| MIDDLEMAN | A central figure in merchandising, presumably (9) |
| TABERNACLE | Can be a central figure in place of worship (10) |
| GRANT | Owner of Charleston Farmhouse with Vanessa Bell who was a central figure in the Bloomsbury Group set with other creatives including Virginia Woolf and his cousin Lytton Strachey (5) |
| ANN | Jo ___ Robinson, civil rights activist who was a central figure in the Montgomery bus boycott |
| MAXWEBER | German economist and sociologist; a central figure in the development of sociology (3,5) |
| VIRGINIAWOOLF | Who was a central figure in the Bloomsbury group and wrote Mrs Dalloway (1925)? (8,5) |
| NORTH | US Army officer who was a central figure in the 1980s Iran-Contra Affair (5) |
| SAINTNICK | Central figure in a Clement C. Moore poem |
| INNKEEPER | Backward glance received by central figure in the Nativity story (9) |
| DREDSCOTT | Central figure in an 1850s case |
| VOYSEY | A central figure of the Arts and Crafts movement whose textile design Birds of Many Climes depicts avians including blue tanager, canary, finch, Japanese robin, king bird-of-paradise and yellow-tufted |
| CHILDEHAROLD | A young man who is the central figure in a long narrative poem by Lord Byron (6,6) |
| AZURE | From "lapis lazuli", the cerulean of a cloudless sky or the "king's" blue of a heraldic tincture - a colour once so costly, Renaissance painters reserved it for the robes of central figures in religio |
| SKAKEL | Central figure in a 25-year-old murder case |
| TSAR | Central figure in a Mussorgsky opera |
| MEDIAN | Detective in base is central figure in row (6) |
| APE | Central figure in a classic sci-fi series |
| SCOPES | John T ___, central figure in a 1925 trial related to the teaching of the theory of evolution |
| MOHAMMED | Central figure in Islam |
| BRETT | Central figure in the Pine Tar Incident, 7/24/83 |