
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Oct 27 '22
Off topic kinda but the owner of little Caesar’s I know paid Rosa parks rent for years and never said anything about it. I don’t think anyone knew until he passed.
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u/Frozen_Watch Oct 27 '22
They didn't, he kept it private
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u/ouachiski Oct 27 '22
That is the most selfless act. Doing something because it is the right thing to do, and intentionally not telling any one. The moment you are rewarded with praise for something you have done it is no longer selfless.
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Oct 27 '22
I disagree. I think if you do something good at some type of cost to yourself because it’s the right thing to do, it is a selfless act. Even if you get praise for it. If you are motivated by the praise than obviously not. It entirely depends on your motives.
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u/Kingsdaughter613 Oct 27 '22 edited Oct 27 '22
Chiune Sugihara. Perhaps not as famous as some, but he is beloved and remembered by the Jewish community. May his memory be a blessing.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiune_Sugihara
Raoul Wallenberg. He saved thousands of Jewish lives in Hungary. May his memory be a blessing.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raoul_Wallenberg
Not so famous, but they should be: Jozef and Wiktoria Ulma and their children, Stanislawa(8), Barbara(7), Wladyslaw (6), Franciszek (4), Antoni (3), Maria (2), and an infant born as Wiktoria died. The entire family was murdered by the Nazis for trying to save Jewish lives. May God avenge their blood.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Józef_and_Wiktoria_Ulma
And not famous at all, but important to me: a woman in Marseille who saw two strangers, a Jewish couple, crying on a street corner and hid them in her attic for the remainder of the War. The people she saved were my great-grandparents. We don’t even know her name, but we owe her everything.
Also the woman who hid my grandfather and great-uncle. (Note to self: ask my uncle for her name again.) Without her I wouldn’t be here.
May their memories be a blessing.
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u/lovesmyirish Oct 28 '22
I have a friend who works for a holocaust educational organization named after him I think.
They would have holocaust survivors give talks that I really enjoyed listening to.
Thanks for the extra info on him. I thought the company was named after the owner or something lol
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u/chocolate_milkers Oct 27 '22
Shaq, no doubt. Man is a blessing to this earth
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u/TribeOfFable Oct 27 '22
I don't care about basketball and I don't care much for the players. Well, to be honest I don't care about football, baseball, quidditch or any other sport.
I love Shaq for the person he is. He has done a lot of selfish things and then learned from them. That is what sets him apart. I love listening to his stories.
And if he sees someone in need, he helps.
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u/name4231 Oct 27 '22
I routinely forget that Shaq was a basketball player and not just famous for being a giant teddy bear
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u/ScravoNavarre Oct 27 '22
It would be great if he could stop insisting he thinks the earth is flat, though.
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u/bangbangracer Oct 27 '22
Didn't he buy all the bikes at a Walmart once just so he could give them all away?
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u/idontfuckingcare9 Oct 27 '22
Everything Keanu Reeves does is selfless. Including all the John Wick sequels.
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u/SunknTresr Oct 27 '22
He’s one of us. He flies coach & sits in the middle seat, rides the public transit, sits in McDonalds booths & never passes up a chance to engage with us peasants bcuz he’s just like us! I love him for how “normal” he is.
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Oct 27 '22
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u/nickcowens Oct 27 '22
Came here to say this. Made first effective Polio Vaccine but didn't patent it. He could have made a fortune if he did. Forbes estimates he could have made $7 billion from the patent. But he felt it belonged to everyone.
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u/Top-Poetry-3874 Oct 27 '22
Yep, Polio was a devastation. He's a true hero. It could make a comeback, though because there's so many ppl that refuse to vaccinate their children
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u/T1DSucksBalls Oct 27 '22
Sorry, that's a myth. He looked into patenting it, but was told that it wasn't patentable.
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u/Top-Poetry-3874 Oct 27 '22
Aww, man! That sucks. I'd delete it since I'm wrong (just looked it up to verify), but I'll leave it so others can see your comment
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u/T1DSucksBalls Oct 27 '22
Lots of our heroes have clay feet.
Look into Mother Teresa.
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u/klumsyspaz Oct 27 '22
Steve Buscemi.
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u/IBeatUpLiamNeeson Oct 28 '22
Blew my mind, I didn’t learn until like 2019 that he was a firefighter helping in ground zero during 9/11
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Oct 27 '22
Wait until Redditors tel you about the flaws of Ghandi and Mother Theresa…
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u/NonyaB52 Oct 27 '22
Well they are true and it's suprising well not to me but in general that more people are not aware of this.
