List of French people

Famous French or French-speaking/writing people

Actors/Actresses

• Isabelle Adjani
• Renée Adorée
• Anouk Aimée
• Antonin Artaud, actor, playwright, poet, essayist
• Fanny Ardant
• Jean-Pierre Aumont[?]
• Daniel Auteuil[?]
• Charles Aznavour
• Brigitte Bardot
• Emmanuelle Béart
• Jean-Paul Belmondo
• Sarah Bernhardt
• Juliette Binoche, Academy Award for role in The English patient
• Charles Boyer
• Capucine
• Leslie Caron
• Maurice Chevalier
• Claudette Colbert
• Alain Delon[?]
• Julie Delpy
• Gérard Depardieu
• Catherine Deneuve
• Fernandel
• Jean Gabin[?]
• Annie Girardot[?]
• Judith Godrèche
• Isabelle Huppert
• Irène Jacob
• Jacques Demy[?]
• Valérie Kaprisky[?]
• Virginie Ledoyen
• Marcel Marceau
• Sophie Marceau, Princess Isabelle in Braveheart, a "Bond" Girl
• Jean Marais[?]
• Miou-Miou[?]
• Mistinguett
• Yves Montand
• Jeanne Moreau[?]
• Emmanuelle Seigner
• Simone Signoret
• Jean-Louis Trintignant
• Michael Vartan[?]
• Hervé Villechaize[?]

Architects

• Le Corbusier
• Étienne-Louis_Boullée
• Fontaine[?] architect
• Hector Guimard[?]
• Charles Percier
• Claude Nicolas Ledoux[?]
• Eugène Viollet-le-Duc

Authors - See also: List of French language poets

• Marcel Achard -- playwright and scriptwriter
• Jean Anouilh -- 20th century dramatist
• Guillaume Apollinaire -- (born Russian) poet
• Honoré de Balzac -- realist author
• Henri Barbusse
• Charles Baudelaire, 19th century poet
• Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, comedy playwright
• Simone de Beauvoir -- 20th century author
• Henri Bergson -- Nobel Prize Winner
• Georges Bernanos[?]
• Tristan Bernard
• Pierre Boulle
• Albert Camus -- existentialist author
• Louis-Ferdinand Céline -- 20th century author
• Aimé Césaire[?]-- 20th century author
• François-René de Chateaubriand
• Jean Cocteau -- 20th century poet and playwright
• Colette-- 20th century author
• Benjamin Constant
• Pierre Corneille -- classicist playwright
• Alexandre Dumas, père, Author
• Alexandre Dumas, fils -- Playwright/author
• Marguerite Duras - 20th century novelist
• Paul Eluard
• Léon-Paul Fargue
• Georges Feydeau
• Alain Finkielkraut - essayist
• Gustave Flaubert -- realist author
• Anatole France
• Marie de France -- poet
• Romain Gary
• Jean Genet
• André Gide, Nobel Prize Winner
• Jean Giraudoux
• Françoise Giroud[?]
• Victor Hugo -- novelist, poet, and playwright
• Eugène Ionesco
• Pierre Choderlos de Laclos[?]
• Jean de La Fontaine[?]
• Leconte de Lisle[?] -- parnassian[?] poet
• Alphonse de Lamartine
• Stéphane Mallarmé -- poet
• André Malraux
• Pierre de Marivaux - playwright
• Clément Marot -- poet
• Guy de Maupassant novelist
• François Mauriac - Roman Catholic writer
• Prosper Mérimée - 19th century novelist
• Jean Baptiste Poquelin dit Molière -- 17th century comedic playwright and actor
• Alfred de Musset -- 19th century poet
• Anaïs Nin
• Marcel Pagnol[?]
• Charles Péguy[?] -- 20th century poet
• Charles Perrault -- Mother Goose Tales
• Saint-John Perse[?]
• Christine de Pisan, historian, poet, philosopher
• Jacques Prevert -- 20th century poet
• Marcel Proust -- novelist
• François Rabelais -- Renaissance writer
• Jean Racine -- classicist playwright
• Pauline Reage, novelist
• Arthur Rimbaud -- symbolist poet
• Edmond Rostand -- neo-romantic[?] playwright
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau -- author
• Marquis de Sade -- erotic and philosophic author
• George Sand -- feminist author
• Madame de Sévigné[?]
• Madame de Staël
• Antoine de Saint-Exupery , author
• Stendhal -- novelist (born Henry Beyle)
• Paul Valéry -- 20th century poet
• Paul Verlaine -- symbolist poet
• Jules Verne -- novelist
• Boris Vian -- 20th century author
• Alfred de Vigny -- 19th century poet
• Jean-Marie Arouet dit Voltaire -- Enlightenment[?] author, deist/agnostic philosopher
• Émile Zola -- naturalist author

