Who

Governor of New York from 1983 to 1995, Cuomo is also known for siring a brood of prominent New Yorkers bearing his surname. He's the dad of New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo and GMA host Chris Cuomo.

Backstory

Cuomo started out far from politics: After college, he played baseball in the Pittsburgh Pirates' minor league system. He eventually gave up ball and returned to New York, earning a law degree from St. John's before going into private practice for a decade. In 1975, Governor Hugh Carey—an old law school pal—appointed him New York's secretary of state; three years later, Cuomo decided to pursue Gracie Mansion and ultimately lost a bruising battle for the Democratic nomination against Ed Koch. Cuomo subsequently ran for lieutenant governor and won and in 1982, when he was pitted against Koch once again—this time in the race for governor—he prevailed. Cuomo spent more than a decade in Albany as governor—the longest-serving Democratic governor in the history of New York—accumulating a very liberal track record along the way, vetoing bills to reinstate New York's death penalty and promoting social services for the poor and reproductive rights for women. In 1994, in what came as a big surprise to many, he lost his reelection race against a then-relatively unknown George Pataki. Speculation at the time was that Cuomo's unpopular anti-death penalty stance cost him the job.

Currently

After Cuomo left office, he became a partner at the corporate law firm Wilkie, Fahr, and Gallagher, and he's been there ever since. He's also been active on the public speaking circuit. One post-governorship occupational endeavor that didn't work out: His radio show on WABC, which was a ratings disaster, and crashed and burned just a few months after its 1996 debut.

In print

In 1996 Cuomo published a book, Reason to Believe, and he followed in 1998 with a somewhat random children's book called Blue Spruce. Most recently, he published Why Lincoln Matters: Today More Than Ever in 2004.

Personal

Nowadays, Cuomo is known as much for his prominent progeny as for his political past. He and his wife Matilda have five kids: Margaret, Andrew, Madeline, Maria and Christopher. A longtime politico, Andrew was elected New York's attorney general in November 2006. Christopher is an anchor on ABC's Good Morning America (and the husband of Cristina Greeven Cuomo). Maria's hubby is fashion tycoon Kenneth Cole; Margaret trained as a radiologist; and Madeline is a lawyer. Cuomo and his wife live on Sutton Place.