Gandhi and Nick Drake (with the right technology) but living people would be Terry Gilliam and Radiohead.
Aurelien Potier, Birdengine, Boards of Canada, Bonobo, Bjork, Death From Above 1979, Diamond Family Archive, Directorsound, Nick Drake, Rob Dougan, Franz Ferdinand, Four Tet, George Thomas and The Owls, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Gotan Project, Pink Floyd, Psapp, Queens of the Stone Age, Radiohead, The R.G. Morrison, Sigur Ros, Tool, Travis
Amelie, American Beauty, Belleville Rendez-vous, Brazil, Les Choristes, Cinema Paradiso, City of God, Donnie Darko, Festen, Good bye Lenin!, Hot Fuzz, La Haine, The lives of others, Matrix (all three), Pan's Labyrinth, Princess Mononoke, Pulp Fiction, Monty Python (Grail and Brian), Napoleon Dynamite, Run Lola Run, Spirited Away, Twelve Monkeys, V for Vendetta, Withnail and I
Spaced, Coupling, Green Wing, Mighty Boosh, Black Books, Father Ted etc...
Josteiln Gaarder, Thomas Hardy, George Orwell, Terry Pratchett, Phillip Reeve, Paul Stewart, Tolkien (not read all of LOTR yet though :S)
Anyone who fights for freedom without using violence, or is trying to save the world (even if in a small way).