Famous Birthdays on December 11

December 11 has 217 recorded notable births across history, from 1445 to 2000. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.

Rita Moreno

1931 — Rita Moreno

Puerto Rican actress, singer, and dancer

By · — Wikipedia

Famous Birthdays 217 source records 1445 – 2000 Sagittarius

Major events on December 11

See what else happened on this day in history.

  1. 2006 Felipe Calderón, the president of Mexico, launches a military-led offensive to put down the drug cartel violence in the state of Michoacán. This effort is often regarded as the first event in the Mexican drug war. Source
  2. 2020 The Food and Drug Administration issues an Emergency Use Authorization on the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the first COVID-19 vaccine to be approved by the agency. Source

Did you know about Rita Moreno

Rita Moreno has been honored with Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004, the National Medal of Arts in 2009, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2013, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2015, and a Peabody Award in 2019.

Did you know about Nikki Sixx

Nikki Sixx is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, author, photographer, and radio personality, best known as the co-founder, bassist, primary songwriter, and only constant member of the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe.

Did you know about Donna Mills

Donna Mills began her television career in 1966 with a recurring role on The Secret Storm, and in the same year appeared on Broadway in Woody Allen's comedy Don't Drink the Water.

Did you know about Fiorello H. La Guardia

Fiorello Henry La Guardia was an American attorney and politician who served as the 100th mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1946.

Did you know about Brenda Lee

Brenda Lee's Christmas song "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" (1958) reached number 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in December 2023 after a music video was released for the song, making Lee the oldest artist ever to reach number 1 the chart.

More major people born on December 11

Notable people are ranked by substantive profile depth and public notability.

1958 Nikki Sixx

Nikki Sixx

American bass player, songwriter, and producer
Nikki Sixx is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, author, photographer, and radio personality, best known as the co-founder, bassist, primary songwriter, and only constant member of the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. Prior to forming Mötley Crüe, Sixx was a member of Sister before going on to form London with his Sister bandmate Lizzie Grey. In 2000, he formed side project group 58 with Dave Darling, Steve Gibb and Bucket Baker, issuing one album, Diet for a New America. Also in 2002, he formed the hard rock supergroup Brides of Destruction with L.A. Guns guitarist Tracii Guns. Formed in 2006, initially to record an audio accompaniment to Sixx's autobiography The Heroin Diaries: A Year in the Life of a Shattered Rock Star, his side band Sixx:A.M. featured songwriter, producer, and vocalist James Michael and guitarist DJ Ashba.
Wikipedia source
1940 Donna Mills

Donna Mills

American actress and producer
Donna Mills is an American actress. She began her television career in 1966 with a recurring role on The Secret Storm, and in the same year appeared on Broadway in Woody Allen's comedy Don't Drink the Water. She made her film debut the next year in The Incident. She then starred for three years on the soap opera Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1967–70), before starring as Tobie Williams, the girlfriend of Clint Eastwood's character in the 1971 thriller Play Misty for Me. Mills played the female lead in the heist film Murph the Surf (1975), and had starring roles in a number of made-for-television movies during the 1970s.
Wikipedia source
1882 Fiorello H. La Guardia

Fiorello H. La Guardia

American lawyer and politician, 99th Mayor of New York City (died 1947)
Fiorello Henry La Guardia was an American attorney and politician who served as the 100th mayor of New York City from 1934 to 1946. He previously represented New York in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1917 to 1919 and again from 1923 to 1933. He was known for his irascible, energetic, and charismatic personality and diminutive, rotund stature. A member of the Republican Party, La Guardia was frequently cross-endorsed by parties other than his own, especially parties on the left under New York's electoral fusion laws. A panel of 69 scholars in 1993 ranked him as the best big city mayor in American history.
Wikipedia source
1944 Brenda Lee

Brenda Lee

American singer-songwriter
Brenda Mae Tarpley known professionally as Brenda Lee, is an American singer. Known for her musical versatility, she had commercial success with recordings in the genres of pop, country, rock and roll and gospel. She was also one of the best-selling music artists of the 1960s. Her Christmas song "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" (1958) reached number 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in December 2023 after a music video was released for the song, making Lee the oldest artist ever to reach number 1 the chart. She has been inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Wikipedia source
1979 Rider Strong

Rider Strong

American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter
Rider King Strong is an American actor and director. He is best known for starring as Shawn Hunter on the ABC sitcom Boy Meets World (1993–2000), which he reprised in its sequel series Girl Meets World (2014–2017). He also headlined the film Cabin Fever (2002) and co-wrote and directed the independent film Irish Twins (2008) with his brother Shiloh. He provided the voices of Brick Flagg in Kim Possible (2002–2004) and Kim Possible Movie: So the Drama (2005), and Tom Lucitor in Star vs. the Forces of Evil (2015–2019). In 2015, Strong was honored with the Young Artist Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award.
Wikipedia source
1921 Liz Smith

