Famous French People a to z

Anouk Aimée is an acclaimed French actress known for her roles in works like The Lovers of Verona, 8½, La Dolce Vita and A Man and a Woman.

Benedict XIV (Bernard Garnier) was made pope by a splinter group of cardinals in 1425. As there was already an antipope, Benedict XIV became counter-antipope.

Marie Antoinette helped provoke the popular unrest that led to the French Revolution and to the overthrow of the monarchy in August 1792.

Antonin Artaud was a French actor, costume designer and writer who revolutionized drama with his idea of a Theater of Cruelty.

John Jacob Astor V, the fifth member of the American Astor family to bear the name John Jacob, became owner and chairman of The Times of London in 1922.

John James Audubon was an American ornithologist, artist and naturalist known for his studies, drawings and paintings of North American birds.

Josephine Baker was a dancer and singer who became wildly popular in France during the 1920s. She also devoted much of her life to fighting racism.

Cristóbal Balenciaga was a Spanish-French fashion designer and the leading couturier of Spain in the 1920s-30s. He moved to Paris during the Spanish Civil War.

Brigitte Bardot is a French dancer, model and actress who became an international icon in the 1950s and '60s with films like And God Created Women and Contempt.

Jean-Louis Barrault was a French actor director, and mime. He is best known for his role in the film The Children of Paradise (1945).

Roland Barthes was a French literary philosopher whose work influenced structuralism, semiotics and anthropology.

Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi designed and executed New York City’s Statue of Liberty to mark the Franco-American alliance of 1778.

Charles Baudelaire was a French poet best known for his controversial volume of poems, Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil).

Jean Baudrillard was a French postmodern social theorist and philosopher who developed theories of "hyperreality" and "simulacrum."

Frédéric Bazille was a French painter who helped found the Impressionist movement of the late 19th century, before dying in combat in the Franco-Prussian War.

Henri Becquerel was a French physicist who discovered radioactivity, an achievement for which he won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903.

Jeanne Bécu, Countess Du Barry, mistress to French King Louis XV, asserted her influence on the court throughout his reign and was later executed for treason.

Jean-Paul Belmondo is a French actor best known for starring in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless.

Perhaps the most famous actress of all time, Sarah Bernhardt is regarded as one of the finest actors of the 19th century, appearing on the stage and in some of the earliest films ever produced.

Ingrid Betancourt was kidnapped by Marxist guerillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) while campaigning for the presidency.

A two-time French prime minister, Georges Bidault was active in the French Resistance during World War II but later fled France after a dispute with de Gaulle.

French actress Juliette Binoche is widely regarded as one of film's most respected actresses for the intelligence she has brought to her complex roles.

French composer Georges Bizet is best known for the realistic opera Carmen, a work that established itself as the model of opéra comique.

Jean-Pierre Blancard was a French balloonist who crossed the English Channel by balloon in 1785. He spurred interest in ballooning in Europe and the United States.

Joseph Bonaparte was the older brother of Napoleon I, who made him king of Spain. He served as Spain's king from 1808 to 1813.

Louis Bonaparte, Napoleon I's third surviving brother, was king of Holland from 1806 to 1810.

Napoleon Bonaparte was a military general who became the first emperor of France. His drive for military expansion changed the world.

Louis Braille was a French educator who developed the Braille system of printing and writing for the blind.

Georges Braque, the French painter who invented Cubism, with Pablo Picasso, and became the first living artist to be exhibited at The Louvre in 1961.

André Breton was a French writer, editor and critic who was a key figure in the Dada and Surrealist art movements.

Heiress, model, singer, and actress Carla Bruni is best known for her romances and marriage to French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Dancer and choreographer Maurice Béjart founded Switzerland's Béjart Ballet Lausanne, known for his 2000 version of The Nutcracker.

Theologian John Calvin was the leading French Protestant Reformer and the most important figure in the second generation of the Protestant Reformation.

Algerian born writer Albert Camus won the Nobel Prize for literature in part due to his embrace of existentialism in books like The Stranger.

Hugh Capet was a 10th century monarch who started the Capetian Dynasty of France.

Pierre Cardin is an Italian-born French fashion designer best known for his haute couture geometric avant-garde designs.

