List of Famous people who born in 1938

Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal and the Jerusalem Prize (2019). Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000) and short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize.

Francisco Nicholson was a Portuguese actor, director, playwright, songwriter and screenwriter. He was a co-founder of the Teatro Ádóque theatre cooperative. He wrote, directed, and acted in revues and was a writer of television soap operas, among many other accomplishments.

Gianni Lunadei was an Italian Argentine actor. He is considered as one of the most versatile actors of his generation, and is best known for his work in Argentine comedy.

Timo Mäkinen was one of the original "Flying Finns" of motor rallying. He is most famous for his hat-tricks of wins in the RAC Rally and the 1000 Lakes Rally.

Patrice Gélard was a French politician who served as a member of the Senate of France. He represented the Seine-Maritime constituency and was a member of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) Party.

José João Altafini, also known as "Mazzola" in Brazil, is an Italian-Brazilian former footballer, who played as a forward. Although he began his career with Palmeiras in Brazil, he soon moved to play football in Italy, and is mostly remembered for his highly successful stint with Italian club A.C. Milan, with which he achieved great domestic and international success; he later also played for Napoli and Juventus, before ending his career in Switzerland with spells at Chiasso and Mendrisiostar. A highly prolific goalscorer, Altafini also held the record for the most goals scored in a single European Cup campaign for over 50 years; he is also one of only eight players to have scored five goals in a single European Cup match. He is the joint-fourth highest scorer in Italian Serie A history with 216 goals, and also holds the record for being the fifth-youngest player in Serie A history to score 100 goals, a feat which he managed at the age of 24 years and 239 days. At international level, he represented both Brazil and Italy; he was a member of the Brazilian side that won the 1958 FIFA World Cup, and later also represented Italy at the 1962 FIFA World Cup.

Jean-Claude Labrecque, was a director and cinematographer who learned the basics of filmmaking at the National Film Board of Canada.

Peter Kassovitz is a Hungarian-French film director and scriptwriter.

Ramiz Anvar oglu Mehdiyev is an Azerbaijani politician and academician who is the current President of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan and who served as the Head of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan from 1994 to 2019.

Pierre Pascau was a Mauritian-Canadian journalist.