- Lady Godiva
Godiva (or Godgifu) (c. 990?-September 10, 1067) was an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who, according to legend, rode naked through the streets of Coventry in England in order to gain a remission of the oppressive toll imposed by her husband on his tenants. The name "peeping Tom" for a voyeur comes from later versions of this legend in which a man named Tom watched her ride and was stricken blind.
- Clive Owen
Clive Owen (born October 3, 1964) is a Golden Globe- and BAFTA-winning critically acclaimed English actor, now a regular performer in Hollywood and independent American films. In 2005, Owen was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film version of "Closer".
- Gary McSheffrey
Gary McSheffrey, is an English football player, currently playing for Birmingham City in the English Premiership. McSheffrey started his career for his home town club Coventry City, where he won England U-21s honours. During his time at Coventry he spent loan spells at Luton Town and Stockport County. He plays either on the left of midfield or as a striker.
- Marcus Hall
Marcus Hall, (born in Coventry 24 March 1976), is a former England Under 21 football player, who currently plays football for Coventry City. He has played for the club for most of his career, coming through the ranks to make his debut in 1994. He left the club briefly for Nottingham Forest and Southampton, yet only played once for both clubs combined. He then spent 3 seasons at Stoke City but returned to Highfield Road after only 2 years away from his home town club.
- Pete Waterman
Peter Alan Waterman OBE (born in Coventry on January 15, 1947) is an English record producer, occasional songwriter, radio and club DJ, television presenter, president of Coventry Bears rugby league club and a keen railway enthusiast. He is the owner of significant collections of both historic and commercial railway locomotives and rolling stock, a passion fuelled by his first job.
- Frank Whittle
Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, OM, KBE, FRS, Hon FRAeS (1 June 1907-9 August 1996) was an English Royal Air Force officer and is seen as the father of jet propulsion. By the end of the war, Whittle's efforts resulted in engines that would lead the world in performance through the end of the decade. Whittle and Hans von Ohain met after the war and initially Whittle was angry with him as he felt Ohain had stolen his ideas.
- Bob Ainsworth
Robert William 'Bob' Ainsworth (b. 19 June 1952) is the British Member of Parliament for Coventry North East. He is a member of the Labour Party. He is a the Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence. Born in Coventry and attended the local Foxford Comprehensive School, he first became active in politics as a trade unionist at the Jaguar Cars plant in Coventry, where he worked from 1971. He had served in many capacities within the Manufacturing, …
- Terry Hall
Terry Hall (born 19 March 1959, in Coventry, England) was the lead singer of The Specials, the Fun Boy Three, The Colourfield, Terry, Blair and Anouchka and Vegas. He released his first solo album, "Home", in 1995. He has also worked with The Lightning Seeds, Stephen Duffy, Dub Pistols, Gorillaz, Tricky and Lily Allen.
- Jill Phipps
Jill Phipps (January 15, 1964 - February 1, 1995) was a British animal rights activist. She lived in Coventry, England. On 1 February 1995, Phipps was crushed to death under the wheels of a lorry carrying live baby veal calves into Coventry Airport in Baginton, England, to be flown to Amsterdam for distribution across Europe.
- Philip Larkin
Philip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL, (9 August 1922 - 2 December 1985) was an English poet, novelist and jazz critic. He spent his working life as a university librarian and was offered the Poet Laureateship following the death of John Betjeman, but declined the post. Larkin is commonly regarded as one of the greatest English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century. In 2003 Larkin was chosen as the "nation's best-loved poet" in a survey by the Poetry Book Society.
- Hazel O'Connor
Hazel O'Connor (born 16 May 1955, in Coventry, England) is an English singer and actress.
- Panjabi Mc
Panjabi MC (real name Rajinder Singh Rai) is a British punjabi musician. He was born in 1971 in Coventry, England.
- Mo Mowlam
Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam (18 September 1949 - 19 August 2005) was a British politician, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Labour Member of Parliament. Her time as Northern Ireland Secretary saw the signing of the historic Good Friday Peace Agreement in 1998.
- Neil Back
Neil Antony Back (born January 16 1969 in Coventry) is a former international rugby union footballer for England, who also played for Leicester Tigers, and captained both England and Leicester during his career. During his international career, he gained 66 caps for England, captaining them four times and was part of the 2003 World Cup winning side. He played as an openside. He is married with two daughters.
