52.4791° N, 1.9017° W
BIRMINGHAM
Most Famous People Born in Birmingham, United Kingdom
- Notable people
- 1,855
- Peak decade
- 1960s
- Median birth year
- 1945
- Most distinctive
- Cricket 4.2×
England's second city, and the engine room of the Industrial Revolution. Birmingham's distinctive professions are cricketers, boxers, footballers, and musicians — the last because the city produced an outsized share of the British heavy-metal scene, from Black Sabbath (Ozzy, Geezer Butler, Bill Ward) through Judas Priest and ELO. Matthew Boulton, Francis Galton, and Neville Chamberlain all belong to the 19th-century Midlands establishment that built the place.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Birmingham during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1960s with 216 notable births.
What Birmingham Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Football is Birmingham's biggest profession — 25% of all notables (467).
Birmingham over-indexes on cricket — 4.2× the global rate.
Birmingham under-produces politician — only 0.3× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Birmingham's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Sports
- Film & TV
- Writing
- Music
- Art & Design
- Science
- Other
- Filtered to 1910s Clear ×
Enoch Powell
1912 - 1998
Paul Grice
1913 - 1988
Laurie Baker
1917 - 2007
Skitch Henderson
1918 - 2005
Alan Cottrell
1919 - 2012
Hilary Mason
1917 - 2006
John Bentley (actor)
1916 - 2009
Harry B. Whittington
1916 - 2010
George D. Painter
1914 - 2005
John Phillips (actor)
1914 - 1995
Harry Boot
1917 - 1983
John Boland (author)
1913 - 1976
Noel Johnson
1916 - 1999
Betty Joseph
1917 - 2013
Martin Aitchison
1919 - 2016
Michael McCarthy (film director)
1917 - 1959
Derek Frank Lawden
1919 - 2008
Charles Hare (tennis)
1915 - 1996
Doris Fisher, Baroness Fisher of Rednal
1919 - 2005
Henry Reed (poet)
1914 - 1986
William Moreton Condry
1918 - 1998
John Simon Gabriel Simmons
1915 - 2005
James Brockway
1916 - 2000
Alan Burgess
1915 - 1998
Doug Hele
1919 - 2001
Dorothy Reynolds
1913 - 1977
Mary Heeley
1911 - 2002
Robert Martineau
1913 - 1999
Verily Anderson
1915 - 2010
Denis Smallwood
1918 - 1997
Andrew Freeth
1912 - 1986
Raymond Teague Cowern
1913 - 1986
Rosemary Stjernstedt
1912 - 1998
Charles Grove
1912 - 1982
Arthur Lane (actor)
1910 - 1987
Jack Badham
1919 - 1992
William Moore (actor)
1916 - 2000
Percy Wragg Brian
1910 - 1979
Eric Jones (footballer, born 1915)
1915 - 1985
Jacq van den Berg
Born 1916
Joan Elizabeth Woollard
1916 - 2008
Charlie Ward (golfer)
1911 - 2001
Sam Small
1912 - 1993
Michael Smedley-Aston
1912 - 2006
Margaret Osborne (table tennis)
Born 1919
Cyril Smith (motociclista)
1919 - 1962
Frank Moss (footballer, born 1917)
1917 - 1997
Albert Brown (English cricketer)
1911 - 1995
Harry Hinton
1911 - 1978
Edward Baker (Worcestershire cricketer)
1910 - 1992
Douglas Enefer
1910 - 1987
Arthur Bywater
1913 - 2005
Harry Ware
1911 - 1970
Frank Peters (footballer)
1910 - 1938
Bernie Bignell
1917 - 1967
Kenneth Keeling
1911 - 1987
Philip Cranmer
1918 - 2006
Barry Hands
1916 - 1984
Jeff Lloyd
1914 - 1997
A. H. Woodfull
1912 - 2011
Dennis Harris (cricketer)
1911 - 1959
Stanley Hall (dancer)
1917 - 1994
William Godwin (sport shooter)
1912 - 2000
Fay Pomerance
1912 - 2001
Dick Gardner
1913 - 1997
Stanley Brown (engineer)
1910 - 1997
Molly F. Mare
1914 - 1997
Len Brennan
1911 - 1943
Wally Lloyd
1910 - 1989
Jack Hick
1912 - 1938
Bert Hadley
1910 - 1993
A. J. McClung
1912 - 2002
Fred Starkey
1911 - 2001
John Kenyon Netherton Jones
1912 - 1977