Famous people born in 1920

The best-known people born in 1920, ranked by how many languages Wikipedia covers them in.

Best known

John Paul II
264th pope of the Catholic Church (1978–2005)
May 18 · d. 2005
Photo: Unknown author Unknown author, CC BY 3.0 pl
Isaac Asimov
American writer and biochemist (1920–1992)
January 2 · d. 1992
Photo: Phillip Leonian [ 1 ] from New York World-Telegram & Sun. [ 2 ], Public domain
Federico Fellini
Italian filmmaker (1920–1993)
January 20 · d. 1993
Photo: Walter Albertin, World Telegram staff photographer, Public domain
Toshirō Mifune
Japanese actor (1920–1997)
April 1 · d. 1997
Photo: 映画世界社 (Eiga Sekai Publications, Inc.), Public domain
Ray Bradbury
American author and screenwriter (1920–2012)
August 22 · d. 2012
Photo: Alan Light, CC BY 2.0
Rosalind Franklin
British chemist, biophysicist, and X-ray crystallographer (1920–1958)
July 25 · d. 1958
Photo: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, CC BY-SA 4.0
Charles Bukowski
German-American writer (1920–1994)
August 16 · d. 1994
Photo: Artgal73, CC BY 2.5
Ravi Shankar
Indian sitar player (1920–2012)
April 7 · d. 2012
Photo: Markgoff2972, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
President of the Provisional Government of Bangladesh and the 2nd Prime Minister and first President of Bangladesh
March 17 · d. 1975
Photo: Prime Minister's Office of Bangladesh, Public domain
Pran
Indian actor (1920–2013)
February 12 · d. 2013
Photo: Bollywood Hungama, CC BY 3.0
Frank Herbert
American writer (1920–1986)
October 8 · d. 1986
Photo: Unknown photographer, Public domain
Mario Puzo
American author, screenwriter, and journalist
October 15 · d. 1999
Photo: Bernard Gotfryd, Public domain
Richard von Weizsäcker
President of Germany from 1984 to 1994
April 15 · d. 2015
Photo: Unknown author Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0 de
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar
5th Secretary-General of the United Nations (1920-2020)
January 19 · d. 2020
Photo: Rob Bogaerts for Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi
President of Italy from 1999 to 2006
December 9 · d. 2016
Photo: Unknown author Unknown author, Attribution
Charlie Parker
American jazz saxophonist (1920–1955)
August 29 · d. 1955
Photo: William P. Gottlieb, Public domain
Nicolaas Bloembergen
Dutch-born American physicist
March 11 · d. 2017
Photo: ... Vetter (Spaarnestad Photo), CC BY-SA 3.0 nl
Yul Brynner
Russian-born American actor (1920–1985)
July 11 · d. 1985
Photo: CBS Television, Public domain
Owen Chamberlain
American physicist
July 10 · d. 2006
Photo: Nobel foundation, Public domain
Mickey Rooney
American actor (1920–2014)
September 23 · d. 2014
Photo: Studio publicity still, Public domain
Boris Vian
French writer and musician (1920–1959)
March 10 · d. 1959
Photo: Studio Harcourt, Public domain
Montgomery Clift
American actor (1920–1966)
October 17 · d. 1966
Photo: The original uploader was Prew at English Wikipedia ., Public domain
Juan Antonio Samaranch
IOC president 1980–2001
July 17 · d. 2010
Photo: Leo Medvedev/Лев Леонидович Медведев, CC BY-SA 4.0
Walter Matthau
American actor, comedian and director (1920–2000)
October 1 · d. 2000
Photo: Film screenshot, Public domain
François Jacob
French biologist and geneticist, winner of the Nobel Prize in 1965
June 17 · d. 2013
Photo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain
Gianni Rodari
Italian writer and journalist (1920–1980)
October 23 · d. 1980
Photo: famiglia Rodari, Public domain
Shelley Winters
American actress (1920–2006)
August 18 · d. 2006
Photo: Unknown author Unknown author studio photographer, Public domain
Alberto Sordi
Italian actor (1920–2003)
June 15 · d. 2003
Photo: Unknown Unknown, Public domain
Timothy Leary
American psychologist (1920–1996)
October 22 · d. 1996
Photo: AP News, Public domain
Farouk I of Egypt
King of Egypt 1936 to 1952
February 11 · d. 1965
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

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Month by month

January

January 6 · John Maynard Smith, British theoretical evolutionary biologist and geneticist (1920-2004)
January 9 · Clive Dunn, British actor (1920–2012)
January 20 · DeForest Kelley, American actor (1920–1999)
January 22 · Alf Ramsey, English association football player and manager (1920-1999)
January 22 · Chiara Lubich, Italian founder of the Focolare Movement (1920–2008)
January 23 · Gottfried Böhm, German architect (1920-2021)

