Famous people born in 1926

The best-known people born in 1926, ranked by how many languages Wikipedia covers them in.

Best known

Elizabeth II
Queen of the United Kingdom from 1952 to 2022 (1926–2022)
April 21 · d. 2022
Photo: Donald McKague, Public domain
Marilyn Monroe
American actress and model (1926–1962)
June 1 · d. 1962
Photo: Sam Shaw, Public domain
Fidel Castro
Cuban politician, author and revolutionary (1926–2016)
August 13 · d. 2016
Photo: Unknown (Mondadori Publishers), Public domain
Michel Foucault
French philosopher (1926–1984)
October 15 · d. 1984
Photo: Jerry Bauer, Public domain
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
French official and politician (1926–2020)
February 2 · d. 2020
Photo: Christian Lambiotte, CC BY 4.0
Harper Lee
American novelist (1926–2016)
April 28 · d. 2016
Photo: Eric Draper, Public domain
Dario Fo
Italian actor, playwright, comedian, singer-songwriter, theater director, painter, and political activist (1926-2016)
March 24 · d. 2016
Photo: Gotfryd, Bernard, photographer, Public domain
Jiang Zemin
former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (1926–2022)
August 17 · d. 2022
Photo: Presidential Press and Information Office, CC BY 4.0
Chuck Berry
American musician (1926–2017)
October 18 · d. 2017
Photo: Pablo Vaz, CC BY 3.0
Miles Davis
American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer (1926–1991)
May 26 · d. 1991
Photo: Tom Palumbo from New York City, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0
Allen Ginsberg
American poet and writer (1926–1997)
June 3 · d. 1997
Photo: Hans van Dijk for Anefo, CC0
David Attenborough
British broadcaster and naturalist (born 1926)
May 8
Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ukgov/, OGL 3
Alfredo Di Stéfano
Argentine-Spanish association football player (1926–2014)
July 4 · d. 2014
Photo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain
Abdus Salam
theoretical physicist, and Nobel Prize in Physics recipient
January 29 · d. 1996
Photo: Molendijk, Bart / Anefo, CC BY-SA 3.0 nl
Jerry Lewis
American comedian, actor and film director (1926–2017)
March 16 · d. 2017
Photo: According to Bonhams, the reverse side was stamped with " Paramount Photo by Bud Fraker". According , Public domain
Hugh Hefner
American businessman and magazine publisher (1926–2017)
April 9 · d. 2017
Photo: Luke Ford, CC BY-SA 2.5
Andrzej Wajda
Polish film director (1926–2016)
March 6 · d. 2016
Photo: Piotr Drabik Derivative work: TharonXX, CC BY 2.0
Donald Arthur Glaser
American physicist and neurobiologist (1926–2013)
September 21 · d. 2013
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Mel Brooks
American comedian, filmmaker, and actor (born 1926)
June 28
Photo: Angela George at https://www.flickr.com/photos/sharongraphics/, CC BY-SA 3.0
Leslie Nielsen
Canadian-American actor and comedian (1926–2010)
February 11 · d. 2010
Photo: Alan Light, CC BY 2.0
Tsung-Dao Lee
Chinese-American physicist (1926–2024)
November 24 · d. 2024
Photo: Nobel foundation, Public domain
Masatoshi Koshiba
Japanese physicist and astronomer (1926-2020)
September 19 · d. 2020
Photo: 内閣官房内閣広報室, CC BY 4.0
Ingvar Kamprad
Swedish business magnate (1926-2018)
March 30 · d. 2018
Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Copyrighted free use
Don Rickles
American stand-up comedian (1926–2017)
May 8 · d. 2017
John Coltrane
American jazz saxophonist (1926–1967)
September 23 · d. 1967
Photo: Gelderen, Hugo van / Anefo, CC0
Ben Roy Mottelson
Danish-American nuclear physicist (1926–2022)
July 9 · d. 2022
Photo: GFHund, CC BY 3.0
Patricia Neal
American stage and film actress (1926-2010)
January 20 · d. 2010
Photo: Twentieth Century Fox, Public domain
Beji Caid Essebsi
Tunisian politician
November 29 · d. 2019
Photo: U.S. Department of State from United States, Public domain
Sathya Sai Baba
Indian spiritual guru (1926–2011)
November 23 · d. 2011
Photo: Venkatant, CC BY-SA 4.0
Paul Berg
American biochemist, Professor emeritus at Stanford University & Nobel laureate in Chemistry (1926–2023)
June 30 · d. 2023
Photo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain

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Month by month

January

January 3 · George Martin, English record producer (1926–2016)
January 13 · Michael Bond, British writer (1926–2017)
January 14 · Mahasweta Devi, Indian Bengali fiction writer and socio-political activist (1926-2016)
January 15 · Maria Schell, Austrian-Swiss actress (1926–2005)
January 21 · Steve Reeves, American bodybuilder and actor (1926–2000)
January 30 · Vasili Arkhipov, Soviet submarine officer who averted nuclear war (1926–1998)