Liz Smith

English actress (died 2016)
Betty Gleadle, known by the stage name Liz Smith, was an English actress. She was known for her roles in BBC sitcoms, including as Annie Brandon in I Didn't Know You Cared (1975–1979), the sisters Bette and Belle in 2point4 Children (1991–1999), Letitia Cropley in The Vicar of Dibley (1994–1996) and Norma ("Nana") in The Royle Family (1998–2006). For the latter, Smith was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Comedy Performance in 2007. She also played Zillah in Lark Rise to Candleford (2008) and won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her portrayal of Mother in the film A Private Function (1984).
Wikipedia source
1913 Jean Marais

Jean Marais

French actor and director (died 1998)
Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais, known professionally as Jean Marais, was a French actor, theatre director, painter, sculptor, visual artist, writer and photographer. In 1937, Marais became the lover of acclaimed poet, playwright and film director Jean Cocteau, who considered him his muse and directed him in multiple plays and films, notably Beauty and the Beast (1946). Following their relationship, Marais and Cocteau remained close friends and Marais later endeavored to keep Cocteau's legacy alive. During the post-war period, Marais was one of France's major film stars and performed in various successful swashbuckler films. In 1996, he was awarded the French Legion of Honor for his contributions to French cinema.
Wikipedia source
1988 Tim Southee

Tim Southee

New Zealand cricketer
Timothy Grant Southee is a former New Zealand international cricketer who has captained New Zealand cricket team in all formats of the game. He is a right-arm medium-fast bowler and a hard-hitting lower order batsman. The third New Zealand bowler to take 300 Test wickets, he was one of the country's youngest cricketers, debuting at the age of 19 in February 2008. On his Test debut against England he took 5 wickets and made 77 off 40 balls in the second innings. He plays for Northern Districts in the Plunket Shield, Ford Trophy and Super Smash as well as Northland in the Hawke Cup. He was named as New Zealand's captain for the first T20I against West Indies in place of Kane Williamson, who was rested for that game. The Blackcaps won that match by 47 runs. Southee was a member of the New Zealand team that won the 2019–2021 ICC World Test Championship. Southee's Test batting strike rate of 82.68 is the third highest among batsmen with a minimum of 2000 career runs. He was also a part of the New Zealand squads to finish as runners-up in two Cricket World Cup finals in 2015 and 2019.
Wikipedia source
1916 Elena Garro

Elena Garro

Mexican author and playwright (died 1998)
Elena Delfina Garro Navarro was a Mexican author, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, short story writer, and novelist. She has been described as one of the pioneers and an early leading figure of the Magical Realism movement, though she rejected this affiliation. Alongside the works of Juan Rulfo, her first three works: Un hogar sólido (1958), Los recuerdos del porvenir (1963), and La semana de colores (1964), are considered to be among the earliest examples of Magical Realism in Latin American literature. Garro's writing, despite being mostly theatre and fictional prose, borrowed heavily from poetry and its literary elements. Author and biographer Patricia Rosas Lopategui has described Garro's style as "an attempt to rescue the use of everyday language in the form of poetry". Her style has also been compared to that of French writers like Georges Schéhadé, Jean Genet, as well as Romanian-French playwright Eugène Ionesco, due to the surreal nature of her stories. A close friend of Albert Camus, her works were also heavily influenced by his style and philosophy. She was the recipient of the Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize in 1996.
Wikipedia source
1933 Aquilino Pimentel

Aquilino Pimentel

Jr., Filipino civil servant and politician, 23rd President of the Senate of the Philippines (died 2019)
Aquilino Quilinging Pimentel Jr., commonly known as Nene Pimentel, was a Filipino politician and human rights lawyer who was one of the leading political opposition leaders during the regime of Ferdinand Marcos from the declaration of martial law in 1972 until the People Power Revolution in 1986, which removed Marcos from power. He co-founded the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan (PDP–Laban) and served as the President of the Senate of the Philippines from 2000 to 2001. He is the father of former Senator Aquilino Pimentel III. In 2018, Pimentel was identified by the Human Rights Victims' Claims Board as a Motu Proprio human rights violations victim of the Martial Law Era.
Wikipedia source
1890 Mark Tobey

Mark Tobey

American-Swiss painter and educator (died 1976)
Mark George Tobey was an American painter. His densely structured compositions, inspired by Asian calligraphy, resemble Abstract expressionism, although the motives for his compositions differ philosophically from most Abstract Expressionist painters. His work was widely recognized throughout the United States and Europe. Along with Guy Anderson, Kenneth Callahan, Morris Graves, and William Cumming, Tobey was a founder of the Northwest School. Senior in age and experience, he had a strong influence on the others; friend and mentor, Tobey shared their interest in philosophy and Eastern religions. Similar to others of the Northwest School, Tobey was mostly self-taught after early studies at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1921, Tobey founded the art department at The Cornish School in Seattle, Washington.
Wikipedia source
1939 Thomas McGuane

