My 125 favorite people of letters and the arts born in the 20th century
by morphtzikas | created - 02 Jan 2011 | updated - 03 Jan 2011 | Public1. Woody Allen
Writer | Annie Hall
Woody Allen was born on November 30, 1935, as Allen Konigsberg, in The Bronx, NY, the son of Martin Konigsberg and Nettie Konigsberg. He has one younger sister, Letty Aronson. As a young boy, he became intrigued with magic tricks and playing the clarinet, two hobbies that he continues today.
Allen ...
1935
2. Jean-Paul Sartre
Writer | Les orgueilleux
Jean-Paul Charles-Aymard Sartre was born on June 21, 1905, in Paris, France. His father, Jean-Baptiste Sartre, was an officer in the French Navy. His mother, Anne-Marie Schweitzer, was the cousin of Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Albert Schweitzer. Sartre was one year old when his father died. He was ...
1905-1980
3. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Writer | Faustrecht der Freiheit
Above all, Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a rebel whose life and art was marked by gross contradiction. Openly homosexual, he married twice; one of his wives acted in his films and the other served as his editor. Accused variously by detractors of being anticommunist, male chauvinist, antiSemitic and...
1946-1982
4. Sigourney Weaver
Actress | Alien Resurrection
Sigourney Weaver has created a host of memorable characters, both dramatic and comic, ranging from Ripley in Alien to Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist to Gwen/Tawny in Galaxy Quest and most recently, 14-year-old Kiri in Avatar: The Way of Water. With a career spanning over 50 years, Weaver has ...
1949
5. Andy Warhol
Director | Blue Movie
Andrew Warhol's father, Ondrej, came from the Austria-Hungary Empire (now Slovakia) in 1912, and sent for his mother, Julia Zavackyová Warholová, in 1921. His father worked as a construction worker and later as a coal miner. Around some time, the family moved to Pittsburgh. During his teenage years...
1928-1987
6. Pier Paolo Pasolini
Writer | Il Decameron
Pier Paolo Pasolini achieved fame and notoriety long before he entered the film industry. A published poet at 19, he had already written numerous novels and essays before his first screenplay in 1954. His first film Accattone (1961) was based on his own novel and its violent depiction of the life ...
1923-2005
7. Wendy Wasserstein
Actress | Life with Mikey
Wendy Wasserstein was born on October 18, 1950 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. She was a writer and actress, known for Life with Mikey (1993), The Object of My Affection (1998) and Great Performances (1971). She died on January 30, 2006 in New York City, New York, USA.
1950-2005
8. George Orwell
Writer | Nineteen Eighty-Four
Born the son of an Opium Agent in Bengal, Eric Blair was educated in England (Eton 1921). The joined the British Imperial Police in Burma, serving until 1927. He then travelled around England and Europe, doing various odd jobs to support his writing. By 1935 he had adopted the 'pen-name' of 'George...
1903-1950
9. Leni Riefenstahl
Producer | Das blaue Licht - Eine Berglegende aus den Dolomiten
Leni Riefenstahl's show-biz experience began with an experiment: she wanted to know what it felt like to dance on the stage. Success as a dancer gave way to film acting when she attracted the attention of film director Arnold Fanck, subsequently starring in some of his mountaineering pictures. With...
1902-2003
10. Morrissey
Soundtrack | Shaun of the Dead
Steven Patrick Morrissey was born in Davyhulme, Manchester, England, UK. At a very early age, he took an interest in writing. His top priority was poetry, though he would have his biography on James Dean, "James Dean Is Not Dead", published by his early 20s. His literary influences ranged from ...
1959
11. Paul Morrissey
Director | Mixed Blood
Born in New York City in 1938, Paul Morrissey studied literature at Fordham University. In the early 1960s, following a stint in the Army and jobs in insurance and as a social worker, he began directing short independent films.
In 1965, he was introduced to Andy Warhol, who asked him to contribute ...
