WRITERS
by aphylippe | created - 24 Feb 2023 | updated - 8 months ago | PublicBEST WRITERS
1. Anne Philippe
Writer | Du Vent dans les Cheveux
Anne Philippe is known for Du Vent dans les Cheveux (2015).
2. Jean Aurenche
Writer | Le juge et l'assassin
Jean Aurenche was born on September 11, 1904 in Pierrelatte, Drôme, France. He was a writer and director, known for The Judge and the Assassin (1976), L'étoile du Nord (1982) and Let Joy Reign Supreme (1975). He died on September 29, 1992 in Bandol, Var, France.
3. Jacques Prévert
Writer | Les enfants du paradis
Jacques Prévert was born on February 4, 1900 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. He was a writer and actor, known for Children of Paradise (1945), The Score (2001) and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997). He was married to Janine Tricotet and Simone Dienne. He died on April 11,...
4. Jean Cocteau
Writer | La Belle et la Bête
Jean Cocteau was one of the most multi-talented artists of the 20th century. In addition to being a director, he was a poet, novelist, painter, playwright, set designer, and actor. He began writing at 10 and was a published poet by age 16. He collaborated with the "Russian Ballet" company of Sergei...
5. Edwige Feuillère
Actress | Olivia
Edwige Feuillère was born on October 29, 1907 in Vesoul, Haute-Saône, Franche-Comté, France. She was an actress and writer, known for Olivia (1951), Lucrezia Borgia (1935) and Wicked Duchess (1942). She was married to Pierre Feuillère. She died on November 13, 1998 in Boulogne-Billancourt, ...
6. Maurice Clavel
Writer | Mina de Vanghel
Maurice Clavel was born on November 10, 1920 in Frontignan, Hérault, France. He was a writer and director, known for Mina de Vanghel (1953), The Swashbuckler (1971) and Les crimes de l'amour (1953). He was married to Elia Loyer, Sylvia Monfort and Nina Peinado. He died on April 23, 1979 in Asquin, ...
7. Frank Herbert
Writer | Dune
Frank Herbert was born on October 8, 1920 in Tacoma, Washington, USA. He was a writer, known for Dune (2021), Dune (1984) and Dune: Part Two (2024). He was married to Theresa Shackleford, Beverley Ann Stuart and Flora Parkinson. He died on February 11, 1986 in Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
8. Agatha Christie
Writer | Les petits meurtres d'Agatha Christie
Agatha was born as "Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller" in 1890 to Frederick Alvah Miller and Clara Boehmer. Agatha was of American and British descent, her father being American and her mother British. Her father was a relatively affluent stockbroker. Agatha received home education from early childhood ...
9. Catherine Frot
Actress | Marguerite
Catherine Frot was born on May 1, 1956 in Paris, France. She is an actress and writer, known for Marguerite (2015), Le Dîner de Cons (1998) and Family Resemblances (1996). She has been married to Michel Couvelard since 1987. They have one child.
10. Anton Chekhov
Writer | Kis Uykusu
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in 1860, the third of six children to a family of a grocer, in Taganrog, Russia, a southern seaport and resort on the Azov Sea. His father, a 3rd-rank Member of the Merchant's Guild, was a religious fanatic and a tyrant who used his children as slaves. Young Chekhov...
11. Jean-Claude Carrière
Writer | The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Jean-Claude Carrière was born on September 17, 1931 in Colombières-sur-Orb, Hérault, France. He was a writer and actor, known for The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) and Cyrano de Bergerac (1990). He was married to Nicole Janin and Nahal Tajadod. ...
12. Dudley Moore
Actor | Arthur
Dudley Moore, the gifted comedian who had at least three distinct career phases that brought him great acclaim and success, actually started out as a musical prodigy as a child. Moore -- born in Dagenham, Essex, England to working class parents in 1935 -- won a music scholarship to Magdalen College...
13. Jean-Pierre Melville
Writer | Le Samouraï
The name "Melville" is not immediately associated with film. It conjures up images of white whales and crackbrained captains, of naysaying notaries and soup-spilling sailors. It is the countersign to a realm of men and their deeds, both heroic and villainous. It is the American novel, with its ...
