Important people
by Fangorn90 | created - 10 Jun 2019 | updated - 2 weeks ago | Public
1. J.R.R. Tolkien
Writer | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
English writer, scholar and philologist, Tolkien's father was a bank manager in South Africa. Shortly before his father died (1896) his mother took him and his younger brother to his father's native village of Sarehole, near Birmingham, England. The landscapes and Nordic mythology of the Midlands ...
2. Elvis Presley
Soundtrack | Girls! Girls! Girls!
Elvis Aaron Presley was born on January 8, 1935 in East Tupelo, Mississippi, to Gladys Presley (née Gladys Love Smith) and Vernon Presley (Vernon Elvis Presley). He had a twin brother who was stillborn. In 1948, Elvis and his parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee where he attended Humes High School. ...
3. John Wayne
Actor | True Grit
John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison in Iowa, to Mary Alberta (Brown) and Clyde Leonard Morrison, a pharmacist. He was of English, Scottish, Ulster-Scots, and Irish ancestry.
Clyde developed a lung condition that required him to move his family from Iowa to the warmer climate of southern ...
4. Ringo Starr
Actor | A Hard Day's Night
Ringo Starr is a British musician, actor, director, writer, and artist best known as the drummer of The Beatles who also coined the title 'A Hard day's Night' for The Beatles' first movie.
He was born Richard Starkey on July 7, 1940, in a small two-storey house in the working class area of Liverpool...
5. George Harrison
Actor | A Hard Day's Night
A master musician, a film producer and actor, best known as the lead guitarist and occasionally lead vocalist of The Beatles, George Harrison was born February 25, 1943, in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. He was also the youngest of four children, born to Harold Harrison and Louise Harrison.
Like ...
6. 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, ...
7. Paul McCartney
Soundtrack | Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sir Paul McCartney is a key figure in contemporary culture as a singer, composer, poet, writer, artist, humanitarian, entrepreneur, and holder of more than 3 thousand copyrights. He is in the "Guinness Book of World Records" for most records sold, most #1s (shared), most covered song, "Yesterday," ...
8. The Beatles
Soundtrack | The Beatles: Get Back
The Beatles were an English rock band that became arguably the most successful act of the 20th century. They contributed to music, film, literature, art, and fashion, made a continuous impact on popular culture and the lifestyle of several generations. Their songs and images carrying powerful ideas...
9. Sam Peckinpah
Writer | The Wild Bunch
"If they move", commands stern-eyed William Holden, "kill 'em". So begins The Wild Bunch (1969), Sam Peckinpah's bloody, high-body-count eulogy to the mythologized Old West. "Pouring new wine into the bottle of the Western, Peckinpah explodes the bottle", observed critic Pauline Kael. That ...
10. The Rolling Stones
Soundtrack | Pirate Radio
The Rolling Stones are the legendary British rock band known for many popular hits, such as Paint it Black, Lady Jane, Ruby Tuesday, and (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction. Almost everyone who attended their shows is quick to comment on their ability to start you up and shake your hips. Their song "...
11. Keith Richards
Soundtrack | Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Keith Richards is an internationally recognized iconic figure in contemporary culture and popular music as a singer, guitar player, songwriter, film actor, and public figure. He was voted 10th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine, and was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of ...
12. Bob Dylan
Soundtrack | Renaldo and Clara
Robert Allen Zimmerman was born 24 May 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota; his father Abe worked for the Standard Oil Co. Six years later the family moved to Hibbing, often the coldest place in the US, where he taught himself piano and guitar and formed several high school rock bands. In 1959 he entered the...
13. Sergio Leone
Writer | Once Upon a Time in America
Sergio Leone was virtually born into the cinema - he was the son of Roberto Roberti (A.K.A. Vincenzo Leone), one of Italy's cinema pioneers, and actress Bice Valerian. Leone entered films in his late teens, working as an assistant director to both Italian directors and U.S. directors working in ...
14. Peter Jackson
Producer | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Sir Peter Jackson made history with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, becoming the first person to direct three major feature films simultaneously. The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King were nominated for and collected a slew of awards from around the globe, with The ...
15. Czeslaw Niemen
Soundtrack | Teatr Telewizji
Czeslaw Niemen was born on February 16, 1939 in Stare Wasiliszki, Nowogródzkie, Poland [now Staryya Vasilishki, Belarus]. He was a composer and actor, known for Television Theater (1953), Przekleta ziemia (1983) and Gra (1969). He was married to Malgorzata Niemen. He died on January 17, 2004 in ...