1938
12. Nico
Soundtrack | Allegiant
Model and singer Nico was born in Cologne, Germany in 1938. She was a part of the Andy Warhol "scene" in the 1960s. A member of The Velvet Underground experimental rock band (with John Cale), circa 1967, she made several solo albums during the 1970s. A heroin addict for the latter part of her life,...
1938-1988
13. Daniel Day-Lewis
Actor | There Will Be Blood
Born in London, England, Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is the second child of Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate of the U.K., and his second wife, actress Jill Balcon. His maternal grandfather was Sir Michael Balcon, an important figure in the history of British cinema and head of the famous Ealing ...
1957
14. Lung Leg
Actress | Sewer Baby
Lung Leg, (aka Lisa Carr), is a bit of a mystery. After appearing in Richard Kern's You Killed Me First (1985), Fingered (1988) and Worm Movie (1985), she dropped out of sight.
This much is known - Lisa Carr turned into Lung Leg claiming that Lung was from part of a German word for acting, and Leg ...
1963
15. Mary Vivian Pearce
Actress | Pink Flamingos
Mary Vivian Pearce isn't your typical film star. As John Waters' childhood friend in Baltimore, she appeared in every single film he made as either the main character (such as Cotton in Pink Flamingos) or an extra (she appeared in Serial Mom, as a woman who asks Kathleen Turner to sign her book "To...
1947
16. Jeff Buckley
Soundtrack | Vanilla Sky
Jeff Buckley was born on November 17, 1966 in Anaheim, California, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for Vanilla Sky (2001), Tell No One (2006) and Jeff Buckley: Everybody Here Wants You (2002). He died on May 29, 1997 in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
1966-1997
17. River Phoenix
Actor | My Own Private Idaho
River Phoenix was born River Jude Bottom in Madras, Oregon. His mother, Arlyn (Dunetz), a Bronx-born secretary, and his father, John Bottom, a carpenter, met in California in 1968. They worked as itinerant fruit pickers, and later joined the Children of God religious group (John was originally ...
1970-1993
18. James Dean
Actor | East of Eden
James Byron Dean was born February 8, 1931 in Marion, Indiana, to Mildred Marie (Wilson) and Winton A. Dean, a farmer turned dental technician. His mother died when Dean was nine, and he was subsequently raised on a farm by his aunt and uncle in Fairmount, Indiana. After grade school, he moved to ...
1931-1955
19. Johnny Depp
Actor | Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II was born on June 9, 1963 in Owensboro, Kentucky, to Betty Sue Palmer (née Wells), a waitress, and John Christopher Depp, a civil engineer. He was raised in Florida. He dropped out of school when he was 15, and fronted a series of music-garage bands, including one ...
1963
20. Brad Pitt
Actor | Fight Club
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt was born on December 18, 1963 in Shawnee, Oklahoma and raised in Springfield, Missouri to Jane Etta Pitt (née Hillhouse), a school counselor & William Alvin "Bill" Pitt, a truck company manager. At Kickapoo High School, Pitt was involved in sports, debating, student ...
1963
21. Laura San Giacomo
Actress | Sex, Lies, and Videotape
Laura San Giacomo was born in West Orange, New Jersey, to MaryJo and John San Giacomo. She was raised in the nearby city of Denville. She went to Morris Knolls High School in Denville, where she got the acting bug and had the lead in several school plays. Laura got a Fine Arts degree, specializing ...
1962
22. Tim Burton
Producer | Edward Scissorhands
Timothy Walter Burton was born in Burbank, California, to Jean Rae (Erickson), who owned a cat-themed gift shop, and William Reed Burton, who worked for the Burbank Park and Recreation Department. He spent most of his childhood as a recluse, drawing cartoons, and watching old movies (he was ...
1958
23. Richey Edwards
Soundtrack | Dirty Weekend
Richey Edwards was an actor and composer, known for Dirty Weekend (1993), Twin Town (1997) and House of America (1997). He died on February 1, 1995 in London, England, UK.
1967-disappeared 1995
24. Diamanda Galás
Soundtrack | Natural Born Killers
Raised in San Diego, California, Galás was born to Greek Orthodox parents, who always encouraged her gift for piano. Galás studied a wide range of musical forms, as well as visual-art performance, and then moved to to Europe where she made her performance debut at the Festival d'Avignon in France ...
