This is a list of notable people from Brussels, Belgium.
Patroness of Brussels Saint Gudula, patron saint of the city and national saint of Belgium
Political leaders in Brussels
Belgian monarchs
The Belgian monarchs reside in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. They were all born in Brussels (except for Leopold I).
Leopold I (1790–1865), the first King of the Belgians Leopold II (1835–1909), the second King of the Belgians Albert I (1875–1934), the third King of the Belgians Leopold III (1901–1983), the fourth King of the Belgians Baudouin (1930–1993), the fifth King of the Belgians Albert II (born 1934; abdicated 2013), the sixth King of the Belgians Philippe (born 1960), the seventh King of the Belgians
Minister-Presidents of Brussels
Charles Picqué (PS) (1989–1999) Jacques Simonet (MR) (1999–2000) François-Xavier de Donnéa (MR) (2000–2003) Daniel Ducarme (MR) (2003–2004) Jacques Simonet (MR) (2004) (replaced Daniel Ducarme who resigned) Charles Picqué (PS) (2004–2013) Rudi Vervoort (PS) (2013–2026) Boris Dilliès (MR) (2026–present)
Governors of Brussels
André Degroeve (1995–1998) Raymonde Dury (1998) (resigned) Véronique Paulus de Châtelet (1998–2009) Hugo Nys (2009–2010) (acting) Jean Clément (2010–2014) (acting)
Mayors of Brussels
Joseph Van De Meulebroeck (lib.) (1939–1956) Lucien Cooremans (lib.) (1956–1975) Pierre Van Halteren (lib.) (1975–1983) Hervé Brouhon (PS) (1983–1993) (died in office) Michel Demaret (PSC–CVP) (1993–1994) Freddy Thielemans (PS) (1994–1995) François-Xavier de Donnéa (MR) (1995–2000) Freddy Thielemans (PS) (2001–2013) Yvan Mayeur (PS) (2013–2017) Philippe Close (PS) (2017–present)
Born in Brussels Following notable people were born in the area today known as the Brussels-Capital Region.
Royals Mary of Burgundy (1457–1482), Duchess of Burgundy from 1477–1482 Charles VII (1697–1745), Holy Roman Emperor Charles Eugene (1728–1793), Duke of Württemberg Princess Joséphine-Charlotte of Belgium (1927–2005), Grand Duchess of Luxembourg Princess Luisa Maria at Clinique Saint Jean in 1995 Princess Laetitia Maria at Clinique Saint Jean in 2003
Politicians Paul Deschanel (1855–1922), president of France (1920) Antoine Duquesne (1941–2010), Belgian MP and Senator, Member of the European Parliament Pierre Harmel (1911–2009), Prime Minister of Belgium (1965–1966) Marie Janson (1873–1960), politician Paul-Emile Janson (1872–1944), Prime Minister of Belgium (1937–1938) Philippe Lamberts (born 1963), politician Adolphe Max (1869–1939), politician and Mayor of Brussels from 1909 until 1939 Amal mint Maouloud (born 1983), Mauritanian engineer and politician Annemie Neyts (born 1944), politician, former president of the Liberal International, president of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb (1936–2023), politician Étienne Pinte (born 1939), French MP and mayor of Versailles Paul-Henri Spaak (1899–1972), Prime Minister of Belgium (1938–1939, 1946 and 1947–1949), President of the United Nations General Assembly (1946–1957), Secretary-General of NATO (1957–1961) Emile Vandervelde (1866–1938), President from 1900 of the Second International
Artists
Cinema Chantal Akerman (1950–2015), filmmaker and director Patrick Bauchau (born 1938), actor Gérard Corbiau (born 1941), film director Thierry De Mey (born 1956), film director and composer Jacques Feyder (1885–1948), screenwriter and international film director, one of the founders of poetic realism in French cinema Fernand Gravey (1904–1970), also known as Fernand Gravet, film actor Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993), Anglo-Dutch actress, fashion model, and humanitarian Helena Noguerra (born 1969), actress, singer and television presenter Raymond Rouleau (1904–1981), actor and film director Jean-Claude Van Damme (born 1960), actor, nicknamed "The Muscles from Brussels" Jaco Van Dormael (born 1957 in Ixelles), film director Alexandra Vandernoot (born 1965), actress Agnès Varda (1928–2019), French film director
