Famous birthdays by year
Famous People Born in 1899
Born in 1899? Meet the well-known people who share your birth year, from the biggest names to the ones you might not expect, month by month.
Turning 127 in 2026 · Chinese zodiac: Year of the Pig
The 1890s
The most famous people born in 189942
1899–1961Ernest Hemingway
Nobel Prize-winning American novelist of The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms and The Old Man and the Sea, famed for his spare style
Photo: Lloyd Arnold · Public domain
1899–1986Jorge Luis Borges
Argentine writer of labyrinthine short stories and essays in Ficciones and The Aleph, a giant of 20th-century literature
Photo: Grete Stern · Public domain
1899–1980Alfred Hitchcock
British director known as the Master of Suspense for thrillers including Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window and The Birds
Photo: Ante Brkan · Public domain
1899–1982Huang Xianfan
Chinese historian and educator of Zhuang heritage who founded Zhuang studies and pioneered the study of ethnic minority history
Photo: unidentified photographer · Public domain
1899–1977Vladimir Nabokov
Russian-American novelist of Lolita and Pale Fire, a master stylist in two languages and a keen butterfly collector
Photo: Walter Mori (Mondadori Publishers) · Public domain
1899–1972Yasunari Kawabata
Japanese novelist of Snow Country and The Sound of the Mountain, the first Japanese writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
Photo: Unknown author · Public domain
1899–1957Humphrey Bogart
American actor of Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep who won an Oscar for The African Queen
Photo: WCCO (AM) , a CBS affiliate--the network where the program originated. This local affiliate intended to use the photo in · Public domain
1899–1992Friedrich Hayek
Austrian-British economist of The Road to Serfdom who championed free markets and won the Nobel Prize in economics
Photo: The original uploader was DickClarkMises at English Wikipedia . · CC BY-SA 3.0
Born in 1899, month by month
- January
- Francis Poulenc (January 7) · French composer and pianist who was a member of Les Six
- Al Capone (January 17) · Chicago gangster nicknamed Scarface who ran a vast bootlegging empire in Prohibition and was jailed for tax evasion
- Paul-Henri Spaak (January 25) · Belgian Prime Minister and a founding father of the European Union
- Max Theiler (January 30) · Virologist who developed the vaccine against yellow fever
- February
- Lao She (February 3) · Modern Chinese writer celebrated for his novel Rickshaw Boy
- Cevdet Sunay (February 10) · Former President of Turkey and senior military commander
- Erich Kästner (February 23) · German author best known for Emil and the Detectives
- March
- Frederik IX of Denmark (March 11) · King of Denmark who reigned from 1947 to 1972
- John Hasbrouck Van Vleck (March 13) · American physicist known for his research into electronic magnetism
- Lavrentiy Beria (March 17) · Long-serving head of the Soviet secret police under Joseph Stalin
- Gloria Swanson (March 27) · Silent film star best known for the movie Sunset Boulevard
- April
- Vladimir Nabokov (April 10) · Russian-American novelist of Lolita and Pale Fire, a master stylist in two languages and a keen butterfly collector
- Bertil Ohlin (April 23) · Nobel Prize-winning economist known for trade theory
- Duke Ellington (April 29) · Highly influential American jazz composer and pianist
- May
- Friedrich Hayek (May 8) · Austrian-British economist of The Road to Serfdom who championed free markets and won the Nobel Prize in economics
- Fred Astaire (May 10) · Legendary American dancer and actor known for his musical films
- Suzanne Lenglen (May 24) · Pioneering French tennis player who won six Wimbledon singles titles
- Kazi Nazrul Islam (May 24) · National poet of Bangladesh known for his revolutionary literary works
- June
- Georg von Békésy (June 3) · Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist who studied the mechanics of the human ear
- Yasunari Kawabata (June 11) · Japanese novelist of Snow Country and The Sound of the Mountain, the first Japanese writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
- Fritz Albert Lipmann (June 12) · Biochemist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering coenzyme A
- Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (June 26) · Russian princess and third daughter of Tsar Nicholas II
- July
- Charles Laughton (July 1) · Oscar-winning British actor and director of The Night of the Hunter
- George Cukor (July 7) · Oscar-winning director of films such as My Fair Lady
- James Cagney (July 17) · Oscar-winning American actor famous for playing tough-guy roles
- Ernest Hemingway (July 21) · Nobel Prize-winning American novelist of The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms and The Old Man and the Sea, famed for his spare style
- Gustav Heinemann (July 23) · President of West Germany known for his commitment to peace
- August
- P. L. Travers (August 9) · Australian-born author of the Mary Poppins children's books
- Alfred Hitchcock (August 13) · British director known as the Master of Suspense for thrillers including Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window and The Birds
- Andrei Platonov (August 16) · Soviet novelist and short story writer known for The Foundation Pit
- Jorge Luis Borges (August 24) · Argentine writer of labyrinthine short stories and essays in Ficciones and The Aleph, a giant of 20th-century literature
- Ferhat Abbas (August 24) · Algerian political leader and a key figure in the independence movement
- Chang Myon (August 28) · South Korean statesman who served as the nation's Prime Minister
- Charles Boyer (August 28) · French-American actor known for romantic leading roles in Hollywood classics
- September
- Frank Macfarlane Burnet (September 3) · Nobel Prize-winning virologist who made key discoveries in immunology
- Leo Strauss (September 20) · Political philosopher known for his influential study of classical thought
- October
- Miguel Ángel Asturias (October 19) · Nobel Prize-winning Guatemalan author and diplomat
- November
- Huang Xianfan (November 13) · Chinese historian and educator of Zhuang heritage who founded Zhuang studies and pioneered the study of ethnic minority history
- Iskandar Ali Mirza (November 13) · First President of Pakistan and senior military officer
- Emma Morano (November 29) · Italian supercentenarian who was once the world's oldest living person
- December
- Noël Coward (December 16) · British playwright and composer celebrated for his wit and stagecraft
- Humphrey Bogart (December 25) · American actor of Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep who won an Oscar for The African Queen