Aviators

• Clément Ader
• Jacqueline Auriol[?]
• Louis Blériot
• Henry Farman
• Georges Guynemer[?]
• Jean Mermoz[?]
• Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Composers

• Georges Auric
• Hector Berlioz
• Georges Bizet -- composer of Carmen
• Pierre Boulez -- avant garde composer
• Marc Antoine Charpentier
• François Couperin[?]
• Claude Debussy -- Impressionist composer
• Paul Dukas -- composer of The Sorcerer's Apprentice
• Gabriel Fauré
• César Franck[?] -- also considered Belgian
• Reynaldo Hahn[?]
• Pierre Henry[?] -- writer of musique concrete and electronic music
• Maurice Jarre[?]
• Michel Legrand
• Jean François Lesueur[?]
• Jean Baptiste Lully, court composer to Louis XIV
• Darius Milhaud
• Jacques Offenbach -- noted for his operettas
• Francis Poulenc
• Jean Philippe Rameau
• Maurice Ravel
• Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle -- composer of "La Marseillaise", French National Anthem
• Edmond Roussel[?]
• Camille Saint-Saëns
• Erik Satie composer of Musiques d'ameublement
• Pierre Schaeffer -- inventor of musique concrete
• Les Six -- group of composers
• Germaine Tailleferre
• Charles-Marie Widor

Criminals

• Jules Bonnot
• Henri Désiré Landru -- serial killer
• Jacques Mesrine
• Maurice Papon -- politician and war criminal
• Marcel Petiot -- serial killer
• Paul Touvier -- Frenchman convicted of war crimes against humanity

Dancers

• Roland Petit[?]
• See Moulin Rouge and Folies Bergeres[?]

Economists

• Alain Lipietz -- green economist

Fashion

• Liliane Bettencourt[?], majority owner of L'Oreal, wealthiest person in France
• Coco Chanel -- fashion designer
• Edouard de Givenchy[?]
• Christian Dior -- fashion designer
• Jean-Paul Gaultier[?]
• Madame Grey[?]
• Daniel Hechter[?] -- inventor of ready-to-wear
• Paul Poiret[?]
• Yves Saint-Laurent -- fashion designer

Filmmakers

• Jean-Jacques Beineix[?]
• Luc Besson
• Bertrand Blier
• Robert Bresson
• André Cayatte[?]
• Jean Cocteau
• Jacque Cousteau -- inventor of the modern aqua lung
• Abel Gance[?]
• Jean-Luc Godard
• Patrice Leconte[?]
• Claude Lelouch[?]
• Louis Malle[?]
• André Malraux
• Georges Méliès
• Maurice Pialat
• Roman Polanski
• Jean Renoir
• Alain Resnais
• Alain Sarde[?]
• Jacques Tati
• François Truffaut, director
• Roger Vadim -- director

Humorists

• Coluche
• Francis Blanche[?]
• Pierre Dac[?] humorist and Resistance worker
• Pierre Desproges[?]

Monarchs - See also list of French monarchs

• Henri IV
• Joséphine de Beauharnais -- Empress
• Louis XIV -- King of France
• Marie Antoinette -- Austrian born Queen of France
• Napoléon Bonaparte -- Emperor
• Napoleon III -- Président and Emperor

Musicians, singers

• Charles Aznavour
• Josephine Baker, American born entertainer
• Jane Bathori, opera singer
• Barbara[?]
• Georges Brassens[?]
• Dalida
• Damia
• Marie Dubas[?]
• Serge Gainsbourg
• Georgius
• Stéphane Grappelli -- jazz musician
• Johnny Hallyday -- France's Elvis
• David Hallyday[?]
• Kiki -- "Queen of Montparnasse"
• Claudine Longet[?]
• Luis Mariano[?]
• Félix Mayol
• Mireille Mathieu
• Mistinguett
• Pierre Perret[?]
• Edith Piaf
• Tino Rossi[?]
• Charles Trénet[?]
• Sylvie Vartan
• Pauline Garcia-Viardot - opera singer & composer

Painters

• Francois Boucher
• Pierre Brissaud
• Gustave Caillebotte
• Paul Cézanne
• Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot
• Gustave Courbet
• Thomas Couture
• Jacques Louis David
• Edgar Degas
• Eugène Delacroix
• Robert Delaunay[?]
• André Derain
• Marcel Duchamp
• Suzanne Duchamp
• Henri Fantin-Latour
• Jean-Honoré Fragonard[?]
• Antonio de La Gandara
• Paul Gauguin
• Jean-Baptiste Gros
• Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
• Charles de La Tour[?]
• Georges Lacombe
• Fernand Léger
• Edouard Manet
• Henri Matisse
• Claude Monet
• Gustave Moreau
• Berthe Morisot
• Francis Picabia
• Camille Pissarro
• Nicolas Poussin
• Pierre-Auguste Renoir
• Georges Seurat
• Nicolas de Staël[?]
• Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
• Maurice Utrillo
• Suzanne Valadon
• Horace Vernet[?]
• Jacques Villon
• Philippe Watteau[?]

