Who Is The Most Famous Jean In The World?
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323 votes
64 voters
Voting Rules
Vote up all of the Jeans you've heard of.
How many celebrities named Jean can you think of? The famous Jeans below have many different professions, including notable actors named Jean, famous athletes named Jean, and even musicians named Jean.
Jean Harlow is certainly one of the most famous Jeans on this list. One of the famous actresses named Jean, she was one of the original blonde bombshells. Hell's Angels, Suzy, and Red Dust are among her notable films.
Another of the famous people with the first name Jean is Jean-Claude Van Damme. He is an actor and martial artist. He starred in such action classics as Street Fighter, Bloodsport, and Nowhere to Run.
Did we forget one of your favorite famous people named Jean? Just add them to the list!
- 1Jean Seberg was a gamine, blonde actress who landed the title role in Otto Preminger's "Saint Joan" (1957) after a much-publicized contest involving some 18,000 hopefuls. She was best-known, however, for her contribution to New Wave cinema. The fresh-faced Iowan started acting in high school, but was a completely unknown 17-year-old when Preminger whisked her off to England. "Saint Joan" and its star were critically slammed, but Preminger went on to star her again in the soap opera "Bonjour Tristesse" (1958), which was scandalous and "modern" enough to buoy Seberg's career. After the silly but popular British comedy "The Mouse That Roared" (1959), Seberg was cast in Jean-Luc Godard's landmark New Wave feature "A Bout de souffle/Breathless" (1959), which brought her renewed international attention. As an American in Paris, selling papers on the streets and romancing wanted criminal Jean-Paul Belmondo, she gave a careless, modern and very hip performance. Seberg hopped back and forth from America to Europe, making a total of 30 films. In Mervyn LeRoy's "Moment to Moment" (1966), she was a professor's bored wife who drifts into an affair with murderous results. Seberg was another cheating wife in Irvin Kershner's "A Fine Madness" (also 1966) and played a woman sold to a hard-drinking prospector (Lee Marvin) in Joshua Logan's musical "Paint Your Wagon" (1969). Seberg was the passenger relations expert in the all-star blockbuster "Airport" (1970) and a woman going mad in Northern Africa in "Ondata di Calore/Dead of Summer" (1970). Her last feature was "Die Wildente/The Wild Duck" (1976), a German-language version of the Henrik Ibsen play. Seberg made her only US TV appearance in the ABC movie "Mousey" (1974), which co-starred Kirk Douglas and silent film veteran Bessie Love.
- Birthplace: Marshalltown, Iowa, USA
- 2Having caterwauled her way into American livings rooms with her weekly rendition of "Those Were the Days" and her TV chair winding up residing in the Smithsonian along with her bigoted TV husband's, Jean Stapleton defied all Hollywood convention and played no small part in changing America's very culture with her integral role on the groundbreaking Norman Lear sitcom, "All in the Family" (CBS, 1971-79). A lifelong character actress who achieved household-name status weathering the baleful verbal assaults of her linear-thinking TV husband Archie Bunker, Stapleton played the shrill-voiced Edith with such comic yet empathetic aplomb that she became an almost ironic light in the women's rights movement. She would build upon her social-minded legacy after the show ended by way of a 20-year, off-and-on succession of jobs playing the social activist and diplomat Eleanor Roosevelt on stage and screen. Far from a typical leading-lady type, she nevertheless earned unqualified primacy as a television actress, garnering three Emmy Awards during her "All in the Family" run and endearing Edith in American households as a symbol of simple common decency steadfast amid troubled times and ignorant bluster. She effectively retired from screen acting in 2001 and died in May 2013 at the age of 90.
- Birthplace: New York, New York, USA
- 3Jean Parker Shepherd Jr. (July 26, 1921 ā October 16, 1999) was an American storyteller, radio and TV personality, writer and actor. He was often referred to by the nickname Shep. With a career that spanned decades, Shepherd is known for the film A Christmas Story (1983), which he narrated and co-scripted, based on his own semi-autobiographical stories.
- Birthplace: USA, Chicago, Illinois
- 4Jean Renoir (French: [ŹÉnwaŹ]; 15 September 1894 ā 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s. His films La Grande Illusion (1937) and The Rules of the Game (1939) are often cited by critics as among the greatest films ever made. He was ranked by the BFI's Sight & Sound poll of critics in 2002 as the fourth greatest director of all time. Among numerous honors accrued during his lifetime, he received a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award in 1975 for his contribution to the motion picture industry. Renoir was the son of the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. He was one of the first filmmakers to be known as an auteur.
- Birthplace: France, Paris, Montmartre
- 5Jean Boht (nĆ©e Dance, March 6, 1932 ā September 12, 2023) was an English actress, most famous for the role of Nellie Boswell in Carla Lane's sitcom Bread, remaining one of several actors to remain with the series for its entire 7 season tenure from 1986 to 1991.
- Birthplace: Bebington, United Kingdom
- 6Jean Racine (French: [ŹÉĢ Źasin]), baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine (22 December 1639 ā 21 April 1699), was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with MoliĆØre and Corneille, and an important literary figure in the Western tradition. Racine was primarily a tragedian, producing such "examples of neoclassical perfection" as PhĆØdre, Andromaque, and Athalie. He did write one comedy, Les Plaideurs, and a muted tragedy, Esther for the young. Racine's plays displayed his mastery of the dodecasyllabic (12 syllable) French alexandrine. His writing is renowned for its elegance, purity, speed, and fury, and for what American poet Robert Lowell described as a "diamond-edge", and the "glory of its hard, electric rage". Racine's dramaturgy is marked by his psychological insight, the prevailing passion of his characters, and the nakedness of both plot and stage. The linguistic effects of Racine's poetry are widely considered to be untranslatable, although many eminent poets have attempted to translate Racine's work into English, including Lowell, Richard Wilbur, Ted Hughes, Tony Harrison, and Derek Mahon, and Friedrich Schiller into German. The latest translations of Racine's plays into English have been by Alan Hollinghurst (Berenice, Bajazet), by RADA director Edward Kemp (Andromache), Neil Bartlett, and poet Geoffrey Alan Argent, who earned a 2011 American Book Award for the translating The Complete Plays of Jean Racine.
- Birthplace: La FertƩ-Milon, France
- 7Jean-Michel AndrĆ© Jarre (French: [ŹÉĢ miŹÉl ÉĢdŹe ŹaŹ]; born 24 August 1948) is a French composer, performer and record producer. He is a pioneer in the electronic, ambient and new-age genres, and known for organising outdoor spectacles featuring his music, vast laser displays and fireworks. Jarre was raised in Lyon by his mother and grandparents and trained on the piano. From an early age, he was introduced to a variety of art forms, including street performers, jazz musicians and the artist Pierre Soulages. He played guitar in a band, but his musical style was perhaps most heavily influenced by Pierre Schaeffer, a pioneer of musique concrĆØte at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales. His first mainstream success was the 1976 album OxygĆØne. Recorded in a makeshift studio at his home, the album sold an estimated 12 million copies. OxygĆØne was followed in 1978 by Ćquinoxe, and in 1979, Jarre performed to a record-breaking audience of more than a million people at the Place de la Concorde, a record he has since broken three times. More albums were to follow, but his 1979 concert served as a blueprint for his future performances around the world. Several of his albums have been released to coincide with large-scale outdoor events, and he is now perhaps as well known as a performer as he is as a musician. As of 2004, Jarre had sold an estimated 80 million albums. He was the first Western musician officially invited to perform in the People's Republic of China and holds the world record for the largest-ever audience at an outdoor event for his Moscow concert on 6 September 1997, which was attended by 3.5 million people.
