Famous People from United Kingdom

98 notable historical figures from United Kingdom, including leaders, artists, scientists, and other influential people.

Charlie Chaplin

1889 – 1977

English comic actor and filmmaker (1889–1977)

Born April 16

Winston Churchill

1874 – 1965

British statesman, soldier and writer (1874–1965)

Born November 30

Elizabeth II

1926 – 2022

Queen of the United Kingdom from 1952 to 2022

Born April 21

Jimmy Wales

1966 – Present

co-founder of Wikipedia (born 1966)

Born August 7

Oscar Wilde

1854 – 1900

Irish poet, playwright, and aesthete (1854–1900)

Born October 16

George Orwell

1903 – 1950

British writer and journalist (1903–1950)

Born June 25

Margaret Thatcher

1925 – 2013

British stateswoman and prime minister (1925–2013)

Born October 13

James Joyce

1882 – 1941

Irish novelist and poet (1882–1941)

Born February 2

J. R. R. Tolkien

1892 – 1973

English writer and philologist (1892–1973)

Born January 3

Stephen Hawking

1942 – 2018

British theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author (1942–2018)

Born January 8

Friedrich Engels

1820 – 1895

German philosopher, sociologist and economist (1820–1895)

Born November 28

Agatha Christie

1890 – 1976

English mystery and detective writer (1890–1976)

Born September 15

Alan Turing

1912 – 1954

English computer scientist (1912–1954)

Born June 23

Rudyard Kipling

1865 – 1936

English writer and poet (1865–1936)

Born December 30

George Bernard Shaw

1856 – 1950

Irish playwright, critic, and polemicist (1856–1950)

Born July 26

Bertrand Russell

1872 – 1970

British philosopher and logician (1872–1970)

Born May 18

Alfred Hitchcock

1899 – 1980

British filmmaker (1899–1980)

Born August 13

Arthur Conan Doyle

1859 – 1930

British writer and physician (1859–1930)

Born May 22

John Maynard Keynes

1883 – 1946

British economist (1883–1946)

Born June 5

Freddie Mercury

1946 – 1991

British singer, songwriter and musician, frontman of the rock band Queen (1946–1991)

Born September 5

Charles III

1948 – Present

King of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms since 2022 (born 1948)

Born November 14

Ludwig Wittgenstein

1889 – 1951

Austrian philosopher and logician (1889–1951)

Born April 26

Virginia Woolf

1882 – 1941

English modernist writer (1882–1941)

Born January 25

Tim Berners-Lee

1955 – Present

English computer scientist (born 1955)

Born June 8

Tony Blair

1953 – Present

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007

Born May 6

Stanley Kubrick

1928 – 1999

American filmmaker (1928–1999)

Born July 26

David Cameron

1966 – Present

British politician (born 1966)

Born October 9

Robert Louis Stevenson

1850 – 1894

Scottish novelist and poet (1850–1894)

Born November 13

Boris Johnson

1964 – Present

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2019 to 2022

Born June 19

Diana, Princess of Wales

1961 – 1997

member of the British royal family and Princess of Wales (1961–1997)

Born July 1

Paul McCartney

1942 – Present

English musician and member of the Beatles (born 1942)

Born June 18

Audrey Hepburn

1929 – 1993

British actress (1929–1993)

Born May 4

Theresa May

1956 – Present

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2016 to 2019

Born October 1

Elizabeth Taylor

1932 – 2011

British-American actress (1932–2011)

Born February 27

Emma Watson

1990 – Present

English model, activist, and former actress (born 1990)

Born April 15

Aldous Huxley

1894 – 1963

English writer and philosopher (1894–1963)

Born July 26

Rishi Sunak

1980 – Present

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2022 to 2024 and Leader of the Conservative Party (2022–2024)

Born May 12

Walter Scott

1771 – 1832

Scottish novelist, poet and playwright (1771–1832)

Born August 15

David Bowie

1947 – 2016

English musician and actor (1947–2016)

Born January 8

Richard Dawkins

1941 – Present

English ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author (born 1941)

Born March 26

David Beckham

1975 – Present

English footballer (born 1975)

Born May 2

Adele

1988 – Present

English singer-songwriter

Born May 5

Alexander Fleming

1881 – 1955

Scottish biologist, pharmacologist, botanist, and Nobel laureate (1881–1955)

