Famous people I have seen in real life

1. Maggie Smith

One of the world's most famous and distinguished actresses, Dame Maggie Smith was born Margaret Natalie Smith in Essex. Her Scottish mother, Margaret (Hutton), worked as a secretary, and her English father, Nathaniel Smith, was a teacher at Oxford University. Smith has been married twice: to actor ...

2. Richard E. Grant

Actor | Gosford Park

Richard E. Grant is an actor and presenter. He made his film debut as Withnail in the comedy Withnail and I (1987). Grant received critical acclaim for his role as Jack Hock in Marielle Heller's drama film Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018), winning various awards including the Independent Spirit ...

3. Betty Buckley

Actress | Split

Betty Buckley, who has been called "The Voice of Broadway," is one of theater's most respected and legendary leading ladies. She is an actress/singer whose career spans theater, film, television and concert halls around the world. She is a 2012 Theatre Hall of Fame inductee and the 2017 recipient ...

4. Julie Andrews

Actress | The Sound of Music

Julia Elizabeth Wells was born on October 1, 1935, in England. Her mother, Barbara Ward (Morris), and stepfather, both vaudeville performers, discovered her freakish but undeniably lovely four-octave singing voice and immediately got her a singing career. She performed in music halls throughout her...

5. Hugo Weaving

Actor | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Hugo Wallace Weaving was born on April 4, 1960 in Nigeria, to English parents Anne (Lennard), a tour guide and teacher, and Wallace Weaving, a seismologist. Hugo has an older brother, Simon, and a younger sister, Anna, who both also live and work in Australia. During his early childhood, the ...

6. Cate Blanchett

Actress | Carol

Cate Blanchett was born on May 14, 1969 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to June (Gamble), an Australian teacher and property developer, and Robert DeWitt Blanchett, Jr., an American advertising executive, originally from Texas. She has an older brother and a younger sister. When she was ten ...

7. Isabelle Huppert

Actress | Elle

Isabelle Huppert was born March 16, 1953, in Paris, France, but spent her childhood in Ville d'Avray. Encouraged by her mother Annick Huppert (who was a teacher of English), she followed the Conservatory of Versailles and won an acting prize for her work in Alfred de Musset's "Un caprice". She then...

8. Sandra Bernhard

Actress | The King of Comedy

Performer, actress, singer and author Sandra Bernhard appeared as a series regular in season three of the immensely popular FX Television/Ryan Murphy show "POSE" reprising her role as brassy but caring Nurse Judy Kubrack, who works with H.I.V. / AIDS patients, following a memorable season one guest...

9. Diana Ross

Soundtrack | The Wiz

Best known as the the lead singer of the popular 1960s singing group The Supremes, Diana Ernestine Earle Ross was born on March 26, 1944, in Detroit, Michigan, the second of six children of African-American parents Ernestine Lillian (Moten), a schoolteacher, and Fred Earl Ross, who served in the ...

10. Billy Joel

Soundtrack | Oliver & Company

William Martin Joel is an American singer, pianist, composer and songwriter. Commonly nicknamed the "Piano Man" after his single and signature song of the same name, he has led a commercially successful career as a solo artist since the 1970s, having released 12 pop and rock studio albums from 1971...

11. Bryan Brown

Actor | Cocktail

Bryan Brown was born on June 23, 1947 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is an actor and producer, known for Cocktail (1988), Breaker Morant (1980) and Two Hands (1999). He has been married to Rachel Ward since April 16, 1983. They have three children.

12. Rachel Ward

Actress | The Thorn Birds

Rachel Ward was born on September 12, 1957 in Cornwell Manor, Cornwell, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for The Thorn Birds (1983), Against All Odds (1984) and Sharky's Machine (1981). She has been married to Bryan Brown since April 16, 1983. They ...

13. 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 ...

14. Jane Birkin

Actress | Evil Under the Sun

Jane Birkin was born on December 14, 1946 in London, England, UK. She was an actress and director, known for Evil Under the Sun (1982), Blow-Up (1966) and Death on the Nile (1978). She was married to John Barry. She died on July 16, 2023 in Paris, France.

15. Judy Davis

Actress | Husbands and Wives

Davis was educated at Loreto Convent and the Western Institute of Technology and graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1977. She found international success with the role of Adela Quested in A Passage to India (1984). Her performance was nominated an Academy Award for Best...

16. Richard Griffiths

Actor | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

The avuncular star character actor Richard Griffiths grew up in a council flat in less than prosperous conditions, the son of deaf and volatile parents in a dysfunctional family setting. According to an article in the Telegraph newspaper, his father Thomas was a steelworker 'who fought in pubs for ...