- Birthplace: France, Lyon
- 8Jean Paul (German: [ŹÉĢ paŹl]; born Johann Paul Friedrich Richter, 21 March 1763 ā 14 November 1825) was a German Romantic writer, best known for his humorous novels and stories.
- Birthplace: Wunsiedel, Germany
- 9Jean Smart, a widely recognized figure in the world of acting, is celebrated for her range and versatility in roles that span across film, television, and stage. Born on September 13, 1951, in Seattle, Washington, she developed a passion for acting at an early age and pursued it acadically at the University of Washington's School of Drama. Her pursuit of acting led her to become part of the reputable Actors Theatre of Louisville in Kentucky, where she honed her craft and rose to prominence. Smart's career took off with her role as Charlene Frazier-Stillfield in the CBS sitcom Designing Women (1986 - 1991). Her comedic timing and performance earned her critical acclaim and marked the beginning of her successful journey in Hollywood. She brought to life diverse characters in renowned shows like 24, Fargo, and Watchmen. Her portrayal of a troubled psychologist in Legion, a villainous bureaucrat in Watchmen, and a mafia matriarch in Fargo drew praises and won her accolades, underlining her vast repertoire as an actor. Jean Smart's talent has not been confined to the small screen alone. She has shone brightly in films such as The Accountant, A Simple Favor, and Garden State. Moreover, her work on Broadway, including performances in Piaf and The Man Who Came to Dinner, attest to her prowess as a stage actor. In recognition of her immense contribution to the field of acting, Smart has received multiple awards and nominations, including three Primetime Emmy Awards. Her consistent dedication to her craft, coupled with her ability to adapt to different roles, signifies her status as one of the most respected actors in the entertainment industry.
- Birthplace: Seattle, Washington, USA
- 10Jessica Anne Rodriguez Maitim (born August 22, 1969) better known as Jean Garcia is a Filipino television and film actress, who hails from Angeles City, Pampanga. She is best known for her role as Madam Claudia Buenavista in the original version of Pangako Sa 'Yo, Alvina Montenegro in Ina, Kasusuklaman Ba Kita? and Karina "Rina" Mercado in The Half Sisters, which both aired on GMA Network.
- Birthplace: Angeles, Philippines
- 11Jean Thurston Vander Pyl (October 11, 1919 ā April 10, 1999) was an American actress and voice actress. Although her career spanned many decades, she was cast as the voice of Wilma Flintstone for the Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Flintstones. In addition to Wilma Flintstone, she also provided the voices of Pebbles Flintstone, Rosie the robot maid on the animated series The Jetsons, Goldie, Lola Glamour, Nurse LaRue and other characters in Top Cat, Winsome Witch on The Secret Squirrel Show and Ogee on The Magilla Gorilla Show.
- Birthplace: USA, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 12Jean Simmons, born on January 31, 1929, in London, England, was a prestigious British actress who made her mark in the world of cinema through her unparalleled acting prowess and irresistible charisma. She embarked on her cinematic journey at a very young age, making her on-screen debut with the film Give Us the Moon in 1944. However, it was her performance as a precocious Estella in David Lean's adaptation of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations in 1946 that brought her under the spotlight and paved the way for an illustrious career in acting. Simmons soon crossed over to Hollywood, where she continued to build upon her repertoire of diverse and challenging roles. She worked with some of the biggest names in the industry like Laurence Olivier in Hamlet (1948), for which she earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her talent for immersing herself in her characters was evident in films like Guys and Dolls (1955), The Big Country (1958), and Spartacus (1960), where she shared screen space with Marlon Brando, Gregory Peck, and Kirk Douglas respectively. Despite her successful career in Hollywood, Simmons never distanced herself from her roots, often gracing British productions with her presence. She starred in the British series The Dain Curse and North and South, proving her versatility once again. Jean Simmons breathlessly crafted a career that spanned over six decades, during which she gracefully transitioned from the ingƩnue roles of her early career to more mature performances in her later years. Her contribution to cinema was recognized when she was awarded an Honorary Award by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2003. This award served as a testament to her enduring legacy and her remarkable achievements in the world of entertainment.
- Birthplace: Crouch Hill, London, England, UK
- 1Spartacus90 Votes
- 2Home Before Dark37 Votes
- 3Until They Sail41 Votes
- 4The Happy Ending45 Votes
- 13Jean Harlow, born as Harlean Harlow Carpenter in Kansas City, Missouri, on March 3, 1911, was a legendary American actress and sex symbol of the 1930s. Her journey to stardom began when she moved to Los Angeles at the age of 16, eventually signing a contract with Howard Hughes for her first major film, Hell's Angels, in 1930. Despite having no formal acting training, Harlow's alluring screen presence and natural talent quickly catapulted her to fame. Harlow's career flourished under the roof of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), where she became one of Hollywood's most sought-after actors. Her roles in films like Red Dust (1932), Dinner at Eight (1933), and Bombshell (1933) showcased her comedic prowess and unique ability to captivate audiences with her striking blonde hair and distinctive voice. She starred in over 36 films during her short-lived career, working alongside stars such as Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy. However, Harlow's life was tragically cut short when she died suddenly from kidney failure at the age of 26 in 1937. Although her career was brief, her impact on Hollywood was profound and lasting. Harlow redefined the image of the leading lady in Hollywood, breaking away from the traditional mold with her sensual, liberated persona. She continues to be remembered as one of the original "blonde bombshells", setting a precedent for future Hollywood icons.
- Birthplace: Kansas City, Missouri, USA
- 1Libeled Lady59 Votes
- 2Bombshell64 Votes
- 3Wife vs. Secretary51 Votes
- 4Red Dust71 Votes
- 14Jean Mavis Hodgkinson (11 October 1926 ā 14 October 2016), known by the stage name Jean Alexander, was a British television actress. She was best known to television viewers for her long running role of Hilda Ogden in the soap opera Coronation Street, a role she played from 1964 until 1987, and also as Auntie Wainwright in the long-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine from 1988 to 2010. For her role in Coronation Street, she won the 1985 Royal Television Society Award for Best Performance, and received a 1988 BAFTA TV Award nomination for Best Actress.
- Birthplace: United Kingdom
- 15Jean Carlos Enrique Segura (born March 17, 1990) is a Dominican professional baseball shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Milwaukee Brewers, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Seattle Mariners. Segura was an All-Star in 2013 and 2018, and led the National League in hits in 2016. He played for the Dominican Republic national baseball team at the 2017 World Baseball Classic. Segura signed with the Angels as a free agent in 2007. He made his MLB debut with the Angels in 2012, and was traded to the Brewers as part of a package for Zack Greinke. He played for Milwaukee through 2015, when he was traded to the Diamondbacks. Arizona traded him to Seattle after the 2016 season, and he signed a five-year, $70 million contract with the Mariners in 2017. After the 2018 season, Seattle traded Segura to Philadelphia.
- Birthplace: San Juan Province, Dominican Republic
- 16Though the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences created an honorary award in his name, Jean Hersholt's legacy did not endure apace with that of co-stars Rudolph Valentino, Greta Garbo, Clark Gable, and James Cagney. Emigrating from Denmark before World War I, Hersholt's continental air made him a natural to play aristocrats and professional men in silent films and his career was given a boost when Erich von Stroheim cast him as the heavy in "Greed" (1924). The advent of sound and Hersholt's Danish accent knocked the actor down the Hollywood cast list but he excelled in character parts at MGM and worked his way back up on the marquee, starring with Shirley Temple in the family favorite "Heidi" (1937) and playing a dedicated small-town doctor in "Meet Dr. Christian" (1939) and its five sequels. His philanthropic work inspired the Academy to create the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1940 while he spent the WWII sending morale-boosting radio broadcasts to Nazi-occupied Denmark. Seen less often in films after accepting the presidency of the Academy in 1945, Hersholt devoted considerable time to translating into English the folk tales of countryman Hans Christian Anderson. Diagnosed with inoperable cancer, he rallied to bring "Dr. Christian" to television before his death in June 1956. Though he remained obscure to all but the most ardent classic film fans, Jean Hersholt's legacy of philanthropy immortalized him in cinema history as the man who gave Hollywood its conscience.
