Famous birthdays by year
Famous People Born in 1933
Born in 1933? 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 93 in 2026 · Chinese zodiac: Year of the Rooster
The 1930s
The most famous people born in 193363
b. 1933Akihito
Emperor of Japan from 1989 to 2019 who became the first Japanese monarch in two centuries to abdicate
RoyaltyAge 92
View profile Photo: Malacañang Photo Bureau · Public domain
1933–2009Corazon Aquino
Widow of an assassinated opposition leader who led the 1986 People Power Revolution and became the Philippines' first female president
PoliticsWould be 93
View profile Photo: Airman Gerald B. Johnson · Public domain
b. 1933Michael Caine
English actor of Zulu, Alfie and The Italian Job who won two Oscars and starred in more than 100 films
FilmAge 93
View profile Photo: Manfred Werner / Tsui · CC BY-SA 3.0
b. 1933Roman Polanski
French-Polish director of Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown who won an Oscar for The Pianist and fled the US in 1978
FilmAge 93
View profile Photo: Georges Biard · CC BY-SA 3.0
b. 1933Amartya Sen
Indian economist and philosopher who showed how famines happen and won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1998
ScienceAge 92
View profile Photo: Fronteiras do Pensamento · CC BY-SA 2.0
1933–2021Jean-Paul Belmondo
French actor of Breathless and That Man from Rio, a star of the New Wave and of popular action films
FilmWould be 93
View profile Photo: Keystone/Hulton Archive · Public domain
1933–2016Gene Wilder
Comic actor known for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
FilmWould be 93
View profile Photo: Warner Brothers/Tandem Production · Public domain
1933–2006James Brown
American singer and musician known as the Godfather of Soul
MusicWould be 93
View profile Photo: Heinrich Klaffs · CC BY-SA 2.0
Born in 1933, month by month
- January
- Ilia II of Georgia (January 4) · Long-serving leader of the Georgian Orthodox Church
- Susan Sontag (January 16) · American critic and author known for her essays on culture
- Dalida (January 17) · International singing star who recorded music in over ten languages
- Corazon Aquino (January 25) · Widow of an assassinated opposition leader who led the 1986 People Power Revolution and became the Philippines' first female president
- February
- Than Shwe (February 2) · Military leader who served as the head of state of Myanmar
- Paul Biya (February 13) · Second President of Cameroon serving since 1982
- Kim Novak (February 13) · Hollywood actress who starred in the Alfred Hitchcock film Vertigo
- Yoko Ono (February 18) · Multi-media artist, singer and peace activist married to John Lennon
- Bobby Robson (February 18) · Former England manager who led the team to a semi-final
- Nina Simone (February 21) · Jazz singer and activist known as the High Priestess of Soul
- March
- Michael Caine (March 14) · English actor of Zulu, Alfie and The Italian Job who won two Oscars and starred in more than 100 films
- Quincy Jones (March 14) · Influential American music producer, composer and multi-Grammy Award winner
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg (March 15) · US Supreme Court Justice and champion of gender equality
- Philip Roth (March 18) · American novelist known for Portnoy's Complaint and American Pastoral
- Abolhassan Banisadr (March 22) · First president of Iran following the 1979 revolution
- April
- Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (April 1) · Nobel Prize winner who developed techniques for cooling and trapping atoms
- Jean-Paul Belmondo (April 9) · French actor of Breathless and That Man from Rio, a star of the New Wave and of popular action films
- Willie Nelson (April 10) · Influential country music singer and songwriter of the outlaw movement
- Montserrat Caballé (April 12) · Spanish operatic soprano known for her bel canto roles
- Jayne Mansfield (April 19) · American actress and 1950s Hollywood sex symbol
- Arno Allan Penzias (April 26) · German-born physicist who discovered cosmic microwave background radiation
- Carol Burnett (April 26) · American comedian and actress who hosted her own long-running variety show
- May
- James Brown (May 3) · American singer and musician known as the Godfather of Soul
- Steven Weinberg (May 3) · Nobel Prize-winning physicist who unified two fundamental forces of nature
- Joan Collins (May 23) · English actress famous for playing Alexis Carrington in the soap Dynasty
- June
- Heinrich Rohrer (June 6) · Nobel Prize-winning physicist who co-invented the scanning tunnelling microscope
- Joan Rivers (June 8) · Comedian and television host known for her acerbic wit
- Gene Wilder (June 11) · Comic actor known for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
- Jerzy Kosiński (June 14) · Polish-American novelist who wrote The Painted Bird and Being There
- Mohammad-Ali Rajai (June 15) · Former President of Iran who served for less than one month
- Claudio Abbado (June 26) · Influential Italian conductor of the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras
- July
- Oliver Sacks (July 9) · Neurologist and author known for books such as Awakenings
- John Hopfield (July 15) · Nobel Prize-winning physicist known for developing artificial neural networks
- Cormac McCarthy (July 20) · Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist known for his bleak and violent Westerns
- Cees Nooteboom (July 31) · Dutch novelist and poet known for his travel writing
- August
- Elinor Ostrom (August 7) · First woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences
- Richard Ernst (August 14) · Swiss chemist who won a Nobel Prize for developing NMR spectroscopy
- Stanley Milgram (August 14) · American social psychologist known for his controversial experiments on obedience
- Roman Polanski (August 18) · French-Polish director of Rosemary's Baby and Chinatown who won an Oscar for The Pianist and fled the US in 1978
- Just Fontaine (August 18) · French striker who holds the record for most goals in one World Cup
- Robert Curl (August 23) · Nobel Prize-winning chemist who co-discovered fullerenes
- September
- Mathieu Kérékou (September 2) · Politician who served as the president of Benin for several decades
- Asha Bhosle (September 8) · Prolific Indian playback singer featured in thousands of Bollywood films
- Karl Lagerfeld (September 10) · German fashion designer and creative director of the house Chanel
- Lina Medina (September 23) · Peruvian woman who is the youngest confirmed mother in history
- Samora Moisés Machel (September 29) · First President of Mozambique and leader of the liberation struggle
- Michel Aoun (September 30) · Former President of Lebanon and military commander
- October
- John Gurdon (October 2) · Nobel Prize-winning biologist who pioneered research into cloning
- Peter Mansfield (October 9) · Physicist awarded the Nobel Prize for his role in developing MRI
- Bill Anders (October 17) · Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic Earthrise photograph
- Paco Gento (October 21) · Spanish footballer who won a record six European Cups with Real Madrid
- Garrincha (October 28) · Legendary Brazilian footballer and two-time World Cup winner
- November
- Amartya Sen (November 3) · Indian economist and philosopher who showed how famines happen and won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1998
- John Barry (November 3) · Composer known for his work on the James Bond film series
- Charles K. Kao (November 4) · Nobel Prize-winning physicist known as the father of fibre optics
- Jalal Talabani (November 12) · Former President of Iraq and Kurdish political leader
- Larry King (November 19) · Television host known for his long-running interview show on CNN
- Krzysztof Penderecki (November 23) · Polish composer and conductor of avant-garde classical music
- December
- Paul J. Crutzen (December 3) · Nobel Prize-winning chemist known for his work on the ozone layer
- Hisataka Okamoto (December 14) · Forward who played for the Japan national football team
- Tim Conway (December 15) · Comedian and actor famous for The Carol Burnett Show
- Laura Mancinelli (December 18) · Italian author and scholar of medieval history
- Akihito (December 23) · Emperor of Japan from 1989 to 2019 who became the first Japanese monarch in two centuries to abdicate