February

February 1 · Vivian Maier, French-American photographer (1926–2009)
February 7 · Konstantin Feoktistov, Soviet cosmonaut
February 16 · John Schlesinger, English film and stage director (1926–2003)
February 20 · Richard Matheson, American fiction writer (1926–2013)
February 27 · David H. Hubel, Canadian neurophysiologist
February 28 · Svetlana Alliluyeva, Joseph Stalin's daughter (1926–2011)

March

March 2 · Murray Rothbard, American economist (1926–1995)
March 3 · Lys Assia, Swiss singer (1924-2018)
March 6 · Alan Greenspan, American economist and financial advisor (1926–2026)
March 17 · Siegfried Lenz, German author (1926-2014)
March 18 · Peter Graves, American actor (1926-2010)
March 31 · John Fowles, English novelist (1926–2005)

April

April 2 · Jack Brabham, Australian racing driver (1926–2014)
April 3 · Gus Grissom, American astronaut (1926–1967)
April 5 · Roger Corman, American film director and producer (1926–2024)
April 6 · Ian Paisley, politician and former church minister (1926-2014)
April 14 · Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, Spanish politician (1926–2008)
April 30 · Cloris Leachman, American actress and comedian (1926–2021)

May

May 1 · Peter Lax, American mathematician of Hungarian origin (1926–2025)
May 10 · Hugo Banzer, President of Bolivia from 1971 to 1978 and 1997 to 2001
May 11 · Teddy Scholten, Dutch singer
May 15 · Peter Shaffer, English playwright and screenwriter (1926-2016)
May 29 · Abdoulaye Wade, 3rd President of Senegal
May 31 · John George Kemeny, Jewish-Hungarian American mathematician, computer scientist, educator, and President of Dartmouth College

June

June 2 · Raul Hilberg, Austrian-born American political scientist and historian (1926–2007)
June 12 · Amadeo Carrizo, Argentine footballer (1926-2020)
June 16 · Efraín Ríos Montt, former de facto President of Guatemala, army general, genocida and former president of Congress (1926-2018)
June 22 · Tadeusz Konwicki, Polish writer and film director (1926–2015)
June 25 · Ingeborg Bachmann, Austrian poet and author (1926–1973)
June 29 · Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait from 1977 to 2006

July

July 1 · Robert Fogel, American economist and historian (1926–2013)
July 8 · Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-American psychiatrist and pioneer in near-death studies (1926-2004)
July 14 · Harry Dean Stanton, American actor (1926–2017)
July 16 · Irwin Rose, American biologist (1926-2015)
July 21 · Norman Jewison, Canadian film director, producer and actor (1926–2024)
July 31 · Hilary Putnam, American philosopher and mathematician

August

August 3 · Tony Bennett, American singer (1926–2023)
August 11 · Aaron Klug, British chemist and biophysicist
August 11 · Yoshio Okada, Japanese association football player (1926–2002)
August 14 · René Goscinny, French comic book artist and author (1926-1977)
August 15 · Konstantinos Stephanopoulos, Greek politician, former president of the Hellenic Republic
August 23 · Clifford Geertz, American anthropologist

September

September 2 · Yevgeny Leonov, Soviet and Russian actor (1926-1994)
September 4 · Ivan Illich, Austrian philosopher and theologian (1926–2002)
September 6 · Prince Claus of the Netherlands, Consort of the Netherlands (1980 - 2002)
September 9 · Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Egyptian Islamic theologian based in Doha, Qatar (1926-2022)
September 14 · Michel Butor, French writer (1926–2016)
September 15 · Jean-Pierre Serre, French mathematician

October

October 11 · Thích Nhất Hạnh, Vietnamese Buddhist monk and activist (1926–2022)
October 12 · César Pelli, Argentine-American architect (1926–2019)
October 17 · Julie Adams, American actress (1926–2019)
October 18 · Klaus Kinski, German actor (1926–1991)
October 25 · Galina Vishnevskaya, Russian soprano opera singer and recitalist (1926—2012)
October 29 · Necmettin Erbakan, 23rd Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey (1926–2011)

November

November 3 · Valdas Adamkus, Lithuanian politician, twice President of Lithuania (born 1926)
November 5 · John Berger, British painter, writer and art critic (1926-2017)
November 7 · Joan Sutherland, Australian soprano (1926-2010)
November 25 · Poul Anderson, American science fiction writer (1926–2001)
November 30 · Andrew Schally, Polish-American endocrinologist (1926–2024)
November 30 · Richard Crenna, American actor, director and producer (1926–2003)

December

December 8 · Joachim Fest, German historian (1926–2006)
December 9 · Henry Way Kendall, American particle physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics
December 9 · Raif Dizdarević, Yugoslav politician (1926–2026)
December 11 · Big Mama Thornton, American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter
December 16 · A. N. R. Robinson, President and Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (1926-2014)
December 20 · Geoffrey Howe, British politician (1926–2015)

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