17. James Corden

Producer | The Late Late Show with James Corden

Describing himself as the "chunky unit," James Kimberley Corden was born in Hillingdon, London, England and raised in Buckinghamshire, England, the son of Margaret (Collins), a social worker, and Malcolm Corden, a musician. He studied drama at the Jackie Palmer Stage School before going on to ...

18. Russell Tovey

Actor | The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!

Russell Tovey was born on November 14, 1981 in Billericay Essex, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for The Pirates! Band of Misfits (2012), The Good Liar (2019) and Grabbers (2012).

19. Dominic Cooper

Actor | The Devil's Double

Dominic Edward Cooper was born and raised in Greenwich, London, England. His mother, Julie (Heron), is a nursery school teacher and a keen theater-goer. His father, Brian Cooper, is an auctioneer. They divorced when Dominic was age 5. His maternal great-grandfather was film enthusiast E.T. Heron, ...

20. Jamie Parker

Actor | Becoming Elizabeth

Jamie Parker is an English actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Harry Potter in the original cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: London Show (2017), for which he received an Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play and a WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor in a ...

21. David Argue

Actor | Gallipoli

David Argue was born on December 26, 1959 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He is an actor and writer, known for Gallipoli (1981), BMX Bandits (1983) and Road Kill (2010).

22. Paul D. Fow

Actor | Rage and Honor

The former actor has returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. He was with an MP Company based in Irvine, California. Now, he is with a CID detachment in Los Angeles.

23. Marianne Faithfull

Actress | Marie Antoinette

Daughter of Eva, the Baroness Erisso, and Major Glynn Faithfull, a WWII British spy. Recorded the first song written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "As Tears Go By" (1964). Involved in a major drug scandal with Jagger, Richards, and others, which ultimately turned public opinion favorably ...

24. Gary Cole

Actor | Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

Gary Michael Cole is an American television, film and voice actor. Cole began his professional acting career on stage at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1985. On television, he has had starring roles in the TV series Midnight Caller, American Gothic, The West Wing, Crusade, The Good Wife, ...

25. Nicholas Eadie

Actor | Vietnam

Nick graduated from NIDA in 1980. His theatre credits include Taming of the Shrew (Melbourne 1998, Sydney 1998/99) and A Midsummer Nights Dream for Elston Hocking and Woods Productions, Macbeth, Three Sisters, Waya, The Crucible, Summer of Aliens, Two Weeks with the Queen, Furious, and Third World ...

26. Terry Serio

Actor | Running on Empty

Terry Serio was born in 1956 in Western Australia, Australia. He is an actor and director, known for Running on Empty (1982), Ocean Girl (1994) and Blue Heelers (1994).

27. Tilda Swinton

Actress | We Need to Talk About Kevin

The iconoclastic gifts of the highly striking and ferociously talented actress Tilda Swinton have been appreciated by art house crowds and international audiences alike. After her stunning Oscar-winning turn as a high-powered corporate attorney in the George Clooney starring and critically-lauded ...

28. Jamie Lee Curtis

Actress | Halloween

Jamie Lee Curtis was born on November 22, 1958 in Los Angeles, California, the daughter of legendary actors Janet Leigh and Tony Curtis. She got her big break at acting in 1978 when she won the role of Laurie Strode in Halloween (1978). After that, she became famous for roles in movies like Trading...

29. Shirley Henderson

Actress | 24 Hour Party People

Shirley Henderson was the eldest of three sisters born into a working-class family in the village of Kincardine in Fife, Scotland. As a teenager she sang locally and performed in school drama clubs. Her first break came when she watched a singer on the Opportunity Knocks (1956) TV talent program ...

30. Jane Campion

Writer | Bright Star

Jane Campion was born in Wellington, New Zealand, and now lives in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Having graduated with a BA in Anthropology from Victoria University of Wellington in 1975, and a BA, with a painting major, at Sydney College of the Arts in 1979, she began filmmaking in the early...

31. Michael Winterbottom

Director | A Mighty Heart

Michael took an English degree at Oxford then trained in film at Bristol and London breaking into television via the cutting room at Thames Television. He made his directorial debut with two documentaries on Ingmar Bergman His production of Love Lies Bleeding won the Silver Award at the 1993 New ...

32. Lindsay Anderson

Director | If....

Lindsay was born in Bangalore, India but educated in England at Cheltenham College and Wadham College, Oxford where he was a classical scholar. He then spent 3 years war time service in the Kings Royal Rifle Corps. His career in the theatre started at the Royal Court in the late 1950's where he was...

