See photographs and read stories about global icons - the actors, athletes, politicians, and community members that make our world come to life.

Experience LIFE's visual record of the 20th century by exploring the most iconic photographs from one of the most famous private photo collections in the world.

LIFE took readers inside the world of this budding star with a story headlined “Music World’s Young Wonder.” The story described Gould equally talented and peculiar: Gould has…a set of the most earnest eccentricities in the music business. Almost everything gives young Glenn trouble.

In 1951 LIFE showcased the sculptor Alberto Giacometti. Like Pollock, Giacometti’s works were instantly recognizable. His style was bluntly captured in LIFE’s headline: “Skeletal Sculpture: Artist Whittles Men to Bone.”

Peter Stackpole/Life Picture Collection/Shutterstock Rollie Free, laying horizontally on his bike to reduce wind resistance, broke the world’s speed record for a motorcycle at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, September 13, 1948.

In this collection of backstage pictures captured by LIFE photographers over the years, there’s a great variety of stars in all kinds of situations. But the recurring themes are those of intimacy and surprise.

Photos -- most of which never ran in LIFE magazine -- of Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell on the set of a classic musical comedy in 1953.

This story includes images by LIFE photographer Francis Miller from when Tierney was discovered to be working anonymously as a sales clerk at a dress shop near Topeka, Kansas, reportedly as part of her therapy.

LIFE photographer John Olson was on hand to document the scene, and he had fun highlighting the juxtaposition of Meyer and his actresses exploring the school’s neo-Gothic architecture. In Olson’s shots, Yale students seemed delighted to have Meyer and his actresses on campus.

Learn about James Whitmore, one of the many photographers for LIFE who captured some of the most iconic pictures from the US & around the World.