List of people from Brussels

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of notable people from Brussels.

[edit] Patroness of Brussels

• Saint Gudulae of Brussels and Eibingen, Saint of the city and national saint of Belgium

[edit] Politic leaders in Brussels

[edit] The Belgian Monarchs

Main article: List of 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) the sixth King of the Belgians

[edit] Minister-Presidents of Brussels

Main article: Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital Region

• Charles Picqué (P.S.) (1989–1999)
• Jacques Simonet (M.R.) (1999–2000)
• François-Xavier de Donnéa (M.R.) (2000–2003)
• Daniel Ducarme (M.R.) (2003–2004)
• Jacques Simonet (M.R.) (2004) (replaced Daniel Ducarme who resigned)
• Charles Picqué (P.S.) (2004)

[edit] Governors of Brussels

Main article: Governor of Brussels-Capital

• André Degroeve (1995–1998)
• Raymonde Dury (1998) (resigned)
• Véronique Paulus de Châtelet (1998)

[edit] Mayors of Brussels

Main article: List of mayors of the City of Brussels

• Joseph Van De Meulebroeck (lib.) (1939–1956)
• Lucien Cooremans (lib.) (1956–1975)
• Pierre Van Halteren (lib.) (1975–1982)
• Hervé Brouhon (P.S.) (1977–1983)
• Freddy Thielemans (P.S.) (1983–1988)
• Michel Demaret (PSC, now CdH) 1989-1994)
• François-Xavier de Donnéa (M.R.) (1995–2000)
• Freddy Thielemans (P.S.) (2001)

[edit] Born in Brussels

Following notable people were born in the area today known as the Brussels-Capital Region.

• Akarova (Marguerite Acarin, 1904—1991), dancer, choreographer and artist
• Chantal Akerman (born 1950), filmmaker and director
• Pierre Alechinsky (born 1927), artist
• Patrick Bauchau (born 1938), actor
• Plastic Bertrand (Roger Jouret) (born 1958), rock artist
• Thierry Boutsen (born 1957), Formula One driver
• Jacques Brel (1929–1978), French-speaking musician and actor
• Liz Claiborne (1929–2007), fashion designer
• Gérard Corbiau (born 1941), film director
• Pieter Crockaert (1470–1514), philosopher and theologian of the Southern Netherlands
• François d'Aguilon or Aguilonius (1546–1617), mathematician and physicist
• Colijn de Coter (c. 1446 – 1538), Renaissance painter
• Michel De Ghelderode (1898–1962), dramatist, writing in French
• Pierre Deligne (born 1944), mathematician
• Thierry De Mey (born 1956), film director and composer
• Jean-Luc De Meyer (born 1963), musician, among others leadsinger of Front 242
• Lodewijk de Vadder (1605–1655), landscape painter
• Charles A. Didier (born 1935), General Authority of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Antoine Duquesne (born 1941), politician
• Francois Duquesnoy (1597–1643), sculptor
• Lara Fabian (born Lara Crokaert, 1970), international French-language singer
• Jacques Feyder (1885–1948), screenwriter and international film director, one of the founders of poetic realism in French cinema
• André Franquin (1924–1997), cartoonist
• Raymond Goethals (1921–2004), (national) soccer trainer. His team Olympique Marseille won in 1993 the European Cup.
• Georges Grün (born 1962), football (soccer) defender
• Pierre Harmel (born 1911), politician, former Prime Minister of Belgium
• Jacqueline Harpman (born 1929), French-writing novelist
• Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993), Anglo-Dutch actress, fashion model, and humanitarian
• Hergé (Georges Remi) (1907–1983), comics writer, creator of The Adventures of Tintin
• Jacky Ickx (born 1945), racing driver
• Edgar P. Jacobs (1904–1987), comics writer, created the series that made him famous, Blake and Mortimer.
• Paul-Emile Janson (1872–1944), politician, former Prime Minister
• Richard Jonckheere (born 1965), musician, among others member of Front 242
• Vincent Kompany (born 1986), football (soccer) player
• Henri La Fontaine (1854–1943), international lawyer and president of the International Peace Bureau. Received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1913.
• Camille Lemonnier (1844–1913), writer
• Claude Lévi-Strauss (born 1908), French anthropologist, one of the twentieth century's greatest intellectuals.
• Axel Merckx (born 1972), the son of the legendary Eddy Merckx, professional road bicycle racer, bronze medal Olympic road race 2004.
• Pierre Mertens (born 1939), French-speaking writer, director of the Centre de sociologie de la littérature at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.
• Constantin Meunier (1831–1905), painter and sculptor
• Brian Molko (born 1972), leadsinger of Placebo
• Annemie Neyts (born 1944), politician, former president of the Liberal International, president of the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party
• Paul Nougé (1895–1967), surrealist poet and philosopher
• Peyo (Pierre Culliford) (1928–1992), illustrator and creator of the Smurfs
• Joseph Plateau (1801–1883), physicist. Invented an early stroboscopic device, the "phenakistiscope.
• Joseph Poelaert (1817–1879), architect, nicknamed “De schieven architect”, amongst his works the Brussels Palais de Justice
• Pierre Rapsat (1948–2002), musician
• Paul Saintenoy (1862–1952), architect
• François Schuiten (born 1956), comics artist
• The Singing Nun (Jeanine Deckers) (1933–1985), member of a Dominican Convent, famous for her massive world hit "Dominique".
• Paul-Henri Spaak (1899–1972), politician, several times Minister of Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister of Belgium, former Secretary General of the NATO
• Toots Thielemans (born 1922), jazz musician
• Philippe Thys (1890–1971), cyclist and three-time winner of the Tour de France.
• Philippe Tome (Philippe Vandevelde), (born 1957), comic strip writer
• Jean-Philippe Toussaint (born 1957), French speaking writer, Prix Médicis 2005
• Ivo Van Damme (1854–1976), middle distance runner, Siver medals at te 1976 Summer Olympics, in both the 800 and 1500 m. The Memorial van Damme in Brussels, one of the major track and field meets of the season, is hold to remember him.
• Jean-Claude Van Damme (born 1960), actor, nicknamed "The Muscles from Brussels"
• Constant Vanden Stock (born 1914), former president and player of Brussels football club R.S.C. Anderlecht.
• Emile Vandervelde (1866–1938), politician, President from 1900 on of the Second International
• Jaco Van Dormael (born 1957), film director
• Jean Van Hamme (born 1939), novelist and scenario writer of comic books
• Jan Baptist van Helmont (1579–1644), chemist, physiologist and physician
• Geert van Istendael (born 1947), writer
• Franky Vercauteren (born 1956), football left winger in Anderlecht and RWDM, and football manager in Anderlecht
• 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).
• François Weyergans (born 1941), French speaking writer, Prix Goncourt 2005
• Marguerite Yourcenar (1903–1987), French writer and first female member of the Académie française

