With OCD affecting more than two percent of the general population, it should not be surprising that many well-known people have suffered from it. Eighteenth-century man of letters Dr. Samuel Johnson, whose life was chronicled by his friend, biographer James Boswell, was among the first famous persons to be recognized, after the fact, as an OCD sufferer. There is evidence to suggest that he may also have had Tourette's syndrome. Johnson was known to perform all kinds of elaborate motions for no readily apparent reason. He is also recognized as having had one of the most brilliant minds of his day. How frustrated he must have been, not understanding, or enjoying the ability to control, his own unusual behavior!

Many other well-known people likely had OCD, as well:

• If the condition had been understood properly more than a hundred years ago, Remembrance of Things Past author Marcel Proust and many others probably would have been diagnosed with it.

• Centuries earlier, Martin Luther, for whom the Lutheran religion is named, is believed to have suffered from OCD symptoms, too.

• Howard Hughes, who died in the 1970s after an illustrious career in both aviation and film, became a virtual prisoner of OCD, spending more and more time alone, obsessing about physical illness and germs, and allowing fewer and fewer people into his space. This was during the 1950s (although his symptoms began decades earlier), when little was known about the disorder. According to friends' reports, Hughes sorted one of his favorite foods — peas — according to size before eating. He was also known to be obsessively perfectionistic while working on his films. Some recent biographers have also suggested that late-stage syphilis may have been responsible for many of Hughes's more bizarre actions. However, he also exhibited at least one classic OC behavior: touching objects only through paper towels. And here are some contemporary names you may have heard in connection with OCD:

• Radio personality Howard Stern has written and spoken publicly quite often about his struggles with OCD. His symptoms have included repetition obsessions and magical thinking. He has also acknowledged that, in an effort to distance himself from the disorder, he tormented other OCD sufferers on his popular syndicated radio program.

• Actress Cameron Diaz has acknowledged that she cleans her home slavishly and can't bear to touch doorknobs.

• Television's Deal Or No Deal host Howie Mandel refuses to shake hands with his on-camera guests, preferring a “knuckle-knock” instead. He has said that he built a special germ-free enclosure on his property to retreat to during stressful times, and that he prefers to keep his head clean shaven, in part because he considers that hygienic.

• The late entertainer Tiny Tim (born Herbert Buckingham Khaury) — who was, in fact, a frequent guest on Howard Stern's radio program — was plagued with an especially bad case. At one point, and for perhaps as long as forty years, he showered and brushed his teeth as often as six times a day. In addition to the several baths or showers he took each day for no known reason, he reported that he also took short showers after every visit to the bathroom. Tiny Tim's fanatical adherence to his unchecked compulsions must have taken great amounts of energy.

• Musician Joey Ramone (born Jeffrey Hyman) of the celebrated punk rock group The Ramones was known to have had OCD. His song “Like A Drug I Never Did Before” is said to mention it by name. The Ramones song “I Wanna Be Sedated” deals with an overwhelming anxiety about flying.

• U.K. actor Patrick McGoohan, whose behavior might be considered excessively fastidious by some, reportedly turned down the role of James Bond over objections about the character's loose morals, and because he didn't want to have to kiss actresses he did not know well. According to one report, the actor once told a TV director who was expecting to film a love scene that there was only one woman he would consent to kiss: “Mrs. McGoohan.” According to entertainment legend, writers for the 1960s cult classic television series The Prisoner came up with McGoohan 's signature “Be seeing you” line because the star refused to shake hands with other members of the cast. However, it has also been noted that the program created a sterile and paranoid universe in which characters might have operated clandestinely for fear of observation.

• Comic Paula Poundstone says she has OCD, and openly discusses her cleaning and organizing behaviors. (She also says she has a compulsion to talk too much about herself.)

• The late musician Warren Zevon, unfortunately, took his obsessive fears to tragic extremes. Afraid of doctors, he avoided them. By the time he received a cancer diagnosis, the disease had spread too far to be halted. Zevon's song “Worrier King” reveals his anxieties plainly.

• Zevon's friend and neighbor, actor-director-musician Billy Bob Thornton, has often discussed his own OCD symptoms publicly. His obsessions are legendary and include repetition. He has often acknowledged a fear of antique furniture. His phobia about genuine silverware is so strong, he gave one of his cinema characters the same characteristic so he wouldn't have to eat with spoons of unknown origin while performing. Like Jack Nicholson's character in As Good As It Gets, Thornton insisted on using plastic instead.

• Soccer star David Beckham reportedly has severe OCD and has said that he has order and symmetry fixations of epic proportions, and even has a pain addiction that drives him to get more and more tattoos.

• Woody Allen's health and death obsessions are well known, as is his sense of humor about his dark preoccupations. Some would probably consider aspects of his behavior obsessive-compulsive.

Although many well-known athletes, actors, and others have been associated with OCD, many more do not wish to have this personal detail made public, and, like countless private citizens, try to hide their OC behaviors. As OCD becomes recognized as a group of symptoms particular to people who have certain chemical imbalances of the brain, greater acceptance will probably not lag far behind. Public personalities who've acknowledged that they have OCD can be said to be doing a service for others who have it: helping to further de-stigmatize the condition.

Many more names, from Albert Einstein and Michelangelo to any number of rock stars, actors and TV personalities are claimed as OCD sufferers on lists all over the Internet (rather like speculation in the 1970s about which actors were gay). However, it isn't always easy to know exactly where more or less normal quirks leave off and true OCD begins.