CELEBRITY

Henrietta Lacks

1920 - 1951

Photo of Henrietta Lacks

Icon of person Henrietta Lacks

Henrietta Lacks (born Loretta Pleasant; August 1, 1920 – October 4, 1951) was an African-American woman whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line, the first immortalized human cell line and one of the most important cell lines in medical research. An immortalized cell line reproduces indefinitely under specific conditions, and the HeLa cell line continues to be a source of invaluable medical data to the present day.Lacks was the unwitting source of these cells from a tumor biopsied during treatment for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., in 1951. These cells were then cultured by George Otto Gey, who created the cell line known as HeLa, which is still used for medical research. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Henrietta Lacks has received more than 6,761,147 page views. Her biography is available in 32 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 31 in 2019). Henrietta Lacks is the 57th most popular celebrity (down from 50th in 2019), the 2,422nd most popular biography from United States (down from 2,279th in 2019) and the 23rd most popular American Celebrity.

Memorability Metrics

  • 6.8M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 65.77

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 32

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 2.37

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.52

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of Henrietta Lacks by language


Among CELEBRITIES

Among celebrities, Henrietta Lacks ranks 57 out of 184. Before her are Christine Keeler, Joseph Meister, Daisy and Violet Hilton, María Capovilla, Paris Hilton, and Betsy Ross. After her are Kourtney Kardashian, Maria von Trapp, Jon Brower Minnoch, Madeleine Astor, Isabel Preysler, and Manuel Uribe.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1920, Henrietta Lacks ranks 121. Before her are Delbert Mann, José Mauro de Vasconcelos, Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, Cornelis Johannes van Houten, James Doohan, and Eva Dahlbeck. After her are Miguel Delibes, Meliton Kantaria, Heinz Kessler, Thomas Szasz, Stan Ockers, and Martine Carol. Among people deceased in 1951, Henrietta Lacks ranks 56. Before her are Ferdinand Sauerbruch, Ernst von Weizsäcker, Ali Sami Yen, François Georges-Picot, Tadeusz Borowski, and Géza Maróczy. After her are Warner Baxter, Robert Grant Aitken, Lincoln Ellsworth, Algernon Blackwood, Louis Jouvet, and Liaquat Ali Khan.

Others Born in 1920

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Others Deceased in 1951

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Henrietta Lacks ranks 2,422 out of 15,968. Before her are Theodore Sturgeon (1918), Rex Tillerson (1952), Janet Jackson (1966), Sugar Ray Leonard (1956), Coretta Scott King (1927), and Kristen Stewart (1990). After her are Warner Baxter (1889), Bruno Mars (1985), Robert Culp (1930), John Stockton (1962), Frances E. Allen (1932), and Georgina Spelvin (1936).

Others born in United States

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Among CELEBRITIES In United States

Among celebrities born in United States, Henrietta Lacks ranks 23. Before her are Anna Nicole Smith (1967), Edie Sedgwick (1943), Roy Sullivan (1912), Lizzie Borden (1860), Paris Hilton (1981), and Betsy Ross (1752). After her are Kourtney Kardashian (1979), Jon Brower Minnoch (1941), Madeleine Astor (1893), Florence Owens Thompson (1903), Barbara Hutton (1912), and Evelyn McHale (1923).

American born Celebrities

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