16. Christopher Lee
Actor | Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee was perhaps the only actor of his generation to have starred in so many films and cult saga. Although most notable for personifying bloodsucking vampire, Dracula, on screen, he portrayed other varied characters on screen, most of which were villains, whether it ...
17. Charlton Heston
Actor | Ben-Hur
With features chiseled in stone, and renowned for playing a long list of historical figures, particularly in Biblical epics, the tall, well-built and ruggedly handsome Charlton Heston was one of Hollywood's top leading men of his prime and remained active in front of movie cameras for over sixty ...
18. Ron Perlman
Actor | Hand of God
Ron Perlman is a classically-trained actor who has appeared in countless stage plays, feature films and television productions.
Ronald N. Perlman was born April 13, 1950 in Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York. His mother, Dorothy (Rosen), is retired from the City Clerk's Office. His father, ...
19. John Williams
Composer | Jurassic Park
As one of the best known, awarded, and financially successful composers in US history, John Williams is as easy to recall as John Philip Sousa, Aaron Copland or Leonard Bernstein, illustrating why he is "America's composer" time and again. With a massive list of awards that includes over 52 Oscar ...
20. Ennio Morricone
Composer | The Hateful Eight
A classmate of director Sergio Leone with whom he would form one of the great director/composer partnerships (right up there with Eisenstein & Prokofiev, Hitchcock & Herrmann, Fellini & Rota), Ennio Morricone studied at Rome's Santa Cecilia Conservatory, where he specialized in trumpet. His first ...
21. James Coburn
Actor | The Great Escape
Lanky, charismatic and versatile actor with an amazing grin that put everyone at ease, James Coburn studied acting at UCLA, and then moved to New York to study under noted acting coach Stella Adler. After being noticed in several stage productions, Coburn appeared in a handful of minor westerns ...
22. 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, ...
23. Sean Connery
Actor | The Rock
The tall, handsome and muscular Scottish actor Sean Connery is best known as the original actor to portray James Bond in the hugely successful movie franchise, starring in seven films between 1962 and 1983. Some believed that such a career-defining role might leave him unable to escape it, but he ...
24. John Cleese
Actor | A Fish Called Wanda
John Cleese was born on October 27, 1939, in Weston-Super-Mare, England, to Muriel Evelyn (Cross) and Reginald Francis Cleese. He was born into a family of modest means, his father being an insurance salesman; but he was nonetheless sent off to private schools to obtain a good education. Here he ...
25. 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 ...
26. Terry Jones
Writer | The Meaning of Life
Terry Jones was born in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, the son of Dilys Louisa (Newnes), a homemaker, and Alick George Parry Jones, a bank clerk. His older brother is production designer Nigel Jones. His grandparents were involved in the entertainment business, having managed the local Amateur Operatic ...
27. Graham Chapman
Writer | Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Graham Chapman was born on January 8, 1941 in Leicester, England while a German air raid was in progress. Graham's father was a chief police inspector and probably inspired the constables Graham often portrayed later in comedy sketches. Graham studied medicine in college and earned an M.D., but he ...
28. Eric Idle
Actor | Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Eric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, playwright, director, and songwriter. co-creator of Monty Python on TV, stage, and five films, including The Life of Brian and The Holy Grail, which he later adapted for the stage with John Du Prez as Monty Python's Spamalot, winning the Tony...
29. Michael Palin
Writer | Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Michael Palin is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter. He was one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python.
After the Monty Python television series ended in 1974, the Palin/Jones team worked on Ripping Yarns, an intermittent television comedy series broadcast over ...
30. Clint Eastwood
Actor | Million Dollar Baby
Clinton Eastwood Jr. was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood (née Margaret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took ...
31. Steven Spielberg
Producer | Schindler's List
One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, ...
32. Al Pacino
Actor | Serpico
Alfredo James "Al" 'Pacino established himself as a film actor during one of cinema's most vibrant decades, the 1970s, and has become an enduring and iconic figure in the world of American movies.
He was born April 25, 1940 in Manhattan, New York City, to Italian-American parents, Rose (nee Gerardi)...
33. H.P. Lovecraft
Writer | Color Out of Space
Born in Providence, Lovecraft was a sickly child whose parents died insane. When he was 16, he wrote the astronomy column in the Providence Tribune. Between 1908 and 1923, he wrote short stories for Weird Tales magazine and others. He died in Providence, in poverty, on March 15, 1937. His most ...
