Who Was Alive
Boris Vian
Studio Harcourt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Boris Vian

French writer and musician

Born 10 March 1920 · died 23 June 1959, aged 39
Also known as Vernon Sullivan, Baron Visi, Brisavion

Who was alive at the same time as Boris Vian?

  1. Thomas Edison, 1847 – 1931
  2. Sigmund Freud, 1856 – 1939
  3. Marie Curie, 1867 – 1934
  4. Mahatma Gandhi, 1869 – 1948
  5. Vladimir Lenin, 1870 – 1924
  6. Winston Churchill, 1874 – 1965
  7. Joseph Stalin, 1878 – 1953
  8. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, c. 1880 – 1938
  9. Albert Einstein, 1879 – 1955
  10. Pablo Picasso, 1881 – 1973
  11. Charlie Chaplin, 1889 – 1977
  12. Adolf Hitler, 1889 – 1945
  13. Salvador Dalí, 1904 – 1989
  14. Ronald Reagan, 1911 – 2004
  15. John F. Kennedy, 1917 – 1963
  16. Nelson Mandela, 1918 – 2013
  17. Boris Vian, 1920 – 1959
  18. Elizabeth II, 1926 – 2022
  19. Martin Luther King Jr., 1929 – 1968
  20. Joe Biden, born 1942
  21. Donald Trump, born 1946
  22. George W. Bush, born 1946
  23. Vladimir Putin, born 1952
  24. Michael Jackson, 1958 – 2009

Drag across the timeline, or use the arrow keys, to see who was alive in any year and the age each person reached that year. Dashed lines mark world events. Faded ends mark uncertain dates.

When Boris Vian was born, Adolf Hitler was 30, Albert Einstein was 40, Ronald Reagan was 9, Vladimir Lenin was 49 and Nelson Mandela was 1.

When Boris Vian died, Donald Trump was 13, Michael Jackson was under a year old, Vladimir Putin was 6, Ronald Reagan was 48 and Nelson Mandela was 40.

Born during Boris Vian’s lifetime: Donald Trump, Michael Jackson, Vladimir Putin, George W. Bush, Joe Biden, Elizabeth II, Martin Luther King Jr. and Bill Gates.

Not quite contemporaries: Barack Obama was born about 2 years after Boris Vian died, Leo Tolstoy died about 10 years before Boris Vian was born, Mark Twain died about 10 years before Boris Vian was born and Jimmy Wales was born about 7 years after Boris Vian died.

What happened in Boris Vian’s lifetime

Where Boris Vian’s contemporaries were born

Boris Vian is labelled; the others are the best-known people we track who lived at the same time. Each dot is a birthplace from Wikidata (79 of 81 placed); tap one to open that person.
Birthplaces as a list

Compare Boris Vian

The 150 best-known contemporaries

2,952 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as Boris Vian. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1940.