33. Bong Joon Ho

Writer | Snowpiercer

Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean filmmaker. The recipient of three Academy Awards, his filmography is characterized by emphasis on social themes, genre-mixing, black humor, and sudden tone shifts. He first became known to audiences and achieved a cult following with his directorial debut film, the ...

34. Gérard Depardieu

Actor | Cyrano de Bergerac

Gérard Depardieu was born in Châteauroux, Indre, France, to Anne Jeanne Josèphe (Marillier) and René Maxime Lionel Depardieu, who was a metal worker and fireman. Young delinquent and wanderer in the past, Depardieu started his acting career at the small traveling theatre "Café de la Gare", along ...

35. Jane Fonda

Actress | Klute

Born in New York City to legendary screen star Henry Fonda and Ontario-born New York socialite Frances Seymour Brokaw, Jane Seymour Fonda was destined early to an uncommon and influential life in the limelight. Although she initially showed little inclination to follow her father's trade, she was ...

36. Joan Collins

Actress | Dynasty

Joan Collins is an English actress from Paddington, London. She is most famous for playing the role of vengeful schemer Alexis Carrington Colby in the soap opera "Dynasty" (1981-1989). In 1997, She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to drama. In 2015, She...

37. Anthony Rapp

Actor | Rent

Anthony Rapp started his career at the young age of six, and received his first professional job at the age of nine. His breakout came when he originated the role of Mark Cohen in Jonathan Larson's production of the Broadway musical "Rent". He can also be heard on the original cast recording.

38. Richard Moir

Actor | Welcome to Woop Woop

Richard Moir was born in 1950 in Queensland, Australia. He is an actor and editor, known for Welcome to Woop Woop (1997), In Search of Anna (1978) and The Challenge (1986). He is married to Julie Nihill. They have two children.

39. Bernadette Peters

Actress | The Jerk

Throughout her illustrious career, Bernadette Peters has dazzled audiences and critics with her performances on stage and television, in concert, and on recordings. She is one of the most critically-acclaimed Broadway performers, having received nominations for seven Tony Awards, winning two, and ...

40. Ronan Farrow

Actor | Kokuriko-zaka kara

Ronan Farrow was born on December 19, 1987 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He is a producer and actor, known for From Up on Poppy Hill (2011), The Wind Rises (2013) and Endangered (2022).

41. Thierry Lhermitte

Actor | Le dîner de cons

One of France's most popular actors, writers, and producers, Thierry Lhermitte has been appearing in films since the 1970s. Perhaps best known for work in farcical comedies, the tall, handsome actor has appeared in some of France's more outrageous films over the course of his prolific career.

...

42. Roxane Mesquida

Actress | À ma soeur!

French/US actress, Roxane Mesquida grew up in Le Pradet, a little town in the South of France. At the age of 11, while walking with her mother, writer Francoise Mesquida, she was spotted by director Manuel Pradal who cast her in Mary from the Bay of Angels (Marie Baie de Anges). In 1998, she played...

43. Marcia Hines

Soundtrack | Frauds

Marcia Hines was born on July 20, 1953 in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. She is an actress and composer, known for Frauds (1993), All the Way (2003) and The True Blue Show (1973).

44. Graham Kennedy

Actor | The Club

Born in Melbourne in 1934 Graham Kennedy remains an icon in Australian TV, an accolade earned from his hosting of the long-running In Melbourne Tonight (1957) or IMT on Channel Nine. With his sidekick Bert Newton and aided and abetted by a range of brillant comedians including Joff Allen and a ...

45. Noel Ferrier

Actor | The Year of Living Dangerously

Noel Ferrier was born on December 20, 1930 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He was an actor and producer, known for The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Eliza Fraser (1976) and Paradise Road (1997). He was married to Suzanne de Berenger. He died on October 16, 1997 in Sydney, Australia.

46. Zhangke Jia

Producer | Jiang hu er nü

Zhangke Jia was born on May 24, 1970 in Fenyang, Shanxi, China. He is a producer and director, known for Jiang hu er nü (2018), A Touch of Sin (2013) and Mountains May Depart (2015). He has been married to Tao Zhao since January 7, 2012.

47. Tao Zhao

Actress | Jiang hu er nü

Tao Zhao was born on January 28, 1977 in Taiyuan, Shanxi, China. She is an actress and producer, known for Jiang hu er nü (2018), Mountains May Depart (2015) and Shun Li and the Poet (2011). She has been married to Zhangke Jia since January 7, 2012.

48. João Pedro Rodrigues

Director | Fogo-Fátuo

João Pedro Rodrigues was born in 1966 in Lisbon, Portugal. He is a director and writer, known for Will-o'-the-Wisp (2022), Morrer Como Um Homem (2009) and The Last Time I Saw Macao (2012).