14. Pierre Véry
Writer | La chartreuse de Parme
Pierre Véry was born on November 17, 1900 in Bellon, Charente, France. He was a writer and actor, known for The Charterhouse of Parma (1948), The Wind Is My Lover (1949) and Les anciens de Saint-Loup (1950). He was married to Jeanne Rouvin. He died on October 12, 1960 in Paris, France.
15. Jean-Claude Penchenat
Actor | Le bal
Jean-Claude Penchenat is known for Le Bal (1983), Molière (1978) and Regardez mais ne touchez pas! (2013).
16. Albert Delpy
Actor | 2 Days in Paris
Albert Delpy was born on September 13, 1940 in Saigon, Vietnam. He is an actor and writer, known for Two Days in Paris (2007), Before Sunset (2004) and Portraitist (2019).
17. Azouz Begag
Writer | Le gone du Chaâba
Azouz Begag was born on February 5, 1957 in Lyon, Rhône, France. He is a writer and actor, known for The Kid from Chaaba (1997), Camping à la ferme (2005) and La famille Ramdam (1990).
18. François Morel
Writer | Les pieds sous la table
François Morel was born on June 10, 1959 in Flers, Orne, France. He is an actor and writer, known for Les pieds sous la table (1994), Footnotes (2016) and Les vivants et les morts (2010).
19. Michel Drach
Director | On n'enterre pas le dimanche
Michel Drach was born on October 18, 1930 in Paris, France. He was a director and writer, known for On n'enterre pas le dimanche (1960), Élise ou la vraie vie (1970) and Amelie or The Time to Love (1961). He was married to Marie-José Nat. He died on February 14, 1990 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, ...
20. Juliet Berto
Actress | Neige
Juliet Berto was born on January 16, 1947 in Grenoble, Isère, Rhône-Alpes, France. She was an actress and writer, known for Neige (1981), Duelle (1976) and Cap Canaille (1983). She was married to Michel Berto. She died on January 10, 1990 in Breux-Jouy, Essonne, France.
21. Harrison Ford
Actor | Raiders of the Lost Ark
Harrison Ford was born on July 13, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois, to Dorothy (Nidelman), a radio actress, and Christopher Ford (born John William Ford), an actor turned advertising executive. His father was of Irish and German ancestry, while his maternal grandparents were Jewish emigrants from Minsk, ...
22. Charlotte Rampling
Actress | 45 Years
Tessa Charlotte Rampling was born 5 February 1946 in Sturmer, England, to Isabel Anne (Gurteen), a painter, and Godfrey Lionel Rampling, an Olympic gold medalist, army officer, and colonel, who became a NATO commander. She was educated at Jeanne d'Arc Académie pour Jeunes Filles in Versailles, ...
23. Jean-Pierre Bacri
Actor | Comme une image
Jean-Pierre Bacri was born on May 24, 1951 in Castiglione, Alger, France [now Bou Ismail, Algeria]. He was an actor and writer, known for Look at Me (2004), The Taste of Others (2000) and Family Resemblances (1996). He was married to Agnès Jaoui. He died on January 18, 2021 in Paris, France.
24. Dominique Lavanant
Actress | Agent trouble
Dominique Lavanant was born on April 24, 1944 in Morlaix, Finistère, France. She is an actress and writer, known for Agent trouble (1987), French Fried Vacation (1978) and The Monster (1994).
25. Jacques Nolot
Actor | La chatte à deux têtes
Jacques Nolot was born on 31 August 1943 in Marcillac, France and is a well known stage and character actor whose first feature film L'arrière pays (1998) won the First Film Special Distinction Award at the Montreal World Film Festival and a FIPRESCI Special Mention Award at the Venice Film ...
26. Julien Courbey
Actor | Seconde B
Julien Courbey was born on March 12, 1976 in Toulouse, Haute-Garonne, Midi-Pyrénées, France. He is an actor and writer, known for Seconde B (1993), Les duettistes (1999) and Etat sauvage (2012).
27. 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: ...
28. Tennessee Williams
Writer | A Streetcar Named Desire
Tennessee Williams met long-term partner Frank Merlo in the summer of 1948 (Merlo died of lung cancer in the fall of 1963). Though separated briefly in 1961 and again in 1962, the two were partners for 15 years. Merlo acted as his personal manager/secretary.
Williams spent much of his most prolific ...
