Famous Birthdays on May 23

May 23 has 223 recorded notable births across history, from 635 to 2007. This focused page highlights 20 people with the strongest available profile context.

Marvelous Marvin Hagler

1954 — Marvelous Marvin Hagler

American boxer and actor (died 2021)

By · Wikipedia

Famous Birthdays 223 source records 635 – 2007 Gemini

Major events on May 23

See what else happened on this day in history.

  1. 1949 Cold War: The Western occupying powers approve the Basic Law and establish a new German state, the Federal Republic of Germany. Source
  2. 1915 World War I: Italy joins the Allies, fulfilling its part of the Treaty of London. Source

Did you know about Marvelous Marvin Hagler

Marvelous Marvin Hagler holds the record for the sixth longest reign as champion in middleweight history.

Did you know about H. Jon Benjamin

Benjamin was named 2014's male comedy performer of the year at Vulture's TV Awards for his work in Bob's Burgers and Archer.

Did you know about Melissa McBride

Originally cast in a minor role, McBride's role expanded over time to a main cast member and, from 2020, she was the second billed cast member in the opening credits of the show, and one of only two cast members to appear in every season.

Did you know about Lena Meyer-Landrut

Both "Satellite" and her debut album My Cassette Player (2010) debuted at number one in Germany and became platinum sellers.

Did you know about Franz Mesmer

In 1843, the Scottish doctor James Braid proposed the term "hypnotism" for a technique derived from animal magnetism; today the word "mesmerism" generally functions as a synonym of "hypnosis".


More major people born on May 23

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

1966 H. Jon Benjamin

H. Jon Benjamin

American actor, comedian, writer, and producer
Harry Jon Benjamin is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and musician. He is known for his voice roles in adult animated series, including Sterling Archer in Archer, Bob Belcher in Bob's Burgers, Ben in Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, Kevin in O'Grady, Carl Graves in Family Guy, Satan in Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil, and Coach McGuirk and Jason Penopolis in Home Movies, starring as the voice of Boy in the film Boy Kills World (2023) and its spin-off video game Super Dragon Punch Force 3 (2024). Benjamin was named 2014's male comedy performer of the year at Vulture's TV Awards for his work in Bob's Burgers and Archer. He also appeared in the 2001 satirical comedy film Wet Hot American Summer; its subsequent 2015 television series, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp; and the final installment of the franchise, the 2017 miniseries Wet Hot American Summer: 10 Years Later.
1965 Melissa McBride

Melissa McBride

American actress
Melissa Suzanne McBride is an American actress. She made her acting debut in 1993, and went onto appear in Walker, Texas Ranger (1997) and Dawson's Creek (1998). In 2007, she also starred in the film The Mist (2007). Her breakout role was Carol Peletier on the AMC series The Walking Dead (2010–2022), and later the series' spinoff The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon (2023–present). She has garnered critical acclaim and received multiple awards and nominations for her role on the show. Originally cast in a minor role, McBride's role expanded over time to a main cast member and, from 2020, she was the second billed cast member in the opening credits of the show, and one of only two cast members to appear in every season.
1991 Lena Meyer-Landrut

Lena Meyer-Landrut

German singer-songwriter
Lena Johanna Therese Meyer-Landrut, also known by the mononym Lena, is a German singer. She rose to fame after representing Germany in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 in Oslo, winning the event with the song "Satellite". Both "Satellite" and her debut album My Cassette Player (2010) debuted at number one in Germany and became platinum sellers. With her three entries from the German national final Unser Star für Oslo, Meyer-Landrut set an all-time chart record in her home country by debuting with three songs in the top five of the German Singles Chart. She represented Germany for the second consecutive time in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf with the song "Taken by a Stranger", finishing in tenth place.
1734 Franz Mesmer

Franz Mesmer

German physician and astrologer (died 1815)
Franz Anton Mesmer was a German physician with an interest in astronomy. He theorized the existence of a process of natural energy transference occurring between all animate and inanimate objects; this he called "animal magnetism", later referred to as mesmerism. Mesmer's theory attracted a wide following between about 1780 and 1850, and continued to have some influence until the end of the 19th century. In 1843, the Scottish doctor James Braid proposed the term "hypnotism" for a technique derived from animal magnetism; today the word "mesmerism" generally functions as a synonym of "hypnosis". Mesmer also supported the arts, specifically music; he was on friendly terms with Haydn and Mozart.
1980 Chris Gethard

