- Victor Of Marseilles
Saint Victor of Marseilles was a Christian martyr. He is venerated as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. He is said to have been a Roman army officer in Marseilles, who publicly denounced the worship of idols. For that, he was brought before the Roman prefects, Asterius and Eutychius, who later sent him to the Emperor, Maximian. He was then racked, beaten, dragged through the streets, and thrown into prison, …
- Miles Of Marseilles
Miles of Marseilles was a Provençal-Jewish physician and philosopher of the Middle Ages. He was born at Marseilles around 1294. In some manuscripts he is designated by the name "Bongodos," the Provençal language equivalent of "ben Judah." From early youth he devoted himself to the study of science and philosophy. While still young he left his native place for Salon-de-Provence, where he studied astronomy under the direction of Abba Mari Senior Astruc de Noves.
- Abdalong Of Marseilles
Abdalong of Marseilles was a bishop of the Diocese of Marseille in the 8th century during the reign of Charles Martel. He has a popular cult without official recognition which holds an informal feast day for him on March 1.
- Oswald Wirth
Oswald Wirth (1860 - 1943) was a Swiss occultist, artist and author. He studied esotericism and symbolism with Stanislaus de Guaita, and created a set of Tarot trumps based on the Marseilles deck. His interests also included Freemasonry and astrology. Wirth is the artist responsible for the so-called Baphomet or Leviathan design of a goat head inside a pentagram that was modified for use as the logo for Anton LaVey's Church of Satan.
- John Cassian
Saint John Cassian (Latin: Jo(h)annes Eremita Cassianus, Joannus Cassianus, or Joannes Massiliensis) is a Christian theologian celebrated in the Western and Eastern Churches for his mystical writings. He is known both as one of the "Scythian monks" and as one of the "Desert Fathers." He was born around 360 possibly in the eastern Roman Empire. Whether or not he was a Scythian by birth, as a young adult, …
- Honoratus
Saint Honoratus (ca. 350 - 6 January, 429) was Archbishop of Arles. There is some disagreement concerning his place of birth, and the date of his death is still disputed, being according to certain authors, 14 January or 15 January. It is believed that he was born in the north of Gaul and that he belonged to an illustrious pagan family. Converted to Christianity with his brother Venantius, he embarked with him from Marseilles about 368, …
- Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi (July 4, 1807 - June 2, 1882) was an Italian patriot and soldier of the Risorgimento. He personally led many of the military campaigns that brought about the formation of a unified Italy. He has been dubbed the "Hero of the Two Worlds" in tribute to his military expeditions in South America and Europe.
- Butch James
Butch James is a South African rugby union player. His usual position is at fly-half, where he plays for the Sharks in the international Super 14 competition. He has also represented the Springboks, having played for the Springboks on numerous occasions. His career has been substantially hampered by injury, particularly to his knees.
- Damien Traille
Damien Traille (born 12 June, 1979 in Pau, France) is a French rugby union footballer. His usual position is in the centres or at fly-half. He currently plays for Biarritz Olympique in the Top 14 club competition in France. Traille has played for France, including at the 2003 Rugby World Cup as well as France's Six Nations victories in 2002, 2004 and 2006. He played for Section Paloise from the late 1990s through to 2004, when he moved to his current club, Biarritz.
- Keny Arkana
Keny Arkana is a French rap artist. She is active in the alter-globalization movement with "La Rage Du Peuple," a collective (cf. English "clan" or "crew") formed in 2004 in the Noailles quarter of Marseilles.
- Bernard Thibault
Bernard Thibault is the current secretary of the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT) French trade union. He represents the moderate wing of the CGT, opposed to the more radical wing which may be found in Marseilles' trade union.
- Benjamin Of Tudela
Benjamin of Tudela (fl. 12th century) was a medieval Navarrese Jewish rabbi and explorer. In his journey he passed through large swathes of Europe, Asia, and Africa. His vivid descriptions of western Asia preceded those of Marco Polo by a hundred years. With his broad education and vast knowledge of languages, Benjamin of Tudela is a major figure in the history of geography and Judaism.
- Paul Mauriat
Paul Mauriat (Marseille, 4 March 1925 - 3 November 2006 in Perpignan) was a French orchestra leader, specializing in light music. He is best known in the United States for his hit (#1 for 5 weeks in 1968) recording of AndrA Popp 's "L'Amour est bleu" , originally recorded by Vicky Leandros . Mauriat grew up in Marseilles and began leading his own band during the Second World War.
- Gabriel Péri
Gabriel Péri (Peri) was a prominent French Communist journalist and politician. He was born to a Corsican family. Forced to give up his studies at an early age, he immersed himself in political activities, and wrote for newspapers in Aix-en-Provence and Marseilles. At the age of twenty-two, Péri became departmental manager of Foreign Politics at "l'Humanité". He was elected Deputy for Argenteuil in 1932 (he was re-elected in 1936).