- Ellen Terry
Dame Ellen Terry, GBE (February 27 1848 - July 21 1928) was an English stage actress. Born into a theatrical family, Terry played her first role opposite Charles Kean at London's Princess' Theatre at the age of eight. She continued acting and entered the company at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in 1861.
- Richard Keys
Richard Keys born April 23, 1957 in Coventry, England, is a television broadcaster on the British sports channel Sky Sports. In the mid to late 1980s, he co-presented TV-am, a breakfast show on the ITV network, with Anne Diamond. He attended Whitley Abbey Comprehensive School in Whitley, Coventry. Since 1992, he has been presenting Sky Sports' flagship live Premiership football programme on Sunday afternoons, "Super Sunday".
- Geoff Thompson
Geoff Thompson is a writer, teacher and self-defence expert. He was born in Coventry, England in 1960. Geoff has received acclaim for writing dozens of books on self-defence, martial arts, fear control, and his most popular book, "Watch My Back", an autobiography about his early years and how he came to be a nightclub doorman working in his hometown of Coventry. Like many others in the field of self-protection, …
- Marlon Devonish
Marlon Devonish (born June 1, 1976 in Coventry, England) is an English sprint athlete. He is a member of the Coventry Godiva Harriers athletics club and is coached by Tony Lester. Early in his career he was successful at both 100 and 200 metre distances, winning English Schools and European Junior titles at both, but in recent years he has concentrated mostly on the longer distance. He has also been a regular member of both the British and, at the Commonwealth Games, …
- Danny Grewcock
Daniel Jonathan Grewcock MBE (born November 7, 1972) is an English rugby union footballer. He was born in Coventry and attended Woodlands School, Coventry, during his secondary education (September 1984 to July 1989). His career started with Barkers Butts and Coventry and playing for the Warwickshire U21 side at age 19. During his time at Barker's Butts he began weight lifting with school-mate Jeff Bagshaw, …
- Nigel Hawthorne
Sir Nigel Hawthorne, CBE (5 April, 1929 – 26 December, 2001) was a renowned English actor. He was born in Coventry, Warwickshire, England, although he grew up in South Africa, where he was educated by the Christian Brothers. He returned to the United Kingdom in the 1950s to pursue acting. In a long and varied career, which began with an advert for Mackeson stout and a bit part in "Dad's Army", …
- David Moorcroft
David Moorcroft (April 10, 1953) was an English 1500 m and 5000 m runner whose career spanned the late 1970s and early 1980s. He was also Chief Executive of UK Athletics from 1997 to 2006 Moorcroft was born in Coventry, West Midlands. He was a pupil at Woodlands Comprehensive School. He studied Physical Education and Sport Science at Loughborough University. He was a member of the Coventry Godiva Harriers athletics club.
- Bobby Gould
Robert "Bobby" Gould (born 12 June 1946 in Coventry) is a former English football player and manager.
- Julianne Regan
Julianne Regan (born 30 June 1962) is an English singer, song writer, guitarist, bass guitarist and keyboard player, originally from Coventry. </br> She is best known for being the lead singer of the band All About Eve.
- Delia Derbyshire
Delia Derbyshire (5 May 1937 - 3 July 2001) was a British musician and composer who was a pioneer of electronic music. She is probably best known for her electronic realisation of Ron Grainer's theme music to the British science fiction television series "Doctor Who" and for her work with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
- Graham Alexander
Graham Alexander (born 10 October 1971 in Coventry, England) is a professional footballer and the captain of Championship team Preston North End.
- Lee Child
Lee Child (born 1954, Coventry, England) is a British thriller writer currently living in New York City. His first novel, "Killing Floor", won the Anthony Award for Best First Novel. Each of Child's novels follows the adventures of a former American Military Policeman named Jack Reacher who is wandering the United States.
- Tom Mann
Tom Mann (15 April 1856 - 13 March 1941) was a noted British trade unionist. Largely self-educated, Mann became a successful organiser and a popular public speaker in the labour movement.