29. Vivien Leigh
Actress | A Streetcar Named Desire
If a film were made of the life of Vivien Leigh, it would open in India just before World War I, where a successful British businessman could live like a prince. In the mountains above Calcutta, a little princess is born. Because of the outbreak of World War I, she is six years old the first time ...
30. Fritz Lang
Actor | Le mépris
Fritz Lang was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1890. His father managed a construction company. His mother, Pauline Schlesinger, was Jewish but converted to Catholicism when Lang was ten. After high school, he enrolled briefly at the Technische Hochschule Wien and then started to train as a painter. ...
31. Prince Rainier of Monaco
Born the sole heir to the throne of the nation of Monaco, Prince Rainier lived his life by duty. The son of Charlotte Grimaldi, the illegitimate daughter of Monaco's Prince Louis, Rainier was the aging Monarch's only grandson and was therefore invested as his heir. He knew the constraints of duty ...
32. Daphne Du Maurier
Writer | The Birds
Daphne Du Maurier was one of the most popular English writers of the 20th Century, when middle-brow genre fiction was accorded a higher level of respect in a more broadly literate age. For her services to literature, she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1969, the ...
33. Dan Aykroyd
Writer | Ghostbusters
Daniel Edward Aykroyd was born on July 1, 1952 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, to Lorraine Hélène (Gougeon), a secretary from a French-Canadian family, and Samuel Cuthbert Peter Hugh Aykroyd, a civil engineer who advised prime minister Pierre Trudeau. Aykroyd attended Carleton University in 1969, where...
34. John Belushi
Actor | Saturday Night Live
John Belushi was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, on January 24, 1949, to Agnes Demetri (Samaras) and Adam Anastos Belushi, a restaurant owner. His father was an Albanian immigrant, from Qytezë, and his mother was also of Albanian descent. He grew up in Wheaton, where the family moved when he was ...
35. Sam Shepard
Actor | August: Osage County
Sam Shepard was born Samuel Shepard Rogers in Fort Sheridan, IL, to Jane Elaine (Schook), a teacher, and Samuel Shepard Rogers, a teacher and farmer who was also in the army. As the eldest son of a US Army officer (and WWII bomber pilot), Shepard spent his early childhood moving from base to base ...
36. Carrie Fisher
Actress | Star Wars
Carrie Frances Fisher was born on October 21, 1956 in Burbank, California, to singers/actors Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. She was an actress and writer known for Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Star Wars: Episode VI - Return ...
37. Peter Cushing
Actor | Star Wars
Peter Wilton Cushing was born on May 26, 1913 in Kenley, Surrey, England, to Nellie Maria (King) and George Edward Cushing, a quantity surveyor. He and his older brother David were raised first in Dulwich Village, a south London suburb, and then later back in Surrey. At an early age, Cushing was ...
38. Alec Guinness
Actor | Star Wars
Alec Guinness was an English actor. He is known for his six collaborations with David Lean: Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations (1946), Fagin in Oliver Twist (1948), Col. Nicholson in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor), Prince Faisal in Lawrence...
39. Graham Greene
Actor | The Green Mile
Graham Greene was born on June 22, 1952 in Six Nations Reserve, Ontario, Canada. He is an actor and writer, known for The Green Mile (1999), Wind River (2017) and Dances with Wolves (1990). He has been married to Hilary Blackmore since December 20, 1990. They have two children.
40. Richard Bohringer
Actor | The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
Richard Bohringer was born on January 16, 1942 in Moulins, Allier, France. He is an actor and writer, known for The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), C'est beau une ville la nuit (2006) and L'addition (1984).
41. Helen Mirren
Actress | The Queen
Dame Helen Mirren was born in Queen Charlotte's Hospital in West London. Her mother, Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda (Rogers), was from a working-class English family, and her father, Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov, was a Russian-born civil servant, from Kuryanovo, whose own father was a diplomat. ...
42. Amanda Plummer
Actress | Pulp Fiction
The daughter of Canadian actor Christopher Plummer and American actress Tammy Grimes, Amanda Plummer was born in New York City on March 23, 1957. Her breakthrough role came when she starred opposite Robin Williams in The Fisher King (1991). However, Plummer may be best remembered for her work in ...
43. Karen Black
Actress | Five Easy Pieces
Karen entered Northwestern University at 18 and left two years later. She studied under Lee Strasberg in New York and worked in a number of off-Broadway roles. She made a critically acclaimed debut on Broadway in 1965 in "The Playroom". Her first big film role was in You're a Big Boy Now (1966), ...