49. 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 ...

50. Roddy McDowall

Actor | Fright Night

Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall was born in Herne Hill, London, to Winifriede Lucinda (Corcoran), an Irish-born aspiring actress, and Thomas Andrew McDowall, a merchant seaman of Scottish descent. Roddy was enrolled in elocution courses at age five and by ten had appeared in his first film, ...

51. Amma Asante

Director | Belle

Amma Asante is a British BAFTA award winning screenwriter and director, known for Belle (2013), and A Way of Life (2004). She is a former child actress, who began her writing career at the age of 23 with a script deals from both Channel 4 in the UK and BBC. Her first movie, A Way of Life, which she...

52. Jennifer Kent

Director | The Nightingale

Jennifer Kent was born on March 5, 1969 in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. She is an actress and director, known for The Nightingale (2018), The Babadook (2014) and Monster (2005).

53. George Miller

Producer | Mad Max: Fury Road

George Miller is an Australian film director, screenwriter, producer, and former medical doctor. He is best known for his Mad Max franchise, with Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) being hailed as amongst the greatest action films of all time. Aside from the Mad Max ...

54. Nina Simone

Soundtrack | Point of No Return

Nina Simone was born on February 21, 1933 in Tryon, North Carolina, USA. She was a music artist and actress, known for Point of No Return (1993), Repo Men (2010) and Miami Vice (2006). She was married to Andrew Stroud and Donald Ross. She died on April 21, 2003 in Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône, ...

55. k.d. lang

Soundtrack | Twister

k.d. lang was born on November 2, 1961 in Consort, Alberta, Canada. She is an actress and composer, known for Twister (1996), Salmonberries (1991) and Dick Tracy (1990).

56. Dionne Warwick

Soundtrack | Alive

Dionne Warwick was born on December 12, 1940 in East Orange, New Jersey, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Alive (1993), The Happytime Murders (2018) and Bird Box (2018). She was previously married to William Elliott.

57. Mariza

Soundtrack | Orphan Black

Mariza was born on December 16, 1973 in Mozambique. She is an actress, known for Orphan Black (2013), Mulheres (2014) and Alguém Como Eu (2017). She was previously married to João Pedro Ruela.

58. Max Gillies

Actor | Blue Heelers

Max Gillies was born on November 16, 1941 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He is an actor and producer, known for Blue Heelers (1994), The True Story of Eskimo Nell (1975) and Stork (1971).

59. Shirley Bassey

Soundtrack | Moonraker

Shirley Bassey was born in Tiger Bay, Cardiff, Wales, and raised in the nearby working class neighborhood of Splott. Her mother was originally from Yorkshire, and her father was a Nigerian seaman who left the family when she was less than two. She later helped to support her family by working in an...

60. Jonah Hill

Actor | 21 Jump Street

Jonah Hill was born and raised in Los Angeles, the son of Sharon Feldstein (née Chalkin), a fashion designer and costume stylist, and Richard Feldstein, a tour accountant for Guns N' Roses. He is the brother of music manager Jordan Feldstein and actress Beanie Feldstein. He graduated from ...

61. Elizabeth Debicki

Actress | The Great Gatsby

Debicki was born in Paris to a Polish father and an Australian mother of Irish descent who were both dancers. When she was five, the family moved to Melbourne, where she grew up with two younger siblings. She became interested in ballet at an early age and trained as a dancer until deciding to ...

62. Sean Baker

Writer | Red Rocket

Sean Baker is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He is an award-winning writer/director/producer known for Take Out (2004), Prince of Broadway (2008), Starlet (2012), Tangerine (2015), and The Florida Project (2017). Sean's latest feature, Red Rocket, premiered at Cannes on July 14, 2021...

63. Paul Bartel

Actor | Eating Raoul

Paul Bartel was born in Brooklyn in 1938. He decided he wanted to direct animated movies when he was 11 and by 13 had spent a summer working at New York's UPA animation studio. He majored in theater arts at UCLA, and received a Fulbright scholarship to study film direction in Rome, producing a ...

64. Jeanne Little

Actress | Cuckoo in the Nest

Jeanne made her television debut on Network Ten's The Mike Walsh Show (1969) in September 1974. Invited on as a guest, she quickly became a regular, moving with the "Walsh Show" to Channel Nine, where as part of the team, she wowed and won audiences for the next 15 years. She was a guest on The Ray...

