Famous French or French-speaking/writing people
Actors/Actresses
Architects
Authors - See also: List of French language poets
- Marcel Achard -- playwright and scriptwriter
- Jean Anouilh -- 20th century dramatist
- Guillaume Apollinaire -- (born Russian) poet
- Honoré de Balzac -- realist author
- Henri Barbusse
- Charles Baudelaire, 19th century poet
- Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, comedy playwright
- Simone de Beauvoir -- 20th century author
- Henri Bergson -- Nobel Prize Winner
- Georges Bernanos[?]
- Tristan Bernard
- Pierre Boulle
- Albert Camus -- existentialist author
- Louis-Ferdinand Céline -- 20th century author
- Aimé Césaire[?]-- 20th century author
- François-René de Chateaubriand
- Jean Cocteau -- 20th century poet and playwright
- Colette-- 20th century author
- Benjamin Constant
- Pierre Corneille -- classicist playwright
- Alexandre Dumas, père, Author
- Alexandre Dumas, fils -- Playwright/author
- Marguerite Duras - 20th century novelist
- Paul Eluard
- Léon-Paul Fargue
- Georges Feydeau
- Alain Finkielkraut - essayist
- Gustave Flaubert -- realist author
- Anatole France
- Marie de France -- poet
- Romain Gary
- Jean Genet
- André Gide, Nobel Prize Winner
- Jean Giraudoux
- Françoise Giroud[?]
- Victor Hugo -- novelist, poet, and playwright
- Eugène Ionesco
- Pierre Choderlos de Laclos[?]
- Jean de La Fontaine[?]
- Leconte de Lisle[?] -- parnassian[?] poet
- Alphonse de Lamartine
- Stéphane Mallarmé -- poet
- André Malraux
- Pierre de Marivaux - playwright
- Clément Marot -- poet
- Guy de Maupassant novelist
- François Mauriac - Roman Catholic writer
- Prosper Mérimée - 19th century novelist
- Jean Baptiste Poquelin dit Molière -- 17th century comedic playwright and actor
- Alfred de Musset -- 19th century poet
- Anaïs Nin
- Marcel Pagnol[?]
- Charles Péguy[?] -- 20th century poet
- Charles Perrault -- Mother Goose Tales
- Saint-John Perse[?]
- Christine de Pisan, historian, poet, philosopher
- Jacques Prevert -- 20th century poet
- Marcel Proust -- novelist
- François Rabelais -- Renaissance writer
- Jean Racine -- classicist playwright
- Pauline Reage, novelist
- Arthur Rimbaud -- symbolist poet
- Edmond Rostand -- neo-romantic[?] playwright
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau -- author
- Marquis de Sade -- erotic and philosophic author
- George Sand -- feminist author
- Madame de Sévigné[?]
- Madame de Staël
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery , author
- Stendhal -- novelist (born Henry Beyle)
- Paul Valéry -- 20th century poet
- Paul Verlaine -- symbolist poet
- Jules Verne -- novelist
- Boris Vian -- 20th century author
- Alfred de Vigny -- 19th century poet
- Jean-Marie Arouet dit Voltaire -- Enlightenment[?] author, deist/agnostic philosopher
- Émile Zola -- naturalist author
Aviators
Composers
Criminals
Dancers
Economists
Fashion
Filmmakers
Humorists
Monarchs - See also list of French monarchs
Musicians, singers
Painters
Philosophers
Politicians - See also: Prime Ministers of France, President of France
Resistance workers - See also French Resistance
Scientists
- Louis Agassiz -- geologist
- André-Marie Ampère -- scientist
- Jean Baptiste Biot -- physicist
- Jean-Charles de Borda -- mathematician, physicist, political scientist
- Lazare Nicolas Marguerite Carnot -- physicist
- Augustin Louis Cauchy -- mathematician
- Jean-Francois Champollion -- egyptologist
- Emilie du Chatelet -- 18th century mathematician
- Georges Charpak[?] -- physicist, Nobel price winner
- Marquis de Condorcet -- philosopher, mathematician and political scientist
- Charles-Augustin de Coulomb -- physicist, mathematician, engineer
- Jacques Cousteau, Marine scientist
- Joseph Cugnot[?]
- Irène Joliot-Curie -- scientist
- Marie Curie -- scientist
- Pierre Curie -- scientist
- Guillaume Delisle, cartographer
- René Descartes -- scientist and philosopher
- Girard Desargues[?] -- mathematician
- Georges Duby -- historian
- Pierre de Fermat -- mathematician
- Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier -- mathematician and physicist
- Pierre Gassendi -- philosopher mathematician
- Pierre-Gilles de Gennes[?] -- physicist, Nobel prize winner
- Evariste Galois -- mathematician
- Frédéric Joliot -- scientist
- Joseph Louis Lagrange -- mathematician
- Pierre-Simon Laplace -- mathematician and physicist
- Antoine Lavoisier
- Claude Levi-Strauss, anthropologist
- Antoine Lévi-Leblond[?] -- physicist
- Albert Matthiez[?] -- Historien
- Jules Michelet[?] -- historien
- Abraham de Moivre -- mathematician
- Theodore Monod[?] -- naturalist and theologian
- Claude Mossé[?] -- (Ms), historian
- Denis Papin
- Louis Pasteur -- scientist
- Blaise Pascal -- mathematician and philosopher
- Étienne Pascal[?] -- mathematician
- Henri Poincaré -- scientist
- Simeon Poisson -- mathematician and physicist
- Jean Rostand[?]
- Albert Soboul[?] -- historian
- Jean-Pierre Vernant[?] -- historian
- Pierre Vidal-Naquet[?] -- historian and Civil Rights activist
- Pierre Vilar[?], historian
- Christophe Victor[?] -- geographer
- Paul-Emile Victor[?] -- ethnologist
Sculptors
Sportsmen and -women
Theologians
Others
Sub-lists
See also: List of people by nationality - List of Monegasque people, Catalans, Swiss, Belgians