Performance / dance Akarova (Marguerite Acarin, 1904–1991), dancer, choreographer and artist Jan De Cock (born 1976), visual artist Clémentine de Vère (1888–1973), magician and illusionist Hilda Madsen (1910–1981), British-American artist and dog breeder
Music Stromae (Paul van Haver) (born 1985) musician Plastic Bertrand (Roger Jouret) (born 1958), rock musician Jacques Brel (1929–1978), singer-songwriter and actor Jean-Luc De Meyer (born 1963), musician, lead singer of Front 242 Lara Fabian (born Lara Crokaert, 1970), singer Richard Jonckheere (born 1965), musician, member of Front 242 Magali Luyten (born 1978), singer Victor-Charles Mahillon (1841–1924), musician and writer on musical topics Brian Molko (born 1972), songwriter, lead vocalist and guitarist of the band Placebo Pierre Rapsat (1948–2002), singer and musician The Singing Nun (Jeanine Deckers) (1933–1985), member of a Dominican Convent, famous for her song "Dominique" Edna Stern (born 1977), pianist Toots Thielemans (1922–2016), jazz musician Tonia (born Arlette Antoine Dominicus, 1947), singer Angèle Van Laeken (born 1995), singer-songwriter Ghalia Volt (born 1982), blues rock musician and songwriter Régine Zylberberg (1929–2022), pioneer of the modern nightclub Penelope Antena (born 1987), musician
Painting / sculpture / architecture / other Pierre Alechinsky (born 1927), artist Richard Aurili, (1864–1943), sculptor Colijn de Coter (c. 1446–1538), Renaissance painter Lodewijk de Vadder (1605–1655), landscape painter Francois Duquesnoy (1597–1643), sculptor Alfred Jonniaux (1882–1974), portrait painter Constantin Meunier (1831–1905), painter and sculptor Joseph Noiret (1927–2012), painter, writer and poet Joseph Poelaert (1817–1879), architect, author of the Palace of Justice Hugo Puttaert (born 1960), graphic designer Paul Saintenoy (1862–1952), architect Jean Henri Simon (1752–1834), engraver and soldier Jean Stevo (1914–1974), painter and engraver Arnt van der Dussen, medieval tapestry maker Juliette Wytsman (1866–1925), painter Sophie Alouf-Bertot (born 1945), painter and graphic designer
Fashion Liz Claiborne (1929–2007), fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg (born 1946), Belgian-American fashion designer Stella Maxwell (born 1990), Belgian born British fashion model
Literature / cartoon Julio Cortázar (1914–1984), Argentine novelist and poet Jacques Danois (1927–2008), actor, journalist, writer Michel De Ghelderode (1898–1962), dramatist André Fontainas (1865–1948), Symbolist poet and critic André Franquin (1924–1997), cartoonist Jacqueline Harpman (1929–2012), novelist Hergé (Georges Remi) (1907–1983), Belgian cartoonist, creator of The Adventures of Tintin Edgar P. Jacobs (1904–1987), comics writer, created the series that made him famous, Blake and Mortimer Auguste Jouhaud (1805–1888), writer and playwright Camille Lemonnier (1844–1913), writer Pierre Mertens (born 1939), writer, director of the Centre de sociologie de la littérature at the Université libre de Bruxelles Henri Horace Meyer (1801–1870), French dramatist and novelist Jeanine Moulin (1912–1998), poet and literary scholar Paul Nougé (1895–1967), surrealist poet and philosopher Hubert Nyssen (1925–2011), Belgian-French writer Peyo (Pierre Culliford) (1928–1992), illustrator and creator of The Smurfs Edmond Picard (1836–1924), jurist and writer François Schuiten (born 1956), comics artist Benoît Sokal (1954–2021), Belgian comic artist and video game developer Charles Spaak (1903–1975), screenwriter Philippe Tome (Philippe Vandevelde) (1957–2019), comic strip writer Jean-Philippe Toussaint (born 1957), writer, Prix Médicis 2005 Jean Van Hamme (born 1939), novelist and scenario writer of comic books Geert van Istendael (born 1947), writer François Weyergans (1941–2019), writer, Prix Goncourt 2005 Marguerite Yourcenar (1903–1987), French writer and first female member of the Académie française