44. Rob Zombie
Writer | Grindhouse
Robert Bartleh Cummings, more famously known as Rob Zombie, was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts on January 12, 1965. He is the oldest son of Louise and Robert Cummings, and has a younger brother, Michael David (aka Spider One; b. 1968), who is the lead singer of Powerman 5000. Growing up, Zombie ...
45. Nicholas Ray
Director | Rebel Without a Cause
Nicholas Ray was born Raymond Nicholas Kienzle in 1911, in small-town Galesville, Wisconsin, to Lena (Toppen) and Raymond Joseph Kienzle, a contractor and builder. He was of German and Norwegian descent. Ray's early experience with film came with some radio broadcasting in high school. He left the ...
46. Katharine Hepburn
Actress | The Lion in Winter
Katharine Houghton Hepburn was born on May 12, 1907 in Hartford, Connecticut to a suffragist, Katharine Martha (Houghton), and a doctor, Thomas Norval Hepburn, who both always encouraged her to speak her mind, develop it fully, and exercise her body to its full potential. An athletic tomboy as a ...
47. Montgomery Clift
Actor | From Here to Eternity
Edward Montgomery Clift (nicknamed 'Monty' his entire life) was born on October 17, 1920 in Omaha, Nebraska, just after his twin sister Roberta (1920-2014) and eighteen months after his brother Brooks Clift. He was the son of Ethel "Sunny" Anderson (Fogg; 1888-1988) and William Brooks Clift (1886-...
48. Françoise Lebrun
Actress | La maman et la putain
Françoise Lebrun was born on August 18, 1944. She is an actress and writer, known for The Mother and the Whore (1973), Julie & Julia (2009) and Le mur des morts (2022).
49. Charley Boorman
Actor | Excalibur
Actor, father, motorbike fanatic: Charley Boorman is the epitome of the modern adventurer in pursuit of fresh challenges away from the success of his personal life. Choosing two wheels as his preferred mode of transport, Charley harnessed the challenges of a 'round the World trip with Ewan McGregor...
50. Frank Capra
Director | It's a Wonderful Life
One of seven children, Frank Capra was born on May 18, 1897, in Bisacquino, Sicily. On May 10, 1903, his family left for America aboard the ship Germania, arriving in New York on May 23rd. "There's no ventilation, and it stinks like hell. They're all miserable. It's the most degrading place you ...
51. Alex Proyas
Director | Dark City
Alex Proyas has moved effortlessly between helming TV commercials and music videos to feature films. Born to Greek parents in Egypt, Proyas relocated to Australia with his family when he was three years old. He began making films at age ten and went on to attend the Australian Film Television and ...
52. Gene Wilder
Actor | Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
When he was 11, he wanted to be a comedian like Sid Caesar. Then, when he was 15 and saw Lee J. Cobb in 'Death of a Salesman,' he decided he would be a comedy actor and found that Mel Brooks was a great influence on his screen writing. He combined both talents with directing in The World's Greatest...
53. Ken Hughes
Writer | Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Ken Hughes was an award-winning writer and director who flourished in the 1950s and 1960s, though he continued directing into the early 1980s. Born in Liverpool, England, on January 19, 1922, Hughes decided early in his life that he wanted to be a filmmaker. When he was 14 years old he won an ...
54. Yvette Mimieux
Actress | The Time Machine
An intelligent, slender leading lady of the 1960s and 70s, Yvette Carmen Mimieux was born in Hollywood, California, to Maria (Montemayor) and René Mimieux, an occasional movie extra. Her father was born in England, of French and German descent, and her mother was Mexican. While she was first ...
55. Vittorio Gassman
Actor | Sleepers
Vittorio Gassman studied theatre in his youth and was quite a good basketball player. He debuted on stage in 1943 and soon felt home in all classical theatre works. Since 1946 he also worked at the movies and his first big role there was the criminal in Bitter Rice (1949). This fixed him to his ...
56. Geraldine Chaplin
Actress | Hable con ella
Geraldine Leigh Chaplin was born in Santa Monica, California, to Oona Chaplin (née O'Neill) and legendary entertainer Charles Chaplin (A.K.A. Charlie Chaplin). She is a granddaughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill and a great-granddaughter of stage actor James O'Neill. She attended the Royal Ballet ...