  1. Donald Trump born 1946
  2. Adolf Hitler 1889 – 1945
  3. Albert Einstein 1879 – 1955
  4. Michael Jackson 1958 – 2009
  5. Vladimir Putin born 1952
  6. Ronald Reagan 1911 – 2004
  7. Vladimir Lenin 1870 – 1924
  8. Nelson Mandela 1918 – 2013
  9. Mahatma Gandhi 1869 – 1948
  10. George W. Bush born 1946
  11. Joseph Stalin 1878 – 1953
  12. Joe Biden born 1942
  13. Pablo Picasso 1881 – 1973
  14. Winston Churchill 1874 – 1965
  15. Charlie Chaplin 1889 – 1977
  16. Elizabeth II 1926 – 2022
  17. Thomas Edison 1847 – 1931
  18. Sigmund Freud 1856 – 1939
  19. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk c. 1880 – 1938
  20. John F. Kennedy 1917 – 1963
  21. Marie Curie 1867 – 1934
  22. Martin Luther King Jr. 1929 – 1968
  23. Salvador Dalí 1904 – 1989
  24. Rabindranath Tagore 1861 – 1941
  25. Franklin D. Roosevelt 1882 – 1945
  26. Bill Gates born 1955
  27. Franz Kafka 1883 – 1924
  28. Marilyn Monroe 1926 – 1962
  29. Pope Francis 1936 – 2025
  30. Mao Zedong 1893 – 1976
  31. Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011
  32. Che Guevara 1928 – 1967
  33. Bill Clinton born 1946
  34. Charles de Gaulle 1890 – 1970
  35. Angela Merkel born 1954
  36. Nikola Tesla 1856 – 1943
  37. Neil Armstrong 1930 – 2012
  38. Walt Disney 1901 – 1966
  39. François Hollande born 1954
  40. Elvis Presley 1935 – 1977
  41. George Orwell 1903 – 1950
  42. Pope John Paul II 1920 – 2005
  43. Ernest Hemingway 1899 – 1961
  44. Margaret Thatcher 1925 – 2013
  45. James Joyce 1882 – 1941
  46. Gabriel García Márquez 1927 – 2014
  47. Fidel Castro 1926 – 2016
  48. Yuri Gagarin 1934 – 1968
  49. J. R. R. Tolkien 1892 – 1973
  50. Albert Camus 1913 – 1960
  51. Marlene Dietrich 1901 – 1992
  52. Henry Ford 1863 – 1947
  53. Mikhail Gorbachev 1931 – 2022
  54. Benito Mussolini 1883 – 1945
  55. Jean-Paul Sartre 1905 – 1980
  56. Stephen Hawking 1942 – 2018
  57. Le Corbusier 1887 – 1965
  58. Frida Kahlo 1907 – 1954
  59. Mother Teresa 1910 – 1997
  60. Jimmy Carter 1924 – 2024
  61. Pope Benedict XVI 1927 – 2022
  62. Harry S. Truman 1884 – 1972
  63. Agatha Christie 1890 – 1976
  64. Hillary Clinton born 1947
  65. George H. W. Bush 1924 – 2018
  66. Sarah Bernhardt 1844 – 1923
  67. Jorge Luis Borges 1899 – 1986
  68. Nicolas Sarkozy born 1955
  69. Madonna born 1958
  70. Jawaharlal Nehru 1889 – 1964
  71. Marcel Proust 1871 – 1922
  72. Roald Amundsen 1872 – c. 1928
  73. Dwight D. Eisenhower 1890 – 1969
  74. Woodrow Wilson 1856 – 1924
  75. Alan Turing 1912 – 1954
  76. Richard Nixon 1913 – 1994
  77. Xi Jinping born 1953
  78. Rudyard Kipling 1865 – 1936
  79. Alfred Hitchcock 1899 – 1980
  80. Noam Chomsky born 1928
  81. John Maynard Keynes 1883 – 1946
  82. Simone de Beauvoir 1908 – 1986
  83. Hugo Chávez 1954 – 2013
  84. George Bernard Shaw 1856 – 1950
  85. Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970
  86. Niels Bohr 1885 – 1962
  87. Leon Trotsky 1879 – 1940
  88. John Lennon 1940 – 1980
  89. Bob Dylan born 1941
  90. Muammar Gaddafi 1942 – 2011
  91. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan born 1954
  92. Max Planck 1858 – 1947
  93. Arthur Conan Doyle 1859 – 1930
  94. Pelé 1940 – 2022
  95. Muhammad Ali 1942 – 2016
  96. Maxim Gorky 1868 – 1936
  97. Henri Matisse 1869 – 1954
  98. Frank Lloyd Wright 1867 – 1959
  99. Louis Armstrong 1901 – 1971
  100. Andy Warhol 1928 – 1987
  101. Kofi Annan 1938 – 2018
  102. Charles III born 1948
  103. Osama bin Laden 1957 – 2011
  104. Virginia Woolf 1882 – 1941
  105. Akira Kurosawa 1910 – 1998
  106. Lech Wałęsa born 1943
  107. Freddie Mercury 1946 – 1991
  108. Lyndon B. Johnson 1908 – 1973
  109. Gerald Ford 1913 – 2006
  110. Pope Leo XIV born 1955
  111. Ernest Rutherford 1871 – 1937
  112. Narendra Modi born 1950
  113. Ludwig Wittgenstein 1889 – 1951
  114. Indira Gandhi 1917 – 1984
  115. Max Weber 1864 – 1920
  116. Huang Xianfan 1899 – 1982
  117. Benjamin Netanyahu born 1949
  118. Enrico Fermi 1901 – 1954
  119. Naguib Mahfouz 1911 – 2006
  120. Saddam Hussein 1937 – 2006
  121. Aung San Suu Kyi born 1945
  122. Steven Spielberg born 1946
  123. Nikita Khrushchev 1894 – 1971
  124. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1900 – 1944
  125. Anne Frank 1929 – 1945
  126. H. G. Wells 1866 – 1946
  127. Helen Keller 1880 – 1968
  128. 14th Dalai Lama born 1935
  129. Pablo Neruda 1904 – 1973
  130. Rafael Orozco Maestre 1954 – 1992
  131. Thomas Mann 1875 – 1955
  132. Igor Stravinsky 1882 – 1971
  133. Bruce Lee 1940 – 1973
  134. David Hilbert 1862 – 1943
  135. Erwin Schrödinger 1887 – 1961
  136. Silvio Berlusconi 1936 – 2023
  137. Bob Marley 1945 – 1981
  138. Shinzo Abe 1954 – 2022
  139. Herbert Hoover 1874 – 1964
  140. Hermann Hesse 1877 – 1962
  141. Isaac Asimov c. 1920 – 1992
  142. Tim Berners-Lee born 1955
  143. Ingmar Bergman 1918 – 2007
  144. Federico Fellini 1920 – 1993
  145. Mahathir Mohamad born 1925
  146. Jackie Chan born 1954
  147. Anatole France 1844 – 1924
  148. Alexander Graham Bell 1847 – 1922
  149. Calvin Coolidge 1872 – 1933
  150. Boris Yeltsin 1931 – 2007