- Tino Rossi
Tino Rossi was a singer and film actor. Born "Constantino Rossi" in Ajaccio, Corsica, France, he became a tenor of French cabaret and one of the great romantic idols of his time. Gifted with an operatic voice, a "Latin Lover" persona made him a movie star as well. Over his career, Rossi made hundreds of records and appeared in more than 25 films, the most notable of which was the 1953 production, "Si Versailles m'était conté" directed by Sacha Guitry.
- Irving Kristol
Irving Kristol (born January 22, 1920, New York City) is considered the founder of American neoconservatism. He is married to conservative author and emeritus professor Gertrude Himmelfarb and is the father of William Kristol. He describes himself as a "liberal mugged by reality". Kristol was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York and, although he had a bar mitzvah, says that belief had nothing to do with his family's observance.
- Charles Plumier
Charles Plumier (April 20, 1646 - November 20, 1704) was a French botanist, after whom the genus Plumeria, or Frangipani (originally named "Plumiera") is named.
- Vinayak Damodar Savarkar
Vināyak Dāmodar Sāvarkar was an Indian political leader and freedom fighter, who is credited with developing a Hindu nationalist political ideology he termed as "Hindutva" ("Hinduness"). Commonly addressed as Veer Savarkar (वीर सावरकर, "Brave Savarkar"), he is widely regarded as the inspiring icon of modern Hindu nationalist political parties.
- Zino Francescatti
Zino Francescatti (August 9, 1902 - September 17, 1991) was a French violinist. He was born at Marseilles, and his father was also a violinist, having studied with Camillo Sivori. He began performing at the age of five and made his debut playing the Beethoven violin concerto at 10. Francescatti was a Paganini specialist, and his recording of the Paganini concerto number 1 is still regarded as one of the best ever made.
- Lucien Sarti
Lucien Sarti (born circa 1931 in Corsica, died April 27, 1972 in Mexico City) was a drug trafficker and killer-for-hire involved in the infamous French Connection heroin network. He was named on the television series "The Men Who Killed Kennedy" as one of the men who shot U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
- Zarafa
Zarafa (?1824-12 January 1845) was a giraffe in a menagerie in the Jardin des Plantes in Paris for 18 years in the early 1800s. She was one of the first three giraffes to be seen in Europe for over three centuries, since the Medici giraffe was sent to Lorenzo de' Medici in Florence in 1486. In her lifetime, the giraffe seems not have been given a name, but was referred to as "the giraffe". Nowadays she is known by the name Zarafa (Arabic for "charming" or "lovely one"), …
- Philippe Saisse
Philippe Saisse is a smooth jazz and New Age music keyboardist. He is also a producer and doubles on bass. He was born in Marseilles and raised in Paris. After studying at the conservatory in Paris he won a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music. He became the protege of Gary Burton and debuted on Al Di Meola's Splendido Hotel. He also worked with Felicia Collins and wrote for David Sanborn. He has also done work in the pop world for David Bowie and others.
- Karel Zeman
Karel Zeman (November 3, 1910, Ostroměř near Nová Paka, then Austria-Hungary - April 5, 1989, Prague, then Czechoslovakia) was a Czech animator and filmmaker. He is considered the co-founder of the Czech animated film. He started to be interested in puppet theatre while studying at business school. Soon after, he decided to study at the Art School of Advertising in France, and after graduating he took a job with an advertising studio in Marseilles.
- Victor Maurel
Victor Maurel (June 17, 1848 in Marseilles-October 22, 1923 in New York City) was a French baritone. Educated in music at the Paris Conservatory, he made his debut in opera in Paris in 1868, and in London in 1873. Maurel had a reputation for his acting skills and vocal method. He created Iago in "Otello" (1887) and the title role in "Falstaff" (1893) by Giuseppe Verdi, and was the first Tonio in Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" (1892), …
- Necdet Kent
Necdet Kent (1911-2002) was a Turkish diplomat who risked his life to save Jews during World War II. He was posted as Consul General to Marseilles between 1941 and 1944, gave Turkish citizenship to dozens of Turkish Jews living in France who did not have proper identity papers to save them from deportation to the Nazi gas chambers.
- Charles Camoin
Charles Camoin was born in Marseilles, France in 1879. He met Henri Matisse in Gustave Moreau's class at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Matisse and his friends (including Camoin, Henri Manguin, Albert Marquet, Georges Rouault, André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck), formed the original group of artists labeled the Fauves (meaning "the wild beasts") for their wild, …
- Donald Caskie
The Rev Dr Donald Caskie (1902 - 1983) was a minister in the Church of Scotland, best known for his exploits in France during World War II, during which he helped an estimated 2,000 Allied sailors, soldiers and airman to escape from occupied France (mainly through Spain). The 'Fasti' - the record of all Church of Scotland ministers since the Reformation - simply mentions that he was "engaged in church and patriotic duties in France, 1939-1945".
- Eliane Plewman
Eliane Plewman (1917-September 131944) was a French SOE agent and member of French resistance. Plewman was born Eliane Browne-Bartroli in Marseilles. She was educated in England and in Spain. When she finished college she moved to Leicester to work for an import company. After the outbreak of the Second World War, Plewman worked for the British Embassies in Madrid and Lisbon.