- Birthplace: Copenhagen, Denmark
- 17A spunky performer with a mass of curly reddish hair and a sweet, innocent air, Jean Louisa Kelly first came to the attention of filmgoers as John Candy's bratty niece, appalled by his antics, in the John Hughes comedy "Uncle Buck" (1989). She further solidified her standing as a rising starlet as the dewy-eyed student who develops a crush on her music teacher (Richard Dreyfuss) in "Mr. Holland's Opus" (1995). A stage veteran, Kelly has also amassed an impressive resume with a wide array of small screen work. While it would seem the musical theater appeals most to her (she has variously been announced to co-star in aborted shows like "The Jazz Singer" and "Little Women"), the actress settled into the routine of series work in the fall of 1999 in NBC's romantic comedy-drama "Cold Feet."
- Birthplace: Worcester, Massachusetts, USA
- 18A beloved talent in his native France, Oscar-winning actor Jean Dujardin's outsized comic personality, embossed by a toothy smile, made him a top leading man on television and in features, including the hit espionage spoof "OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies" (2006) and "The Artist" (2011) which earned him a Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival. He began in sketch comedy before making his name as the star of the sitcom-romance "Un gars, un fille" (France 2, 1999-2003). Its popularity brought him to features, where he developed his brash but clueless screen image through several partnerships with writer-director Michael Hazanavicius, including two "OSS" features. However, their fourth teaming, "The Artist," which offered a meticulously crafted valentine to American silent film, won them international acclaim and attention. The picture's unlikely success in America made Dujardin a likely candidate for that rara avis in the film community: the non-British European star who finds fame in Hollywood.
- Birthplace: Rueil-Malmaison, France
- 19Born in Casablanca, Morocco, on July 30, 1948, Jean Reno is a renowned French actor who has graced both the international and French film industries with his captivating performances. His birth name, Juan Moreno y Herrera-JimƩnez, reflects his Spanish descent, though he moved to France at the age of seventeen where he developed his passion for stage acting. Reno's career trajectory is marked by a series of successful collaborations with notable directors such as Luc Besson. Their partnership began in the 1980s, resulting in numerous critically acclaimed films like Le Dernier Combat (1983), Subway (1985), and The Big Blue (1988). However, it was the 1994 hit LƩon: The Professional that catapulted Reno into global stardom. His portrayal of LƩon, a professional hitman, showcased his ability to deliver complex performances, thus earning him widespread recognition. In addition to his collaborations with Besson, Reno's extensive filmography includes an array of diverse roles. He demonstrated his comedic skills in French films like Les Visiteurs (1993) and its sequel, while also proving his versatility in Hollywood blockbusters such as Mission: Impossible (1996), Godzilla (1998), and The Da Vinci Code (2006). Throughout his career, Reno's performances have been characterized by their depth, authenticity, and originality, thereby solidifying his reputation as one of the most respected actors in the film industry.
- Birthplace: Casablanca, French Protectorate of Morocco
- 1LĆ©on: The Professional251 Votes
- 2The Big Blue68 Votes
- 3Ronin100 Votes
- 4The Da Vinci Code48 Votes
- 20After a brief time on the New York stage, Jean Arthur made her feature film debut in John Ford's "Cameo Kirby" (1923) and appeared as an ingenue in numerous low-budget silent westerns and comedy shorts. Arthur's smooth transition to sound was aided by her nasal voice, sometimes sexy, other times squeaky, and she won immense popularity in John Ford's "The Whole Town's Talking" (1935). A deft comedienne and prickly, sometimes tomboyish heroine, she hit her peak post-1935 playing a string of down-to-earth, independent types, often working women, and costarring in three celebrated Frank Capra films: "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" (1936), "You Can't Take It with You" (1938) and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939).
- Birthplace: Plattsburgh, New York, USA
- 1The Talk of the Town79 Votes
- 2Mr. Deeds Goes to Town95 Votes
- 3The More the Merrier111 Votes
- 4Mr. Smith Goes to Washington97 Votes
- 21Jean Marie Lucien Pierre Anouilh (French: [ŹÉĢ anuj]; 23 June 1910 ā 3 October 1987) was a French dramatist whose career spanned five decades. Though his work ranged from high drama to absurdist farce, Anouilh is best known for his 1944 play Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' classical drama, that was seen as an attack on Marshal PĆ©tain's Vichy government. One of France's most prolific writers after World War II, much of Anouilh's work deals with themes of maintaining integrity in a world of moral compromise.
- Birthplace: Bordeaux, France
- 22Jean-Claude Van Damme, born Jean-Claude Camille FranƧois Van Varenberg in 1960, is an internationally acclaimed Belgian actor, martial artist, and film producer. His journey from Brussels to Hollywood is a testament to his resilience, talent, and unyielding passion for martial arts. Known for his high-flying kicks and splits, Van Damme quickly became a household name in the action film genre. Van Damme's martial arts prowess was evident from an early age. He began studying Shotokan karate at just ten years old, earning his black belt by fifteen. As he matured, he diversified his skill set, delving into ballet and bodybuilding. His dedication to fitness and martial arts culminated in him winning the title of Mr. Belgium in a bodybuilding competition. This multifaceted training provided the perfect foundation for Van Damme's subsequent career in action cinema. After moving to Hollywood in the 1980s, Van Damme landed his breakthrough role in Bloodsport (1988), which catapulted him to international stardom. His filmography includes hits like Kickboxer (1989), Universal Soldier (1992), and Timecop (1994), solidifying his status as a leading figure in action movies. Despite facing personal challenges, Van Damme has demonstrated remarkable resilience, making a successful comeback with films like JCVD (2008) and continuing to captivate audiences with his signature martial arts moves. His enduring influence on the action genre underscores his importance in the world of cinema.
- Birthplace: Sint-Agatha-Berchem, Brussels, Belgium
- 1Bloodsport1,499 Votes
- 2Kickboxer1,301 Votes
- 3Universal Soldier1,041 Votes
- 4Hard Target1,099 Votes
- 23Jean-Paul Gaultier (French: [ŹÉĢ pÉl É”otje]; born 24 April 1952) is a French haute couture and prĆŖt-Ć -porter fashion designer who, in 1982, founded his eponymous fashion label. From 2003 to 2010 he also served as the creative director at French luxury house HermĆØs for womenswear. He co-presented the television series Eurotrash with Antoine de Caunes.
- Birthplace: Arcueil, France
- 24High school beauty contest winner who appeared as Dale Arden opposite Buster Crabbe in the "Flash Gordon" serials as well as the "The Adventures of Frank Merriwell" and "Ace Drummond" serials.
- Birthplace: Belmont, Massachusetts, USA
- 25Jean Parker was an American actress who appeared in "The Texas Rangers," "The Ghost Goes West," and "Little Women."
- Birthplace: Deer Lodge, Montana, USA
- 26Jean Wallace was an actor who had a successful Hollywood career. Wallace began his acting career with roles in such films as "Louisiana Purchase" (1941), the Carole Landis comedy "It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog" (1946) and "Blaze of Noon" (1947). He also appeared in the adaptation "When My Baby Smiles at Me" (1948) with Betty Grable. His passion for acting continued to his roles in projects like the comedy "The Good Humor Man" (1950) with Jack Carson, the Charles Laughton crime feature "The Man on the Eiffel Tower" (1950) and "Sangre Negra" (1951). He also appeared in the Cornel Wilde crime flick "The Big Combo" (1955). Film continued to be his passion as he played roles in "Storm Fear" (1956), "Maracaibo" (1958) and the Cornel Wilde dramatic adaptation "Beach Red" (1967). Wallace last acted in "No Blade of Grass" (1970). Wallace's husband was Cornel Wilde. Wallace passed away in February 1990 at the age of 67.