1955
25. Jack Nicholson
Actor | Chinatown
Jack Nicholson, an American actor, producer, director and screenwriter, is a three-time Academy Award winner and twelve-time nominee. Nicholson is also notable for being one of two actors - the other being Michael Caine - who have received an Oscar nomination in every decade from the '60s through ...
1937
26. Roman Polanski
Director | Chinatown
Roman Polanski is a Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few truly international filmmakers. Roman Polanski was born in Paris in 1933.
His parents returned to Poland from France in 1936, three years ...
1933
27. Ewan McGregor
Actor | Moulin Rouge!
Ewan Gordon McGregor was born on March 31, 1971 in Perth, Perthshire, Scotland, to Carol Diane (Lawson) and James Charles McGregor, both teachers. His uncle is actor Denis Lawson. He was raised in Crieff. At age 16, he left Morrison Academy to join the Perth Repertory Theatre. His parents ...
1971
28. Shirley Manson
Actress | Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Shirley Manson was born on August 26, 1966 in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. She is an actress and composer, known for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008), Captain Marvel (2019) and The World Is Not Enough (1999). She has been married to Billy Bush since May 2010. She was previously married to ...
1966
29. Hope Sandoval
Soundtrack | Starship Troopers
Hope Sandoval (born June 24, 1966) is an American singer-songwriter who is the lead singer for Mazzy Star and Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions.[2] Sandoval has toured and collaborated with other artists, including Massive Attack, for whom she sang "Paradise Circus" on the 2010 album Heligoland[3...
1966
30. Nicole Kidman
Actress | Moulin Rouge!
Elegant Nicole Kidman, known as one of Hollywood's top Australian imports, was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii, while her Australian parents were there on educational visas.
Kidman is the daughter of Janelle Ann (Glenny), a nursing instructor, and Antony David Kidman, a biochemist and clinical ...
1967
31. Philip K. Dick
Writer | Blade Runner
Philip Kindred Dick was born in Chicago in December 1928, along with a twin sister, Jane. Jane died less than eight weeks later, allegedly from an allergy to mother's milk. Dick's parents split up during his childhood, and he moved with his mother to Berkeley, California, where he lived for most of...
1928-1982
32. Stephen King
Writer | Maximum Overdrive
Stephen Edwin King was born on September 21, 1947, at the Maine General Hospital in Portland. His parents were Nellie Ruth (Pillsbury), who worked as a caregiver at a mental institute, and Donald Edwin King, a merchant seaman. His father was born under the surname "Pollock," but used the last name ...
1947
33. Dean R. Koontz
Writer | Odd Thomas
Dean R. Koontz was born on July 9, 1945 in Everett, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Odd Thomas (2013), Phantoms (1998) and Watchers (1988). He has been married to Gerda Ann Cerra since October 15, 1966.
1945
34. Clive Barker
Writer | Nightbreed
Born in Liverpool, England, UK, Clive Barker is an English writer, director, and visual artist, best known for his works in the genres of horror and dark fantasy. His mother Joan Ruby (née Revill) was a painter and school welfare officer and his father Leonard Barker was a personnel director for an...
1952
35. Alan Moore
Writer | The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Alan Moore was born on November 18, 1953 in Northampton, England, UK. He is a writer and actor, known for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), From Hell (2001) and Watchmen (2019). He has been married to Melinda Gebbie since May 12, 2007. He was previously married to Phyllis B. Dixon.
1952
36. Alejandro Jodorowsky
Writer | El Topo
Alejandro Jodorowsky was born in Tocopilla, Chile on February 17, 1929. In 1939 he moved to Santiago where he attended university, was a circus clown and a puppeteer. In 1953 he went to Paris and studied mime with Marcel Marceau. He worked with Maurice Chevalier there and made a short film, La ...
1929
37. Marilyn Monroe
Actress | Some Like It Hot
Marilyn Monroe was an American actress, comedienne, singer, and model. She became one of the world's most enduring iconic figures and is remembered both for her winsome embodiment of the Hollywood sex symbol and her tragic personal and professional struggles within the film industry. Her life and ...