57. Jan Kounen
Director | Blueberry
Jan Kounen was born on May 2, 1964 in Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands. He is a director and writer, known for Renegade (2004), Vibroboy (1994) and 8 (2008).
58. Werner Schroeter
Director | Nel regno di Napoli
The key person of the New German Cinema of the '70s. His works, mostly shot in 16mm, combine an intense interest and knowledge of German history and personal dramatic and emotional investigations. Malina (1991) which stars Isabelle Huppert is one of the great classics of modern cinema and deals ...
59. John Scott Matthews
Director | Back Story
John Scott Matthews is known for Back Story (2000) and Boot Camp (1996).
60. Emir Kusturica
Director | Underground
A Serbian film director. Born in 1954 in Sarajevo. Graduated in film directing at the prestigious Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague in 1978. During his studies, he was awarded several times for his short movies including Guernica (1978), which took first prize at the Student's Film ...
61. Martin Brest
Director | Scent of a Woman
Martin Brest was born on August 8, 1951 in The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA. He is a director and writer, known for Scent of a Woman (1992), Midnight Run (1988) and Beverly Hills Cop (1984).
62. Denis Villeneuve
Director | Dune
Denis Villeneuve is a French Canadian film director and writer. He was born in 1967, in Trois-Rivières, Québec, Canada. He started his career as a filmmaker at the National Film Board of Canada. He is best known for his feature films Arrival (2016), Sicario (2015), Prisoners (2013), Enemy (2013), ...
63. Ethan Coen
Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
The younger brother of Joel, Ethan Coen is an Academy Award and Golden Globe winning writer, producer and director coming from small independent films to big profile Hollywood films. He was born on September 21, 1957 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In some films of the brothers- Ethan & Joel wrote, Joel...
64. Joel Coen
Producer | The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Joel Daniel Coen is an American filmmaker who regularly collaborates with his younger brother Ethan. They made Raising Arizona, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, True Grit, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man, Inside Llewyn Davis, Hail Caesar and other projects. Joel ...
65. Stephan Elliott
Director | The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Stephan Elliott was born on August 27, 1964 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is a director and writer, known for The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994), Easy Virtue (2008) and Eye of the Beholder (1999).
66. Kevin Reynolds
Director | Waterworld
Raised as an Air Force brat, Kevin Reynolds' love for cinema inspired him to forsake his law school degree and move to Los Angeles to enroll in the University of Southern California's legendary film school. Reynolds' graduate thesis film "Proof" became the basis for "Fandango" starring Kevin ...
67. Truman Capote
Actor | Murder by Death
Truman Capote was born on September 30, 1924 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was a writer and actor, known for Murder by Death (1976), The Innocents (1961) and Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961). He died on August 25, 1984 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
68. Vincent Price
Actor | The Abominable Dr. Phibes
Actor, raconteur, art collector and connoisseur of haute cuisine are just some of the attributes associated with Vincent Price. He was born Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. in St. Louis, Missouri, to Marguerite Cobb "Daisy" (Wilcox) and Vincent Leonard Price, who was President of the National Candy ...
69. Steven Lisberger
Writer | Tron
Steven Lisberger was born on April 24, 1951 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a writer and director, known for Tron (1982), Tron: Legacy (2010) and Tron: Ares (2025).
70. Nicholas Meyer
Writer | Time After Time
Nicholas Meyer was born in New York City, the son of a psychoanalyst and a concert pianist. He attended the University of Iowa, home of the famous Writers Workshop.
Meyer's award-winning teleplays for ABC's JUDGE DEE & MONASTERY MURDERS and CBS's NIGHT THAT PANICKED AMERICA launched his ...
71. Gene Roddenberry
Writer | Star Trek
While in junior high school, he became interested in science fiction, and years later while reading a copy of 'Astounding Stories' when he was working as an airline pilot, he decided to give it up and become a writer. He moved West and joined the Los Angeles police force to gain experience that ...
72. 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...
73. Blake Edwards
Writer | The Pink Panther Strikes Again
Blake Edwards' stepfather's father J. Gordon Edwards was a silent screen director, and his stepfather Jack McEdward was a stage director and movie production manager. Blake acted in a number films, beginning with Ten Gentlemen from West Point (1942) and wrote a number of others, beginning with ...
