26.2026° S, 28.0412° E
JOHANNESBURG
Most Famous People Born in Johannesburg, South Africa
- Notable people
- 1,234
- Peak decade
- 1980s
- Median birth year
- 1967
- Most distinctive
- Golf 14.8×
A young city with an old sporting establishment. Johannesburg's notables are dominated by cricketers, golfers, and rugby players at concentrations that, given the city's size, look almost statistical — the legacy of an English-speaking sporting culture that organised itself around the gold rush of the 1880s. There is almost no pre-20th-century tail at all; the entire bench fits inside the lifetime of the city itself.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Johannesburg during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1980s with 247 notable births.
What Johannesburg Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Cricket is Johannesburg's biggest profession — 13% of all notables (156).
Johannesburg over-indexes on golf — 14.8× the global rate.
Johannesburg under-produces politician — only 0.2× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Johannesburg's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Sports
- Film & TV
- Writing
- Music
- Science
- Politics & Law
- Other
- Filtered to 1920s Clear ×
Ruth First
1925 - 1982
Allan McLeod Cormack
1924 - 1998
Stanley Mandelstam
1928 - 2016
Lewis Wolpert
Born 1929
Dan Jacobson
1929 - 2014
John Bockris
1923 - 2013
Eric Sturgess
1920 - 2004
William Modisane
1923 - 1986
Arthur Goldreich
1929 - 2011
Harold Wolpe
1926 - 1996
Sydney Kentridge
Born 1922
James Kantor
1927 - 1974
Philip Dowson
1924 - 2014
Roy Hart
1926 - 1975
Priscilla Kincaid-Smith
1926 - 2015
Christo Coetzee
1929 - 2000
Emma Mashinini
1929 - 2017
Kippie Moeketsi
1925 - 1983
Rita Tornborg
Born 1926
Raymond Robinson (cyclist)
Born 1929
John Murray, 11th Duke of Atholl
1929 - 2012
Dennis Shepherd
1926 - 2006
Stanley Glasser
1926 - 2018
Joe Modise
1929 - 2001
Gert van den Bergh
1920 - 1968
Ian Player
1927 - 2014
David Wright (poet)
1920 - 1994
Arthur Apfel
1922 - 2017
Gert Potgieter (tenor)
1929 - 1977
Sheila Gordon
1927 - 2013
Margaret Scott (dancer)
1922 - 2019
Douglas Stuart, 20th Earl of Moray
1928 - 2011
Baruch Hirson
1921 - 1999
Mervyn Susser
1921 - 2014
Dennis Lotis
Born 1925
John Brereton Barlow
1924 - 2008
Brian Bunting
1920 - 2008
Russell Endean
1924 - 2003
Paul Winslow (cricketer)
1929 - 2011
George Fullerton (cricketer)
1922 - 2002
Joel Carlson
1926 - 2001
Okey Geffin
1921 - 2004
Athol Rowan
1921 - 1998
Katharine Blake (actress)
1921 - 1991
Dennis Fox
1920 - 1993
Yvonne Severn
1927 - 2006
Sonia Bunting
1922 - 2001
Frithiof Niordson
1922 - 2009
Des Sinclair
1927 - 1996
Gertrude Shope
Born 1925
Sadie Forman
1929 - 2014
Doug Rudham
1926 - 1991
Francis Tucker
1923 - 2008
Billy Arnison
1924 - 1996
Kim Bailie
1929 - 2008
Wim Peeters
1925 - 2011
Esmé Berman
1929 - 2017
Gerald Cresswell
1928 - 2014
Ron Wilkie
Born 1927
Joseph Blewett
1925 - 2013
Hyam Isaacs
1927 - 2003
Des Williams
1928 - 2011