List of Famous people who born in 1940

Toshihide Maskawa is a Japanese theoretical physicist known for his work on CP-violation who was awarded one quarter of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics "for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature."

Hans-Olaf Henkel is a German politician, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Germany and a publicist. He was formerly a manager at IBM, president of the Federation of German Industries and president of the Leibniz Association. After decades as a political observer, he was elected to the European Parliament in 2014 for the AfD. In response to the election of Frauke Petry as the new federal chairman in July 2015, he resigned from the AfD. He is now an independent member of the European Conservatives and Reformists.

Lion Izmailov, real name Lion Moiseevich Polyak ; born May 5, 1940, Moscow) is a Soviet and Russian satirist writer, screenwriter and entertainer.

Yok Mu-ming is a Taiwanese politician and was the chairman of the New Party from 2003 to February 2020.

Richard Kinard Sanders is an American actor and screenwriter. He played quirky news anchorman Les Nessman on the CBS sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati (1978–1982).

Sir William Nigel Paul Cash is a British Conservative politician who has served as a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1984. He was first elected for Stafford and then for Stone in Staffordshire in 1997. Cash is a prominent Eurosceptic in the House of Commons. After his tenth election victory in the 2019 general election, aged 79, Cash became the oldest sitting member of the House of Commons.

Danièle Sallenave is a French novelist and journalist. In April 2011, she became a member of the Académie française. In 1980 Sallenave received the Prix Renaudot for her novel Les Portes de Gubbio.

Adalberto Luis Brandoni is an Argentine actor and politician.

Vera Wilhelmowna Rust Tschechowa is a German film actress. She has appeared in more than 50 films since 1957.

Arthur Betz Laffer is an American economist and author who first gained prominence during the Reagan administration as a member of Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board (1981–89). Laffer is best known for the Laffer curve, an illustration of the concept that there exists some tax rate between 0% and 100% that will result in maximum tax revenue for government. In certain circumstances, this would allow governments to cut taxes, and simultaneously increase revenue and economic growth.