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA
- 27One of France's most celebrated actors, Jean Gabin was the tragic romantic hero of such pre-World War II dramas as "Marie Chapdelaine" (1934), "PƩpƩ le Moko" (1937) and "Grand Illusion" (1937), and later, an aging, worldly presence in such post-war hits as "Touchez pas au grisbi" (Don't Touch the Loot") (1954) and "The Sicilian Clan" (1969). Early in his career, Gabin earned fame on the stage with an imitation of Maurice Chevalier, which in retrospect, seemed an almost foregone conclusion, as both men embodied opposing sides of the French male persona as seen through the filter of motion pictures: Chevalier the charming bon vivant, and Gabin the brooding, lustful and reckless anti-hero. Both performers continued to personify those archetypes in their later years, but Gabin brought profound emotional depth to his lions in winter. The sins of the past were never far from his characters, which were often forced to violently confront their histories as they returned to bedevil their present lives. A treasured figure in the history of French cinema, Jean Gabin set the bar for leading men in his native country and elsewhere for generations.
- Birthplace: Paris, France
- 28The Hollywood Golden Age musical "Singin' in the Rain" is consistently voted by critics as one of the top American movies of all time, with good reason. Featuring Jean Hagen as a silent-film star trying to make the transition to talkies, the 1952 MGM production is perfect in every way, and certainly ranks as the most famous credit on her resume. But Hagen did manage to grace a number of other instantly recognizable movie titles during her 30-year run. She started out in the 1949 Tracy-Hepburn comedy "Adam's Rib," segued to John Huston's 1950 noir "The Asphalt Jungle," and worked alongside the Oscar-nominated Greer Garson in the FDR drama "Sunrise at Campobello." Hagen made a nice transition to TV with the long-running role of Margaret Williams on "The Danny Thomas Show," appearing in 89 episodes from 1953 to 1956. She did a little bit more TV work here and there before retiring in 1964, re-appearing briefly in the mid-'70s for episodes of "Starsky & Hutch" and "The Streets of San Francisco."
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, USA
- 29
Jean JaurĆØs
09/03/1859Auguste Marie Joseph Jean LĆ©on JaurĆØs, commonly referred to as Jean JaurĆØs (French: [ŹÉĢ ŹÉ.ŹÉĖs]; 3 September 1859 ā 31 July 1914), was a French Socialist leader. Initially a moderate republican, he was later one of the first social democrats, becoming the leader, in 1902, of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde's revolutionary Socialist Party of France. The two parties merged in 1905 in the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO). An antimilitarist, JaurĆØs was assassinated at the outbreak of World War I, and remains one of the main historical figures of the French Left.- Birthplace: Castres, France
- 30
Jean Muir
02/13/1911Jean Muir's acting talents were showcased on the big screen many times throughout the course of his Hollywood career. In 1930, he began her career as an understudy with an English company performing "Bird In the Hand" on Broadway. He had success as one of the stars in the Broadway play "Saint Wench." In 1937, he left Hollywood and moved to London. In 1933, he moved to Hollywood after being signed to a studio contract by a Warner Bros scout that spotted her in "Saint Wench"; changed name to Jean Muir. He appeared in J B Priestley's "People at Sea" and British film "Jane Steps Out." He appeared in over 2 dozen B movies. In 1937, he had a role in "White Bondage" and "Dance Charlie Dance." Muir began his acting career appearing in various films, such as the drama "The World Changes" (1933) with Paul Muni, "A Modern Hero" (1934) and "As the Earth Turns" (1934). He also appeared in "Bedside" (1934) and "Dr. Monica" (1934). He continued to act in productions like the comedic fantasy "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1935) with Ian Hunter, the Pat O'Brien drama "Oil For the Lamps of China" (1935) and "The White Cockatoo" (1935). He also appeared in "Draegerman Courage" (1936) and "Fugitive in the Sky" (1936). Nearing the end of his career, he tackled roles in "White Fang" (1936), the Warren William mystery "The Lone Wolf Meets a Lady" (1940) and the Charles Boyer adaptation "The Constant Nymph" (1943). Muir more recently worked on the Jeremy Irons dramatic adaptation "Betrayal" (1983). Muir was married to Henry Jaffee and had three children. Muir passed away in July 1996 at the age of 85.- Birthplace: Suffern, New York, USA
31Jean-Claude Killy
- 32Jean Elizabeth Spangler (September 2, 1923 ā disappeared October 7, 1949) was an American dancer, model, and actress who appeared in bit parts in several Hollywood films in the late 1940s. She garnered public attention for her mysterious disappearance in the fall of 1949. Born in Seattle, Washington, she attended high school in Los Angeles, California, before beginning a career in film in 1948, appearing as a dancer in several uncredited roles, including in Walter Lang's When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948), the comedy Chicken Every Sunday (1949), and the musical drama Young Man with a Horn (1950). On the evening of October 7, 1949, Spangler left her home in Los Angeles, telling her sister-in-law that she was going to meet with her ex-husband before going to work as an extra on a film set. She was last seen alive at a grocery store several blocks from her home at approximately 6:00 p.m. Two days later, Spangler's tattered purse was discovered in a remote area of Griffith Park, approximately 5.5 miles (8.9 km) from her home; inside was a letter addressed to a "Kirk," which mentioned seeing a doctor. Given Spangler's recent work on the film Young Man with a Horn starring Kirk Douglas, he called police to clear his name, telling them he was in Palm Springs at the time, which police accepted.Spangler's disappearance generated various theories, which ranged from her alleged death in a botched abortion to her fleeing with Los Angeles gangsters with whom she was acquainted. To date, no additional evidence has been uncovered in Spangler's case, and her whereabouts remain unknown.
- Birthplace: USA, Washington, Seattle
- 33Jean-Thenistor Pascal (born October 28, 1982) is a Haitian Canadian professional boxer. He has held the WBA interim light-heavyweight title since August 2019, previously held the WBC, IBO, The Ring and lineal light-heavyweight titles between 2009 and 2011, and challenged once for the WBC super-middleweight title in 2008.
- Birthplace: Port-au-Prince, Haiti
- 34Jean Maurice EugĆØne ClĆ©ment Cocteau (French: [ŹÉĢ kÉkto]; 5 July 1889 ā 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. Cocteau is best known for his novels Le Grand Ćcart (1923), Le Livre Blanc (1928), and Les Enfants Terribles (1929); the stage plays La Voix Humaine (1930), La Machine Infernale (1934), Les Parents terribles (1938), La Machine Ć Ć©crire (1941), and L'Aigle Ć deux tĆŖtes (1946); and the films The Blood of a Poet (1930), Les Parents Terribles (1948), from his own eponymous piĆ©ce, Beauty and the Beast (1946), Orpheus (1949), and Testament of Orpheus (1960), which alongside Blood of a Poet and Orpheus constitute the so-called Orphic Trilogy. He was described as "one of [the] avant-garde's most successful and influential filmmakers" by AllMovie.