[edit] 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 in Brussels), composer, organist, and professor at the Brussels Conservatory.
• Arno (born 1949), rock artist from Ostend, lived a while in Brussels
• Benno Barnard (born 1954), Dutch writer
• Maurice Béjart (born 1927), French choreographer. He founded the Ballet du XXe Siècle in 1960 and the Mudra School in 1970, both in Brussels.
• Jules Bordet (1870–1961), immunologist and microbiologist. Founded the Pasteur Institute in Brussels. Winner of the 1919 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
• Pieter Brueghel the Elder (c. 1525 – 1569), painter
• Jan Bucquoy (born 1945), filmmaker and director
• Hendrik Conscience (1812–1883), writer
• Jan Decorte, dramatist
• Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker (born 1960), choreographer. She founded the dance company Rosas in 1983 and the dance school P.A.R.T.S. in 1995 in Brussels.
• Marc Didden (born 1949) film director, made Brussels By Night (1983)
• Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466 – 1536), humanist and theologian. Lived a while in Anderlecht (Erasmus House).
• François-Joseph Fétis (1784–1871), musicologist, composer, critic and teacher, one of the most influential music critics of the 19th century. He became director of the conservatory of Brussels and the chapelmaster of King Leopold I.
• Victor Horta (1861–1947), architect, one of the most influential European Art Nouveau architects
• Nicholas Lens, author/composer
• René Magritte (1898–1967), surrealist artist
• Ian McCulloch (born 1959), singer of the English rock band Echo & The Bunnymen
• Eddy Merckx (born 1945), considered by many to be the greatest cyclist of all-time. Youth and adolescent years in Brussels.
• Jef Mermans (1922–1996), nicknamed "The Bomber", football striker who played much of his career at R.S.C. Anderlecht
• Amélie Nothomb (born 1967), novelist, writing in French
• Ilya Prigogine (1917–2003), physicist and chemist. Studied chemistry in Brussels and was appointed in 1959 director of the International Solvay Institute in Brussels. He was awarded the 1977 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
• Adolphe Quetelet (1796–1874 in Brussels), astronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociologist. He founded and directed the Brussels Observatory. Inventor of the Body mass index.
• Vini Reilly (Vincent Reilly, born 1953), rock musician, guitarist of the English band The Durutti Column. He also performed on Morrissey's first solo album in 1988.
• Jan van Ruysbroeck (also known as Jan van den Berghe), architect of the 15th century (dates of birth and death unknown). Amongst his work the belfry of the Hotel de Ville of Brussels.
• John of Ruysbroeck (or Jan, Jean, Johannes) (c. 1293 – 1381), 'mystic', priest in Brussels and Groenendaal
• Ernest Solvay (1838–1922), chemist, industrialist and philanthropist. Founded different institutes and the Solvay Business School in Brussels.
• Olivier Strelli (born Nissim Israël, 1946), designer.
• Pieter Coecke van Aelst (1502–1550), painter
• Roger van der Weyden (c. 1399 – 1464), painter
• Emond van Dynter (c. 1370 – 1449), writer
• Paul Van Himst (born 1943), nicknamed Polle Gazon, football player, four-times winner of the Golden Shoe award, eight-times winner of the Belgian championship with R.S.C. Anderlecht.
• Bernaert van Orley (c. 1488 – 1541), Renaissance painter
• Johan Verminnen, singer-songwriter

[edit] Brussels as a safe harbor

Brussels was known to be a safe harbor for artists and thinkers facing political (or simply criminal) persecution. This was particularly true during the XIXth century, although it was a cause of some debate, and policies were prone to change (e.g. the case of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who were expulsed from the city in 1848).

• Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867), French poet
• Louis Blanc (1811–1882), French poet, French politician and historian
• Georges Boulanger (1837–1891), French general and politician
• Jacques Louis David (1748–1825), French painter
• Alexandre Dumas, père (1802–1870), French author, known for his historical novels
• Willem Frederik Hermans (1921–1995), Dutch writer
• Victor Hugo (1802–1885), one of the most influential French writers of the 19th century
• Karl Marx (1818–1883), German political philosopher, co-author of The Communist Manifesto
• Friedrich Engels (1820–1895), German social scientist and political philosopher, co-author of The Communist Manifesto
• Multatuli (Eduard Douwes Dekker) (1820–1887), Dutch author, wrote his masterpiece Max Havelaar in 1859 in Brussels
• Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865), French philosopher, the first individual to call himself an "anarchist"
• Auguste Rodin (1840–1917), French sculptor
• Paul Verlaine (1844–1896), French poet. (He was joined briefly by French poet Arthur Rimbaud)