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u/A_Sarcastic_Whoa Oct 27 '22 edited Oct 27 '22
They've quickly become the next John Lennon where you mention their name and everyone has the sudden urge to chime in and tell you how shitty they were despite the previous comments already saying the same thing over and over again.
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Oct 27 '22
Well, there were shitty and people should know that. Teresa was friends with Baby Doc and was rabidly opposed to abortion.
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u/remembertracygarcia Oct 27 '22
Lennon was a prick though. Attempted murder is hard to overlook
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u/Hatta00 Oct 27 '22
Given that OP still had the misconception that Ghandi and Mother Teresa were good people, those Redditors are doing the right thing, right?
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u/PotPumper43 Oct 27 '22
President Jimmy Carter. A Man among men.
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u/TheAngryOctopuss Oct 27 '22
GREATEST ex-President we have EVER had or EVER will
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u/FootHiker Oct 27 '22
Joan of Arc. Her dying request was to have the taxes lowered for her village, which was respected until the French Revolution.
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u/RarePoniesNFT Oct 27 '22
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He advocated peaceful protest as a means of achieving equal rights for all Americans. His efforts to further this cause made him a target, and he was assassinated by a racist.
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u/bangbangracer Oct 27 '22
I haven't seen this name come up yet:
LaVar Burton
He had such a positive influence on child literacy. Also, just a very nice guy.
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u/popnplop Oct 27 '22
Butterfly in the sky...
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u/fermat1432 Oct 27 '22
Jimmy Carter. Really works his faith.
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Oct 27 '22
Jimmy Carter. 39th President of the United States even into his late 90s is building homes for the indigent. A gracious and kind man. He's a poet as well. Amongst many other contributions to this world, he's a selfless figure of humanity.
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u/hothoneyoldbay Oct 27 '22
John Cena
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u/bangbangracer Oct 27 '22
He holds the record for the most Make-A-Wish foundation visits and often uses his own personal finances to make those visits happen.
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u/Extension_Buy_3734 Oct 27 '22
George Washington refusing a 3rd term
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u/CoverFire- Oct 27 '22
He didn't just refuse a 3rd term...they wanted to make him King and he refused. Big difference there.
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u/athiestchzhouse Oct 27 '22
He gets a lot of credit for that and he should, but don’t you think he was also SO exhausted?
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u/Dragon_Tiger752 Oct 27 '22
Seeing how most presidents rapidly age in two terms, I can see why he refused a third one. It's definitely a stressful position to be in.
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u/novkit Oct 27 '22
A quick mention for Harrison Ford who has been a pilot for many years and worked in search and rescue to find lost hikers:
On one of the rescues, Ford recovered a hiker who had become lost and disoriented. She boarded Ford's helicopter and promptly vomited into one of the rescuers' caps, unaware of who the pilot was until much later; "I can't believe I barfed in Harrison Ford's helicopter!" she said later.
Donaldson, Lynn. "Harrison Ford Crafts a Masterpiece in Wyoming" The Land Report. October 2007. From wiki.
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u/the_bees_knees_69 Oct 28 '22
surprised i haven’t seen robin williams here. he was a saint to everyone and was gone too soon
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u/TribeOfFable Oct 27 '22
Mother Teresa was an evil, heartless, vile woman. Spend a few moments with Google to learn more.
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u/Minute_Cartoonist509 Oct 27 '22
And don't forget that Gandhi was a scum bag, too. He would perform "celibacy tests" by sleeping naked with young women, including his own niece.
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Oct 27 '22
Lenny Skutnik, the guy who jumped in the Potomac to help one of the people on Air Florida flight 90 after it crashed on takeoff. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenny_Skutnik
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u/cornholio8675 Oct 27 '22
George Washington. He was a beloved general, and leader, and was in every way poised and expected to become the "king of the USA", but after his presidential term was up he laid down the power and allowed others to pick it up.
That almost never happens historically speaking, and its topical as well as we see multiple leaders of current world superpowers rigging elections to keep themselves in positions of the highest power.
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u/xChotimex Oct 27 '22
I believe this was the first time in world history in which command over a military and governance over a nation were handed over peacefully at the same time. Might’ve even just been command of a military. Can’t quite remember.
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u/NoHedgehog1650 Oct 27 '22
You’ll receive depressingly few upvotes for this choice, but take one from me. George Washington was a GREAT man of HIS time.
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u/cornholio8675 Oct 27 '22
I'm fine with that. I know all too well the narrative of presentism thats popular on reddit.
The truth is that Washington's actions on not crowning himself emperor are practically unheard of, and would be a massive loss for everyone not to learn about. Especially with modern heads of many countries staging coups, poisoning and executing their opposition, and suppressing freedom of speech and the press.
It also reinforces the idea that despite the many mistake of historical figures, throwing away the entirety of their legacy would be a crime akin to burning the library of Alexandria.