- Birthplace: Maisons-Laffitte, France
- 35Although he harbored a desire to act, Jean Marais was rejected by the top drama schools in France. The son of a doctor from whom his mother separated in 1917, he came to the attention of film director Maurice L'Herbier who cast him in small roles in "L'Epervier" and "L'Aventurier" (both 1933). Marais worked at the theater run by Charles Dullin in return for acting classes and a chance to play minor stage roles. In 1937, the actor met the man who would change his life--poet, playwright and designer Jean Cocteau. They became lovers and Cocteau began to utilize the handsome Marais in various stage productions like "Oedipe Roi" and as Sir Galahad in "Les Chevaliers de la table rond." The writer created the role of the smothered son in "Les Parents terribles" especially for the actor, which proved an artistic high point for both. With his striking looks, ethereal charm and vulnerability, Marais proved a perfect choice to embody Cocteau's tragic heroes. He first made his mark in the author's retelling of the Tristan and Isolde myth in "L'Eternal retourne/The Eternal Return" (1943), directed by Jean Delannoy. But perhaps their best-known collaboration remains the poetic masterpiece "La Belle et la bete/Beauty and the Beast" (1945). Of their remaining films together, the 1948 version of "Les parents terribles" ranks as the best. By the time of "Orphee" (1949), their personal relationship was ending, although they remained close friends. The 1950s saw Marais undertake swashbuckling roles and become France's version of Errol Flynn in a number of popular but critically-derided vehicles like "The Count of Monte Cristo" (1954) and "Le Bossu" (1959). On the advice of Cocteau, he accepted the role of "Fantomas" in the 1964 remake and went on to essay the athletic master criminal in several sequels. In 1970, Jacques Demy tapped him to appear as the widowed king seeking a new queen in the fairy tale "Peau d'ane/Donkey Skin," which was an homage to Cocteau. By then, though, his film career was all but over and Marais returned to the stage, reviving Cocteau plays and appearing as "King Lear." He reteamed with Demy to play the Devil in "Parking" (1985), an ill-advised musical version of "Orphee." His last screen appearances were in Claude Lelouch's "Les Miserables" (1994) and Bernardo Bertolucci's "Stealing Beauty" (1995).
- Birthplace: Cherbourg, France
- 36Jean Genet (French: [ŹÉĢ ŹÉnÉ]; (1910-12-19)19 December 1910 ā (1986-04-15)15 April 1986) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. Early in his life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later took to writing. His major works include the novels The Thief's Journal and Our Lady of the Flowers, and the plays The Balcony, The Maids and The Screens.
- Birthplace: France, Paris
- 37Tsidi Ibrahim, November 26, 1976), known professionally as Jean Grae (formerly What? What?), is an American hip hop recording artist, emcee, producer, actress, and comedian from Brooklyn, New York City. She rose to prominence in the underground hip hop scene in New York City and has since built an international fanbase. She is known as an important figure in hip hop and popular culture. Grae, unlike many rappers and emcees, take to rapping about nuances in Black heterosexual relationship in an effort to "rupture the normative narratives of black sexuality" and resist the bondage of heteronormativity. Evident of this is how she adopts the language of men to "assert her mastery over lyricism and her desire for both men and women". Nonetheless, her unique music style, gritty rhymes and lyrical mastery has earned her recognition as favorite emcee among many rap artists such as Talib Kweli, Jay-Z and Black Thought of the Roots.
- Birthplace: South Africa, Cape Town
- 38Jean-Michel Basquiat (French: [ŹÉĢ miŹÉl baskija]; December 22, 1960 ā August 12, 1988) was an American artist of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent. Basquiat first achieved fame as part of SAMO, an informal graffiti duo who wrote enigmatic epigrams in the cultural hotbed of the Lower East Side of Manhattan during the late 1970s, where rap, punk, and street art coalesced into early hip-hop music culture. By the 1980s, his neo-expressionist paintings were being exhibited in galleries and museums internationally. The Whitney Museum of American Art held a retrospective of his art in 1992. Basquiat's art focused on dichotomies such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience. He appropriated poetry, drawing, and painting, and married text and image, abstraction, figuration, and historical information mixed with contemporary critique. Basquiat used social commentary in his paintings as a tool for introspection and for identifying with his experiences in the black community of his time, as well as attacks on power structures and systems of racism. Basquiat's visual poetics were acutely political and direct in their criticism of colonialism and support for class struggle. He died of a heroin overdose at his art studio at the age of 27. On May 18, 2017, at a Sotheby's auction, a 1982 painting by Basquiat depicting a black skull with red and black rivulets (Untitled) set a new record high for any American artist at auction, selling for $110.5 million. Basquiat's art has inspired many in the hip hop music community such as Jay-Z.
- Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
- 39Jean Frances Speegle Howard (January 31, 1927 ā September 2, 2000) was an American actress who acted primarily in film and on television. Howard made appearances in over 30 television shows, mostly sitcoms, such as Married... with Children (1994ā1996), but she also had guest spots on such series as Grace Under Fire (1993) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) beginning from 1975 (mostly during the 1980s and 1990s) until her death.
- Birthplace: USA, Oklahoma, Duncan
- 40Jean Piaget (UK: , US: , French: [ŹÉĢ pjaŹÉ]; 9 August 1896 ā 16 September 1980) was a Swiss psychologist known for his work on child development. Piaget's theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology". Piaget placed great importance on the education of children. As the Director of the International Bureau of Education, he declared in 1934 that "only education is capable of saving our societies from possible collapse, whether violent, or gradual." His theory of child development is studied in pre-service education programs. Educators continue to incorporate constructivist-based strategies. Piaget created the International Center for Genetic Epistemology in Geneva in 1955 while on the faculty of the University of Geneva and directed the Center until his death in 1980. The number of collaborations that its founding made possible, and their impact, ultimately led to the Center being referred to in the scholarly literature as "Piaget's factory".According to Ernst von Glasersfeld, Jean Piaget was "the great pioneer of the constructivist theory of knowing." However, his ideas did not become widely popularized until the 1960s. This then led to the emergence of the study of development as a major sub-discipline in psychology. By the end of the 20th century, Piaget was second only to B. F. Skinner as the most cited psychologist of that era.
- Birthplace: NeuchĆ¢tel, Switzerland
- 41
Jean Todt
02/25/1946Jean Todt (born 25 February 1946) is a former rally co-pilot who went on to become Peugeot Talbot Sport's Director and then the Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1 team principal, before being appointed Chief Executive Officer of Ferrari from 2004 to 2008. In October 2009, he was elected President of the FƩdƩration Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), a position to which he was re-elected in December 2013 and December 2017. Under his leadership, Peugeot won 4 World Rally Championship titles (drivers and manufacturers), won the Paris-Dakar Rally 4 times, and twice won the Le Mans 24 Hours. During his time in charge, Ferrari won 14 Formula One World Championship titles (drivers and manufacturers). It is also under his leadership that Michael Schumacher won five consecutive World Drivers' Championships, from 2000 to 2004 and obtained 72 of his 91 victories. On 29 April 2015, Jean Todt was appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations as its Special Envoy for Road Safety.Jean Todt has been living with the Malaysian actress and producer Michelle Yeoh since 2004. He has a son Nicolas, born in 1977, who shares his passion for Motorsport.- Birthplace: Pierrefort, France
- 42Joseph Gilbert Yvon Jean Ratelle (born October 3, 1940) is a former Canadian ice hockey player and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. In twenty-one seasons he averaged almost a point a game and won the Lady Byng Trophy twice in recognition of his great sportsmanship. In 2017 he was named one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players" in history.
- Birthplace: Lake Saint-Jean, Canada
- 43A genuine class act, Jean Marsh won raves in her native England and on American soil for taking on nuanced roles onscreen. The Emmy Award-winning actress first made her mark in British productions, from Shakespearean stage revivals, to sci-fi epics, to costume dramas. However, it was Marsh's breakout performance on "Upstairs, Downstairs" (ITV, 1971-75), a period drama series she also created, that earned the actress favorable reviews on both sides of the Atlantic. Her role as a prim and proper housemaid to an aristocratic British family won Marsh an Emmy in 1975, establishing her presence in Hollywood. She parlayed her success on British television into big screen projects, often playing the villain in feature films such as "Return to Oz" (1985) and "Willow" (1985). In 2010, Marsh starred on the three-part revival of "Upstairs, Downstairs," which garnered more critical praise and gave her the opportunity to reprise one of the best characters in her long revered career.