1926-1962
38. H.R. Giger
Art_department | Alien
H.R. Giger was born on February 5, 1940 in Chur, Switzerland. He was a director, known for Alien (1979), Aliens (1986) and Alien vs. Predator (2004). He was married to Carmen Maria Scheifele and Mia Bonzanigo. He died on May 12, 2014 in Zurich, Switzerland.
1940
39. Björk
Soundtrack | Dancer in the Dark
Born in 1965 in the Icelandic capital city of Reykjavik, the daughter of Gudmundur Gunnarsson (an electrician) and Hildur Hauksdóttir who divorced before her second birthday, Björk grew up in a hippie-type community with her mother and her seven siblings. She started to study classical music at the...
1965
40. Todd Haynes
Director | Far from Heaven
Todd Haynes was always interested in art, and made amateur movies and painted while he was still a child. He attended Brown university and majored in art and semiotics. After he graduated he moved to New York City and made the controversial short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987). ...
1961
41. Gus Van Sant
Director | Elephant
Gus Green Van Sant Jr. is an American filmmaker, painter, screenwriter, photographer and musician from Louisville, Kentucky who is known for directing films such as Good Will Hunting, the 1998 remake of Psycho, Gerry, Elephant, My Own Private Idaho, To Die For, Milk, Last Days, Finding Forrester, ...
1952
42. Lars von Trier
Writer | Dancer in the Dark
Probably the most ambitious and visually distinctive filmmaker to emerge from Denmark since Carl Theodor Dreyer over 60 years earlier, Lars von Trier studied film at the Danish Film School and attracted international attention with his very first feature, The Element of Crime (1984). A highly ...
1954
43. Camille Paglia
Actress | The Watermelon Woman
Author, social critic, avowed feminist, and teacher Camille Anna Paglia was born on 2 April 1947 in Endicott, New York, to Pasquale and Lydia Paglia, who had immigrated to the United States from Italy. She has published "Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson", "Sex, ...
1947
44. Jean Genet
Writer | Poison
Jean-Paul Sartre likens Jean Genet to a saint for a very particular reason, a reason that is apparent in the title of the biography, but which does not translate in the English title--"Saint Genet: Actor and Martyr"--because meaning and referentiality are lost. The French title is "Saint Genet: ...
1910-1986
45. Julianne Moore
Actress | Far from Heaven
Julianne Moore was born Julie Anne Smith in Fort Bragg, North Carolina on December 3, 1960, the daughter of Anne (Love), a social worker, and Peter Moore Smith, a paratrooper, colonel, and later military judge. Her mother moved to the U.S. in 1951, from Greenock, Scotland. Her father, from ...
1960
46. Kathleen Turner
Actress | Romancing the Stone
Kathleen Turner was born June 19, 1954 in Springfield, Missouri, to Patsy (Magee) and Allen Richard Turner, a U.S. Foreign Service officer. She graduated from American School in London in 1972. After the death of her father, the Turner family moved back to the United States where Kathleen later ...
1954
47. Keith Haring
Art_department | Beautiful Boy
Keith Haring was born on May 4, 1958 in Reading, Pennsylvania, USA. He was a director, known for Beautiful Boy (2018), Love Is Strange (2014) and Tokyo Pop (1988). He died on February 16, 1990 in New York City, New York, USA.
1958-1990
48. David Bowie
Soundtrack | Labyrinth
David Bowie was one of the most influential and prolific writers and performers of popular music, but he was much more than that; he was also an accomplished actor, a mime and an intellectual, as well as an art lover whose appreciation and knowledge of it had led to him amassing one of the biggest ...
1947
49. Michelle Pfeiffer
Actress | The Fabulous Baker Boys
Michelle Pfeiffer was born in Santa Ana, California to Dick and Donna Pfeiffer. She has an older brother and two younger sisters - Dedee Pfeiffer, and Lori Pfeiffer, who both dabbled in acting and modeling but decided against making it their lives' work. She graduated from Fountain Valley High ...