Chris Gethard

American actor, comedian and writer
Christopher Paul Gethard ( GETH-ərd; born May 23, 1980) is an American comedian, actor, writer and podcaster. An improv teacher at Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre for much of the 2000s, Gethard played the lead role of Josh Franklin in Big Lake (2010), Comedy Central's first attempt at a multi-cam sitcom, and played Bill in the film Don't Think Twice (2016). He debuted his stand-up comedy album and half-hour television special in 2014 and his hour-long TV special in 2017. Variety listed him in its '10 Comics to Watch' in 2010, and Vulture listed him in its 'Comedians You Should and Will Know in 2013'.
1988 Morgan Pressel

Morgan Pressel

American golfer
Morgan Pressel is an American professional golfer and golf commentator who played on the LPGA Tour. In 2001, as a 12-year-old, she became the youngest player to qualify for the U.S. Women's Open. She was the 2005 American Junior Golf Association (AJGA) Player of the Year, and won the 2006 AJGA Nancy Lopez Award. She turned pro at age 17, and is the youngest-ever winner of a modern LPGA major championship, when at age 18 she won the 2007 Kraft Nabisco Championship and vaulted to a career-high fourth in the world rankings. In early March 2021, she announced she had joined the Golf Channel and NBC Sports to be an analyst and on-course reporter in the 2021 season, while continuing to compete.
1951 Antonis Samaras

Antonis Samaras

Greek economist and politician, 185th Prime Minister of Greece
Antonis Samaras is a Greek politician who served as Prime Minister of Greece from 2012 to 2015. A member of the New Democracy party, he was its president from 2009 until 2015. He also founded the Political Spring party, which he led as president from 1993 to 2004, when he returned to New Democracy. He has been Member of the Greek Parliament (MP) for Messenia since 2007, having previously served at the same role from 1977 to 1996. He was also a Member of the European Parliament for Greece from 2004 to 2007. Samaras started his national political career as Minister of Finance in 1989; he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1989 to 1992 and Minister of Culture in 2009. Samaras was expelled from the ruling party in November 2024.
1979 Rasual Butler

Rasual Butler

American basketball player (died 2018)
Rasual Butler was an American professional basketball player. In his 14-year National Basketball Association (NBA) career, he played for the Miami Heat, New Orleans Hornets, Los Angeles Clippers, Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors, Indiana Pacers, Washington Wizards and San Antonio Spurs. Butler was born in Philadelphia, and raised in the Point Breeze area of South Philadelphia. After playing college basketball with the La Salle Explorers, he was drafted in the second round of the 2002 NBA draft by the Heat. On January 31, 2018, Butler was behind the wheel when he and his girlfriend, Leah LaBelle, died in a single vehicle car crash in Los Angeles.
1908 Annemarie Schwarzenbach

Annemarie Schwarzenbach

Swiss author and photographer (died 1942)
Annemarie Minna Renée Schwarzenbach was a Swiss writer, journalist and photographer. Her bisexual mother brought her up in a masculine style, and her androgynous image suited the bohemian Berlin society of the time, in which she indulged enthusiastically. Her anti-fascist campaigning forced her into exile, where she became close to the family of novelist Thomas Mann. She would live much of her life abroad as a photo-journalist, embarking on many lesbian relationships, and experiencing a growing morphine addiction. In America, the young Carson McCullers was infatuated with Schwarzenbach, to whom she dedicated Reflections in a Golden Eye. Schwarzenbach reported on the early events of World War II, but died of a head injury, following a fall.
1998 Salwa Eid Naser

Salwa Eid Naser

Bahraini track and field sprinter
Salwa Eid Naser is a Nigerian-born Bahraini sprinter who specialises in the 400 meter race. She was the 2019 World champion, with the fifth-fastest time in history of 48.14 seconds, becoming the youngest-ever champion in the event and the first woman representing an Asian nation to win it at a World Championships. At the time, the time placed her only behind the contested results of Marita Koch and Jarmila Kratochvílová. At 19, Naser was the 2017 World 400 metre silver medallist. As a member of the Bahraini mixed-gender 4 × 400 m relay team, she also won the 2019 World Championships bronze medal.
1887 C. R. M. F. Cruttwell