- Birthplace: Stoke Newington, London, England, UK
- 44Jean Dominique Antony Metzinger (French: [mÉtsÉĢŹe]; 24 June 1883 ā 3 November 1956) was a major 20th-century French painter, theorist, writer, critic and poet, who along with Albert Gleizes wrote the first theoretical work on Cubism. His earliest works, from 1900 to 1904, were influenced by the Neo-impressionism of Georges Seurat and Henri-Edmond Cross. Between 1904 and 1907 Metzinger worked in the Divisionist and Fauvist styles with a strong CĆ©zannian component, leading to some of the first proto-Cubist works. From 1908 Metzinger experimented with the faceting of form, a style that would soon become known as Cubism. His early involvement in Cubism saw him both as an influential artist and an important theorist of the movement. The idea of moving around an object in order to see it from different view-points is treated, for the first time, in Metzinger's Note sur la Peinture, published in 1910. Before the emergence of Cubism, painters worked from the limiting factor of a single view-point. Metzinger, for the first time, in Note sur la peinture, enunciated the interest in representing objects as remembered from successive and subjective experiences within the context of both space and time. Jean Metzinger and Albert Gleizes wrote the first major treatise on Cubism in 1912, entitled Du "Cubisme". Metzinger was a founding member of the Section d'Or group of artists. Metzinger was at the center of Cubism both because of his participation and identification of the movement when it first emerged, because of his role as intermediary among the Bateau-Lavoir group and the Section d'Or Cubists, and above all because of his artistic personality. During the First World War Metzinger furthered his role as a leading Cubist with his co-founding of the second phase of the movement, referred to as Crystal Cubism. He recognized the importance of mathematics in art, through a radical geometrization of form as an underlying architectural basis for his wartime compositions. The establishing of the basis of this new perspective, and the principles upon which an essentially non-representational art could be built, led to La Peinture et ses lois (Painting and its Laws), written by Albert Gleizes in 1922ā23. As post-war reconstruction began, a series of exhibitions at LĆ©once Rosenberg's Galerie de L'Effort Moderne were to highlight order and allegiance to the aesthetically pure. The collective phenomenon of Cubismānow in its advanced revisionist formābecame part of a widely discussed development in French culture, with Metzinger at its helm. Crystal Cubism was the culmination of a continuous narrowing of scope in the name of a return to order; based upon the observation of the artist's relation to nature, rather than on the nature of reality itself. In terms of the separation of culture and life, this period emerges as the most important in the history of Modernism.For Metzinger, the classical vision had been an incomplete representation of real things, based on an incomplete set of laws, postulates and theorems. He believed the world was dynamic and changing in time, that it appeared different depending on the point of view of the observer. Each of these viewpoints were equally valid according to underlying symmetries inherent in nature. For inspiration, Niels Bohr, the Danish physicist and one of the principle founders of quantum mechanics, hung in his office a large painting by Metzinger, La Femme au Cheval, a conspicuous early example of "mobile perspective" implementation (also called simultaneity).
- Birthplace: Nantes, France
- 45Jean Marie Auel (; nƩe Untinen; born February 18, 1936) is an American writer who wrote the Earth's Children books, a series of novels set in prehistoric Europe that explores human activities during this time, and touches on the interactions of Cro-Magnon people with Neanderthals. Her books have sold more than 45 million copies worldwide.
- Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
- 46Former painter turned Hollywood director who moved to the US in 1927 and began his film career as a sketch artist for title designs and montage sequences. Negulesco later worked as an assistant producer, second unit director and co-screenwriter before making his first directorial effort, "Singapore Woman," in 1941. Negulesco did some of his finest directing for Warner Bros. in the 1940s, showing a flair for polished melodrama and film noir. The complexly plotted "The Mask of Dimitrios" (1944) was an admirable showcase for a debuting Zachary Scott and the Warner Bros. stock company, while "Three Strangers" (1946) brought together the formidable trio of Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet and Geraldine Fitzgerald in an unusual tale of cross and double-cross. Negulesco's talents for showcasing his female stars was confirmed with the touching Ida Lupino vehicle, "Deep Valley" (1947) and the admirably adult "Johnny Belinda" (1948) in which Jane Wyman gave a memorable Oscar-winning performance as a deaf-mute rape victim.
- Birthplace: Craiova, Romania
- 47Jean Nouvel is a French architect. Nouvel studied at the Ćcole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and was a founding member of Mars 1976 and Syndicat de l'Architecture. He has obtained a number of prestigious distinctions over the course of his career, including the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, the Wolf Prize in Arts in 2005 and the Pritzker Prize in 2008. A number of museums and architectural centres have presented retrospectives of his work.
- Birthplace: Fumel, France
- 48
Jean Patou
09/27/1887Jean Patou (pronounced [ŹÉĢ pa.tu]; 19 August 1880 - 8 March 1936) was a French fashion designer and founder of the Jean Patou brand.- Birthplace: Normandy
- 49Jean Poiret, born Jean PoirĆ©, (17 August 1926 ā 14 March 1992) was a French actor, director, and screenwriter. He is primarily known as the author of the original play La Cage Aux Folles.
- Birthplace: France, Paris
- 50
Jean Pronovost
12/18/1945Jean Joseph Denis Pronovost (born December 18, 1945) is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey right winger who played in the NHL for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Atlanta Flames and Washington Capitals.- Birthplace: Shawinigan, Canada
- 51Jean Raoul Robert Rochefort (French: [ŹĆ£ ŹÉŹ.fÉŹ]; 29 April 1930 ā 9 October 2017) was a French stage and screen actor. He received many accolades, including an Honorary CĆ©sar in 1999, during his career.
- Birthplace: France, Dinan
- 52Jeannette Mary Schmidt (born November 29, 1951) is an American politician who was a U.S. Representative for Ohio's 2nd congressional district, serving from 2005 to 2013. She is a member of the Republican Party. Schmidt is the second female Ohio Republican to be elected to Congress without succeeding her husband and the first woman to represent the Cincinnati area in the House. She won the Ohio 2nd congressional district seat in a special election on August 2, 2005, by 3.5 percentage points over Democrat and Iraq War veteran Paul Hackett, amid national attention to the race because of Hackett's strong views on the war. The margin of her victory led many Democrats to claim a victory for their party, since the district had been reliably Republican for the past 30 years, and to forecast trouble for the Republicans in 2006. Despite these forecasts, Schmidt defeated former representative Bob McEwen in a Republican primary in May 2006 and Democrat Victoria Wells Wulsin, a medical doctor, in 2006 with 50.4% of the vote. She was re-elected in 2008, winning with 45% of the vote, and in 2010, winning with 58.6%. On March 6, 2012, Schmidt was defeated for re-election in the GOP primary by Brad Wenstrup.
- Birthplace: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
- 53Ollie Imogene "Jean" Shepard (November 21, 1933 ā September 25, 2016) was an American honky tonk singer-songwriter who pioneered for women in country music. Shepard released a total of 73 singles to the Hot Country Songs chart, one of which reached the No. 1 spot. She recorded a total of 24 studio albums between 1956ā81, and became a member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1955. After Kitty Wells' 1952 breakthrough, Shepard quickly followed, and a national television gig and the Opry helped make her a star when few female country singers had enduring success. Her first hit, "A Dear John Letter", a 1953 duet with Ferlin Husky, was the first post-World War II record by a woman country artist to sell more than a million copies.
