Walloon People - Famous Walloons

Famous Walloons

Including people from the region before it became known as Wallonia.

• Zénon Bacq inventor
• Michael Baius (1513–1589) theologian of the Baianism
• Baldwin I of Constantinople, Count of Flanders and Hainaut, first Emperor of the Latin Empire
• Gilles Binchois, Franco-Flemish composer
• Jules Bordet Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1919)
• Godfroid de Bouillon, leader of the First Crusade and first European King of Jerusalem
• Robert Campin, Flemish painter
• Johannes Ciconia Ars nova composer
• Jacques Daret, Flemish painter
• Dardenne brothers
• Jessé de Forest, Walloon settler, first colonizer of New Netherland and what would become New York City. Monument dedicated and located in Battery Park, Lower Manhattan.
• Nicolas Defrecheux, poet in the Walloon language
• Léon Degrelle, Belgian Rexist politician and leader of Waffen SS Walloon contingent
• Paul Delvaux, surrealist painter
• Louis Dewis, Post-Impressionist painter
• Guillaume Dufay, Franco-Flemish composer
• Marc Dutroux serial killer
• Edouard Empain engineer whose the company constructed the Paris Métro
• César Franck, Belgian composer
• Louis De Geer, merchant and industrialist
• Philippe Gilbert, professional cyclist
• Zénobe Gramme, inventor of the Gramme machine
• Justine Henin, tennis champion
• Louis Hennepin Niagara Falls and Saint-Anthony Falls were brought to the world's attention by Louis Hennepin
• Juliana of Liège promoter of feast Corpus Christi
• Pierre Lacocque, hamonica player for American blues band Mississippi Heat
• Marc Lacroix, biochemist and cancer researcher
• Orlande de Lassus, Franco-Flemish composer
• Jean Lemaire de Belges, late Medieval, early Renaissance poet and historian
• Georges Lemaître, originator of the "Big Bang" theory of the origin of the universe
• Rene Magritte the surrealist artist
• Henri Michaux poet, writer, and painter
• Pierre Minuit, who purchased the island of Manhattan from the Native Americans and founded what would become New York City
• Joachim Patinir Mosan painter
• Dominique Pire Nobel Peace Prize (in 1958)
• Charles Plisnier Prix Goncourt (1937)
• Henri Pousseur Composer
• Michel Preud'homme footballer
• André Renard syndicalist,leader of the longest general strike in Belgium
• Edouard Remouchamps, playwright in the Walloon language
• Pierre de la Rue, Franco-Flemish composer
• Jean Rey (politician) Second President of the European Commission
• Félicien Rops painter
• Jean-Michel Saive, table tennis champion
• Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone
• Georges Simenon, author of Maigret and other novels
• Rennequin Sualem Hydraulics engineer
• Ernest Solvay, inventor of the Solvay process and founder of the Solvay Business School.
• Count Tilly, Catholic League commander in the Thirty Years' War
• Rogier van der Weyden (Rogier de le Pasture), Flemish painter
• Eugène Ysaÿe, violinist and composer