List of Famous people born in France

Patrice Chéreau was a French opera and theatre director, filmmaker, actor and producer. In France he is best known for his work for the theatre, internationally for his films La Reine Margot and Intimacy, and for his staging of the Jahrhundertring, the centenary Ring Cycle at the Bayreuth Festival in 1976. Winner of almost twenty movie awards, including the Cannes Jury Prize and the Golden Berlin Bear, Chéreau served as president of the jury at the 2003 Cannes festival.

Charles-Marie Vanel was a French actor and director. During his 76-year film career, which began in 1912, he appeared in more than 200 films and worked with many prominent directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, Luis Buñuel, Jacques Feyder, and Henri-Georges Clouzot. He is perhaps best remembered for his role as a desperate truck driver in Clouzot's The Wages of Fear for which he received a Special Mention at the Cannes Film Festival in 1953.

Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, comtesse de La Fayette, better known as Madame de La Fayette, was a French writer; she authored La Princesse de Clèves, France's first historical novel and one of the earliest novels in literature.

Loup-Denis Elion is a French actor and singer.

André Cognat, also known as Antecume, was the French Guinean chief of a Wayana tribe in Antecume Pata, French Guiana, France.

Charles, nicknamed the Bold, was the Duke of Burgundy from 1467 to 1477.

John I, called the Posthumous, was king of France and Navarre, as the posthumous son and successor of Louis X, for the five days he lived in 1316. He is the youngest person to be king of France, the only one to have borne that title from birth, and the only one to hold the title for his entire life. His reign is the shortest of any French king. Although considered a king today, his status was not recognized until chroniclers and historians in later centuries began numbering John II, thereby acknowledging John I's brief reign.

Hedi Slimane is a French photographer and fashion designer. From 2000 to 2007, he held the position of creative director for Dior Homme. From 2012 to 2016, he was the creative director for Yves Saint Laurent. Since February 1, 2018, Slimane has been the creative, artistic and image director of Celine.

Tony Chapron is a French former football referee.

Thierry Mariani is a French politician. He was Secretary of State for Transport for the Minister of Ecology, Sustainable development, Transport and Housing in the François Fillon III government, and a member of The Republicans, until joining the National Rally's list for the European election in January 2019.