I need a list of recognizable historical figures who've used a cane or
walked with a limp (poets, novelists, presidents, soldiers, actors
(even Charlie Chaplin, for ex., even though it was an act).

Hello Emily4321, 

The results of my research are as follows:


===========
USED A CANE
===========

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
http://library.thinkquest.org/5711/pages/People%20Pages/fdr.htm

Brigham Young 
John Taylor 
Wilford Woodruff 
President Grant 
President McKay 
Spencer Kimball 
Gordon B. Hinckley 
http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-183-34,00.html

Former Stanford vice president Kenneth Cuthbertson 
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/00/cuthbertson53.html

Richard Bright,
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/62127.htm

RYAN KNIGHTON
HTTP://WWW.PUBLICAFFAIRSBOOKS.COM/PUBLICAFFAIRSBOOKS-CGI-BIN/DISPLAY?BOOK=1586483293

Anatoli Papanov
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0660311/bio

Pope John Paul II 
?Though once an avid skier, mountain climber and swimmer who routinely
kept 18-hour days, in later years the pope underwent hip surgery and
had a tumor removed from his colon. In his final years, he walked with
a cane or was supported on the arm of another.
Fox News
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,152271,00.html


Walking Sticks

?Oscar Wilde 'wore" one; so did the Marquis de Lafayeete and George
Washington; George Bernard Shaw had several; Prince Albert was never
without his; and Queen Victoria had an impressive collection.?

Moses 
?Ancient man's first cane was a tree branch, used to stabilize himself
while walking and climbing and also to defend himself.?


?The word "cane" comes from ancient times when the shafts of most
canes were constructed of bamboo and other rattans of the cane family.
Cane became the mostly widely used material to make walking sticks,
evolving later into the generic name for the product.?

King Tutankhamen
?In ancient Egypt everyone from royalty to peasants used a cane. ?King
Tutankhamen had no less than 132 sticks buried with him.?


King Henry VII of England 
??King Henry VII of England carried a multi-purpose cane finished in
gold which contained a perfume dispenser in the top, a pair of
tweezers, two compasses of gold, a footrule of gold, a knife and a
file, and a "haft" of gold.?


Louis XIV 
?? Louis XIV was never seen in public without his cane, and his court
jeweler actually fashioned one stick for him with twenty-four
diamonds?

Benjamin Franklin
??General Washington received one of Benjamin Franklin's canes
constructed of crab-tree wood with a gold head in the form of a cap of
liberty. The bust cane became a popular item among the elite and
sticks proliferated topped with heads of presidents and rulers.?

World of the Walking Stick
http://www.walkingstickworld.com/history.htm



==================
Walked with a Limp
==================


Art Carney 
World War II veteran stationed in France as an infantryman.Wounded in
leg by shrapnel and was hospitalized for nine months. He walked with a
limp for the rest of his life.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0138770/bio


Lord Byron (poet). 
http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Literary/Byron.htm


Dorothea Lange - Photographer (1895-1965)
Dorothea Lange walked with a limp due to contracting polio at the age of seven
http://www.disabilityhistory.org/people.html


Sweyn II of Denmark
His skeleton shows him to have been a tall, powerfully built man who
walked with a limp.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweyn_II_of_Denmark


Kevin Power was known as "Hoppy" because he walked with a limp.
http://www.geocities.com/string_au/kings.htm


Magellan
http://www.sabrizain.demon.co.uk/malaya/port3.htm


Christopher Dennis Flynn
?He enlisted in the Toronto Scottish Regiment in 1938 and was in the
1st Canadian Parachute Battalion in World War II. He saw action during
the D-Day landings and was wounded twice. He walked with a limp due to
these injuries.?
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Flynn


Nicholas Owen 
?Nicholas Owen was only a little taller than a dwarf. But this was
only one of his medical problems; because of a hernia, his stomach had
to be held together by a metal plate. After a packhorse fell on him in
1599, he was further disfigured, and walked with a limp for the rest
of his life.?
http://www.davekopel.com/Misc/OpEds/God's-Carpenter.htm


Samuel Harvey 
?Harvey went on to see continued service on the Western Front where,
by 1918, he had been wounded three times and walked with a limp.?
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Harvey


Francesco Maria Veracini 
?Veracini was involved in 1722 in a staged quarrel with the composer
Johann David Heinichen and the singer Senesino, which concluded with
Veracini leaping out of a third-story window. He walked with a limp
for the rest of his life.?
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Maria_Veracini


Asopus 
?After changing back into his real form and retrieving his hanging
weapons, Zeus then hurled a thunderbolt at the charging Asopus, who
walked with a limp ever since from his wounded leg.?
http://thanasis.com/hades.htm

Thomas P. Burnett 
"Thomas P. Burnett (1800-1845) ? of Mt. Hope Township, Grant County,
Wis. Born in Pittsylvania County, Va., September 3, 1800. ... Lawyer;
walked with a limp due to a leg injury during a fire; present for the
surrender of Black Hawk (Indian chief), August 2, 1832; member
Wisconsin territorial council, 1836. Methodist.  Wis. Burnett County,
Wis. is named for him."
http://politicalgraveyard.com/special/disabled.html


Search terms:
"used OR had a cane" OR ?walked with a limp? OR limped actor OR
actress OR author OR president OR poet OR soldier OR novelist

I hope the information provided is helpful!

Best regards,
Bobbie7

In addition, the French novelist Honore de Balzac was famous for his
walking stick. Madame de Giradin even wrote a novel about this cane
which, she claimed, made its user invisible. The stick  itself, which
is set with jewels, may be seen as the Musee Balzac in  the Passy area
of Paris.

G@@gle on 'Balzac walking stick' for more on this. 
Don't search for 'Balzac cane' because this merely leads you to a
number of sites containing his short story 'Facino Cane'.

In the UK we often describe a cane as a walkig stick.

Harold Macmillan (1894-1986), a former British Prime Minister.

How do I know?

Because I met him on one occasion during the Eighties when he was
helped into my compartment on a train leaving London's Victoria
Station for Brighton.

The Railway official asked if I could ensure that he got off at
Haywards Heath where someone would be waiting for him. He lived near
there which is about 10 minutes from Brighton.

We were by ourselves in the compartment and we had a nice chat ... he
was a lovely old boy ... and I was amazed that he was travelling
alone. He'd come from Oxford.

Bryan

I remember him turning up in the audience at the Onion for a debate, latish 1970's.

Sadly he was well past it, nodding off (acceptable), snot - not.

A pal of mine was doing photography for Cherwell, he tried to take a
snap, but got pounced on by some large security guys - which makes me
suspect that his solitary travelling days were curtailed.

Oddly, I rather approved of that bit of censorship.

Emily,
From the list of people in the answer, you can recognize that using or
"wearing" a cane from the 16th/17th into the 20th century was a
fashion that did not imply or require that the person (also ladies)
needed one because of a limp.

http://www.indstate.edu/community/vchs/ht/ht050486.htm