34. Peter Weir
Director | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Peter Weir was born on August 21, 1944 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is a director and writer, known for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), The Way Back (2010) and Witness (1985). He has been married to Wendy Stites since 1966. They have two children.
35. Blind Guardian
Soundtrack | In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
Blind Guardian is known for In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007), Metal Evolution (2011) and Es geschah am hellichten Tag (1997).
36. Hansi Kürsch
Soundtrack | In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
Even though Hansi Kürsch's parents were not wealthy enough they bought him books such as "The Hobbit", "The Silmarillion" and the Lord of the Ring trilogy, for Christmas and other holidays when he was a child, and later he developed an early fascination for fantasy and specially J.R.R. Tolkien's ...
37. Natalie Portman
Actress | Black Swan
Natalie Portman is the first person born in the 1980s to have won the Academy Award for Best Actress (for Black Swan (2010)).
Natalie was born Natalie Hershlag on June 9, 1981, in Jerusalem, Israel. She is the only child of Avner Hershlag, an Israeli-born doctor, and Shelley Stevens, an ...
38. 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...
39. 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 ...
40. 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 ...
41. Mel Brooks
Actor | Spaceballs
Mel Brooks was born Melvin Kaminsky on June 28, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York. He served in WWII, and afterwards got a job playing the drums at nightclubs in the Catskills. Brooks eventually started a comedy act and also worked in radio and as Master Entertainer at Grossinger's Resort before going to ...
42. Franco Zeffirelli
Director | Romeo and Juliet
Franco Zeffirelli is an Italian director and producer of operas, films and television. He was also a senator from 1994 until 2001 for the Italian center-right Forza Italia party. Some of his operatic designs and productions have become worldwide classics.
He was known for several of the movies he ...
43. 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 ...
44. Tommy Wiseau
Writer | The Room
Tommy Wiseau is an American actor, director, screenwriter & producer. He trained to be an actor at: American Conservatory Theater, Vince Chase Workshop, Jean Shelton Acting Lab, Laney College and Stella Adler Academy of Acting.
In 2001 he wrote, produced, directed and starred in The Room (2003), a ...
45. Nabwana I.G.G.
Producer | Bad Black
Nabwana Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey (IGG) produces, directs, shoots, writes, and edits action films from his home in the slums of Wakaliga, Uganda.
A self-taught filmmaker, IGG's film education consists of one course in computer repair (he was forced to drop out after the first month due to lack of funds...
46. Elton John
Soundtrack | Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Sir Elton John is one of pop music's great survivors. Born 25 March, 1947, as Reginald Kenneth Dwight, he started to play the piano at the early age of four. At the age of 11, he won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. His first band was called Bluesology. He later auditioned (...
47. Kenzaburô Ôe
Writer | Upland
Kenzaburô Ôe was born on January 31, 1935 in Oose, Japan. He was a writer, known for Upland, A False Student (1960) and Warera no jidai (1959). He was married to Yukari itami. He died on March 3, 2023 in Japan.
48. Stefan Grabinski
Writer | Szamota's Mistress
Stefan Grabinski is known for Szamota's Mistress (2017), Nikt nie jest winien (1986) and Towards the East (2011).
49. Wings
Soundtrack | Super 8
Wings is known for Super 8 (2011), Wild (2014) and Live and Let Die (1973).
50. Regina Spektor
Soundtrack | Bombshell
Regina Spektor was born in Moscow, USSR to a musical Jewish family. Her father, Ilya Spektor, is a photographer and violinist. Her mother, Bella Spektor, was a music professor in a Russian college of music and now teaches at a public elementary school in New York. Spektor learned how to play piano ...
51. Bat for Lashes
Soundtrack | How I Live Now
Bat for Lashes was born on October 25, 1979 in the UK. She is a composer and actress, known for How I Live Now (2013), The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010) and Madly (2016).
52. Kate Bush
Soundtrack | The Line, the Cross & the Curve
Kate Bush began playing piano at a young age and, by her mid-teens, had composed over 200 songs. Her talent caught the notice of David Gilmour (of Pink Floyd) who assisted in arranging her contract with EMI. The first song she released, "Wuthering Heights", soared to #1 in England in 1978. Since ...
53. Ryan Adams
Soundtrack | The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Ryan Adams was born on November 5, 1974 in Jacksonville, North Carolina, USA. He is a director and actor, known for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013), Behind Enemy Lines (2001) and The Condemned (2007). He was previously married to Mandy Moore.