- Childebert I
Childebert I (Rheims, c.496 - 13 December 558) was the Frankish king of Paris, a Merovingian dynast, one of the four sons of Clovis I who shared the kingdom of the Franks upon their father's death in 511. He was one of the sons of Saint Clotilda. In the partition of the realm, he received as his share the town of Paris, the country to the north as far as the river Somme, to the west as far as the English Channel, and the Armorican peninsula (modern Brittany).
- Violet Dickson
Violet Penelope Lucas-Calcraft was born in Gautby, Lincolnshire, England. Her father was Neville Lucas-Calcraft, a land agent. The 1900 census shows the family were living in Moat House, Gautby: the house was owned by Robert Charles de Gray Vyner, for whom Violet's father worked. She met her husband Harold Dickson (1881 - 1959) in Marseilles, France, shortly after the end of World War I, where she was working in a bank. She travelled out to meet him in India, …
- Pavlos Melas
Pavlos Melas was an officer of the Hellenic Army, and he was among the first who organized and participated in the Greek Struggle for Macedonia. He was born in Marseilles, France in a family with origin from Northern Epirus (present day Albania). Melas, with the cooperation of Kastorian Ion Dragoumis, consul of Greece in then Ottoman occupied Monastir (now Bitola), Christos Kottas, or in original Kote Hristov (Macedonian-Slav renegade from VMRO) and Germanos Karavangelis, …
- Jean Coralli
Jean Coralli, born Giovanni Coralli Peracini, was a French dancer and choreographer and later held the esteemed post of First Balletmaster of the Paris Opera Ballet. He is best known for the creation of the Romantic ballet "Giselle" which he choreographed in tandem with another French dancer, Jules Perrot. Giovanni Coralli Peracini was born into a Bolognese family in Paris. He studied at the Paris Opéra School.
- Francois Xavier Martin
François Xavier Martin, American jurist and author, was born in Marseilles, France, of Provençal descent. In 1780 he went to Martinique, and before the close of the American Revolutionary War went to North Carolina, where (in New Bern) he taught French and learnt English, and set up as a printer. He studied law, and was admitted to the North Carolina bar in 1789.
- Lucien Petipa
Lucien Petipa (1815-1898) was a French ballet dancer in the early 1800s (Romantic period) and was the brother of the famous balletmaster of the Russian Imperial Ballet (late eighteen-hundreds), Marius Petipa. He was born in Marseilles and died in Versailles. He originated many of the principal male roles during the Romantic era, working with choreographers, for example Jean Coralli among others. Probally the most know role he created was Albert, …
- Joseph Sitruk
Rabbi Joseph Haïm Sitruk is the current Chief Rabbi of France, a position he has held since June 1987. Born Joseph Sitruk in Tunis, after suffering a stroke in 2000 and recovering he added the name "Haim" to his name in line with Jewish tradition. He graduated as a rabbi in 1970 following his studies in a rabbinical school, and was named Rabbi of Strasbourg before becoming the assistant of the Chief Rabbi Max Warchawski.
- Christian Ranucci
Christian Ranucci was one of the last people executed in France, having been convicted of the abduction, sexual assault, and murder of a young girl, Marie-Dolorès Rambla. He was tried in Aix-en-Provence in Southern France on March 9-March 10, 1976 and sentenced to death. His appeal for a second trial was overturned by a higher court on July 16. President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing refused his pardon for Ranucci only ten days after the case's arrival to his office, …
- Nicolas Coeffeteau
Nicolas Coeffeteau (1574 - 1623), French theologian, poet and historian, was born at Saint-Calais. He entered the Dominican order and lectured on philosophy at Paris, being also ordinary preacher to Henry IV, and afterwards ambassador at Rome. In 1606 he was vicar-general of the congregation of France, and received from Marie de' Medici the revenues of the sees of Lombez and Saintes.
- Mary Morello
Mary Morello (born in 1924 in Marseilles, Illinois) founded in 1987 the anti-censorship group Parents For Rock And Rap. She is sometimes referred to as Tipper Gore's nemesis in the 1980s battle over music censorship. She earned a masters degree in African and Latin American history from Chicago's Loyola University in 1954. She spent the rest of the decade teaching English in Germany, Spain and Japan, circling the globe on a freighter
- Ambrose Maréchal
Most Reverend Ambrose Maréchal, S.S. was the third Archbishop of Baltimore, Maryland. Motto: Auspice Maria; "Under the protection of Mary." Ambrose Maréchal was born at Ingré near Orléans, France, on August 28, 1764. He studied for the legal profession, but later entered the Sulpician seminary at Orléans, where he received tonsure towards the close of 1787. France was in such a chaotic condition that he left Paris for Bordeaux, where he was ordained in 1792.
- Boby Lapointe
Robert (Boby) Lapointe was a French singer, noted for his humorous texts and plays on words. He was born in Pézenas, in the Hérault department of France. A brilliant scholar, he prepared for the entrance exam to the Centrale (engineering school) and Sup-Aero at Montpellier, but was conscripted into the Youth Building Projects in 1942 and sent to Germany in 1943 for compulsory work service. He escaped the same year, and found work as a diver in La Ciotat, …