20th-century French writers

Françoise Madeleine Hardy (17 January 1944-11 June 2024) was a French singer-songwriter and actress. Mainly known for singing melancholic sentimental ballads, Hardy rose to prominence in the early 1960s as a leading figure of the yé-yé wave. In addition to her native French, she also sang in English, Italian and German. Her career spanned more than fifty years with over thirty studio albums released.

Roman Polański ( pə-LAN-skee, born 18 August 1933 in Paris; original name Raymond Thierry Liebling) is a Polish-French film director, producer, writer, and actor.

Cécile Aubry (3 August 1928 – 19 July 2010) was a French film actress, author, television screenwriter and director.

Sarah Bernhardt (born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 or 23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including La Dame Aux Camelias by Alexandre Dumas, fils; Ruy Blas by Victor Hugo, Fédora and La Tosca by Victorien Sardou, and L'Aiglon by Edmond Rostand. She also played male roles, including Shakespeare's Hamlet. Rostand called her "the queen of the pose and the princess of the gesture", while Hugo praised her "golden voice". She made several theatrical tours around the world, and was one of the first prominent actresses to make sound recordings and to act in motion pictures.

Nicole Calfan (born 4 March 1947) is a French actress and author.

Bernard-Henri Lévy (born 5 November 1948) is a French public intellectual. Often referred to in France simply as BHL, he was one of the leaders of the "Nouveaux Philosophes" (New Philosophers) movement in 1976. In 2015, The Boston Globe has said that he is "perhaps the most prominent intellectual in France today". His opinions, political activism and publications have also been the subject of several controversies over the years.

Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954), known mononymously as Colette, was a French author and woman of letters. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948 and was also known as a mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best remembered for her 1944 novella Gigi, which was the basis for the 1958 film and the 1973 stage production of the same name.

Nadine de Rothschild (née Nadine Nelly Jeannette Lhopitalier; born 18 April 1932) is a French author and former actress. She is the widow of banker Edmond Adolphe de Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild family.

Patrick Poivre d'Arvor (20 September 1947) is a French TV journalist and writer. He is a household name in France, and nicknamed PPDA. With over 30 years and in excess of 4,500 editions of television news to his credit, he was one of the longest serving newsreaders in the world until he was fired in 2008. He presented his last newscast on TF1 on 10 July 2008.

Christine Pascal (29 November 1953 – 30 August 1996) was a French actress, writer and director.