54. Black Sabbath
Soundtrack | Iron Man
Black Sabbath were an English rock band, formed in Birmingham in 1968, by guitarist and main songwriter Tony Iommi, bassist and main lyricist Geezer Butler, drummer Bill Ward and singer Ozzy Osbourne. Black Sabbath are often cited as pioneers of heavy metal music. The band helped define the genre ...
55. Tony Iommi
Soundtrack | Iron Man
Tony Iommi was born on February 19, 1948 in Birmingham, England, UK. He is an actor and composer, known for Iron Man (2008), Suicide Squad (2016) and Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000). He has been married to Maria Sjöholm since 1999.
56. Ozzy Osbourne
Soundtrack | Little Nicky
One of the pioneers of heavy metal and one of its most commercially successful and iconic artists, Ozzy Osbourne was born in Birmingham, England, as John Michael Osbourne. After leaving school and having many odd jobs, he ended up in a band with Geezer Butler. This group then split, leading Ozzy ...
57. The Cranberries
Soundtrack | Army of the Dead
The Cranberries is known for Army of the Dead (2021), Mission: Impossible (1996) and Thunder Force (2021).
58. Miyavi
Actor | Unbroken
MIYAVI's a Japanese singer-songwriter, guitarist, record producer & actor. His music career began in 1999 w/ the Visual Kei band Dué le Quartz. After its disbandment, he debuted as a solo artist in 2002. He's known for his finger-slapping style of playing the guitar & has toured worldwide multiple ...
59. X Japan
Soundtrack | Last Knights
X Japan is known for Last Knights (2015), Saw IV (2007) and Zipang (1990).
60. The Kinks
Soundtrack | Pirate Radio
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s. The band emerged during the height of British rhythm and blues and Merseybeat, and were briefly part of the ...
61. Johnny Cash
Soundtrack | The Johnny Cash Show
Johnny Cash was born February 26, 1932, in Kingsland, Arkansas, to Carrie Cash (Rivers) and Raymond Cash. He made his first single, "Hey Porter", for Sun Records in 1955. In 1958 he moved to Columbia Records. He had long periods of drug abuse during the 1960s, but later that decade he successfully ...
62. Iron Maiden
Soundtrack | Fighting with My Family
Studio Albums: Iron Maiden (1980) Killers (1981) The Number of the Beast (1982) Piece of Mind (1983) Powerslave (1984) Somewhere in Time (1986) Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988) No Prayer for the Dying (1990) Fear of the Dark (1992) The X Factor (1995) Virtual XI (1998) Brave New World (2000) ...
63. Oasis
Soundtrack | The Butterfly Effect
Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Oasis have had eight UK number-one singles and eight UK number-one albums. They have won seventeen NME Awards, nine Q Awards, four MTV Europe Music Awards and six Brit Awards, including one in 2007 for Outstanding Contribution to Music ...
64. Janelle Monáe
Soundtrack | Hidden Figures
Janelle Monáe is an American musical recording artist, actress and model signed to their own imprint, Wondaland Arts Society, and Atlantic Records.
They were born in Kansas City, Kansas, to Janet, a janitor, and Michael Robinson Summers, a truck driver. In 2010, Monáe released her first full-length ...
65. Chuck Berry
Soundtrack | Men in Black
Charles Edward Anderson Berry was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the "Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive with songs such as "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll ...
66. Nobuyasu Okabayashi
Soundtrack | Jitsuroku Rengo Sekigun: Asama sanso e no michi
Nobuyasu Okabayashi is known for United Red Army (2007), Nippon no akuryo (1970) and Kitsune (1983).
67. 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...
68. Akiko Yano
Actress | Gake no ue no Ponyo
Akiko Yano was born on February 13, 1955 in Tokyo, Japan. She is an actress and composer, known for Ponyo (2008), Bread of Happiness (2012) and Love Life (2022). She was previously married to Ryuichi Sakamoto and Makoto Yano.
69. Carl Perkins
Soundtrack | Battleship
Carl Lee Perkins was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who recorded at the Sun Studio, in Memphis, beginning in 1954. Among his best-known songs are "Blue Suede Shoes", "Honey Don't", "Matchbox" and "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby".
According to Charlie Daniels, "Carl Perkins' songs ...