Philosophers

• Jean Le Rond d'Alembert
• Pierre Bourdieu, sociologist
• Julien Benda[?]
• Henri Bergson
• Jean de Crèvecoeur
• Gilles Deleuze
• Jacques Derrida
• René Descartes -- scientist and philosopher
• Denis Diderot -- Enlightenment author and atheist philosopher
• Elisabeth Bourdiau de Fontenay[?]
• Michel Foucault
• Vladimir Jankelevitch[?]
• Etienne de La Boétie[?] -- philosopher and politician
• Marcel Légaut[?] - christian philosopher
• Jean de Léry[?] -- corsaireand ethnologist, anti-racism acivist
• Emmanual Lévinas[?]
• Gabriel Marcel[?] -- philosopher
• Maurice Merleau-Ponty -- existentialist philosopher
• Michel de Montaigne -- philosopher essayist
• Montesquieu, political philosopher
• Emmanuel Mounier[?] -- philosopher
• Blaise Pascal -- scientist, Christian philosopher and author
• Paul Ricoeur[?]
• Jean-Paul Sartre -- existentialist philosopher
• Michel Serres[?]
• Simone Weil

Politicians - See also: Prime Ministers of France, President of France

• Pierre Badinter[?] -- lawyer, statesman and anti death sentence activist
• Léon Blum[?]
• José Bové -- anti-globalization activist
• Marcel Cachin[?] -- founder of the daily periodic L'Humanité[?]
• Jacques Chirac
• Samuel de Champlain -- 1st governor of Canada
• Georges Clemenceau
• Gaspard de Coligny[?]
• Bertrand Delanoë
• Jacques Delors
• Félix Faure, President of France who died of a heart attack while making love to his mistress
• Charles de Gaulle
• Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
• Guizot, Prime Minister
• Gisèle Halimi[?] lawyer and feminist activist
• Jean Jaurès, politician, pacifist
• Lionel Jospin
• Bernard Kouchner[?] -- founder of Medecins du Monde[?] and other "French Doctors[?]"
• Jean-Marie Le Pen
• Alain Lipietz -- green economist
• Pierre Mendès-France[?] -- Lawyer and Statesman
• Honoré Mirabeau
• François Mitterrand -- Lawyer and Statesman
• Jean Monnet[?]
• Henri Philippe Pétain -- Head of Vichy France
• Jean-Pierre Raffarin
• Victor Schoelcher[?] -- anti-slavery activist
• Charles Maurice de Talleyrand
• Maurice Thorez[?]
• Dominique Voynet[?] -- Physician and Green politician

Resistance workers - See also French Resistance

• Raymond Aubrac[?]
• Lucie Aubrac[?]
• Jean Moulin
• Christian Pineau
• Violette Szabo -- secret agent
• Pierre Mendès-France[?]

Scientists

• Louis Agassiz -- geologist
• André-Marie Ampère -- scientist
• Jean Baptiste Biot -- physicist
• Jean-Charles de Borda -- mathematician, physicist, political scientist
• Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot -- physicist
• Augustin Louis Cauchy -- mathematician
• Jean-Francois Champollion -- egyptologist
• Emilie du Chatelet -- 18th century mathematician
• Georges Charpak[?] -- physicist, Nobel price winner
• Marquis de Condorcet -- philosopher, mathematician and political scientist
• Charles-Augustin de Coulomb -- physicist, mathematician, engineer
• Jacques Cousteau, Marine scientist
• Joseph Cugnot[?]
• Irène Joliot-Curie -- scientist
• Marie Curie -- scientist
• Pierre Curie -- scientist
• Guillaume Delisle, cartographer
• René Descartes -- scientist and philosopher
• Girard Desargues[?] -- mathematician
• Georges Duby -- historian
• Pierre de Fermat -- mathematician
• Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier -- mathematician and physicist
• Pierre Gassendi -- philosopher mathematician
• Pierre-Gilles de Gennes[?] -- physicist, Nobel prize winner
• Evariste Galois -- mathematician
• Frédéric Joliot -- scientist
• Joseph Louis Lagrange -- mathematician
• Pierre-Simon Laplace -- mathematician and physicist
• Antoine Lavoisier
• Claude Levi-Strauss, anthropologist
• Antoine Lévi-Leblond[?] -- physicist
• Albert Matthiez[?] -- Historien
• Jules Michelet[?] -- historien
• Abraham de Moivre -- mathematician
• Theodore Monod[?] -- naturalist and theologian
• Claude Mossé[?] -- (Ms), historian
• Denis Papin
• Louis Pasteur -- scientist
• Blaise Pascal -- mathematician and philosopher
• Étienne Pascal[?] -- mathematician
• Henri Poincaré -- scientist
• Simeon Poisson -- mathematician and physicist
• Jean Rostand[?]
• Albert Soboul[?] -- historian
• Jean-Pierre Vernant[?] -- historian
• Pierre Vidal-Naquet[?] -- historian and Civil Rights activist
• Pierre Vilar[?], historian
• Christophe Victor[?] -- geographer
• Paul-Emile Victor[?] -- ethnologist

