May 20 is the birthday of 45 notable people we've found so far, including entrepreneurs, historical figures, actors and authors, and 4 of them are billionaires.
Dietrich Markwart Eberhart Mateschitz was an Austrian entrepreneur. He was the co-founder and 49% owner of Red Bull GmbH. In April 2022, Mateschitz's net worth was estimated at US$27.4 billion.
Petr Kellner was a Czech entrepreneur, the founder and majority shareholder (98.93%) of the PPF Group. At the time of his death, he had an estimated net worth of $17.5 billion, making him the wealthiest person in the Czech Republic.
Hortensia Herrero Chacón is a Spanish billionaire businesswoman, and owner of 28% of Mercadona, a Spanish supermarket chain. As of February 2021, Forbes estimates her net worth at US $2.6 billion.
Jlafuentesanchez, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Michiel Scholtz du Pré le Roux is a South African billionaire businessman and philanthropist who co-founded Capitec Bank. He was the bank's inaugural chief executive officer (CEO) from 2001 to 2004 and later served as its chairman from 2007 to 2016.
Industries of the companies the 4 wealthy people born on May 20 founded or led.
automotive100% (1 people)
food and beverage100% (1 people)
Who shares May 20
What kind of people are born on May 20?
Share of the 45 people we list, by documented field. People can belong to more than one.
Entrepreneurs31% (14 people)
Actors22% (10 people)
Authors20% (9 people)
Scientists20% (9 people)
Musicians18% (8 people)
Athletes16% (7 people)
Creators16% (7 people)
Countries
23 countries, most often United States
Citizenship as recorded on Wikidata, one country per person.
United States13 (13 people)
France4 (4 people)
Austria3 (3 people)
Argentina2 (2 people)
Czech Republic2 (2 people)
Russia2 (2 people)
Spain2 (2 people)
Life timeline
What were people born on May 20 doing at your age?
Dated milestones from Wikidata (company foundings, awards, top jobs, notable works), placed at the age each person reached them. Add your birth year above to see the ones you have passed.
Cher is an American singer and actress. Dubbed the "Goddess of Pop", she is known for her androgynous, contralto voice, bold fashion, elaborate stagecraft and multifaceted career. Her screen roles often reflect her public image as a strong-willed, outspoken woman.
James Maitland Stewart was an American actor and military aviator. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart appeared in 80 films from 1935 to 1991. His films are considered among the greatest of all time.
Studio publicity still, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Timothy David Olyphant is an American actor. He made his acting debut in an off-Broadway theater in 1995 in The Monogamist, winning the Theatre World Award for his performance. Olyphant then originated David Sedaris' The Santaland Diaries in 1996. He then branched out to film.
Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Anton Zeilinger is an Austrian quantum physicist and Nobel laureate in physics of 2022. Zeilinger is professor of physics emeritus at the University of Vienna and senior scientist at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
Jaqueline Godany, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Frédéric Passy was a French economist and pacifist who was a founding member of several peace societies and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. He was also an author and politician, sitting in the Chamber of Deputies from 1881 until 1889.
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Pavlos, Crown Prince of Greece, Prince of Denmark, is a Greek financier who is the former heir apparent to the defunct throne of Greece, becoming the Head of the Royal House of Greece upon his father's death on 10 January 2023.
Iason Raissis, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Cindy Lou McCain is an American diplomat, businesswoman, and humanitarian who is the executive director of the World Food Programme. McCain previously served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture from 2021 to 2023. She is the widow of U.S.
United States Department of State, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
William Redington Hewlett was an American engineer and the co-founder, with David Packard, of the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP).
Copyright held by English Wikipedia User:Alanhtripp. Transferred from Wikipedia.org English Wikipedia to Commons. by Use, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Entrepreneur · Deutsche Grammophon · entertainment
1851–1929 · United States
Emile Berliner was a German-American inventor and businessman who invented the lateral-cut flat disc record, also known as a "gramophone record," used with a gramophone. He founded the United States Gramophone Company in 1894.
George Vassiliou was a Cypriot politician and businessman who served as President of Cyprus from 1988 to 1993. He was also the president of United Democrats from 1996 to 2005 and sat in the Cypriot House of Representatives from 1996 to 2001.
Bernardino de la Trinidad González Rivadavia was the first President of Argentina, then called the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, from February 8, 1826 to June 27, 1827.
Unidentified painter, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Jack Gleeson is an Irish actor. He is best known for portraying Joffrey Baratheon in the HBO television series Game of Thrones (2011–2014). Following this role, Gleeson took a six-year hiatus from screen acting.
