Obama honouring Robert DeNiro, Michael Jordan and Ellen DeGeneres with top civilian award

President Barack Obama is honouring actors Robert DeNiro, Cicely Tyson, Tom Hanks and Robert Redford with the nation’s highest civilian honour.

They are among 21 people Obama plans to recognize with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House on Tuesday.

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Honorees from the sports world include basketball players Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Jordan, along with veteran sports broadcaster Vin Scully.

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Entertainers include Ellen DeGeneres, Diana Ross and Bruce Springsteen.

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Other honorees are philanthropists Bill and Melinda Gates, polymath physicist Richard Garwin, architect Frank Gehry, designer Maya Lin, “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels, attorney Newt Minow, mathematician and computer scientist Margaret H. Hamilton, and Eduardo Padron, president of Miami Dade College in Florida.

Posthumous honours will go to Native American advocate Elouise Cobell and Rear Adm. Grace Hopper.