Scientists Jean-Jacques Cassiman (1943–2022), researcher and professor of human genetics François d'Aguilon or Aguilonius (1546–1617), mathematician and physicist Pierre Deligne (born 1944), mathematician François Englert (1932–2026), Nobel Prize in Physics 2013 Robert Goldschmidt (1877–1935), chemist and physician Éliane Gubin (born 1942), Belgian historian, researcher and professor Friedrich Moritz Hartogs (1874–1943), German-Jewish mathematician Jean Jeener (1931–2023), physical chemist and physicist Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908–2009), French anthropologist Joseph Plateau (1801–1883), physicist; invented an early stroboscopic device, the phenakistiscope Jacques Tits (1930–2021), Belgian-French mathematician Jan Baptist van Helmont (1579–1644), chemist, physiologist and physician Pierre François Verhulst (1804–1849), mathematician Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564), anatomist and author of the first complete textbook on human anatomy, De Humani Corporis Fabrica (On the Workings of the Human Body) Daniel Zajfman (born 1959), Israeli physicist; president of the Weizmann Institute
Intellectuals / religion Victor Amédée Jacques Marie Coremans (1802–1872), archivist, journalist, and historian Pieter Crockaert (1470–1514), philosopher and theologian of the Southern Netherlands Henri La Fontaine (1854–1943), lawyer and president of the International Peace Bureau, Nobel Peace Prize in 1913 Henri Kichka (1926–2020), writer and Holocaust survivor Xavier de Mérode (1820–1874), prelate, archbishop and statesman of the Papal states Victor Serge (1890–1947), Russian revolutionary Pascal Vanderveeren (born 1946), lawyer and president of the International Criminal Bar Louise van den Plas (1877–1968), suffragist, activist
Sports Henri Anspach (1882–1979), épée (Olympic champion) and foil fencer Paul Anspach (1882–1991), épée and foil fencer, two-time Olympic champion Thierry Boutsen (born 1957), Formula One driver Raymond Goethals (1921–2004), (national) soccer trainer; his team Olympique de Marseille won the 1993 European Cup Georges Grün (born 1962), football (soccer) defender Jacky Ickx (born 1945), racing driver Aaron Leya Iseka (born 1997), footballer Manu Lecomte (born 1995), basketball player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League Paul Loicq (1888–1953), president of the International Ice Hockey Federation Vincent Kompany (born 1986), football (soccer) player Axel Merckx (born 1972), son of Eddy Merckx, professional road bicycle racer, bronze medal Olympic road race 2004 Noah Sadiki (born 2004), footballer Tarec Saffiedine (born 1986), martial artist Philippe Thys (1890–1971), cyclist and three-time winner of the Tour de France Ivo Van Damme (1954–1976), middle distance runner, silver medals at the 1976 Summer Olympics, in both the 800m and 1500m; Memorial van Damme in Brussels, one of the major track and field meets of the season, named in his honour Constant Vanden Stock (1914–2008), president and player of Brussels football club RSC Anderlecht Franky Vercauteren (born 1956), football left winger in RSC Anderlecht and R.W.D. Molenbeek, football manager in RSC Anderlecht and national soccer trainer Nafissatou Thiam (born 1994), athlete, three-time Olympic champion
Miscellaneous Augustine De Rothmaler (1859–1942), pedagogue, feminist Marc Dutroux (born 1956), serial criminal Maxime Weygand (1867–1965), French military commander Claude Frédéric t'Serclaes, Count of Tilly (1648–1723), Dutch States Army commander
Life and work in Brussels
Following notable people lived or worked in Brussels at least during a certain period of their life.
Jean Absil (1893–1974), composer, organist, and professor at the Brussels Conservatory Nicolas Ancion (born 1971), writer, lived and worked 1994–2000 in Brussels Henryk Arctowski (1871–1958), scientist and Arctic explorer, worked at the Royal Observatory of Belgium from 1903 to 1909