1958
50. Quentin Tarantino
Writer | Reservoir Dogs
Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Tony Tarantino, is an Italian-American actor and musician from New York, and his mother, Connie (McHugh), is a nurse from Tennessee. Quentin moved with his mother to Torrance, California, when he was four years old.
In January of...
1963
51. Simone de Beauvoir
Writer | Le monologue de la femme rompue
Simone Ernestine Lucie Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir was born on January 9, 1908, in Paris, France. She was raised in an upper class bourgeois Catholic family. Her father, named Georges de Beauvoir, had a passion for books and theatre. He taught Simone reading at the age of 3, and she attempted to ...
1908-1986
52. Michael Cunningham
Writer | The Hours
Michael Cunningham was born on November 6, 1952 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He is a producer and writer, known for The Hours (2002), A Home at the End of the World (2004) and Evening (2007).
1952
53. Kenneth Anger
Director | Fireworks
Kenneth Anger grew up in Hollywood and started out as a child actor, but his interest in filmmaking was evident at an early age: he made his first film, Who Has Been Rocking My Dreamboat (1941) , at age 14.
Anger developed into one of the pioneers of the American underground film movement. His ...
1927
54. Catherine Deneuve
Actress | Belle de jour
Catherine Fabienne Deneuve was born October 22, 1943 in Paris, France, to actor parents Renée Simonot and Maurice Dorléac. She made her movie debut in 1957, when she was barely a teenager and continued with small parts in minor films, until Roger Vadim gave her a meatier role in Vice and Virtue (...
1943
55. Isabelle Adjani
Actress | Possession
Isabelle Yasmine Adjani was born in Gennevilliers, Hauts-de-Seine, a suburb of Paris, to Emma Augusta "Gusti" (Schweinberger) and Mohammed Adjani. Her father was a Kabyle Algerian, from Iferhounène, and her mother was a Bavarian German. She grew up speaking German fluently. After winning a school ...
1955
56. François Ozon
Director | Dans la maison
François Ozon was born on November 15, 1967 in Paris, France. He is a director and writer, known for In the House (2012), 8 Women (2002) and Swimming Pool (2003).
1967
57. James Franco
Actor | Spring Breakers
Known for his breakthrough starring role on Freaks and Geeks (1999), James Franco was born April 19, 1978 in Palo Alto, California, to Betsy Franco, a writer, artist, and actress, and Douglas Eugene "Doug" Franco, who ran a Silicon Valley business. His mother is Jewish and his father was of ...
1978
58. Chris Claremont
Actor | X-Men: Days of Future Past
Chris Claremont was born on November 25, 1950 in Ealing, London, England, UK. He is a writer and actor, known for X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) and Dark Phoenix (2019).
1950
59. Winona Ryder
Actress | Little Women
Winona Ryder was born Winona Laura Horowitz in Olmsted County, Minnesota, and was named after a nearby town, Winona, Minnesota. She is the daughter of Cynthia (Istas), an author and video producer, and Michael Horowitz, a publisher and bookseller. Her father's family is Ukrainian Jewish and ...
1971
60. Darren Aronofsky
Director | Pi
Darren Aronofsky was born February 12, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up, Darren was always artistic: he loved classic movies and, as a teenager, he even spent time doing graffiti art. After high school, Darren went to Harvard University to study film (both live-action and animation). He won ...
1969
61. Marina Abramovic
Director | Destricted
Marina Abramovic was born on November 30, 1946 in Belgrade, Serbia, Yugoslavia [now Serbia]. She is a director and producer, known for Destricted (2006), At the Waterfall (2003) and The Hunt (1998). She was previously married to Paolo Canevari and Nesa Paripovic.
1948
62. Susan Sontag
Actress | Zelig
Born in New York City, raised in Arizona and California, educated at the University of Chicago, Harvard, Oxford and the Sorbonne, Susan Sontag constitutes a veritable challenge for any biographer. A novelist, philosopher, essayist, movie director and playwright, over the past thirty years she has ...