French explorer Jacques Cartier is known chiefly for exploring the St. Lawrence River and giving Canada its name.

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer whose humane, spontaneous photographs helped establish photojournalism as an art form.

French jurist and lawyer René Cassin is best known for his involvement in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle was a French explorer best known for leading an expedition down the Mississippi River, claiming the region for France.

Marc Chagall was a French artist whose work was generally based on emotional association rather than traditional pictorial fundamentals.

With her trademark suits and little black dresses, fashion designer Coco Chanel created timeless designs that are still popular today.

Charles of Blois was a rival duke of Brittany in the mid-1300s.

Jacques Alexandre César Charles was a French scientist and inventor who, along with Nicholas Robert, was the first to take flight in a hydrogen balloon.

Charles IX was King of France from 1560 until 1574 during the turbulent time of the Wars of Religion.

Charles VI, nicknamed Charles the Mad, was king of France from 1380 to 1422—a period marked by political chaos and France’s defeat by England at Agincourt.

Jacques Chirac is a French politician best known as the Prime Minister, Mayor of Paris and President of France during his career from 1974-2007.

Considered Poland's greatest composer, Frédéric Chopin focused his efforts on piano composition and was highly influential.

French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798–1857) greatly advanced the field of social science, giving it the name "sociology" and influenced many 19th-century social intellectuals.

Le Corbusier was a Swiss-born French architect who belonged to the first generation of the so-called International school of architecture.

French actress Marion Cotillard won an Academy Award for her performance as Edith Piaf in the film La Vie En Rose. She also starred in the acclaimed films Inception and The Dark Knight Rises.

Jacques Cousteau was a French undersea explorer, researcher, photographer and documentary host who invented diving and scuba devices, including the Aqua-Lung. He also conducted underwater expeditions and produced films and television series, including the Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. 

Marie Curie was a Polish-born French physicist famous for her work on radioactivity and twice a winner of the Nobel Prize.

French physicist Pierre Curie was of founding fathers of modern physics and is best known for being a pioneer in radioactive studies.

Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac was a French author and playwright best known for his political satire and science fantasy, including the play The Pedant Imitated (1654).

Aimé Césaire was a cofounder (with Léopold Sédar Senghor) of Negritude, an influential movement to restore the cultural identity of black Africans.

Post-Impressionist French painter Paul Cézanne is best known for his incredibly varied painting style which greatly affected 20th century abstract art.

Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton was a French naturalist who introduced Merino sheep to France.

Jacques-Louis David was a 19th century painter who is considered to be the principal proponent of the Neoclassical style, which moved art briskly away from the previous Rococo period. His most famous works include "The Death of Marat" and "Napoleon Crossing the Alps."

French writer Simone de Beauvoir laid the foundation for the modern feminist movement. Also an existentialist philosopher, she had a romance with Sartre.

Philippe de Broca was a French filmmaker, best known for his light-hearted comedies. He was awarded the Legion of Honor for his contributions to French culture.

Samuel de Champlain was a French explorer and cartographer best known for establishing and governing the settlements of New France and the city of Quebec.

Charles Coulomb was a French engineer and physicist who made pioneering discoveries in his field and came up with the theory called Coulomb’s Law.

Charles de Gaulle rose from French soldier in World War I to exiled leader and, eventually, president of the Fifth Republic. He served as president from 1959 to 1969.

Hubert de Givenchy is a French fashion designer who provided Audrey Hepburn's iconic dress in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Jean de La Bruyère was a 17th century French writer known for his satirical work The Characters, or the Manners of the Age, with The Characters of Theophrastus.

French painter Georges La Tour is considered a major influence on Caravaggio for his use of simple lighting, like candles, in a realistic manner.

Michel de Montaigne was a 16th century French author best known for his series of philosophical essays, which were published in 1575.

Madame de Pompadour became the mistress of French King Louis XV in the mid-1700s. She greatly influenced French culture during this time, including decorative arts, architecture and statecraft.

Maximilien de Robespierre was an official during the French Revolution and one of the principal architects of the Reign of Terror.

Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat and philosopher who became notorious for acts of sexual cruelty in his writings as well as in his own life.