70. Jerry Lee Lewis
Soundtrack | Grease
Jerry Lee Lewis was born on September 29, 1935 into a very religious family . His family, though not very wealthy, sold their house when he was a child to get their son a piano. He loved to play piano. He was sent to a religious school, but was soon thrown out shortly thereafter -- he did a boogie ...
71. Anoushka Shankar
Soundtrack | Savages
Anoushka Shankar was born on the 9th June 1981 in London. At the age of nine, Anoushka began training on the sitar with her father, Ravi Shankar, and by the age of thirteen was giving her first public performances. Her first album, Anoushka, was released in 1998 and she has since released a further...
72. Judas Priest
Soundtrack | Godzilla vs. Kong
Judas Priest is an English heavy metal band formed in West Bromwich in 1969. The band have sold over 50 million copies of their albums to date. They are frequently ranked as one of the greatest metal bands of all time. Despite an innovative and pioneering body of work in the latter half of the ...
73. Kai Hansen
Soundtrack | Gamma Ray: Skeletons & Majesties Live
Hansen is the founder, lead guitarist, and vocalist of power metal band Gamma Ray. He is also the co-founder and former member of German metal band Helloween. He is a prominent figure in power metal and has sold millions of albums worldwide. He is regarded as "the godfather of power metal", having ...
74. Edgar Allan Poe
Writer | Stonehearst Asylum
Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts. His father, named David Poe Jr., and his mother, named Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe, were touring actors. Both parents died in 1811, and Poe became an orphan before he was 3 years old. He was adopted by John Allan, a tobacco ...
75. William Shakespeare
Writer | The Tragedy of Macbeth
William Shakespeare's birthdate is assumed from his baptism on April 25. His father John was the son of a farmer who became a successful tradesman; his mother Mary Arden was gentry. He studied Latin works at Stratford Grammar School, leaving at about age 15. About this time his father suffered an ...
76. Timo Tolkki
Composer | Siamin tytöt
Born on March 3rd 1966. Played in a band named RoadBlock before he played in Stratovarius. Has so far released two solo albums, "Hymn to life" is his latest piece of work, and has released 11 full length albums with Stratovarius. "Episode" is what they count as Stratovarius as its best, since this ...
77. Shûsaku Endô
Writer | Umi to dokuyaku
Shûsaku Endô was born on March 27, 1923 in Sugamo, Tokyo, Japan. He was a writer and actor, known for The Sea and Poison (1986), Silence (2016) and A Life of Jesus. He was married to Okada Junko. He died on September 29, 1996 in Tokyo, Japan.
78. H.G. Wells
Writer | The War of the Worlds
Writer, born in Bromley, Kent. He was apprenticed to a draper, tried teaching, studied biology in London, then made his mark in journalism and literature. He played a vital part in disseminating the progressive ideas which characterized the first part of the 20th-c. He achieved fame with scientific...
79. Oliver Sacks
Writer | Awakenings
Oliver Sacks was born on July 9, 1933 in London, England, UK. He was a writer and actor, known for Awakenings (1990), At First Sight (1999) and Wolf. He died on August 30, 2015 in New York City, New York, USA.
80. Bram Stoker
Writer | Dracula
Bram Stoker was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1847, and gained fame for his novel "Dracula" about an aristocratic vampire in Transylvania. The sequel, "Dracula's Guest," was not published for 17 years after the publication of "Dracula," two years after Stoker's death. Stoker also wrote "The Mystery ...
81. Whitley Strieber
Whitley Strieber began his writing career with a pair of modern-Gothic horror novels, The Wolfen (1981) and The Hunger (1983), for which he earned renown as one of the best of the "new wave" of horror writers. Both of these novels were made into films.
In the mid-eighties his novels of nuclear ...
82. Boris Vian
Soundtrack | 2 Days in Paris
Boris Vian was born on March 10, 1920 in Ville d'Avray, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France. He was a writer and actor, known for Two Days in Paris (2007), Dangerous Liaisons (1959) and Rocco and His Brothers (1960). He was married to Ursula Kubler and Michelle Vian. He died on June 23, 1959 in ...
83. Joe Hisaishi
Composer | Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
Joe Hisaishi was born on December 6, 1950 in Nakano, Japan. He is a composer and director, known for Spirited Away (2001), The Boy and the Heron (2023) and Fireworks (1997). He is married to Ayame Fujisawa . They have one child.
84. Robert Rodriguez
Producer | El mariachi
Robert Anthony Rodriguez was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas, USA, to Rebecca (Villegas), a nurse, and Cecilio G. Rodríguez, a salesman. His family is of Mexican descent.