February

February 3 · George Armitage Miller, American psychologist (1920–2012)
February 18 · Cornelis Johannes van Houten, Dutch astronomer (1920–2002)
February 19 · Jaan Kross, Estonian writer (1920–2007)
February 20 · Karl Hans Albrecht, German entrepreneur (1920-2014)
February 26 · Tony Randall, American actor (1920-2004)
February 29 · Michèle Morgan, French actress (1920-2016)

March

March 11 · Ben Ferencz, American lawyer and pacifist
March 15 · E. Donnall Thomas, American hematologist (1920-2012)
March 16 · Traudl Junge, secretary to Adolf Hitler (1920-2002)
March 21 · Éric Rohmer, French film director (1920-2010)
March 21 · Vasily Dzhugashvili, Soviet general and son of Joseph Stalin (1921–1962)
March 25 · Patrick Troughton, English actor (1920–1987)

April

April 5 · Arthur Hailey, British-Canadian writer
April 6 · Edmond H. Fischer, American biochemist (1920–2021)
April 11 · Emilio Colombo, Italian Prime Minister, politician (1920-2013)
April 15 · Thomas Szasz, Hungarian psychiatrist (1920-2012)
April 20 · John Paul Stevens, United States Supreme Court justice (1920–2019)
April 30 · Tom Moore, British Army officer and fundraiser (1920–2021)

May

May 8 · Saul Bass, American graphic designer and filmmaker (1920–1996)
May 8 · Tom of Finland, Finnish artist (1920–1991)
May 10 · Richard Adams, English novelist best known as the author of Watership Down
May 26 · Peggy Lee, American singer (1920–2002)
May 29 · John Harsanyi, Hungarian economist (1920-2000)
May 30 · Franklin J. Schaffner, American film director (1920–1989)

June

June 2 · Marcel Reich-Ranicki, Polish-born German literary critic (1920–2013)
June 8 · Ivan Kozhedub, Soviet aviator, thrice Hero of the Soviet Union (1920-1991)
June 11 · Mahendra I of Nepal, King of Nepal (1920-1972)
June 16 · José López Portillo, 58th President of Mexico
June 17 · Setsuko Hara, Japanese actress (1920–2015)
June 20 · Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane, Portuguese anthropologist

July

July 11 · Zecharia Sitchin, American-Israeli author of Azerbaijani origin (1920-2010)
July 21 · Isaac Stern, American musician (1920–2001)
July 21 · Mohammed Dib, Algerian writer (1920–2003)
July 23 · Amália Rodrigues, Portuguese recording artist, fado singer, actress (1920–1999)
July 24 · Bella Abzug, American politician (1920-1998)
July 30 · Marie Tharp, American oceanographer and cartographer (1920–2006)

August

August 1 · Henrietta Lacks, American woman whose cancer cells are the source of the HeLa cell line (1920–1951)
August 1 · Zhou Xuan, Chinese actress and singer (1920-1957)
August 3 · P. D. James, English crime writer (1920-2014)
August 4 · Helen Thomas, American author and journalist
August 17 · Maureen O'Hara, Irish–American actress and singer (1920–2015)
August 26 · Prem Tinsulanonda, former Regent of Thailand (1920-2019)

September

September 1 · Richard Farnsworth, American actor (1920–2000)
September 14 · Lawrence Klein, American economist (1920-2013)
September 14 · Popis benedetti, Negro periodista con la cola quemada
September 18 · Jack Warden, American actor (1920–2006)
September 25 · Sergei Bondarchuk, Soviet and Russian film director, screenwriter, and actor (1920–1994)
September 29 · Peter D. Mitchell, British biochemist (1920-1992)

October

October 17 · Miguel Delibes, Spanish writer (1920–2010)
October 18 · Melina Mercouri, Greek actress, singer and politician. Minister of Culture of Greece (1920-1994)
October 27 · K. R. Narayanan, President of India from 1997 to 2002
October 29 · Baruj Benacerraf, Venezuelan-American immunologist
October 31 · Fritz Walter, German association football player (1920–2002)
October 31 · Helmut Newton, German-Australian photographer (1920–2004)

November

November 5 · Douglass North, American economist and Nobel laureate (1920–2015)
November 11 · Roy Jenkins, British politician (1920–2003)
November 19 · Gene Tierney, American actress (1920–1991)
November 23 · Paul Celan, French-Romanian poet and translator (1920–1970)
November 25 · Ricardo Montalbán, Mexican actor (1920–2009)
November 30 · Virginia Mayo, American actress (1920–2005)

December

December 6 · George Porter, British chemist (1920–2002)
December 6 · Dave Brubeck, American jazz pianist and composer (1920–2012)
December 10 · Clarice Lispector, Ukrainian-Brazilian writer, poet, and journalist (1920–1977)
December 13 · George Shultz, American politician (1920–2021)
December 20 · Väinö Linna, Finnish writer
December 21 · Alicia Alonso, Cuban prima ballerina assoluta and choreographer (1920-2019)

People from Wikidata (CC0), photos from Wikimedia Commons; each photo shows its author and licence.