Famous People Born in 1926

Elizabeth II

Queen of the United Kingdom for 70 years, the longest reign in British history, from 1952 until her death in 2022

Queen of the United Kingdom for 70 years, the longest reign of any British monarch.

Photo: Donald McKague · Public domain

Marilyn Monroe

Hollywood star of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Some Like It Hot who became one of the most famous screen icons of all time

Marilyn Monroe ( MAIR-ə-lin mən-ROH; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 – August 4, 1962) was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "Blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s and early 1960s, as well as an emblem of the era's sexual revolution.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Sam Shaw · Public domain

Fidel Castro

Cuban revolutionary who overthrew Batista in 1959 and ruled Cuba as a communist state for nearly half a century

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban communist revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2011. He served as prime minister from 1959 to 1976, president from 1976 to 2008, and first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1965 until 2011.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Unknown (Mondadori Publishers) · Public domain

Michel Foucault

French philosopher of Discipline and Punish and The History of Sexuality who analysed how power and knowledge shape society

Paul-Michel Foucault, known as Michel Foucault, (UK: FOO-koh, US: foo-KOH; French:; 15 October 1926 – 25 June 1984) was a French philosopher, literary critic, and historian of ideas who analyzed the relationships between power, knowledge, and liberty, and how they are used as a form of social control through…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Jerry Bauer · Public domain

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

French president from 1974 to 1981 who modernised social laws and later led the drafting of the EU constitution

Valéry René Marie Georges Giscard d'Estaing (UK:, US:; French:; 2 February 1926 – 2 December 2020), also known as simply Giscard or VGE, was President of France from 1974 to 1981.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Christian Lambiotte · CC BY 4.0

Dario Fo

Italian playwright and actor of Accidental Death of an Anarchist whose political satire won the Nobel Prize in Literature

Dario Luigi Angelo Fo (Italian:; 24 March 1926 – 13 October 2016) was an Italian playwright, actor, theatre director, stage designer, songwriter, political campaigner for the Italian left wing and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Gotfryd, Bernard, photographer · Public domain

Harper Lee

American novelist of To Kill a Mockingbird, the Pulitzer Prize-winning story of racial injustice told by Scout Finch

Nelle Harper Lee (April 28, 1926 – February 19, 2016) was an American novelist whose 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and became a classic of modern American literature. She assisted her close friend Truman Capote in his research for the book In Cold Blood (1966).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Eric Draper · Public domain

Chuck Berry

Pioneering guitarist often called the Father of Rock and Roll

Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter who was one of the pioneers of rock and roll.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Pablo Vaz · CC BY 3.0