Famous birthdays by year

Famous People Born in 1911

Born in 1911? 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 115 in 2026 · Chinese zodiac: Year of the Pig

The 1910s

The most famous people born in 191153

1911–2004

Ronald Reagan

Hollywood actor and California governor who became the 40th US President and helped bring the Cold War towards its end

Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. A member of the Republican Party, he became an important figure in the American conservative movement.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 115

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1911–2006

Naguib Mahfouz

Egyptian novelist of the Cairo Trilogy who became the first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature

Naguib Mahfouz Abdelaziz Ibrahim Ahmed Al-Basha (11 December 1911 – 30 August 2006) was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 114

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1911–1974

Georges Pompidou

French prime minister under de Gaulle and president from 1969 to 1974, whose name is carried by the Pompidou Centre in Paris

Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou ( POMP-id-oo; French:; 5 July 1911 – 2 April 1974) was President of France from 1969 until his death in 1974. He had previously served from 1962 to 1968 as Prime Minister of France under President Charles de Gaulle, with whom he was closely associated throughout his career.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 115

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1911–2004

Czesław Miłosz

Polish poet and diplomat who defected to the West, wrote The Captive Mind and won the Nobel Prize in Literature

Czesław Miłosz ( MEE-losh, US also -⁠lawsh, -⁠wosh, -⁠wawsh, Polish:; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 115

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1911–1993

William Golding

English novelist whose Lord of the Flies, about schoolboys stranded on an island, became a classic; he won the Nobel Prize

Sir William Gerald Golding (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) was a British novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel Lord of the Flies (1954), Golding published another 12 volumes of fiction in his lifetime.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 115

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1911–1985

Konstantin Chernenko

Soviet politician who led the USSR during the mid-1980s

Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko (24 September 1911 – 10 March 1985) was a Soviet politician who served as the de jure leader of the Soviet Union from February 1984 until his death in March 1985.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryWould be 115

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1911–1983

Tennessee Williams

American playwright who wrote A Streetcar Named Desire

Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983) was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three foremost playwrights of 20th-century American drama.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 115

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1911–1980

Marshall McLuhan

Media theorist who coined the phrase 'the medium is the message'

Herbert Marshall McLuhan (mə-KLOO-ən; July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media theory. Raised in Winnipeg, McLuhan studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PhilosophyWould be 115

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Born in 1911, month by month

January
- Zenkō Suzuki (January 11) · Prime Minister of Japan from 1980 to 1982
- George Stigler (January 17) · Nobel Prize-winning economist and leader of the Chicago school
- Danny Kaye (January 18) · Actor and comedian known for physical comedy and rapid-fire novelty songs
- Bruno Kreisky (January 22) · Long-serving Chancellor of Austria from 1970 to 1983
- Polykarp Kusch (January 26) · Nobel Prize-winning physicist who measured the magnetic moment of electrons
- Baba Vanga (January 31) · Bulgarian mystic and herbalist who claimed to have prophetic abilities
February
- Ronald Reagan (February 6) · Hollywood actor and California governor who became the 40th US President and helped bring the Cold War towards its end
- Elizabeth Bishop (February 8) · Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet and short-story writer
- Khalid of Saudi Arabia (February 13) · King of Saudi Arabia during a period of rapid national development
March
- Jean Harlow (March 3) · Leading American actress and 1930s screen icon known as the Blonde Bombshell
- L. Ron Hubbard (March 13) · Prolific American science fiction author and founder of Scientology
- Josef Mengele (March 16) · Notorious Nazi physician known for human experiments at Auschwitz
- Alfonso García Robles (March 20) · Mexican diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner
- Jack Ruby (March 25) · Dallas nightclub owner who killed Lee Harvey Oswald
- Tennessee Williams (March 26) · American playwright who wrote A Streetcar Named Desire
- Bernard Katz (March 26) · Nobel Prize-winning biophysicist who researched nerve transmission
April
- Feodor Lynen (April 6) · Nobel Prize-winning biochemist who studied cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism
- Emil Cioran (April 8) · Romanian philosopher known for his essays on human suffering and boredom
- Melvin Calvin (April 8) · Nobel Prize-winning chemist who discovered the Calvin cycle
May
- Robert Johnson (May 8) · Highly influential American blues singer and master of the slide guitar
- Max Frisch (May 15) · Swiss playwright and novelist known for The Fire Raisers
- Hubert Humphrey (May 27) · American politician who served as the 38th US Vice President
- Vincent Price (May 27) · Iconic American actor known for his roles in horror films
- Maurice Allais (May 31) · French economist and physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Economics
June
- Milovan Đilas (June 12) · Yugoslav communist politician and prominent dissident
- Luis Walter Alvarez (June 13) · Nobel Prize-winning physicist who discovered many subatomic particles
- Juan Manuel Fangio (June 24) · Five-time Formula One World Champion from Argentina
- Ernesto Sabato (June 24) · Argentine novelist and physicist who wrote The Tunnel
- Bernard Herrmann (June 29) · Oscar-winning composer of the iconic film score for Psycho
- Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld (June 29) · Prince consort of the Netherlands and husband of Queen Juliana
- Czesław Miłosz (June 30) · Polish poet and diplomat who defected to the West, wrote The Captive Mind and won the Nobel Prize in Literature
July
- Georges Pompidou (July 5) · French prime minister under de Gaulle and president from 1969 to 1974, whose name is carried by the Pompidou Centre in Paris
- John Archibald Wheeler (July 9) · Theoretical physicist who popularised the terms black hole and wormhole
- Ginger Rogers (July 16) · Oscar-winning actress and dancer famous for her partnership with Fred Astaire
- Marshall McLuhan (July 21) · Media theorist who coined the phrase 'the medium is the message'
August
- Lucille Ball (August 6) · American actress and pioneer of television sitcoms
- William Alfred Fowler (August 9) · Astrophysicist who explained the creation of chemical elements in stars
- Mikhail Botvinnik (August 17) · World chess champion and pioneer of computer chess
- Võ Nguyên Giáp (August 25) · Vietnamese general who defeated French and American forces
September
- Todor Zhivkov (September 7) · Communist leader who ruled Bulgaria for thirty-five years
- William Golding (September 19) · English novelist whose Lord of the Flies, about schoolboys stranded on an island, became a classic; he won the Nobel Prize
- Konstantin Chernenko (September 24) · Soviet politician who led the USSR during the mid-1980s
October
- Le Duc Tho (October 14) · Vietnamese diplomat who negotiated the Paris Peace Accords
- Henri Troyat (October 19) · Prolific French writer and biographer of great Russian historical figures
- Mahalia Jackson (October 26) · American gospel singer who influenced twentieth-century music
November
- Odysseas Elytis (November 2) · Nobel Prize-winning Greek poet of the Generation of the '30s
December
- Nino Rota (December 3) · Composer known for his film scores including The Godfather
- Władysław Szpilman (December 5) · Polish pianist and composer whose memoirs inspired the film The Pianist
- Broderick Crawford (December 9) · Academy Award-winning actor known for All the King's Men
- Naguib Mahfouz (December 11) · Egyptian novelist of the Cairo Trilogy who became the first Arabic-language writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
- Trygve Haavelmo (December 13) · Nobel Prize-winning economist and pioneer in the field of econometrics
- Niels Kaj Jerne (December 23) · Nobel Prize-winning immunologist who proposed the network theory of immune systems
- Louise Bourgeois (December 25) · French-American artist and sculptor famous for her giant spider installations

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