C. R. M. F. Cruttwell

English historian (died 1941)
Charles Robert Mowbray Fraser Cruttwell was a British historian and academic who served as dean and later principal of Hertford College, Oxford. His field of expertise was modern European history, his most notable work being A History of the Great War, 1914–18. He is mainly remembered, however, for the vendetta pursued against him by the novelist Evelyn Waugh, in which Waugh showed his distaste for his former tutor by repeatedly using the name "Cruttwell" in his early novels and stories to depict a sequence of unsavoury or ridiculous characters. The prolonged minor humiliation thus inflicted may have contributed to Cruttwell's eventual mental breakdown.
1875 Alfred P. Sloan

Alfred P. Sloan

American businessman and philanthropist (died 1966)
Alfred Pritchard Sloan Jr. was an American business executive in the automotive industry. He was a longtime president, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of General Motors (GM). First as a senior executive and later as the head of the company, Sloan presided over the growth of General Motors into one of the largest corporations in the world. During this period, GM spearheaded the adoption of the annual model change, brand architecture, industrial engineering, automotive design (styling), and planned obsolescence within the automobile industry. Such developments forever changed lifestyles as well as the built environment in America and throughout the globe.
1949 Alan García

Alan García

Peruvian lawyer and politician, twice President of Peru (died 2019)
Alan Gabriel Ludwig García Pérez was a Peruvian politician who served as President of Peru for two non-consecutive terms, from 1985 to 1990 and from 2006 to 2011. He was the second leader of the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance (APRA), and its only member to serve as president. Mentored by the APRA's founder, Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, he served in the Constituent Assembly of 1978–1979. Elected to the Peruvian Congress in 1980, he rose to the position of General Secretary of the APRA in 1982, and was elected to the presidency in 1985 in a landslide.
1933 Joan Collins

Joan Collins

English actress
Dame Joan Henrietta Collins is an English actress, author and columnist. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a People's Choice Award, two Soap Opera Digest Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. In 1983, Collins was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has been recognised for her philanthropy, particularly her advocacy towards causes relating to children, which has earned her many honours. In 2015, she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II for her charitable services, presented to her by then Prince of Wales, Charles III.
1958 Lea DeLaria

Lea DeLaria

American actress and singer
Lea DeLaria is an American comedian, actress, and jazz singer. She portrayed Carrie "Big Boo" Black on the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019) and Psychic Madame Delphina on the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live from 1999 to 2011. She also starred in the Broadway productions POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive in 2022 and the 2000 revival of The Rocky Horror Show. She was the first openly gay comic to appear on American television in a 1993 appearance on The Arsenio Hall Show.
1914 Barbara Ward

Barbara Ward

Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth, English economist, journalist, and prominent Catholic layperson (died 1981)
Barbara Mary Ward, Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth, was a British economist and writer interested in the problems of developing countries. She urged Western governments to share their prosperity with the rest of the world and in the 1960s turned her attention to environmental questions as well. She was an early advocate of sustainable development before this term became familiar and was well known as a journalist, lecturer and broadcaster. Ward was adviser to policymakers in the UK, United States and elsewhere. She was the founder of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).
1965 Paul Sironen

Paul Sironen

Australian rugby league player
Paul Sironen is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer of Finnish descent who was a prominent Second-row forward for the Balmain Tigers during the late 1980s, and early 1990s. He was part of the team that played in successive Grand Finals in 1988 and 1989, and included other representative players Steve "Blocker" Roach, Wayne Pearce, Benny Elias and Garry Jack. He made a number of appearances for both New South Wales in State of Origin, and also for Australia, and has been named as part of the Wests Tigers Team of the Century.
1820 Lorenzo Sawyer

Lorenzo Sawyer

American lawyer and judge (died 1891)
Lorenzo Sawyer was an American lawyer and judge who was appointed to the Supreme Court of California in 1860 and served as the ninth Chief Justice of California from 1868 to 1870. He served as a United States circuit judge of the United States Circuit Courts for the Ninth Circuit and of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He is best known for handing down the verdict in the case of Woodruff v. North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company; his verdict is frequently referred to as the "Sawyer Decision."
1966 Graeme Hick

Graeme Hick

Zimbabwean-English cricketer and coach
Graeme Ashley Hick is a Zimbabwean-born former England cricketer who played 65 Test matches and 120 One Day Internationals for England. He was born in Rhodesia, and as a young man played international cricket for Zimbabwe. He played English county cricket for Worcestershire for his entire English domestic career, a period of well over twenty years, and in 2008 surpassed Graham Gooch's record for the most matches in all forms of the game combined. He was a part of the English squad which finished as runners-up at the 1992 Cricket World Cup.

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