Sort by: STARmeter | A-Z | Height | Birth Date▲ | Death Date
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1. |
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Omar Khayyam
Miscellaneous Crew, Strangers
Born in a wealthy province of Seljuk-ruled Persia, Omar Khayyam was educated well as a youth and became fascinated by science, especially astronomy and mathematics. He built an observatory and created the Jalalaean Calender that was far more accurate than the Julian Calender in use by his European contemporaries...
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15 May 1048 |
2. |
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Hildegard von Bingen
Soundtrack, A Beautiful Mind
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16 September 1098 |
3. |
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Jalaluddin Muhammad Rumi
Writer, Rumi: Poet of the Heart
Jalaluddin Rumi, Scholar in Religious Sciences and famed Sufi Mystic Poet, was born on September 29th 1207 A.D. in Balkh (modern day Afghanistan). Escaping Mongol invasions he travelled extensively to Muslim lands, Bagdad, Mecca, Damascus, Malatia (Turkey). Married Gevher Khatun of Samarquand and moved to Quonya (Konya in present day Turkey)...
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30 September 1207 |
4. |
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Dante Alighieri
Writer, Dante's Inferno: An Animated Epic
Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 into the lower nobility of Florence, to Alighiero di Bellincione d'Alighiero, a moneylender. A precocious student, Dante's education focused on rhetoric and grammar. He also became enamored with a young girl, Beatrice Portinari, whose death in 1290 threw a grieving Dante into intense religious studies...
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1 June 1265 |
5. |
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Leonardo Da Vinci
Art Department, Parajanov: The Last Spring
The archetypal "Renaissance Man," Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest scientific minds as well as one of the greatest visual artists the human race has ever produced. The illegitimate son of a wealthy Florentine notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman named Caterina, Leonardo was born in Tuscany on April 15, 1452, in Anchiano, a town near Vinci, which is in the proximity of Florence...
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15 April 1452 |
6. |
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Niccolò Machiavelli
Writer, La mandragola
Born into a time of extreme political upheaveal, Niccolò Machiavelli was a member of the old Florentine nobility. He received a proper humanistic Renaissance education, and as a young man began the climb up the perilous political ladder of Italy. In 1502 he was sent to Romagna as an envoy to Cesare Borgia...
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3 May 1469 |
7. |
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Albrecht Dürer
Art Department, Unser Sandmännchen
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21 May 1471 |
8. |
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Ludovico Ariosto
Writer, Alcina
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8 September 1474 |
9. |
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Raphael
Art Department, Parajanov: The Last Spring
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6 April 1483 |
10. |
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Martin Luther
Soundtrack, Gangs of New York
Martin Luther was the founder of the Lutheran Church in the 16th Century. As a composer he also wrote such well known Christian hymns as "A Mighty Fortess Is Our God".
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10 November 1483 |
11. |
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Pietro Aretino
Writer, La bella Antonia, prima Monica e poi Dimonia
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20 April 1492 |
12. |
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Francois Rabelais
Writer, A bor lelke
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4 February 1494 |
13. |
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Michel de Nostredame
Writer, Nosutoradamusu no daiyogen
An apothecary before he began to practice the occult, Michel de Nostredame spent the early part of his career battling outbreaks of the bubonic plague in southern France, and northern Italy. Historians attribute his higher-than-average patient survival rate to his then-radical practice of personal hygiene...
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14 December 1503 |
14. |
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Anton Francesco Grazzini
Writer, Neskolko lyubovnykh istoriy
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22 March 1504 |
15. |
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Torquato Tasso
Writer, Rinaldo
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11 March 1544 |
16. |
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Miguel de Cervantes y Saavedra
Writer, Don Quixote
Miguel de Cervantes' baptism occurred on October 9, 1547, at Alcala de Henares, Spain, so it is reasonable to assume he was born around that time, and Alcala de Henares has long claimed itself as his birthplace. The son of Rodrigo de Cervantes, an itinerant and not-too-successful surgeon, Miguel was educated by monks as he and his family wandered from city to city...
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29 September 1547 |
17. |
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Félix Lope de Vega
Writer, The Dog in the Manger
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25 November 1562 |
18. |
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Christopher Marlowe
Writer, Faust
Born the son of a shoe-maker two months before the birth of another famous playwright, William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe achieved fame as an Elizabethan dramatist as well as an atheist. He was killed in a tavern brawl by a former friend, allegedly over a bill. There is now some evidence that suggests his death was in fact an assassination.
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23 February 1564 |
19. |
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William Shakespeare
Writer, Romeo + Juliet
William Shakespeare's birthdate is assumed from his baptism on April 25. His father John was the son of a farmer who became a successful tradesman; his mother Mary Arden was gentry. He studied Latin works at Stratford Grammar School, leaving at about age 15. About this time his father suffered an unknown financial setback...
