I can only come up with two people who rose to almost absolute international fame, outside of the entertainment or political arenas.
Although both became politicised during or after their rise to fame.
Charles Lindbergh and Mohammed Ali.
Any others?
Edmund Hillary
Ali doesn’t count. Professional sports is a form of entertainment.
What about Freud or Curie? Or Nobel?
Gautama Buddha
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ was arguably a political figure.
Albert Einstein
Neil Armstrong
Dr. Jonas Salk
Pele (a soccer player I have heard of must be pretty famous)
Neil Armstrong
Charles Darwin
Issac Newton
Christopher Columbus
Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Edison
Steve Jobs
Bill Gates
Warren Buffet
Could possibly be considered political figures, but not politicians per se:
Mother Teresa
Mahatma Gandhi
Dalai Lama
Martin Luther King, Jr.
In general, any world-famous scientist (past or present, depending on who the OP wants to count), e.g. Newton or Galileo or Archimedes, etc.
And any world-famous artist, like Michelangelo or Rembrandt or Salvador Dali or even Andy Warhol. I’d exclude performing artists because they fall into the “entertainment” bucket. (One might consider painter-artists likewise or not.)
Was Amelia Earhart internationally known?
Hellen Keller
Anne Frank
Any internationally famous criminals? Al Capone?
Outside of entertainment or political arenas: and internationally recognized?
The Pope
The Dalai Lama
The prophet Mohammed
Osama bin Laden
Yuri Gagarin
ETA: Removed Helen Keller due to ZipperJJ ninja while I was contemplating.
How about Robert Baden-Powell? Being that his Scouting movement went across the pond from England to America, and he was also part of the whole British Imperialist thing, his name got around a lot of the world.
Einstein, Edison, Hawking, Tesla (posthumously), Ford, the Wrights (the Brothers and Frank Lloyd), Galileo, Copernicus.
Jack the Ripper, Jesse James. Blackbeard the Pirate (Edward Teach), Oswald…
Marco Polo, Amerigo Vespucci, Lewis and Clark.
Not to mention fictitious.
Bin Laden was arguably political.
Any non-Americans who can comment on whether Lewis and Clark are well known internationally? I’ve never thought about that.
I know Lewis and Clark, but I’m right next door. I would bet that Jack the Ripper, Jesse James. Blackbeard the Pirate (Edward Teach), Oswald, Marco Polo, and Amerigo Vespucci are also not internationally recognized. The world’s a big place.
Disney
I’m pretty sure Disney was involved in entertainment.