Famous birthdays by year
Famous People Born in 1959
Born in 1959? 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 67 in 2026 · Chinese zodiac: Year of the Pig
The 1950s
The most famous people born in 195981
b. 1959Evo Morales
Coca growers' union leader who became Bolivia's first Indigenous president, serving from 2006 to 2019
PoliticsAge 66
View profile Photo: EneasMx · CC BY-SA 4.0
b. 1959Mike Pence
Former Governor of Indiana who served as the 48th US Vice President under Donald Trump from 2017 to 2021
PoliticsAge 67
View profile Photo: D. Myles Cullen · Public domain
b. 1959Stephen Harper
Founder of the modern Conservative Party of Canada who served as prime minister from 2006 to 2015
PoliticsAge 67
View profile Photo: World Economic Forum / Remy Steinegger · CC BY-SA 2.0
b. 1959Jens Stoltenberg
Secretary General of NATO and former Prime Minister of Norway
PoliticsAge 67
View profile Photo: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from Washington D.C, United States · CC BY 2.0
b. 1959Rigoberta Menchú
Indigenous rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner from Guatemala
ActivismAge 67
View profile Photo: Gobierno de Guatemala · Public domain
b. 1959"Weird Al" Yankovic
Musician famous for his parodies of popular songs and pop culture
MusicAge 67
View profile Photo: Super Festivals from Ft. Lauderdale, USA · CC BY 2.0
b. 1959Bryan Adams
Canadian rock musician known for several global number one hits
MusicAge 66
View profile Photo: Raph_PH · CC BY 2.0
b. 1959Christian Wulff
Former President of Germany and politician in the CDU party
PoliticsAge 67
View profile Photo: Laurence Chaperon · CC BY 2.0
Born in 1959, month by month
- January
- Rigoberta Menchú (January 9) · Indigenous rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner from Guatemala
- Maurizio Sarri (January 10) · Italian football coach who managed Napoli, Chelsea and Juventus
- Gilmar Rinaldi (January 13) · Brazilian goalkeeper and member of the 1994 World Cup winning squad
- Yellowman (January 15)
- Sade Adu (January 16) · Lead singer of the Grammy-winning band Sade
- February
- Chan Santokhi (February 3) · Former President of Suriname and chief of police
- Mauricio Macri (February 8) · Argentine politician who served as President from 2015 to 2019
- Ali Bongo Ondimba (February 9) · Former President of Gabon who served for fourteen years
- Filipe Nyusi (February 9) · Former President of Mozambique who served for a decade
- John McEnroe (February 16) · American tennis champion known for his skill and fiery temperament
- Ahmet Davutoğlu (February 26) · Academic and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Turkey
- March
- Takaaki Kajita (March 9) · Nobel Prize-winning physicist who discovered that neutrinos have mass
- Milorad Dodik (March 12) · Bosnian Serb politician and former president of Republika Srpska
- Ben Okri (March 15) · Booker Prize-winning novelist and poet from Nigeria
- Jens Stoltenberg (March 16) · Secretary General of NATO and former Prime Minister of Norway
- Luc Besson (March 18) · French filmmaker known for directing The Fifth Element and Leon
- Laura Chinchilla (March 28) · First female President of Costa Rica
- April
- Alberto Fernández (April 2) · Former President of Argentina and law professor
- Emma Thompson (April 15) · Oscar-winning actress known for Sense and Sensibility and Love Actually
- Sean Bean (April 17) · British actor known for Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings
- Robert Smith (April 21) · Lead singer and songwriter of the rock band The Cure
- Vahagn Khachatryan (April 22) · Armenian politician serving as the fifth President of Armenia
- Eren Keskin (April 24)
- Andrew Fire (April 27) · Biologist who won the Nobel Prize for discovering RNA interference
- Stephen Harper (April 30) · Founder of the modern Conservative Party of Canada who served as prime minister from 2006 to 2015
- May
- János Áder (May 9) · Hungarian politician who served as President for a decade
- Israel Kamakawiwoʻole (May 20) · Influential Hawaiian singer and musician
- Abdulla Yameen (May 21) · Former President of the Maldives who served from 2013 to 2018
- Morrissey (May 22) · Lead singer and lyricist of the English band The Smiths
- Donna Strickland (May 27) · Nobel Prize-winning physicist who pioneered high-intensity laser technology
- Rupert Everett (May 29) · English actor known for My Best Friend's Wedding
- June
- Mike Pence (June 7) · Former Governor of Indiana who served as the 48th US Vice President under Donald Trump from 2017 to 2021
- Carlo Ancelotti (June 10) · Successful football manager with multiple Champions League titles
- Hugh Laurie (June 11) · British actor best known for the medical drama series House
- Klaus Iohannis (June 13) · Long-serving President of Romania and former high school teacher
- Boyko Borissov (June 13) · Long-serving Prime Minister of Bulgaria
- Christian Wulff (June 19) · Former President of Germany and politician in the CDU party
- Anne Hidalgo (June 19) · First female Mayor of Paris and French politician
- Nimr al-Nimr (June 21)
- Atsushi Uchiyama (June 29) · Japanese footballer and manager who represented the national side
- Vincent D'Onofrio (June 30) · American actor known for his roles in film and television
- July
- Victoria Abril (July 4) · Prolific Spanish actress known for films such as Tie Me Up!