Sculptors

• Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux[?]
• César[?]
• Camille Claudel
• Raymond Duchamp-Villon
• Jean Antoine Houdon
• Georges Lacombe
• Auguste Préault[?]
• Auguste Rodin
• Niki de Saint-Phalle[?]

Sportsmen and -women

• Louis Acaries[?] -- boxer, former world title challenger, now promoter
• Jacques Anquetil[?] -- cyclist
• Louison Bobet[?] -- cyclist
• Philippe Candeloro[?] - figure skater
• Eric Cantona -- football player
• Marcel Cerdan -- world champion boxer
• Mario D'Agata[?] -- mute-deaf who became a world boxing champion
• Emile Delahaye[?] -- race car pioneer
• David Douillet[?] -- judo
• Bernard Hinault[?] -- cyclist
• Jean-Claude Killy -- skier
• Bixente Lizarazu[?] - football player
• Alain Mimoun[?] -- athlete
• Antoine Monteiro[?] -- boxer, lost to Santos Laciar for the world title
• Carole Montillet[?] -- skier
• Marie-José Perec -- athlete
• Mary Pierce[?]-- Canadian born French citizen, tennis player
• Michel Platini -- football player
• Alain Prost -- automobile racer
• Christophe Tiozzo[?] -- world champion boxer
• Jean-Pierre Wimille[?], race car driver
• Zinédine Zidane -- footballer

Theologians

• Marie-Emile Boismard[?] o.p.
• Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
• Jean Calvin
• Sebastian Castellion[?] -- translator of the Bible
• Bernard of Clairvaux
• Yves Congar[?] o.p.
• André Gounelle[?]
• Pierre Lagrange[?] o.p. -- founder of the Ecole Biblique et Archeologique de Jérusalem[?]
• Hubert Languet
• Maurice Leenhardt[?] -- ethnologist, theologien
• Etienne Mennegoz[?]
• Wilfred Monod[?]
• Etienne Nodet[?] o.p.
• Rachi de Champagne[?]
• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin s.j.
• Auguste Sabatier[?]
• Antonin Sertillanges[?] o.p. -- founder of the Revue Thomiste
• Bernard Sesboué[?] s.j.

Others

• Andre the Giant, professional wrestler
• Frédéric Bartholdi
• Paul Bocuse[?] -- Chief cook
• André Citroen[?]
• Charles Cros -- poet and inventor
• Jeanne d'Arc -- (Joan of Arc) warrior, Saint.
• Pierre de Coubertin -- initiator of the modern Olympic Games
• Bob Denard -- mercenary
• Edmond Louis Antoine Huot de Goncourt
• Ninon de l'Enclos -- courtesan, patron of the arts
• Cavalier de la Salle[?] -- explorer
• Alfred Dreyfus
• René Dumont -- agronomist engineer and sociologist and ecology activist
• Jules Dumont d'Urville
• Eleuthère Irénée du Pont de Nemours -- entrepreneur, founder of DuPont
• Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours -- entrepreneur
• Maurice Duverger -- jurist
• Gustave Eiffel -- engineer
• Ferdinand Foch[?] -- general
• Paul Héroult -- inventor
• Claude de Jouffroy d'Abbans[?], designed the first steamship in 1783
• René Lalique -- artist
• Charles Leclerc -- general
• Jacques-Donatien Le Ray -- a "Father of the American Revolution"
• Auguste and Louis Lumière -- inventors
• Jean Paul Marat
• Marcel Mazoyer[?] -- agronomist
• Montgolfier brothers -- balloonists
• Jean-Marie Pelt[?] -- botanist
• Lionel Poilâne[?] -- boulanger
• Elisée Reclus[?] -- geographer and anarchist
• Maximilien Robespierre
• Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin -- magician, namesake of "Harry Houdini"
• Albert Schweitzer, physician
• Philippe Starck - designer

Sub-lists

• Franco-Belgian comics artists

See also: List of people by nationality - List of Monegasque people, Catalans, Swiss, Belgians