Thomas McGuane

American novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter
Thomas Francis McGuane III is an American writer. His work includes ten novels, short fiction and screenplays, as well as three collections of essays devoted to his life in the outdoors. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the NCHA Members Hall of Fame and the Fly Fishing Hall of Fame. McGuane's papers, manuscripts, and correspondence are located in the Montana State University Archives and Special Collections and are available for research use. In 2023, he was given the first Award for Excellence in Service to the MSU Library for the advancement of scholarship and access to unique materials.
Wikipedia source
1957 Peter Bagge

Peter Bagge

American author and illustrator
Peter Bagge is an American cartoonist whose best-known work includes the comics Neat Stuff and Hate. His stories often use black humor and exaggerated cartooning to dramatize the reduced expectations of middle-class American youth. He won two Harvey Awards in 1991, one for best cartoonist and one for his work on Hate. In recent decades Bagge has done more fact-based comics, everything from biographies to history to comics journalism. Publishers of Bagge's articles, illustrations, and comics include suck.com, MAD Magazine, toonlet, Discover, and the Weekly World News, with the comic strip Adventures of Batboy. He has expressed his libertarian views in features for Reason.
Wikipedia source
1954 Santiago Creel

Santiago Creel

Mexican lawyer and politician, Mexican Secretary of the Interior
Santiago Creel Miranda is a Mexican lawyer and politician, and a member of the National Action Party (PAN). Since 1 September 2021, he had used to be a federal deputy and the current president of the Congress of the Union and of the board of directors of the Chamber of Deputies. However, Creel resigned from his position as president of the Chamber of Deputies on August 14, 2023, to pursue the presidential nomination for the 2024 elections. As of March 2026, the current President of the Chamber of Deputies is Kenia López Rabadán, who was appointed on 2 September 2025.
Wikipedia source
1955 Stu Jackson

Stu Jackson

American basketball player, coach, and manager
Stuart Wayne Jackson is an American basketball executive and former basketball coach. He is currently the Commissioner of the West Coast Conference since April 24, 2023 and a member of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee since June 2024. Jackson has coached the New York Knicks from 1989 to 1990, and the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1997, and has also served as the Grizzlies' general manager. He is the former executive vice president of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He previously was the director of basketball operations for the Pau-based French professional club Élan Béarnais from 2021 to 2023.
Wikipedia source
1971 Willie McGinest

Willie McGinest

American football player and sportscaster
William Lee McGinest Jr. is an American former professional football linebacker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons, primarily with the New England Patriots. He played college football for the USC Trojans, twice receiving first-team All-Pac-10 honors, and was selected fourth overall by the Patriots in the 1994 NFL draft. During his 12 seasons with the team, he was named to two Pro Bowls and won three Super Bowl titles. McGinest also holds the postseason record for sacks. For his accomplishments in New England, he was inducted to the Patriots Hall of Fame in 2015.
Wikipedia source
1725 George Mason

George Mason

American lawyer and politician (died 1792)
George Mason was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, one of three delegates who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings, including substantial portions of the Fairfax Resolves of 1774, the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776, and his Objections to this Constitution of Government (1787) opposing ratification, have exercised a significant influence on American political thought and events. The Virginia Declaration of Rights, which Mason principally authored, served as a basis for the United States Bill of Rights, of which he has been deemed a father.
Wikipedia source
1908 Elliott Carter

Elliott Carter

American composer and academic (died 2012)
Elliott Cook Carter Jr. was an American modernist composer who was one of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century. He combined elements of European modernism and American "ultra-modernism" into a distinctive style with a personal harmonic and rhythmic language, after an early neoclassical phase. His compositions are performed throughout the world, and include orchestral, chamber music, solo instrumental, and vocal works. Carter was the recipient of many awards – he was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his string quartets. He also wrote the large-scale orchestral triptych Symphonia: sum fluxae pretium spei.
Wikipedia source
1935 Pranab Mukherjee

Pranab Mukherjee

Indian journalist and politician, 13th President of India (died 2020)
Pranab Mukherjee was an Indian politician who served as the president of India from 2012 until 2017. He was the first person from West Bengal to hold the office. In a political career spanning five decades, Mukherjee was a senior leader in the Indian National Congress and occupied several top ministerial portfolios in the Government of India. Prior to his election as President, Mukherjee was Finance Minister from 2009 to 2012 also in 1982 to 1984. He was awarded India's highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in 2019, by his successor as president, Ram Nath Kovind.
Wikipedia source

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