Born August 6

Charlotte Rampling

1946 – Present

British actress (born 1946)

Born February 5

Douglas Adams

1952 – 2001

British science fiction writer and humorist (1952–2001)

Born March 11

Doris Lessing

1919 – 2013

British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer, and short story writer (1919–2013)

Born October 22

C. S. Lewis

1898 – 1963

British writer, lay theologian, and scholar (1898–1963)

Born November 29

Karl Popper

1902 – 1994

Austrian-British philosopher of science and social and política e falsificationism and for criticism of Plato, Hegel and Marx as totalitarian opponents of open society (1902-1994)

Born July 28

Joseph Conrad

1857 – 1924

Polish-British writer (1857–1924)

Born December 3

Gordon Brown

1951 – Present

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2010

Born February 20

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

1921 – 2021

consort of Elizabeth II from 1952 to 2021

Born June 10

George Harrison

1943 – 2001

English musician and member of the Beatles (1943–2001)

Born February 25

Salman Rushdie

1947 – Present

Indian-born British-American novelist (born 1947)

Born June 19

Arthur C. Clarke

1917 – 2008

British science fiction writer, inventor, and futurist (1917–2008)

Born December 16

Emma Goldman

1869 – 1940

Russian-born American anarchist (1869–1940)

Born June 27

Paul Dirac

1902 – 1984

British theoretical physicist (1902–1984)

Born August 8

Kylie Minogue

1968 – Present

Australian singer and actress (born 1968)

Born May 28

Keir Starmer

1962 – Present

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2024

Born September 2

Rowan Atkinson

1955 – Present

English actor, comedian, and screenwriter (born 1955)

Born January 6

John Galsworthy

1867 – 1933

English novelist and playwright (1867-1933)

Born August 14

Neville Chamberlain

1869 – 1940

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1937 to 1940

Born March 18

Max Born

1882 – 1970

German-Jewish physicist and mathematician (1882-1970)

Born December 11

George VI

1895 – 1952

King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions from 1936 to 1952, Emperor of India from 1936 to 1948 (1895–1952)

Born December 14

Liz Truss

1975 – Present

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 2022

Born July 26

Jane Goodall

1934 – 2025

English primatologist and anthropologist (1934–2025)

Born April 3

William Golding

1911 – 1993

British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate (1911–1993)

Born September 19

Anthony Hopkins

1937 – Present

Welsh–American actor and director (born 1937)

Born December 31

G. K. Chesterton

1874 – 1936

English author and Christian apologist (1874–1936)

Born May 29

Thomas Hardy

1840 – 1928

English novelist and poet (1840–1928)

Born June 2

Ringo Starr

1940 – Present

British musician, drummer for the Beatles (born 1940)

Born July 7

Elton John

1947 – Present

British singer, songwriter and musician

Born March 25

John Ruskin

1819 – 1900

English writer and art critic (1819–1900)

Born February 8

William Somerset Maugham

1874 – 1965

English playwright and author (1874–1965)

Born January 25

Alex Ferguson

1941 – Present

Scottish association football manager and player

Born December 31

Daniel Radcliffe

1989 – Present

British actor and film producer (born 1989)

Born July 23

Elias Canetti

1905 – 1994

Bulgarian-born Swiss and British Jewish modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and non-fiction writer (1905–1994)

Born July 25

Rosalind Franklin

1920 – 1958

British chemist, biophysicist, and X-ray crystallographer (1920–1958)

Born July 25

William, Prince of Wales

1982 – Present

heir apparent to the throne of the United Kingdom and 14 Commonwealth Realms

Born June 21

Graham Greene

1904 – 1991

British writer, playwright and literary critic (1904–1991)

Born October 2

Friedrich Hayek

1899 – 1992

Austrian and British economist (1899–1992)

Born May 8

Christopher Lee

1922 – 2015

English actor and singer (1922–2015)

Born May 27

V. S. Naipaul

1932 – 2018

Trinidadian-British writer (1932–2018)

Born August 17

George V

1865 – 1936

King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India (1865–1936)

Born June 3

Michael Caine

1933 – Present

English actor (born 1933)

Born March 14