Centenarian
A centenarian is a person who has attained the age of 100 years or more. Much rarer, a supercentenarian is a person who has lived to the age of 110 or more.
In the United States of America, centenarians traditionally receive a letter from the president upon reaching their 100th birthday, congratulating them for their longevity. In the United Kingdom, the Queen sends greetings on the 100th birthday and on every birthday starting with the 105th.
Longevity Record Holders:
- Kamato Hongo - currently the oldest living person, 115, born in 1887
- Jeanne Calment - oldest person ever whose age has been verified by modern documentation; born 1875, lived to the age of 122
List of Well-Known Centenarians
Here is a list of well-known centenarians (with supercentenarians emphasized strongly and the symbol 生 denoting living centenarians). This list is divided into sub-lists, according to how the centenarian became well known.
Activists/Non-Profit Leaders
- Albert Jean Amateau
- Mother Jones
- Paul Moyer Limbert
- Scott Nearing
- Sanzo Nosaka
- Thomas Wyatt Turner
- Irvin F. Westheimer
Actors/Filmmakers/Entertainers
- George Abbott
- Rosa Albach-Retty
- George Burns
- Dorothy Dickson
- Ninette de Valois
- Liane Haid
- Bob Hope
- Ivan Novikoff
- Risto Orko
- Irving Rapper
- Leni Riefenstahl (生)
- Hal Roach
- Tonio Selwart
- Athene Seyler
- Señor Wences
- Estelle Winwood
- Adolph Zukor
Artists
Authors/Poets/Journalists
- Nirad Chaudhuri
- Geoffrey Dearmer
- Marjory Stoneman Douglas
- Dorothy Frooks
- Ernst Jünger
- Joseph Nathan Kane
- Saadi
- Robert St. John
- George Seldes
- Dirk Jan Struik
Businessmen
- Edward Bernays
- Andrew George Burry
- Henri Dufaux
- Cecil H. Green
- Mohan Singh Oberoi
- Hermann von Siemens
- Thomas Sopwith
- W. Clement Stone
- Sir James Swinburne
Explorers
Known for Attaining High Age
- Laban Ainsworth
- Henry Boehm
- Margaret Booth
- Alphaeus Philemon Cole
- The Delany Sisters
- Georges-Casimir Dessaulles
- George Fruits
- John Netherland Heiskell
- John Morton-Finney
- Leopold Vietoris
Lawyers
Miscellaneous
- Seymour Lubetzky (Librarian)
Musicians/Music Patrons
- Irving Berlin
- Eubie Blake
- Irving Caesar
- Jimmie Davis
- Roy Henderson
- Bill Johnson
- Sir Robert Mayer
- Marcel Mule
- Leo Ornstein
- Joseph Salemi
- Nicolas Slonimsky
Philosophers/Theologists
Politicians/Government Servants
- Mahmud Celal Bayar
- Roswell Keyes Colcord
- Cornelius Cole
- Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres
- Willem Drees
- Eleanor Lansing Dulles
- Josef Felder
- Hamilton Fish III
- Christopher Hornsrud
- Alfred M. Landon
- Sir Moses Haim Montefiore
- Sir William Mulock
- Muhammad al-Muqri
- George Alexander Parks
- Lillian Rogers Parks
- Antoine Pinay
- Nellie Tayloe Ross
- Emanuel Shinwell
- Soong May-ling (Madame Chiang Kai-Shek) (生)
- John Ward Studebaker
- Strom Thurmond
- Daniel Waldo
- David Wark
- Zhang Xue-liang (Chang Hsüeh-liang)
Relative of Someone Well-Known
- Jean Faircloth (wife to Douglas MacArthur)
- Rose Kennedy (mother of John F. Kennedy)
- Richard Mudd (grandson of Samuel Mudd)
Royalty
Scientists/Mathematicians
- Su Buqing
- Michel-Eugene Chevreul
- Harriette Chick
- Rickard Christophers
- William David Coolidge
- Gordon S. Fahrni
- Viktor Hamburger
- Rudolf Hell
- Edward Augustus Holyoke
- Inge Lehmann
- Margaret Alice Murray
- Waldo Semon