- Birthplace: Pauls Valley, Oklahoma
- 54Jean Rosemary Shrimpton (7 November 1942) is an English model and actress. She was an icon of Swinging London and is considered to be one of the world's first supermodels. She appeared on numerous magazine covers including Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Elle, Ladies' Home Journal, Newsweek, and Time. In 2009, Harper's Bazaar named Shrimpton one of the 26 best models of all time, and in 2012, TIME named her one of the 100 most influential fashion icons of all time. She starred alongside Paul Jones in the film Privilege (1967).
- Birthplace: Buckinghamshire, England
- 55Jean Sibelius (; Swedish pronunciation ), born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius (8 December 1865 ā 20 September 1957), was a Finnish composer and violinist of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely recognized as his country's greatest composer and, through his music, is often credited with having helped Finland to develop a national identity during its struggle for independence from Russia. The core of his oeuvre is his set of seven symphonies, which, like his other major works, are regularly performed and recorded in his home country and internationally. His other best-known compositions are Finlandia, the Karelia Suite, Valse triste, the Violin Concerto, the choral symphony Kullervo, and The Swan of Tuonela (from the LemminkƤinen Suite). Other works include pieces inspired by nature, Nordic mythology, and the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, over a hundred songs for voice and piano, incidental music for numerous plays, the opera Jungfrun i tornet (The Maiden in the Tower), chamber music, piano music, Masonic ritual music, and 21 publications of choral music. Sibelius composed prolifically until the mid-1920s, but after completing his Seventh Symphony (1924), the incidental music for The Tempest (1926) and the tone poem Tapiola (1926), he stopped producing major works in his last thirty years, a stunning and perplexing decline commonly referred to as "The Silence of JƤrvenpƤƤ", the location of his home. Although he is reputed to have stopped composing, he attempted to continue writing, including abortive efforts on an eighth symphony. In later life, he wrote Masonic music and re-edited some earlier works while retaining an active but not always favourable interest in new developments in music. The Finnish 100 mark note featured his image until 2002, when the euro was adopted. Since 2011, Finland has celebrated a Flag Day on 8 December, the composer's birthday, also known as the "Day of Finnish Music". In 2015, the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth, a number of special concerts and events were held, especially in the city of Helsinki.
- Birthplace: HƤmeenlinna, Finland
- 56
Jean Donovan
04/10/1953Jean Marie Donovan (April 10, 1953 ā December 2, 1980) was an American lay missionary who was beaten, raped, and murdered along with three fellow missionariesāIta Ford, Maura Clarke and Dorothy Kazelāby members of the military of El Salvador.- Birthplace: Westport, Connecticut
- 57Jean (or Janet) Clouet (1480ā1541) was a miniaturist and painter who worked in France during the High Renaissance. He was the father of FranƧois Clouet.
- Birthplace: Brussels, Belgium
- 58
Jean Darling
08/23/1922Jean Darling (August 23, 1922 ā September 4, 2015) was an American child actress who was a regular in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1927-29. Prior to her death, she was one of four surviving cast members from the silent era cast of Our Gang (Lassie Lou Ahern, Mildred Kornman and Dorothy Morrison being the others). At the time of her death in 2015, Darling was, along with Baby Peggy, one of the last surviving actors who worked in the silent film era.- Birthplace: USA, California, Santa Monica
- 59Jean de La Fontaine (UK: , US: , French: [ŹÉĢ d(É) la fÉĢtÉn]; 8 July 1621 ā 13 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his Fables, which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Europe and numerous alternative versions in France, and in French regional languages. After a long period of royal suspicion, he was admitted to the French Academy and his reputation in France has never faded since. Evidence of this is found in the many pictures and statues of the writer, as well as later depictions on medals, coins and postage stamps.
- Birthplace: ChĆ¢teau-Thierry, France
- 60Jean-Baptiste du Casse (2 August 1646 ā 25 June 1715) was a French buccaneer, admiral, and colonial administrator who served throughout the Atlantic World during the 17th and 18th centuries. Likely born 2 August 1646 in Saubusse, near Pau (BĆ©arn), to a Huguenot family, du Casse joined the French merchant marine and served in the East India Company and the slave-trading Compagnie du SĆ©nĆ©gal. Later, he joined the French Navy and took part in several victorious expeditions during the War of the League of Augsburg in the West Indies and Spanish South America. During the War of the Spanish Succession, he participated in several key naval battles, including the Battle of MĆ”laga and the siege of Barcelona. For his service, he was made a knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece by King Philip V of Spain. In the midst of these wars, he was Governor of the colony of Saint-Domingue from 1691-1703. He ended his military career at the rank of Lieutenant General of the naval forces (the highest naval military rank at the time in France, equivalent of a modern vice-admiral) and Commander of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis. He died on 25 June 1715 in Bourbon-l'Archambault, Auvergne.
- Birthplace: Bayonne, France
- 61Jean Kambanda (born October 19, 1955) was the Prime Minister in the caretaker government of Rwanda from the start of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. He is the only head of government to plead guilty to genocide, in the first group of such convictions since the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide came into effect in 1951. Kambanda holds a degree in commercial engineering and began his career as a low-level United Popular BPR banker, rising as a technocrat to become the chair of the bank. At the time of the April 1994 crisis he was vice president of the Butare section of the opposition Republican Democratic Movement (MDR). He was sworn in as prime minister on April 9, 1994 after the President, JuvƩnal Habyarimana, and former Prime Minister, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, were assassinated. The opposition MDR had been promised the prime ministerial post in the transitional government established by the Arusha accords, but Kambanda leapfrogged several levels in the party's hierarchy to take the job from the initial choice, Faustin Twagiramungu. He remained in the post for the hundred days of the genocide until July 19, 1994. After leaving office he fled the country.
- Birthplace: Butare Province, Rwanda
- 62Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (French: [ŹÉĢnoÉ”yst dominik ÉĢÉ”Ź]; 29 August 1780 ā 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassical painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic orthodoxy against the ascendant Romantic style. Although he considered himself a painter of history in the tradition of Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, it is his portraits, both painted and drawn, that are recognized as his greatest legacy. His expressive distortions of form and space made him an important precursor of modern art, influencing Picasso, Matisse and other modernists. Born into a modest family in Montauban, he travelled to Paris to study in the studio of David. In 1802 he made his Salon debut, and won the Prix de Rome for his painting The Ambassadors of Agamemnon in the tent of Achilles. By the time he departed in 1806 for his residency in Rome, his styleārevealing his close study of Italian and Flemish Renaissance mastersāwas fully developed, and would change little for the rest of his life. While working in Rome and subsequently Florence from 1806 to 1824, he regularly sent paintings to the Paris Salon, where they were faulted by critics who found his style bizarre and archaic. He received few commissions during this period for the history paintings he aspired to paint, but was able to support himself and his wife as a portrait painter and draughtsman. He was finally recognized at the Salon in 1824, when his Raphaelesque painting of the Vow of Louis XIII was met with acclaim, and Ingres was acknowledged as the leader of the Neoclassical school in France. Although the income from commissions for history paintings allowed him to paint fewer portraits, his Portrait of Monsieur Bertin marked his next popular success in 1833. The following year, his indignation at the harsh criticism of his ambitious composition The Martyrdom of Saint Symphorian caused him to return to Italy, where he assumed directorship of the French Academy in Rome in 1835. He returned to Paris for good in 1841. In his later years he painted new versions of many of his earlier compositions, a series of designs for stained glass windows, several important portraits of women, and The Turkish Bath, the last of his several Orientalist paintings of the female nude, which he finished at the age of 83.
