List of polio survivors

Poliomyelitis (often simply called polio) is an acute viral infection that involves the gastrointestinal tract and occasionally the central nervous system.

Prior to the introduction of a polio vaccine in 1955, infection was common, with epidemics during the summer and autumn of temperate countries.

The extent of paralysis varies from part of a limb to quadriplegia and respiratory failure.

Around 30–40 years after contracting paralytic poliomyelitis, about 25–40% of cases lead to post-polio syndrome.

This categorised alphabetical list contains people with a firm and uncontested diagnosis made while still alive.

Itzhak Perlman , a polio survivor, plays the violin while seated
Actress and dancer Gwen Verdon took up dancing to strengthen her polio-afflicted legs
Actress Marion Davies contracted polio as an adult.
Toymaker Margarete Steiff was paralysed as an infant.
Judith Heumann had to take legal action to be allowed to become a teacher.
Director Francis Ford Coppola 's childhood was interrupted by polio for over a year.
Television presenter David Onley found his employers to be supportive in accommodating his extra needs.
Arthur C. Clarke contracted polio in 1962. His recovery returned him to top form at his favourite sport, table tennis .
Saxophonist David Sanborn spent a year in an iron lung .
Cecil 'Skelly' Spence of Israel Vibration , a band founded by three polio survivors.
Singer-songwriter Neil Young contracted polio during an epidemic in the summer of 1951.
Kim Beazley was hospitalised with polio as a child.
Former senator John Porter East contracted polio in 1955 while serving as a lieutenant in the United States Marines.
Robert McNamara 's career was changed when both he and his wife contracted polio.
Elsie MacGill caught polio in the same year she became the first Canadian woman to receive an Aeronautical Engineering degree.
Physicist Philip Morrison , who had polio as a child, worked on the Manhattan Project .
Odette L. Shotwell advocated for the disadvantaged and discovered antibiotics and insecticides as a researcher for the United States Department of Agriculture .
Wilma Rudolph wore a leg brace for much of her early life after surviving a bout of childhood polio.
Jack Nicklaus caught polio as a young teenager.
Ray Ewry , nicknamed "The Human Frog" for his ability to leap, spent some of his childhood in a wheelchair.
Portrait of mouth-painter Earl Bailly, Lunenburg, NS
Earl Bailly in 1957
Lord Snowdon often campaigned to improve the lives of disabled people.
Despite polio-weakened legs, Sir John Slessor became a senior commander in the Royal Air Force .
Sir Walter Scott may have had the earliest recorded case of polio.
Alice Roosevelt (Longworth), taken around her debut in 1902.
Franklin D. Roosevelt may have contracted polio in 1921, but some argue that his symptoms make Guillain–Barré syndrome more likely.
William O. Douglas claimed to have had polio as a child.