74. Lesley-Anne Down
Actress | North and South
Lesley-Anne Down was born on March 17, 1954 and raised in London, England. With the help of her father, she began modeling at age 10, acting in commercials, and winning several beauty contests. By the time she was 15, Down had completed four films and was voted "Britain's Most Beautiful Teenager". ...
75. Peter Sellers
Actor | Being There
Often credited as the greatest comedian of all time, Peter Sellers was born Richard Henry Sellers to a well-off acting family in 1925 in Southsea, a suburb of Portsmouth. He was the son of Agnes Doreen "Peg" (Marks) and William "Bill" Sellers. His parents worked in an acting company run by his ...
76. Shirley MacLaine
Actress | Terms of Endearment
Shirley MacLaine was born Shirley MacLean Beaty in Richmond, Virginia. Her mother, Kathlyn Corinne (MacLean), was a drama teacher from Nova Scotia, Canada, and her father, Ira Owens Beaty, a professor of psychology and real estate agent, was from Virginia. Her brother, Warren Beatty, was born on ...
77. William Faulkner
Writer | To Have and Have Not
William Faulkner, one of the 20th century's most gifted novelists, wrote for the movies in part because he could not make enough money from his novels and short stories to support his growing number of dependants. The author of such acclaimed novels as "The Sound and the Fury" and "Absalom, Absalom...
78. George Stevens
Director | Giant
George Stevens, a filmmaker known as a meticulous craftsman with a brilliant eye for composition and a sensitive touch with actors, is one of the great American filmmakers, ranking with John Ford, William Wyler and Howard Hawks as a creator of classic Hollywood cinema, bringing to the screen ...
79. Ernest Hemingway
Writer | To Have and Have Not
Ernest Hemingway was an American writer who won the Pulitzer Prize (1953) and the Nobel Prize in Literature (1954) for his novel The Old Man and the Sea, which was made into a 1958 film The Old Man and the Sea (1958).
He was born into the hands of his physician father. He was the second of six ...
80. Elia Kazan
Director | On the Waterfront
Known for his creative stage direction, Elia Kazan was born Elias Kazantzoglou on September 7, 1909 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey). Noted for drawing out the best dramatic performances from his actors, he directed 21 actors to Oscar nominations, resulting in nine wins. He ...
81. Gena Rowlands
Actress | The Notebook
Virginia Cathryn "Gena" Rowlands is an American film, stage, and television actress, whose career in the entertainment industry has spanned over six decades. A four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner, she is known for her collaborations with her late actor-director husband John Cassavetes ...
82. Roald Dahl
Writer | The Witches
Dahl was born in Wales in 1916. He served as a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force during World War II. He made a forced landing in the Libyan Desert and was severely injured. As a result, he spent five months in a Royal Navy hospital in Alexandria. Dahl is noted for how he relates suspenseful and...
83. Lewis Gilbert
Director | Alfie
Lewis Gilbert was a British film director, producer and screenwriter best known for Alfie (1966), as well as three James Bond films: You Only Live Twice (1967), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979).
He also directed Reach for the Sky (1956), Sink the Bismarck! (1960), Educating Rita (...
84. René Clément
Director | Jeux interdits
René Clément was one of the leading French directors of the post-World War II era. He directed what are regarded as some of the greatest films of the time, such as The Battle of the Rails (1946), Forbidden Games (1952) and The Day and the Hour (1963). He was later almost forgotten as a director. He...
85. Éric Rohmer
Director | Ma nuit chez Maud
Admirers have always had difficulty explaining Éric Rohmer's "Je ne sais quoi." Part of the challenge stems from the fact that, despite his place in French Nouvelle Vague (i.e., New Wave), his work is unlike that of his colleagues. While this may be due to the auteur's unwillingness to conform, ...
86. Alain-Fournier
Writer | Le grand Meaulnes
Alain-Fournier was born on October 3, 1886 in La Chapelle-d'Angillon, Cher, France. He was a writer, known for The Wanderer (1967), Kouzelné dobrodruzství (1983) and Le grand Meaulnes (2006). He died on September 22, 1914 in Les Éparges, Meuse, France.
87. Isabelle Rivière
Actress | Le rayon vert
Isabelle Rivière is known for The Green Ray (1986), The Wanderer (1967) and Les grands du rire (2005).