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23 April 1564 |
20. |
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Claudio Monteverdi
Soundtrack, Liberal Arts
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15 May 1567 |
21. |
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Ben Jonson
Writer, Sense and Sensibility
Benjamin Jonson was born 1571 as the posthumous son of a Protestant minister. His mother then moved him to Westminster, where she married a bricklayer. He attended a free parish school as a boy, and thanks to the sponsorship of the headmaster, was able to attend Westminster Grammar School. Unofortunately...
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11 June 1572 |
22. |
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John Fletcher
Writer, Henry VIII
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20 December 1579 |
23. |
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Francisco de Quevedo
Writer, La hora bruja
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26 September 1580 |
24. |
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Girolamo Frescobaldi
Soundtrack, Tale of Tales
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12 September 1583 |
25. |
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John Ford
Writer, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
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17 April 1586 |
26. |
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Joost Van den Vondel
Writer, Lucifer
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17 November 1587 |
27. |
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Ivan Gundulic
Writer, Dubravka
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8 January 1589 |
28. |
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Pedro Calderón de la Barca
Writer, La dama duende
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17 January 1600 |
29. |
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Jacob Balde
Writer, Melancholia
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4 January 1604 |
30. |
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Pierre Corneille
Writer, Rodelinda
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6 June 1606 |
31. |
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Rembrandt van Rijn
Art Department, Sister Wendy at the Norton Simon Museum
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15 July 1606 |
32. |
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John Milton
Writer, Die Schöpfung
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9 December 1608 |
33. |
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Andreas Gryphius
Writer, Vanitas, Vanitatum, et Omnia Vanitas
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2 October 1616 |
34. |
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Agustín Moreto
Writer, Menos es más
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9 April 1618 |
35. |
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Jean de La Fontaine
Writer, De Fabeltjeskrant
Born in July 8, 1621, in Château-Thierry (Champagne, France), where his father was in charge of Water, Forests and Hunting, Jean de la Fontaine spent his whole childhood and adolescence in the countryside, where he mainly studied Latin language. In 1641, he moved to Paris to continue his study at the Oratoire...
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8 July 1621 |
36. |
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Charles Perrault
Writer, Shrek 2
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12 January 1628 |
37. |
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John Bunyan
Writer, Pilgrim's Progress
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28 November 1628 |
38. |
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Christopher Wren
Art Department, Question Time
Christopher Wren was born on 20 October 1632 in East Knoyle, Wiltshire, where his father was rector. His father later moved to Windsor and Wren was educated at Westminster School and then Oxford University. He showed an early talent for mathematics and enjoyed inventing things, including an instrument for writing in the dark and a pneumatic machine...
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20 October 1632 |
39. |
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Jean-Baptiste Lully
Soundtrack, Quills
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28 November 1632 |
40. |
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Philippe Quinault
Writer, Cadmus & Hermione
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3 June 1635 |
41. |
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William Russell
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29 September 1639 |
42. |
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Jean Racine
Writer, Mitridate, re di Ponto
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22 December 1639 |
43. |
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William Wycherley
Writer, The Country Girl
After he wrote the play, "The Gentleman Master", (1672), it was panned by critics, so in the prologue to his most famous play, "The Country Wife", (1676), he offered the actors, mistresses and matrons to the critics in case this was equally badly received. His last play was, "The Plain Dealer", (1676)...
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28 March 1641 |
44. |
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Princess Palatine Elizabeth Charlotte
Writer, Ich bin
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27 May 1652 |
45. |
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Arcangelo Corelli
Soundtrack, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Arcangelo Corelli was born February 17, 1653, in Fusignano, Italy. He studied violin with Bassani at the Music school in Bologna. In Rome he studied composition under Matteo Simeoni, the singer of the pope's chapel. Corelli established himself as composer and violinist in the 1670s. In 1672 he made a sensational debut in Paris...
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17 February 1653 |
46. |
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Henry Purcell
Soundtrack, The Wolf of Wall Street
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10 September 1659 |
47. |
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Daniel Defoe
Writer, Robinson Crusoe
Born the eldest son and third child of James and Mary Defoe, Defoe received a very good education, as his father intended him to become a Presbyterian minister, but he chose to become a merchant instead. In 1684 he joined the army of the rebel Duke of Monmouth, but when the rebellion failed, Defoe was forced into semi-exile...
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13 September 1660 |
48. |
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Antonio Salvi
Writer, Rodelinda
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17 January 1664 |
49. |
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Jonathan Swift
Writer, Gulliver's Travels
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30 November 1667 |
50. |
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William Congreve
Writer, Semele
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24 January 1670 |