- Veronica Guerin (July 5) · Irish investigative journalist known for her reports on organised crime
- Suzanne Vega (July 11) · American singer-songwriter known for Luka and Tom's Diner
- Tupou VI of Tonga (July 12) · Current King of Tonga and former Prime Minister
- Li Qiang (July 23) · Premier of the People's Republic of China
- Kevin Spacey (July 26) · Oscar-winning actor known for The Usual Suspects and American Beauty
- Sanjay Dutt (July 29) · Prolific Bollywood actor known for playing tough-guy roles
- Abdullah of Pahang (July 30) · Sultan of Pahang who served as the King of Malaysia
- August
- Koichi Tanaka (August 3) · Nobel Prize-winning scientist who revolutionised the analysis of biological molecules
- Rosanna Arquette (August 10) · American actress who starred in Desperately Seeking Susan and Pulp Fiction
- Magic Johnson (August 14) · Legendary basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers
- Marcia Gay Harden (August 14) · Oscar-winning actress known for Pollock and Miller's Crossing
- Margaret Gardiner (August 21)
- Ramón Díaz (August 29) · Argentine football manager and prolific former striker
- September
- Jim Meskimen (September 10) · American actor and impressionist known for his voice work
- Saul Perlmutter (September 22) · Astrophysicist who discovered that the expansion of the universe is accelerating
- Jason Alexander (September 23) · Actor best known for playing George Costanza in Seinfeld
- Jon Fosse (September 29) · Nobel Prize-winning Norwegian author and playwright
- Xiomara Castro (September 30) · Politician serving as the first female president of Honduras
- October
- Youssou N’Dour (October 1) · Senegalese singer famous for the global hit song 7 Seconds
- Lai Ching-te (October 6) · President of Taiwan and former physician
- Simon Cowell (October 7) · Television producer and talent judge on shows like The X Factor
- Boris Nemtsov (October 9) · Russian physicist and reformist politician who served as Yeltsin's deputy prime minister, later opposed Putin, and was murdered in 2015
- Sarah Ferguson (October 15) · Former member of the British royal family and author
- Ameenah Gurib-Fakim (October 17) · Biodiversity scientist and the first female President of Mauritius
- Mauricio Funes (October 18) · Former President of El Salvador and investigative journalist
- Ken Watanabe (October 21) · Japanese actor who received an Oscar nomination for The Last Samurai
- "Weird Al" Yankovic (October 23) · Musician famous for his parodies of popular songs and pop culture
- Sam Raimi (October 23) · Director of the Evil Dead and Spider-Man trilogies
- Evo Morales (October 26) · Coca growers' union leader who became Bolivia's first Indigenous president, serving from 2006 to 2019
- John Magufuli (October 29) · Tanzanian politician who served as the fifth President of Tanzania
- Jadav Payeng (October 31)
- November
- Bryan Adams (November 5) · Canadian rock musician known for several global number one hits
- Allison Janney (November 19) · Oscar-winning actress known for her role in The West Wing
- Satoshi Miyauchi (November 26) · Japanese international footballer who later coached the national women's team
- Hasan Nasrallah (November 28) · Long-term leader of the Lebanese political and militant group Hezbollah
- December
- Satoru Iwata (December 6) · Former president of Nintendo who oversaw the Wii and DS consoles
- Florence Griffith Joyner (December 21) · American track and field athlete who set multiple sprinting world records
- Patricia Clarkson (December 29) · Emmy-winning actress known for Sharp Objects and Pieces of April
- Val Kilmer (December 31) · Actor known for roles in Top Gun and Batman Forever