This is a list of notable people from Brussels.

Patroness of Brussels

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

Political leaders in Brussels

The 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 ( 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.) (2004–2013)
• Rudi Vervoort (P.S.) (2013–present)

Governors of Brussels

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

Mayors 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)

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
• 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, 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, blues rock musician and songwriter ^[1]
• Régine Zylberberg (1929–2022), pioneer of the modern nightclub

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, Etterbeek –1905), painter and sculptor
• Joseph Noiret (1927–2012), painter, writer and poet
• Joseph Poelaert (1817–1879), architect, author of the Palais de Justice
• 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

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 in Uccle), 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 (born 1943 in Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, died 2022), researcher and professor of human genetics
• François d'Aguilon or Aguilonius (1546–1617), mathematician and physicist
• Pierre Deligne (born 1944), mathematician
• François Englert, 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 (born 1931), 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 Prize for Peace 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 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 in Uccle), son of Eddy Merckx, professional road bicycle racer, bronze medal Olympic road race 2004
• 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 R.S.C. Anderlecht
• Franky Vercauteren (born 1956), football left winger in R.S.C. Anderlecht and R.W.D. Molenbeek, football manager in R.S.C. Anderlecht and national soccer trainer

Miscellaneous

• Augustine De Rothmaler (1859–1942), pedagogue, feminist
• Marc Dutroux (born 1956), serial criminal
• Maxime Weygand (1867–1965), French military 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 in Brussels), 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
• Arno (1949–2022), rock artist from Ostend, lived a while in Brussels
• Maurice Béjart (1927–2007), French choreographer; 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; inner of the 1919 Nobel Prize in Medicine
• Jeroen Brouwers (1940–2022), Dutch author, lived from 1964 until 1976 in Brussels
• Pieter Brueghel the Elder (c. 1525–1569), painter
• Jan Bucquoy (born 1945), filmmaker and director
• Gerald Bull (1928–1990), Canadian engineer, lived and assassinated in Uccle
• Hendrik Conscience (1812–1883), writer
• Alexandra David-Néel (1868–1969), explorer and writer
• Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker (born 1960), choreographer; 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)
• Adil El Arbi (born 1988), film director
• Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536), humanist and theologian; lived in Anderlecht (Erasmus House) from 31 May until 28 October 1521
• M. C. Escher (1898–1972), Dutch graphic designer, lived in Uccle from 1937 to 1971
• François-Joseph Fétis (1784–1871), musicologist, composer, critic and teacher, one of the most influential music critics of the 19th century; became director of the conservatory of Brussels and the chapelmaster of King Leopold I
• Jan Greshoff (1888–1971), Dutch writer, lived from 1927 until 1939 in Schaerbeek on the August Reyerslaan 130
• Ania Guédroïtz (born 1949), Belgian actress
• Willem Frederik Hermans (1921–1995), Dutch author.
• Victor Horta (1861–1947), architect, one of the most influential European Art Nouveau architects
• Enver Hoxha (1908–1985), Albanian dictator, worked as secretary at the Albanian consulate in Brussels from 1934 to 1936
• 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; spent youth and adolescence in Brussels
• Jef Mermans (1922–1996), nicknamed "The Bomber", football striker who played much of his career at R.S.C. Anderlecht
• Edward Mosberg (1926–2022), Polish-American Holocaust survivor, educator, and philanthropist
• Eugene Nida (1914–2011), linguist, developer of the dynamic-equivalence Bible-translation theory
• Amélie Nothomb (born 1967), novelist, writing in French
• Emma Orczy (1865–1947), Hungarian-British novelist, spent part of her childhood in Brussels (1868 to 1873)
• Marius Petipa (1818–1910), French ballet choreographer, lived in Brussels from 1824 to 1834 and studied at the Royal Conservatory
• Ilya Prigogine (1917–2003), physicist and chemist; studied chemistry in Brussels and was appointed in 1959 director of the International Solvay Institute in Brussels; awarded the 1977 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• Adolphe Quetelet (1796–1874 in Brussels), astronomer, mathematician, statistician and sociologist; 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; performed on Morrissey's first solo album in 1988
• Jan van Ruysbroeck (also known as Jan van den Berghe), architect of the 15th century; amongst his work is 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
• Jan Zygmunt Skrzynecki (1787–1860), Polish general, high-ranking officer of the Belgian army from 1832 to 1839
• Ernest Solvay (1838–1922), chemist, industrialist and philanthropist; founded institutes and the Solvay Business School in Brussels
• Nicolas de Staël (born Nikolai Vladimirovich Stael von Holstein, 1914–1955), Russian-French abstract painter; lived in Uccle from 1922 to the early 1930; studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts
• Olivier Strelli (born Nissim Israël, 1946), fashion designer
• Pieter Coecke van Aelst (1502–1550), painter
• Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1399–1464), painter
• Emond van Dynter (c. 1370–1449), writer
• Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), Dutch painter, studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels from 1880 to 1881
• Paul Van Himst (born 1943), nicknamed Polle Gazon, football player, four-times winner of the Belgian 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 (born 1951), singer-songwriter
• George Washington (1871–1946), inventor and first commercial producer of instant coffee, grew up in Brussels
• Henryk Wieniawski (1835–1880), violinist and composer, taught at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels from 1874 to 1877.
• Antoine Wiertz (1806–1865), painter and sculptor
• Jan Yoors (1922–1977), Flemish artist, studied at La Cambre from 1941 to 1942

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 19th 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 expelled 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
• José de San Martin (1824–1830), Argentine General and 1st President of Peru
• Alexandre Dumas, père (1802–1870), French author, known for his historical novels
• Friedrich Engels (1820–1895), German social scientist and political philosopher, co-author of The Communist Manifesto
• Willem Frederik Hermans (1921–1995), Dutch writer
• Victor Hugo (1802–1885), one of the most influential French writers of the 19th century; completed Les Misérables in Brussels
• Joachim Lelewel (1786–1861), Polish historian and politician, associate of Karl Marx, lived in Brussels from 1833 to 1861
• Karl Marx (1818–1883), German political philosopher, wrote The Communist Manifesto in Brussels ^[2]
• Multatuli (Eduard Douwes Dekker) (1820–1887), Dutch author, wrote his masterpiece Max Havelaar in 1859 in Brussels ^[3]
• Cyprian Norwid (1821–1883), Polish poet, stayed in Brussels from August 1846 to January 1847 after his expulsion from Prussia
• 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; was joined briefly by the French poet Arthur Rimbaud

References