List of Famous people born in France

Marcelle Auclair was a French novelist, biographer, journalist and poet. She published biographies of several important historical figures, translated major historical/literary documents into French from Spanish, and wrote a novel. She also published an autobiographical work, two books on popular psychology, a religious book for children, a book on artistic images of Jesus. Several of her books were translated into English. She was co-founder with Jean Prouvost of the fashion magazine Marie Claire.

Théodore Claude Henri, vicomte Hersart de la Villemarqué was a Breton philologist and man of letters.

Jean-Léon Gérôme was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as academicism. His paintings were so widely reproduced that he was "arguably the world's most famous living artist by 1880." The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits, and other subjects, bringing the academic painting tradition to an artistic climax. He is considered one of the most important painters from this academic period. He was also a teacher with a long list of students.

French writer Jacques Natanson first became involved in the movies in 1929 when one of his plays was adapted for the screen. He enjoyed a fruitful collaboration with Max Ophüls, on such films as "La Ronde", "Le Plaisir" (1952) and "Lola Montès" (1955).

Robert Baldwin Ross was a Canadian-British journalist, art critic and art dealer, best known for his relationship with Oscar Wilde, to whom he was a devoted friend, and literary executor. A grandson of the Canadian reform leader Robert Baldwin, and son of John Ross and Augusta Elizabeth Baldwin, Ross was a pivotal figure on the London literary and artistic scene from the mid-1890s to his early death, and mentored several literary figures, including Siegfried Sassoon. His open homosexuality, in a period when male homosexual acts were illegal, brought him many hardships.

Robert Pellevé de La Motte-Ango, marquis de Flers was a French playwright, opera librettist, and journalist.