Miguel Discart & Kiri Karma (Photos Vrac), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
John Robert "Joe" Cocker was an English singer known for his gritty, bluesy voice and dynamic stage performances that featured expressive body movements.
Iker Casillas Fernández is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper and currently works as a football commentator. Dubbed "San Iker", he is considered to be one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time.
Israel Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole, also called Braddah IZ or simply IZ, was a Native Hawaiian musician and singer. He is regarded as one of the greatest musicians from Hawaii and the most successful musician from the state.
1806–1873 · United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
John Stuart Mill was an English philosopher, political economist, and politician. He was a paradigmatic philosopher of liberalism and has been described as "the most influential English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth century" by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
London Stereoscopic Company, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Petr Čech is a Czech former professional football goalkeeper and current ice hockey goaltender who plays for the Haringey Huskies of the NIHL Division 2 South.
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence La Comédie humaine, described as a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus.
Louis-Auguste Bisson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Donovan Phillips Leitch is a Scottish musician, songwriter and record producer. He emerged from the British folk scene in early 1965 and subsequently scored numerous international hit singles and albums during the late 1960s.
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Albert Roger Miller, known as Roger Milla, is a Cameroonian former professional footballer who played as a forward. FIFA described Milla as "one of the first global stars from Africa". He represented Cameroon at three FIFA World Cup tournaments.
Naturi Cora Maria Naughton-Lewis is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Naughton is best known as one-third of the R&B group 3LW and for her acting roles in the films Fame and Notorious, playing rapper Lil' Kim in the latter film.
Angela George at https://www.flickr.com/photos/sharongraphics/, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Leonard Susskind is an American theoretical physicist, professor of theoretical physics at Stanford University and founding director of the Stanford Institute for Theoretical Physics.
Albano Antonio Carrisi, better known as Al Bano, is an Italian singer and actor. Having sold over 25 million records globally and career spanning seven decades, he is one of the most recognisable Italian singers in the world.
Machgielis "Max" Euwe was a Dutch chess player, mathematician, author, and chess administrator. He was the fifth player to become World Chess Champion, a title he held from 1935 until 1937. He served as President of FIDE, the World Chess Federation, from 1970 to 1978.
Hans van Dijk for Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Grigori Chkhartishvili, better known by his pen name Boris Akunin, is a Georgian and Russian writer residing in the United Kingdom. He is best known as a writer of historical fiction, specifically his Erast Fandorin detective novels.
Андрей Струнин, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Henry Laurence Gantt was an American mechanical engineer and management consultant who worked in the development of scientific management. He created the Gantt chart in the 1910s.
Frederick W. Taylor, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Hector-Henri Malot was a French writer born in La Bouille, Seine-Maritime. He studied law in Rouen and Paris, but eventually literature became his passion. He worked as a dramatic critic for Lloyd Francais and as a literary critic for L'Opinion Nationale.
George Constant Louis Washington[I] was a Belgian-British inventor and businessman. He is best remembered for his improvement of an early instant coffee process and for the company he founded to mass-produce it, the G. Washington Coffee Company.
Ömürbek Toktogulovich Babanov is a Kyrgyz businessman and politician who served twice as the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan briefly from 2011 to 2012. Owner of Mbank and of Asia Cement, a company that co-operates with the Russian nuclear industry.
Edward Butts Lewis was an American geneticist, a corecipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He helped to found the field of evolutionary developmental biology.
Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Sir William Congreve, 2nd Baronet KCH FRS was a British Army officer, Tory politician, publisher and inventor. A pioneer in the field of rocket artillery, he was renowned for his development and use of Congreve rockets during the Napoleonic Wars.
James Lonsdale, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
René Benko is an Austrian former real estate developer, media proprietor, investor, and founder of Signa Holding, considered to be Austria's largest privately held real estate conglomerate. Benko was once regarded as one of the richest Austrians.
This page lists 45 people born on May 20, every one traced to a Wikidata record and, where shown, a Wikipedia summary (CC BY-SA) and a licensed Wikimedia Commons photo. 4 of them carry a dated net-worth estimate citing Forbes or Bloomberg; combined wealth is the sum of the low end of those estimates, the newest as of 2024. Rankings compare all 366 dates in the dataset built on 2026-09-28. Milestone ages come from dated Wikidata statements; a tilde marks year-only dates. Nothing on this page is a prediction about anyone born on May 20. Read the full methodology.
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