1933-2004
63. John Lennon
Actor | A Hard Day's Night
John Winston (later Ono) Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, in Liverpool, England, to Julia Lennon (née Stanley) and Alfred Lennon, a merchant seaman. He was raised by his mother's older sister Mimi Smith. In the mid-1950s, he formed his first band, The Quarrymen (after Quarry Bank High School, ...
1940-1980
64. Yoko Ono
Soundtrack | The Beatles: Get Back
Yoko Ono was born on Saturday, February 18th, 1933, in her ancestral estate in Tokyo, Japan. Her father, Eisuke Ono, was the descendant of a 9th Century Emperor of Japan. Her mother, Isoko Yasuda Ono, was the granddaughter of Zenijiro Yasuda, the founder of Yasuda Bank. Yoko was two years old when ...
1933
65. Kurt Cobain
Soundtrack | The Batman
Kurt Cobain was born on February 20 1967, in Aberdeen, Washington. Kurt and his family lived in Hoquiam for the first few months of his life then later moved back to Aberdeen, where he had a happy childhood until his parents divorced. The divorce left Kurt's outlook on the world forever scarred. He...
1967-1994
66. Baz Luhrmann
Writer | Moulin Rouge!
Baz Luhrmann is an Australian writer, director and producer with projects spanning film, television, opera, theater, music and recording industries. He is regarded by many as a contemporary example of an auteur for his distinctly recognizable style and deep involvement in the writing, directing, ...
1962
67. David Cronenberg
Actor | The Fly
David Cronenberg, also known as the King of Venereal Horror or the Baron of Blood, was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 1943. His father, Milton Cronenberg, was a journalist and editor, and his mother, Esther (Sumberg), was a piano player. After showing an inclination for literature at an early...
1943
68. David Lynch
Writer | Twin Peaks
Born in precisely the kind of small-town American setting so familiar from his films, David Lynch spent his childhood being shunted from one state to another as his research scientist father kept getting relocated. He attended various art schools, married Peggy Lynch and then fathered future ...
1946
69. Alexander Skarsgård
Actor | The Legend of Tarzan
Alexander Johan Hjalmar Skarsgård was born in Stockholm, Sweden and is the eldest son of famed actor Stellan Skarsgård. Among his siblings are actors Gustaf Skarsgård, Bill Skarsgård, and Valter Skarsgård. For most of his formative years, his father was an acclaimed actor in Europe but had not yet ...
1976
70. Julia Roberts
Actress | Pretty Woman
Julia Fiona Roberts never dreamed she would become the most popular actress in America. She was born in Smyrna, Georgia, to Betty Lou (Bredemus) and Walter Grady Roberts, one-time actors and playwrights, and is of English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, German, and Swedish descent. As a child, due to her ...
1967
71. Allen Ginsberg
Soundtrack | Beginners
Louis Ginsberg, the moderate Jewish Socialist and his wife Naomi, who was a radical Communist and irrepressible nudist are the parents of Irwin Allen Ginsberg, the poet and man of many other things eg. actor. Poems he written eg. Howl, Six gallery, Sunflower Sutra ... His themes: drugs, against ...
1926-1997
72. Sylvia Plath
Writer | The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath was born in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, to Otto and Aurelia Schoeber Plath, both professors. When Sylvia was eight, Otto died of complications from diabetes. Her mother struggled to give Sylvia and her younger brother every advantage of a superior education. Self-consciousness and ...
1932-1963
73. George Lucas
Writer | Star Wars
George Walton Lucas, Jr. was raised on a walnut ranch in Modesto, California. His father was a stationery store owner and he had three siblings. During his late teen years, he went to Thomas Downey High School and was very much interested in drag racing. He planned to become a professional racecar ...
1946
74. Jim Morrison
Soundtrack | Army of the Dead
James Douglas "Jim" Morrison was an American poet, singer, and songwriter from Florida. He was the lead vocalist of the rock band "The Doors" (1965-1973), and has been cited as "one of the most influential frontmen in rock history". Morrison recorded a total of six studio albums with the Doors, all...
