I am always shy before posting on pprune since my experience in aviation is limited to ultra lights and 2 flights on helis, but this question I can answer with no doubt...
The best pilot ever is Madame Valérie André, the first doctor to become a general in the French military, the first helicopter pilot too to become a general, and this being a lady...the first lady lieutenant general of course...
She started as a doctor during the Indochina war and because she had a bit of experience in fixed wing (I guess just a PPL and some gliding time...), she was designated to fly one of the first 2 helicopters delivered to the French military, a Hiller 360 on which she qualified in 1950.
She flew countless missions in Laos, Vietnam to rescue the wounded, sometimes she even parachuted from a DC3 in the middle of war zone.
She then flew Alouette 2, 3, Bell47, Djinn, Sikorsky 58 on which she was shot down during the Algerian war.
When I met her in 2000 at Le Bourget I was 15, she introduced herself as a retired military doctor and then gave me her book.
My dream then was to fly with Air France even though I was not too smart at school.
After reading all her stories written with such a humble style it's impossible to discern the danger, the fear, the doubts, my mind focused on just one thing: 1 day, fly helicopters for a living.
It's not because of all her achievements that she is the greatest but because she lighted that fire...