Montpellier - Personalities

Personalities

Montpellier was the birthplace of:

• Abraham ben Isaac of Narbonne (c.1110–1179), rabbi and author of the halakhic work Ha-Eshkol.
• Didier Auriol (1958- ), rally driver, 1994 World Rally Champion.
• Saint Roch (1295–1327), pilgrim to Rome, venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church
• Pierre Magnol (1638–1715), botanist, founder of the concept of plant families
• Jean Jacques Régis de Cambacérès (1753–1824), lawyer and statesman, author of the Code Napoléon
• Guillaume Mathieu, comte Dumas (1753–1837), military leader
• Auguste Comte (1798–1857), a founder of the discipline of sociology
• Antoine Jérôme Balard (1802–1876), chemist
• Émile Saisset (1814–1863), philosopher
• Charles Bernard Renouvier (1815–1903), philosopher
• Édouard Albert Roche (1820–1883), astronomer
• Alfred Bruyas (1821–1876), art collector
• Alexandre Cabanel (1823–1889), painter
• Frédéric Bazille (1841–1870), Impressionist painter
• Léo Malet (1909–1996), crime novelist
• Jeanne Demessieux (1921–1968), organist, pianist, composer, and pedagogue
• Monique de Bissy, member of the Resistance during World War II (1923–2009)
• Jean-Luc Dehaene (1940– ), Prime-Minister of Belgium
• Rémi Gaillard (1975– ), famous French prankster

Other famous inhabitants include:

• François Rabelais (1493–1553) was a student at the University of Montpellier
• Nostradamus (1503–1566) was a student at the University of Montpellier
• Ioan Iacob Heraclid, ruler of Moldavia from 1561–1563
• Pierre-Joseph Amoreux (1741–1824), zoologist
• Jean-Louis Michel (1785–1865), fencing master, who lived in Montpellier from 1830 onwards
• Agénor Azéma de Montgravier (1805–1863), deputy director of l'Ecole d'Artillerie de Montpellier, died in Montpellier in 1863
• Gaston Darboux (1842–1917), mathematician
• Josias Braun-Blanquet (1884–1980), botanist
• Alexander Grothendieck (1928–), mathematician
• Nikola Karabatić (1984–) handball player
• Paul Valéry (1871–1945) was a student at the University of Montpellier
• Enver Hoxha (1908–1985) was a student at the University of Montpellier
• Grégory Vignal (1981–), Birmingham City F.C. full-back
• Taha Hussein (1889-1973) was a student at the University of Montpellier
• Michel Navratil (1908-2001), survivor of the sinking of the RMS Titanic