1943-1970
75. Debbie Harry
Actress | Videodrome
Deborah Harry was born Angela Trimble on July 1, 1945 in Miami, Florida. At three months, she was adopted by Catherine (Peters) and Richard Smith Harry, and was raised in Hawthorne, New Jersey. In the 1960s, she worked as a Playboy Bunny and hung out at Max's Kansas City, a famous Warhol-inhabited ...
1945
76. Michael Stipe
Producer | Being John Malkovich
John Michael Stipe was born in Decatur, Georgia, on January 4th, 1960. Since his father was in the military, they moved around a lot. In 1980, while he was attending the University of Georgia (studying painting and photography), he met Mike Mills, Peter Buck and Bill Berry. They dropped out of ...
1960
77. Ethan Hawke
Actor | Training Day
Ethan Green Hawke was born on November 6, 1970 in Austin, Texas, to Leslie Carole (Green), a charity worker, and James Steven Hawke, an insurance actuary. His parents were students at the University of Texas at the time but divorced when Ethan was 5 years old. His mother raised him alone for the ...
1970
78. Bret Easton Ellis
Writer | American Psycho
Bret Easton Ellis was born on March 7, 1964 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is a writer and director, known for American Psycho (2000), Less Than Zero (1987) and The Canyons (2013).
1964
79. Hermann Nitsch
Producer | Spaghetti Wrestling
Hermann Nitsch was born on August 29, 1938 in Vienna, Austria. He was a production designer and actor, known for Spaghetti Wrestling (2016), Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht (1982) and Weltberühmt in Österreich - 50 Jahre Austropop (2006). He was married to Rita Leitenbor, Beate König and ...
1938
80. Mikael Åkerfeldt
Soundtrack | Saints Row: The Third
Mikael Åkerfeldt is known for Saints Row: The Third (2011), Clark (2022) and Saints Row 2 (2008).
1973
81. Orlan
Director | MesuRages d'institutions et des rues
Orlan was born on May 30, 1947 in Saint-Étienne, Loire, France. She is a director and producer, known for MesuRages d'institutions et des rues (1977), Orlan Remix (2009) and Snake Boat (2010).
1947
82. Aliki Vougiouklaki
Actress | Madalena
Aliki Vougiouklaki was born in 1934 (or 1933, according to some sources), in Maroussi Attikis, Greece. She studied at the Drama School of the Greek National Theater and made her stage debut in a 1953 Athens production of Molière's "Le malade imaginaire". Around the same time she made her movie ...
1934-1996
83. Jenny Karezi
Actress | Lysistrati
At the beginning of her career she played several roles at the Greek National Theatre with Katina Paxinou and Alexis Minotis. At the same time she appeared at several movies and she became a star, a protagonist at once. she creates her own personal groups and plays mostly comedy with (1960) great ...
1932-1992
84. Jeffrey Eugenides
Writer | The Switch
Jeffrey Eugenides was born on March 8, 1960 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. He is a writer and actor, known for The Switch (2010), The Virgin Suicides (1999) and The Marriage Plot.
1960
85. Kirsten Dunst
Actress | Spider-Man
Kirsten Caroline Dunst is an American actress, who also holds German citizenship. She was born on April 30, 1982 in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, to parents Inez (née Rupprecht), who owned an art gallery, and Klaus Dunst, a medical services executive. She has a younger brother named Christian Dunst, ...
1982
86. Brian Eno
Soundtrack | The Lovely Bones
Regarded as one of the best producers and musicians in rock history, Eno started his career in 1971 with Roxy Music. The band released two albums, "Roxy Music" and "For Your Pleasure", with the two Brians in the lineup (the other one was, of course, lead singer Bryan Ferry); a conflict between the ...
1948
87. Lou Reed
Soundtrack | V for Vendetta
He formed the group The Velvet Underground with Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, second guitarist Sterling Morrison, and drummer Maureen Tucker in New York in 1965. The group soon became a part of Andy Warhol's Factory scene, which housed a great number of the most freaked and experimental ...
