Who Was Alive
James Hetfield
Kreepin Deth, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

James Hetfield

American guitarist and singer

Born 3 August 1963 · living, 63 as of October 2026
Also known as James Alan Hetfield, Papa Het

Who was alive at the same time as James Hetfield?

  1. Winston Churchill, 1874 – 1965
  2. Pablo Picasso, 1881 – 1973
  3. Charlie Chaplin, 1889 – 1977
  4. Mao Zedong, 1893 – 1976
  5. Salvador Dalí, 1904 – 1989
  6. Ronald Reagan, 1911 – 2004
  7. John F. Kennedy, 1917 – 1963
  8. Nelson Mandela, 1918 – 2013
  9. Elizabeth II, 1926 – 2022
  10. Che Guevara, 1928 – 1967
  11. Martin Luther King Jr., 1929 – 1968
  12. Pope Francis, 1936 – 2025
  13. Joe Biden, born 1942
  14. Donald Trump, born 1946
  15. George W. Bush, born 1946
  16. Vladimir Putin, born 1952
  17. Steve Jobs, 1955 – 2011
  18. Bill Gates, born 1955
  19. Michael Jackson, 1958 – 2009
  20. Barack Obama, born 1961
  21. James Hetfield, born 1963
  22. Jimmy Wales, born 1966
  23. Shakira, born 1977
  24. Lionel Messi, born 1987

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 James Hetfield was born, Barack Obama was 1, Donald Trump was 17, Michael Jackson was 4, Vladimir Putin was 10 and Ronald Reagan was 52.

Born during James Hetfield’s lifetime: Jimmy Wales, Shakira, Lionel Messi, Corbin Bleu, Basshunter, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Cristiano Ronaldo and Elon Musk.

Not quite contemporaries: Albert Einstein died about 8 years before James Hetfield was born, Joseph Stalin died about 10 years before James Hetfield was born, Marilyn Monroe died about a year before James Hetfield was born and George Orwell died about 13 years before James Hetfield was born.

What happened in James Hetfield’s lifetime

Where James Hetfield’s contemporaries were born

James Hetfield 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 James Hetfield

The 150 best-known contemporaries

3,916 of the people we track were surely alive at the same time as James Hetfield. The 150 best known are listed here. See also everyone alive in 1995.