- Birthplace: Montauban, France
- 63Jean Alesi (born Giovanni Alesi; 11 June 1964) is a French racing driver of Italian origin. His father, Franco, was a mechanic from Alcamo, Sicily, and his mother was from Riesi. After successes in the minor categories, notably winning the 1989 Formula 3000 Championship, his Formula One career included spells at Tyrrell, Benetton, Sauber, Prost, Jordan and Ferrari, where he proved very popular among the tifosi. During his spell at Ferrari from 1991 to 1995, his aggressive driving style, combined with the use of the number 27 on his car, led some journalists, and the tifosi, to compare him to Gilles Villeneuve and he won the 1995 Canadian Grand Prix, but this proved to be the only win of his Formula One career. During his time in Formula One, Alesi was particularly good in the wet, and was a mercurial and passionate racer, whose emotions sometimes got the better of him.After leaving Formula One, from 2002 to 2006 Alesi raced in the DTM championship, winning some races, and his best result was a fifth place in the drivers' championship. He raced in the Speedcar Series in 2008 and 2009, and raced at Le Mans in 2010. He raced in the Indianapolis 500 in 2012 and became the oldest professional driver to perform the rookie test for admission to the competition. For several years he was also a commentator for the Italian TV show Pole Position. In 2006 Alesi was awarded Chevalier de la LĆ©gion dāhonneur.
- Birthplace: France, Avignon
- 64
Jean Alexandre LeMat
06/09/1824Jean Alexandre Francois LeMat (1821ā1895) is best known for the percussion cap revolver that bears his name (see LeMat revolver).LeMat was born in France in 1821 and studied for the priesthood at an early age. He decided against it and became a doctor. LeMat immigrated to the United States in 1843 and in 1849 he married Justine Sophie LePretre, the cousin of U.S. Army Major Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard. Beauregard later led the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in 1861. LeMat was an avid inventor as well as a practicing physician and Beauregard financed some of these ideas. LeMat, secured US 15925 for his "Grapeshot revolver" design on October 21, 1856. British patents for the same design were issued in 1859, and he later designed a revolver rifle of similar concept as the handgun. He returned to France after the Civil War and led a legion of Americans during the Franco-Prussian War. While many sources list his year of death in 1883, the most credible sources note that his grave in Paris indicates he died in 1895.- Birthplace: Paris, France
- 65
Jean Baptiste KlƩber
03/09/1753Jean-Baptiste KlĆ©ber (IPA: [ŹÉĢ batist klebÉŹ]) (9 March 1753 ā 14 June 1800) was a French general during the French Revolutionary Wars. His military career started in Habsburg service, but his plebeian ancestry hindered his opportunities. Eventually, he volunteered for the French Army in 1792 and quickly rose through the ranks. KlĆ©ber served in the Rhineland during the War of the First Coalition, and also suppressed the Vendee Revolt. He retired to private life in the peaceful interim after the Treaty of Campo Formio, but returned to military service to accompany Napoleon in the Egyptian Campaign in 1798ā99. When Napoleon left Egypt to return to Paris, he appointed KlĆ©ber as commander of the French forces. He was assassinated by a student in Cairo in 1800. A trained architect, KlĆ©ber, in times of peace, designed a number of buildings.- Birthplace: Strasbourg, France
- 66Jean Bart (21 October 1650 ā 27 April 1702) was a French naval commander and privateer.
- Birthplace: Dunkirk, France
- 67Jean Baudrillard (UK: BOHD-rih-yar, US: BOHD-ree-AR, French: [ŹÉĢ bodŹijaŹ]; 27 July 1929 ā 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist, philosopher and cultural theorist. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as well as his formulation of concepts such as simulation and hyperreality. He wrote about diverse subjects, including consumerism, gender relations, economics, social history, art, Western foreign policy, and popular culture. Among his best known works are Simulacra and Simulation (1981), America (1986), and The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (1991). His work is frequently associated with postmodernism and specifically post-structuralism.
- Birthplace: Reims, France
- 68Jean-FranƧois Revel was a French journalist, author, philosopher and a member of the AcadƩmie franƧaise from June 1998 onwards. A socialist in his youth, Revel later became a prominent European proponent of classical liberalism and free market economics. Revel is best known for his books Without Marx or Jesus: The New American Revolution Has Begun, The Flight from Truth : The Reign of Deceit in the Age of Information and his 2002 book Anti-Americanism, one year after the September 11 attacks of 2001. In the last of these books, Revel criticized anti-Americanism and those Europeans who argued that the United States had brought the terrorist attacks upon itself through misguided foreign policies. He wrote thus: "Obsessed by their hatred and floundering in illogicality, these dupes forget that the United States, acting in its own self-interest, is also acting in the interest of us Europeans and in the interests of many other countries which are threatened, or have already been subverted and ruined, by terrorism." In 1975 he delivered the Huizinga Lecture in Leiden, The Netherlands, under the title: La tentation totalitaire.
- Birthplace: Marseille, France
- 69Amadou Jean Tigana (born 23 June 1955) is a former French international footballer, having played in midfield and managed professional football extensively throughout France, including 52 appearances and one goal for the France national football team during the 1980s. He most recently coached Chinese Super League outfit Shanghai Shenhua. In his prime, he was a tireless central midfielder, renowned as one of the best midfielders in the world during the 1980s.
- Birthplace: Bamako, Mali
- Jean de Segonzac (sometimes credited as Jean DeSegonzac) is an American director, screenwriter and cinematographer who has worked in documentaries and television programs. Most of his work has been in gritty, cinƩma vƩritƩ-style law enforcement TV dramas.
- 71Jean Kerr (July 10, 1922 ā January 5, 2003) was an Irish-American author and playwright born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and best known for her humorous bestseller, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, and the plays King of Hearts and Mary, Mary.
- Birthplace: Scranton, Pennsylvania
- 72Jean Marcel Lefebvre (October 3, 1919 in Valenciennes, Nord, France ā July 9, 2004 in Marrakesh, Morocco) was a French film actor. His erratic studies were interrupted by World War II. Taken prisoner and then requisitioned as a laborer, he escaped to join his family evacuated near ChĆ¢teauroux and Neuvy-Saint-SĆ©pulcre. He was a tram driver time in Limoges and seller of underwear. At the end of the war he returned to his home, in his house in Valenciennes, where he worked briefly for his father, and then entered the Conservatoire in Paris in 1948.
- Birthplace: Valenciennes, France
- 73
Jean ChrƩtien
01/11/1934Joseph Jacques Jean ChrĆ©tien (French pronunciation: ā[ŹÉĢ kŹetjÉĢ]; born January 11, 1934) is a Canadian politician who served as the 20th prime minister of Canada from November 4, 1993, to December 12, 2003. Born and raised in Shawinigan, Quebec, ChrĆ©tien is a law graduate from UniversitĆ© Laval. He was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada in 1963. He served in various cabinet posts under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, most prominently as Minister of Justice, Minister of Finance, and Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. He also served as Deputy Prime Minister in John Turner's short-lived government. He became leader of the Liberal Party of Canada in 1990, and led the party to a majority government in the 1993 federal election. He was reelected with further majorities in 1997 and 2000. ChrĆ©tien was strongly opposed to the Quebec sovereignty movement and supported official bilingualism and multiculturalism. He won a narrow victory as leader of the federalist camp in the 1995 Quebec referendum, and then pioneered the Clarity Act to avoid ambiguity in future referendum questions. He also advanced the Youth Criminal Justice Act in Parliament. Although his popularity and that of the Liberal Party were seemingly unchallenged for three consecutive federal elections, he became subject to various political controversies in the later years of his prime-ministership. He was accused of inappropriate behaviour in the Sponsorship scandal, although he has consistently denied any wrongdoing. He also became embroiled in a protracted struggle within the Liberal Party against long-time political rival Paul Martin. He resigned as prime minister in December 2003, and left public life altogether in order to spend more time with his grandchildren. In retrospective polling, ChrĆ©tien ranks highly among scholars and the public.- Birthplace: Shawinigan, Canada