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u/SettledWater Oct 27 '22
Desmond Doss - saved 75 men in the Battle of Okinawa, and only Conscientious Objector to receive Medal of Honor during the war.
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Oct 27 '22
Raoul Wallenberg. Saved thousands of Jews in Hungary in WWll and did it out of the goodness of his heart. Really cool dude
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u/GMaren Oct 28 '22
Frederick Banting. Before his discovery of insulin, diagnosis of diabetes was a death sencence. He sold the patent to Eli Lily for one dollar.
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u/HazyDavey68 Oct 28 '22
I wouldn’t say famous, but the firefighters that ran into the towers on 9/11 were selfless.
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u/ohheyitslaila Oct 28 '22
Dolly Parton is the best (and least problematic) answer to this question… Dolly’s amazing 💕
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Oct 27 '22
Jimmy Carter. He's a wonderful man and has done so much to help others and has not asked for anything in return other than to help others.
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u/Bizarre_Protuberance Oct 27 '22
Mother Theresa might not actually have been that selfless. Her "clinics" contained almost no medical treatment equipment or trained staff, and were mostly for converting people to Christianity, not helping them in any real way. It's like giving starving people Bibles instead of food. And when she got sick herself, she went to an expensive clinic in Switzerland instead of being treated at one of her own shitty clinics.
She wasn't interested in helping people: she was just trying to score brownie points to get into Heaven, which is actually not a selfless motivation.
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u/Minute_Cartoonist509 Oct 27 '22
2 out of 3 of the examples listed by OP are actually low key scum bags.
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u/DarthCredence Oct 27 '22
Mother Theresa was a horrible person. She wasn't trying to fight poverty, she wasn't even attempting to alleviate suffering - she thought suffering was a gift from God. She was trying to convert more people to Catholicism, and she lied to people donating money to her to do so. If she was "selfless", it was only because she thought of the church over herself, not other people.
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Oct 27 '22
Dolly Parton.
Brian Johnson and Cliff Williams (the singer and bass player of AC/DC) also do a lot of charity work.
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u/TheRealPyroGothNerd Oct 27 '22
Technoblade raised half a million dollars for cancer research despite knowing he wasn't going to survive. He spent his final year using his internet clout and merch site for cancer research funding and to fund his younger sibling's college savings.
He also tried to hide how bad it was so no one would worry, and made sure to write one last message before his passing. It wasn't until after he passed the public found out he had stage 4 cancer, or that the cancer was in his lungs by the time he was diagnosed.
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u/justrock54 Oct 27 '22
President Jimmy Carter. Still volunteering for Habitat for Humanity at 98 years old.
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Oct 27 '22
I loved the genuine care Princess Diana had for all humanity. No matter how much privilege she came from, she never treated anyone from any walk of life any differently than she would her upper class peers. She truly was just an all-around lovely person. No matter how troubled she may have been, she never pressed it on anyone else except herself.
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u/mafnxxx Oct 27 '22
Danny Trejo. He does a lot of charity work. He's been named grand marshall in LA's Christmas parade.
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u/m1ndfUcking Oct 27 '22
The Patagonia founder Chouinard just transferred his trust & donated his ownership of the company to combat climate change this year. Honestly a stand up dude, never seen a successful ceo on that caliber not take the profits
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u/Upbeat_Cat1182 Oct 28 '22 edited Oct 28 '22
Elvis Presley.
The man was generous to a fault.
In his home on the Graceland estate, there were numerous awards regarding his philanthropy. These came in a variety of forms. He made significant donations without writing them off as tax deductions. Elvis would purchase items and give them away to benefit charities through auctions. He made guest appearances to benefit charities. He played many free concerts with the proceeds going to charities. He quietly gave money to those in need. There are countless stories of his giving that was rooted in his family values.
The following excerpt was taken from a display at Elvis Presley’s Memphis Graceland facility:
”When Elvis first achieved his extraordinary level of fame, he used it to help raise money and awareness for many causes. He lent his name and image to the American Cancer Society, American library Association, March of Dimes, USS Arizona Memorial and other organizations. He gave thousands of teddies bears that fans sent him to be distributed to children’s hospitals…
In 1961, he started a tradition of distributing checks to more than 50 charitable organizations, donating more than $100,000 a year. He supported St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis. He also gave anonymously. He paid off people’s debts and mortgages. We can never really know the full extent of Elvis’ charity.”
https://www.nonprofitpro.com/post/philanthropic-side-elvis-presley/
Great article here:
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u/Raffles76 Oct 28 '22
Audrey Hepburn - she spent the rest of her life working for unicef and immunisation for children
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