- Debee Ashby
Debee Ashby (born July 2nd 1967) is a former British adult model. Debee grew up in Coventry, England. Noted locally for her 5'6" 37DD-24-35 figure, she attended King Henry VIII School (known affectionately as 'Big Debs'), but was expelled at age 16 on December 16th 1983 when the school discovered that she had posed topless in her school uniform for a men's magazine Men Only. Her case attracted media attention and, three days later, …
- Steve Bendall
Steven Bendall or "Steve Bendall" born in Coventry, England is a self managed professional boxer. Bendall usually fights at Middleweight or the divisions either side. Bendall boxed to national level as an amateur before turning professional in May 1997, winning his first fight at the Rivermead Leisure Centre, Reading, Berkshire, England, in which McDonagh knocked out Hackney's Dennis Doyley on an undercard that included Junior Witter and Tony Booth.
- Clint Mansell
Clint Mansell (born Clinton Darryl Mansell, 7 January 1963, in Coventry, England) is a Golden Globe nominated musician and composer.
- Ian Evatt
Ian Ross Evatt (born November 19, 1981 in Coventry, West Midlands) is an English professional footballer who plays for Blackpool, for whom he signed from Q.P.R. on January 5, 2007. He signed an 18-month contract, with Blackpool having an option for a further year. He had been on loan at Bloomfield Road since the beginning of the season. Evatt scored his first goal for Blackpool in the fourth round of the FA Cup against Norwich City on January 27, 2007.
- Frank Ifield
Frank Ifield (born Francis Edward Ifield, 30 November 1937, Coundon, Coventry, England) is an Australian-English easy listening and country music singer.
- Andy Goode
Andrew James Goode (born 3 April 1980 in Coventry) is a rugby union footballer who plays fly-half (and occasionally fullback) for Leicester Tigers and England. Goode's main strengths are his goal kicking, and he also controls the game tactically very astutely from fly half. Goode attended King Henry VIII School in Coventry and Bromsgrove School in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. He started playing rugby union at the age of five at Barkers Butts, before moving to Nuneaton at 12.
- Don Fardon
Don Fardon (born Donald Maughn, 19 August 1940, Coventry, Warwickshire) is a pop singer. His biggest success was his rendition of John D. Loudermilk's "Indian Reservation" (1970, UK: #3). Before that he was singer with The Sorrows. Fardon also released a cover version of "Running Bear". In 2006 he re-released his single, "Belfast Boy", in tribute following the death of George Best.
- Dominic Madden
Dominic Madden, born in Coventry, England, 1975, is a theatre producer and entertainment industry entrepreneur.
- Brian Matthew
Brian Matthew (born 17 September 1928, in Coventry) is a veteran British broadcaster, who became well known in the 1960s. He is still broadcasting on radio for the BBC, having presented "Sounds of the Sixties" since 1990, often employing the same vocabulary and the same measured delivery he used in previous decades. Matthew started broadcasting in 1948 in Germany, and trained as an actor at RADA before joining the BBC in 1954.
- James Quinn
James Quinn (born Stephen James Quinn on December 15 1974 in Coventry) is an English-born Northern Irish footballer. He is currently on loan to Scunthorpe United from Northampton Town. He has played for eleven clubs in his career. Quinn, a forward, is also a Northern Ireland international. After one sole start at Birmingham City he was sold to Second Division Blackpool for £25,000. It is here he probably played the best club football of his career, …
- Shane Geraghty
Shane Geraghty (born 12 August 1986 in Coventry, England, to Irish parents) is a rugby union footballer who plays for London Irish at fly half. He attended Bablake School until 2002. At the age of 20 and he secured himself a first team slot after covering for Riki Flutey's injury and playing well. He represented Ireland rugby union team at U16 level, but has since represented England at every level up to and including International level.
- Lindsay Hawker
Lindsay Ann Hawker was a 22-year old British citizen who was murdered in Japan.
- Marc Bridge-Wilkinson
Marc Bridge-Wilkinson (born March 16, 1979 in Coventry, England) is an English footballer, playing for Carlisle United. His position is a left-sided midfielder/winger. Marc is a product of the Derby County Youth Academy, although he made his first real breakthrough in league football with Port Vale. After over a hundred appearances with the Valiants, he moved to Stockport County. His time in Cheshire was less successful, as Marc found himself in the reserves, …