Sharon Osbourne

As the wife and manager of heavy metal legend Ozzy Osbourne, the diminutive Sharon Osbourne forged a towering reputation in the music industry as one not to be trifled with well before her profanity-laced family antics became a fixture on the popular reality series, "The Osbournes" (MTV, 2002-05). Faced with the daunting prospects of being a woman in an man's world and managing a drugged-addled rocker without a band or a dime to his name, Osbourne used her sharp tongue and hair-trigger temper to pull him out of his financial morass to create a nearly $68 million fortune, an enviable accomplishment for someone who struggled daily with the demons that consumed both herself and her husband. She did this by introducing the world to the behind the scenes chaos of her family on "The Osbournes," and even allowed cameras to continue rolling as she battled a serious form of colon cancer. Having recovered stronger than before, Osbourne appeared as one of the hosts on the British version of "The X Factor" (ITV, 2004- ) while sitting initially alongside Piers Morgan and David Hasselhoff, and later with Howard Stern and Howie Mandel on "America's Got Talent" (NBC, 2006- ). Regardless of her tough persona that more often than not rattled more than a few cages, Osbourne remained a powerful figure in the music industry, a steady presence on reality television, and a matriarchal figure at home.