65. Bertrand Tavernier

Director | Un dimanche à la campagne

Bertrand Tavernier was the son of Geneviève (Dumond) and René Tavernier, who was a publicist, writer, and president of the French PEN club. He was a law student that preferred write film criticisms. He also wrote a few books about American movies. Then his first film won a few awards in France and ...

66. Tsai Ming-liang

Director | Qingshaonian Nuozha

Born in Kuching, Malaysia, he graduated from the Drama and Cinema Department of the Chinese Cultural University of Taiwan and worked as a theatrical producer and TV director. His second feature film, Vive L'Amour (1994), won the Golden Lion (best picture) at the 1994 Venice Film Festival. His ...

67. Colleen Clifford

Actress | The Year My Voice Broke

Colleen Clifford was born on November 17, 1898 in Taunton, Somerset, England, UK. She was an actress, known for The Year My Voice Broke (1987), Number 96 (1972) and Careful, He Might Hear You (1983). She was married to Douglas 'Jerry' Blackford. She died on April 7, 1996 in Sydney, New South Wales,...

68. Maggie Kirkpatrick

Actress | Prisoner

Maggie Kirkpatrick is an Australian TV actress whose career has encompassed roles across film, TV and an extensive time in theatre. Maggie's most known TV role is as Prison Guard Joan 'The Freak' Ferguson on legendary Aussie TV Drama Prisoner (1979). Other roles include a stint on Aussie Soap Home ...

69. Guy Maddin

Director | The Heart of the World

Guy Maddin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to Herdis Maddin (a hair-dresser) and Charles "Chas" Maddin (grain clerk and general manager of the Maroons, a Winnipeg hockey team). Maddin studied economics at the University of Winnipeg, working as a bank manager, house painter, and photographic...

70. Barry Humphries

Actor | The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

His father was a well-to-do builder. Barry was a highly intelligent boy who attended Melbourne University. There, he began acting in revues and doing impersonations. He moved to London in 1959 and began his professional performing career on the West End and Broadway stages as Mr Sowerby in Oliver!,...

71. Amanda Muggleton

Actress | Prisoner

Amanda is currently one of Australia's most successful and highly sought after actresses in theatre, with appearances in Private Lives, Shirley Valentine, HMS Pinafore, Soulmates, Steaming, The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe, Book Club, Rough Gallop and Master Class (in which she played opera diva...

72. Judi Connelli

Actress | Barney

Judi Connelli was born on July 20, 1947 in Brisbane, Australia. She is an actress, known for Lost in the Wild (1976), A Country Practice (1981) and Prisoner (1979).

73. Julian Clary

Actor | Carry on Columbus

Julian Clary was born on May 25, 1959 in Surbiton, Surrey, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Carry on Columbus (1992), Dick Whittington (2002) and Aladdin (2000). He has been married to Ian Mackley since November 19, 2016.

74. Mia Wasikowska

Actress | Alice in Wonderland

Mia is an Australian actress, born and raised in the country's capital, Canberra. She is the daughter of photographers Marzena Wasikowska and John Reid. Her mother is Polish and her father is an Australian of British ancestry. She has an older sister, Jess, and a younger brother, Kai. At age eight,...

75. Kleber Mendonça Filho

Director | Bacurau

Kleber Mendonça Filho is a Brazilian film director, screenwriter, producer, and critic. With a degree in journalism from the Federal University of Pernambuco, Kleber Mendonça Filho began his career as a film critic and journalist. He wrote for newspapers such as Jornal do Commercio and Folha DE S. ...

76. Vicky Knight

Actress | Silver Haze

Vicky Knight is known for Silver Haze (2023), Dirty God (2019) and Reshaped.

77. Leah Purcell

Actress | The Drover's Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson

Multi talented Leah Purcell is a Theatre, Film and Television Actress, Singer, Director, Playwright and Author. She is the youngest of seven children of Aboriginal Australian descent. Her father was a butcher and a boxing trainer. After a difficult adolescence, looking after her sick mother who ...

78. Sebastián Silva

Writer | Tyrel

Sebastián Silva was born on April 9, 1979 in Santiago, Metropolitan Region, Chile. He is a writer and director, known for Tyrel (2018), The Maid (2009) and Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus (2013).

79. Catalina Saavedra

Actress | La nana

Catalina Saavedra was born on January 9, 1968 in Viña del Mar, Valparaíso, Chile. She is an actress, known for The Maid (2009), Rotting in the Sun (2023) and Amor a domicilio (1995).

80. Helen Morse

Actress | Picnic at Hanging Rock

Helen Morse was born on January 24, 1947 in Harrow-on-the-Hill, Middlesex, England, UK. She is an actress and costume designer, known for Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975), Caddie (1976) and A Town Like Alice (1981).