88. Maurice Ronet
Actor | Ascenseur pour l'échafaud
Maurice Ronet was born on April 13, 1927 in Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France. He was an actor and writer, known for Elevator to the Gallows (1958), The Fire Within (1963) and Purple Noon (1960). He was married to Maria Pacôme. He died on March 14, 1983 in Paris, France.
89. Louis Malle
Director | Au revoir les enfants
Louis Malle, the descendant of a French nobleman who made a fortune in beet sugar during the Napoleonic Wars, created films that explored life and its meaning. Malle's family discouraged his early interest in film but, in 1950, allowed him to enter the Institute of Advanced Cinematographic Studies ...
90. Roger Nimier
Writer | Ascenseur pour l'échafaud
Roger Nimier was born on October 31, 1925 in Paris, France. He was a writer, known for Elevator to the Gallows (1958), Éducation sentimentale (1962) and The Nina B. Affair (1961). He died on September 28, 1962 in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, Seine-et-Oise [now Yvelines], France.
91. Patricia Highsmith
Writer | The Talented Mr. Ripley
Patricia Highsmith was born on January 19, 1921 in Fort Worth, Texas, USA. She was a writer, known for The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Strangers on a Train (1951) and The Two Faces of January (2014). She died on February 4, 1995 in Locarno, Switzerland.
92. Jean Anouilh
Director | Deux sous de violettes
Jean Anouilh was born on June 23, 1910 in Bordeaux, Gironde, France. He was a writer and director, known for Deux sous de violettes (1951), Le Voyageur sans bagage (1944) and Anna Karenina (1948). He was married to Nicole Lançon and Monelle Valentin. He died on October 3, 1987 in Lausanne, Vaud, ...
93. Pierre Fresnay
Actor | La grande illusion
Pierre Fresnay was born on April 4, 1897 in Paris, France. He was an actor and writer, known for The Grand Illusion (1937), The Murderer Lives at Number 21 (1942) and Monsieur Vincent (1947). He was married to Berthe Bovy and Rachel Bérendt. He died on January 9, 1975 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, ...
94. Henri-Georges Clouzot
Writer | Le salaire de la peur
Beginning his film career as a screenwriter, Henri-Georges Clouzot switched over to directing and in 1943 had the distinction of having his film The Raven (1943) banned by both the German forces occupying France and the Free French forces fighting them, but for different reasons. He shot to ...
95. Robert Rossen
Writer | The Hustler
Robert Rossen was born on March 16, 1908 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a writer and director, known for The Hustler (1961), All the King's Men (1949) and Alexander the Great (1956). He was married to Sarah (Sue) Siegel. He died on February 18, 1966 in New York City, New York, USA.
96. Boris Pasternak
Writer | Doctor Zhivago
Boris Pasternak was born in Moscow on February 10, 1890 into an artistic family of Russian-Jewish heritage. His father was an acclaimed artist named Leonid Pasternak, who converted to Christianity, and his mother was a renown concert pianist named Rosa Kaufman. Their home was open to family friends...
97. Omar Sharif
Actor | Lawrence of Arabia
Omar Sharif, the Egyptian actor best known for playing Sherif Ali in Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and the title role in Doctor Zhivago (1965), was born Michel Demitri Shalhoub on April 10, 1932 in Alexandria, Egypt to Joseph Shalhoub, a lumber merchant, and his wife, Claire (Saada). Of Lebanese and ...
98. Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Writer | Temps de chien
Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt was born on March 28, 1960 in Lyon, France. He is a writer and director, known for Temps de chien (1996), Odette Toulemonde (2006) and Oscar and the Lady in Pink (2009).
99. Jean-Paul Rappeneau
Writer | Cyrano de Bergerac
Jean-Paul Rappeneau was born on April 8, 1932 in Auxerre, Yonne, France. He is a writer and director, known for Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), A Matter of Resistance (1966) and Bon Voyage (2003).
100. Edmond Rostand
Writer | Roxanne
Edmund Rostand was a prominent French playwright and poet.
Rostand, who was born in Marseille on 1 April, 1868, the son of the distinguished economist Eugene Rostand (1843-1915), first achieved success in Paris at the age of twenty with his vaudeville sketch 'Le Gant Rouge". A collection of poems in...
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