1942
88. Joe Dallesandro
Actor | The Limey
Joe Dallesandro's still hangin' . . . after battles with drug addiction and alcohol, brushes with the law, three broken marriages and numerous love affairs, plus the suicide of his only sibling Bob. One of the most beautifully photographed wild guys to come out of the Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey...
1948
89. Ridley Scott
Producer | The Martian
Described by film producer Michael Deeley as "the very best eye in the business", director Ridley Scott was born on November 30, 1937 in South Shields, Tyne and Wear. His father was an officer in the Royal Engineers and the family followed him as his career posted him throughout the United Kingdom ...
1937
90. Kevin Spacey
Actor | L.A. Confidential
Kevin Spacey Fowler, better known by his stage name Kevin Spacey, is an American actor of screen and stage, film director, producer, screenwriter and singer. He began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s before obtaining supporting roles in film and television. He gained critical acclaim in...
1959
91. Christopher Durang
Actor | The Secret of My Succe$s
Christopher Durang was born on January 2, 1949 in Montclair, New Jersey, USA. He is an actor and writer, known for The Secret of My Success (1987), The Cowboy Way (1994) and HouseSitter (1992).
1949
92. Salvador Dalí
Art_department | Spellbound
Surrealist-turned-catholic painter Dalí worked on various movies as well. While a member of the French surrealist group, he co-wrote An Andalusian Dog (1929) and The Golden Age (1930) with Luis Buñuel. The latter may have marked the beginning of a long-lasting quarrel with the surrealists when Dalí...
1904-1989
93. Terry Gilliam
Writer | Brazil
Terry Gilliam was born near Medicine Lake, Minnesota. When he was 12 his family moved to Los Angeles where he became a fan of MAD magazine. In his early twenties he was often stopped by the police who suspected him of being a drug addict and Gilliam had to explain that he worked in advertising. In ...
1940
94. Frida Kahlo
Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderon was born on July 6, 1907 in Mexico City, Mexico. She was the seventh daughter of Guillermo Kahlo (born Carl Wilhelm Kahlo), a successful German photographer who emigrated to Mexico from Pforzheim, and of a mestiza mother, Matilde Calderón y González. Her ...
1917-1954
95. Sarah Kane
Writer | 4.48
Sarah Kane was a British playwright. Her plays were remarkable for their extreme use of violence and sexuality and their deeply disturbing themes. Her first play, "Blasted", caused a media outcry. Kane suffered from depression and hanged herself in 1999. Her only film work was Skin (1995), a short ...
1971-1999
96. Stanley Kubrick
Director | 2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Sadie Gertrude (Perveler) and Jacob Leonard Kubrick, a physician. His family were Jewish immigrants (from Austria, Romania, and Russia). Stanley was considered intelligent, despite poor grades at school. Hoping that a change of scenery would ...
1927-1999
97. Malcolm McDowell
Actor | A Clockwork Orange
Malcolm John Taylor was born on June 13, 1943 in Leeds, England, to working-class parents Edna (McDowell), a hotelier, and Charles Taylor, a publican. His father was an alcoholic. Malcolm hated his parents' ways. His father was keen to send his son to private school to give him a good start in life...
1943
98. Janis Joplin
Soundtrack | Watchmen
Janis Lyn Joplin was born at St. Mary's Hospital in the oil-refining town of Port Arthur, Texas, near the border with Louisiana. Her father was a cannery worker and her mother was a registrar for a business college. As an overweight teenager, she was a folk-music devotee (especially Odetta, ...
1943-1970
99. Grace Slick
Soundtrack | American Hustle
Grace Slick was born on October 30, 1939 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She is an actress and writer, known for American Hustle (2013), Resident Evil: Extinction (2007) and Brooklyn's Finest (2009). She was previously married to Skip Johnson and Jerry Slick.
1939
100. John Waters
Writer | Pecker
Growing up in Baltimore in the 1950s, John Waters was not like other children; he was obsessed by violence and gore, both real and on the screen. With his weird counter-culture friends as his cast, he began making silent 8mm and 16mm films in the mid-'60s; he screened these in rented Baltimore ...
1946
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