  1. Barack Obama born 1961
  2. Donald Trump born 1946
  3. Michael Jackson 1958 – 2009
  4. Vladimir Putin born 1952
  5. Ronald Reagan 1911 – 2004
  6. Nelson Mandela 1918 – 2013
  7. George W. Bush born 1946
  8. Joe Biden born 1942
  9. Pablo Picasso 1881 – 1973
  10. Winston Churchill 1874 – 1965
  11. Charlie Chaplin 1889 – 1977
  12. Elizabeth II 1926 – 2022
  13. John F. Kennedy 1917 – 1963
  14. Martin Luther King Jr. 1929 – 1968
  15. Salvador Dalí 1904 – 1989
  16. Bill Gates born 1955
  17. Jimmy Wales born 1966
  18. Pope Francis 1936 – 2025
  19. Shakira born 1977
  20. Mao Zedong 1893 – 1976
  21. Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011
  22. Che Guevara 1928 – 1967
  23. Lionel Messi born 1987
  24. Corbin Bleu born 1989
  25. Bill Clinton born 1946
  26. Charles de Gaulle 1890 – 1970
  27. Basshunter born 1984
  28. Angela Merkel born 1954
  29. Neil Armstrong 1930 – 2012
  30. Walt Disney 1901 – 1966
  31. François Hollande born 1954
  32. Elvis Presley 1935 – 1977
  33. Volodymyr Zelenskyy born 1978
  34. Cristiano Ronaldo born 1985
  35. Pope John Paul II 1920 – 2005
  36. Margaret Thatcher 1925 – 2013
  37. Gabriel García Márquez 1927 – 2014
  38. Fidel Castro 1926 – 2016
  39. Yuri Gagarin 1934 – 1968
  40. J. R. R. Tolkien 1892 – 1973
  41. Marlene Dietrich 1901 – 1992
  42. Mikhail Gorbachev 1931 – 2022
  43. Elon Musk born 1971
  44. Jean-Paul Sartre 1905 – 1980
  45. Stephen Hawking 1942 – 2018
  46. Le Corbusier 1887 – 1965
  47. Mother Teresa 1910 – 1997
  48. Jimmy Carter 1924 – 2024
  49. Pope Benedict XVI 1927 – 2022
  50. Emmanuel Macron born 1977
  51. Harry S. Truman 1884 – 1972
  52. Agatha Christie 1890 – 1976
  53. Hillary Clinton born 1947
  54. Lady Gaga born 1986
  55. George H. W. Bush 1924 – 2018
  56. Jorge Luis Borges 1899 – 1986
  57. Nicolas Sarkozy born 1955
  58. Madonna born 1958
  59. Kamala Harris born 1964
  60. Jawaharlal Nehru 1889 – 1964
  61. Dwight D. Eisenhower 1890 – 1969
  62. Richard Nixon 1913 – 1994
  63. Xi Jinping born 1953
  64. Naruhito born 1960
  65. Alfred Hitchcock 1899 – 1980
  66. Noam Chomsky born 1928
  67. Simone de Beauvoir 1908 – 1986
  68. Hugo Chávez 1954 – 2013
  69. Bertrand Russell 1872 – 1970
  70. John Lennon 1940 – 1980
  71. Bob Dylan born 1941
  72. Muammar Gaddafi 1942 – 2011
  73. Sung Jae-gi 1967 – 2013
  74. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan born 1954
  75. Pelé 1940 – 2022
  76. Muhammad Ali 1942 – 2016
  77. J. K. Rowling born 1965
  78. Justin Bieber born 1994
  79. Louis Armstrong 1901 – 1971
  80. Andy Warhol 1928 – 1987
  81. Kofi Annan 1938 – 2018
  82. Taylor Swift born 1989
  83. Charles III born 1948
  84. Osama bin Laden 1957 – 2011
  85. Akira Kurosawa 1910 – 1998
  86. Lech Wałęsa born 1943
  87. Freddie Mercury 1946 – 1991
  88. Kim Jong Un born 1984
  89. Lyndon B. Johnson 1908 – 1973
  90. Gerald Ford 1913 – 2006
  91. Pope Leo XIV born 1955
  92. Diego Maradona 1960 – 2020
  93. Eminem born 1972
  94. Beyoncé born 1981
  95. Selena Gomez born 1992
  96. Narendra Modi born 1950
  97. Indira Gandhi 1917 – 1984
  98. Rafael Correa born 1963
  99. Huang Xianfan 1899 – 1982
  100. Benjamin Netanyahu born 1949
  101. Angelina Jolie born 1975
  102. Naguib Mahfouz 1911 – 2006
  103. Saddam Hussein 1937 – 2006
  104. Aung San Suu Kyi born 1945
  105. Steven Spielberg born 1946
  106. Michael Schumacher born 1969
  107. Nikita Khrushchev 1894 – 1971
  108. Helen Keller 1880 – 1968
  109. 14th Dalai Lama born 1935
  110. Dmitry Medvedev born 1965
  111. Anna Netrebko born 1971
  112. Mark Zuckerberg born 1984
  113. Pablo Neruda 1904 – 1973
  114. Rafael Orozco Maestre 1954 – 1992
  115. Igor Stravinsky 1882 – 1971
  116. Bruce Lee 1940 – 1973
  117. Silvio Berlusconi 1936 – 2023
  118. Bob Marley 1945 – 1981
  119. Shinzo Abe 1954 – 2022
  120. Herbert Hoover 1874 – 1964
  121. Isaac Asimov c. 1920 – 1992
  122. Tim Berners-Lee born 1955
  123. Ingmar Bergman 1918 – 2007
  124. Federico Fellini 1920 – 1993
  125. Mahathir Mohamad born 1925
  126. Jackie Chan born 1954
  127. Boris Yeltsin 1931 – 2007
  128. Ali Khamenei 1939 – 2026
  129. Robin Williams 1951 – 2014
  130. Guillermo Lasso born 1955
  131. Celine Dion born 1968
  132. Kim Il Sung 1912 – 1994
  133. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1918 – 2008
  134. Jacques Chirac 1932 – 2019
  135. Roger Federer born 1981
  136. T. S. Eliot 1888 – 1965
  137. Kwame Nkrumah 1909 – 1972
  138. Stanley Kubrick 1928 – 1999
  139. Lana Del Rey born 1985
  140. Marlon Brando 1924 – 2004
  141. Alexander Lukashenko born 1954
  142. Hirohito 1901 – 1989
  143. Richard Feynman 1918 – 1988
  144. Woody Allen born 1935
  145. Neymar born 1992
  146. Tony Blair born 1953
  147. Rihanna born 1988
  148. Malala Yousafzai born 1997
  149. Scarlett Johansson born 1984
  150. Rafael Nadal born 1986