Of all the people to be amazed by the images of John Carpenter's 1981 sci-fi parable, Escape from New York (1981), none ...
85. Akira Kurosawa
Writer | Kakushi-toride no san-akunin
After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata (1943). Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved sufficient stature to allow him greater...
86. Shintarô Katsu
Actor | Zatôichi to yôjinbô
Shintarô Katsu was born on November 29, 1931 in Tokyo, Japan. He was an actor and director, known for Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo (1970), Kaoyaku (1971) and Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman (1971). He was married to Tamao Nakamura. He died on June 21, 1997 in Kashiwa, Japan.
87. Osamu Tezuka
Writer | Tenrankai no e
Tezuka Osamu was born on November 3, 1928 in Toyonaka, Japan as the first child of Fumiko & Yutaka Tezuka. At 5, he & his family moved to the village of Kohama in Hyogo prefecture (present day city of Takarazuka). When he was 7, he entered Ikeda Elementary School in Osaka. Due to his diminutive ...
88. Toshirô Mifune
Actor | Yôjinbô
Toshiro Mifune achieved more worldwide fame than any other Japanese actor of his century. He was born in Tsingtao, China, to Japanese parents and grew up in Dalian. He did not set foot in Japan until he was 21. His father was an importer and a commercial photographer, and young Toshiro worked in ...
89. Takashi Shimura
Actor | Shichinin no samurai
Japanese character actor Takashi Shimura was one of the finest film actors of the 20th century and a leading member of the "stock company" of master director Akira Kurosawa. A native of southern Japan, Shimura was a descendant of the samurai warrior class. Following university training, he founded ...
90. Tatsuya Nakadai
Actor | Seppuku
Japanese leading man, an important star and one of the handful of Japanese actors well known outside Japan. Nakadai was a tall handsome clerk in a Tokyo shop when director Masaki Kobayashi encountered him and cast him in The Thick-Walled Room (1956). Nakadai was subsequently cast in the lead role in...
91. 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 ...
92. Teruo Ishii
Director | Gensen-Kan Shujin
Teruo Ishii was born on January 1, 1924 in Tokyo, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Gensen-Kan Inn (1993), Female Yakuza Tale (1973) and The Great Villain's Strategy (1966). He died on August 12, 2005 in Tokyo, Japan.
93. Kenji Misumi
Director | Shogun Assassin
Kenji Misumi was born on March 2, 1921 in Kyoto, Japan. Misumi was the illegitimate child of a geisha mother and originally wanted to be a painter, but his father disapproved. Kenji attended Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan. During this time Misumi met future Daiei studio head Kan Kikuchi, ...
94. Satoshi Kon
Writer | Tôkyô goddofâzâzu
Satoshi Kon was born in 1963. He studied at the Musashino College of the Arts. He began his career as a Manga artist. He then moved to animation and worked as a background artist on many films (including Roujin Z (1991) by 'Katsuhiro Otomo'). Then, in 1995, he wrote an episode of the anthology film ...
95. Hayao Miyazaki
Writer | Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan's greatest animation directors. The entertaining plots, compelling characters, and breathtaking visuals in his films have earned him international renown from critics as well as public recognition within Japan.
Miyazaki started his career in 1963 as an animator at the ...
96. Isao Takahata
Director | Hotaru no haka
Isao Takahata was born on October 29, 1935 in Ise, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Pom Poko (1994) and The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013). He died on April 5, 2018 in Tokyo, Japan.
97. Luc Besson
Writer | Le Cinquième Élément
Luc Besson spent the first years of his life following his parents, scuba diving instructors, around the world. His early life was entirely aquatic. He already showed amazing creativity as a youth, writing early drafts of The Big Blue (1988) and The Fifth Element (1997), as an adolescent bored in ...
98. Jean Reno
Actor | Léon
Jean Reno was born Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jiménez in Casablanca, Morocco, to Spanish parents (from Andalucía) who moved to North Africa to seek work. His father was a linotypist. Reno settled in France at 17. He began studying drama and has credits in French television and theater as well as films. ...
99. Jeff Bridges
Actor | The Big Lebowski
Jeffrey Leon Bridges was born on December 4, 1949 in Los Angeles, California, the son of well-known film and TV star Lloyd Bridges and his long-time wife Dorothy Dean Bridges (née Simpson). He grew up amid the happening Hollywood scene with big brother Beau Bridges. Both boys popped up, without ...
100. 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...
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