Centenarian

A centenarian is a person who has attained the age of 100 years or more. The term is associated with longevity because average life expectancies across the world are far from 100. Much rarer, a supercentenarian is a person who has lived to the age of 110 or more.

List of centenarians

Here is a list of well-known centenarians (with living ones bolded and italicized).

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This list is divided into sub-lists, according to how the centenarian became well known.

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Activists/non-profit leaders

• Albert Jean Amateau (1889-1996)
• Melchora Aquino (1812-1919) "Mother of the Filipino Revolution"
• Hugo Bleicher (1899-Living)
• Catherine Bramwell-Booth (1883-1987), Salvation Army Commissioner
• Ruth Ellis (1899-2000)
• Alice Hamilton (1869-1970)
• Mother Jones (1830-1930)
• Paul Moyer Limbert (1897-1998), YMCA Secretary General
• Zofia Morawska (1904-Living)
• Margaret Murie (1902-2003), conservationist
• Scott Nearing (1883-1983)
• Sanzo Nosaka (1892-1993)
• Frederick J. Schlink (1891-1995), cofounder of Consumers Research
• Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky (1897-2000)
• Thomas Wyatt Turner (1877-1978)
• Irvin F. Westheimer (1879-1980)

Actors/filmmakers/entertainers

• George Abbott (1887-1995)
• Rosa Albach-Retty (1874-1980)
• Etta Moten Barnett (1901-2004)
• Margaret Booth (1898-2002)
• Alice Cooke (1882-1985), stage and film actress
• George Burns (1896-1996)
• Dorothy Dickson (1893-1995)
• Mary Ellis (1897-2003)
• Liane Haid (1895-2000)
• Kathleen Harrison (1892-1995)
• Johannes Heesters (1903-Living)
• Bob Hope (1903-2003)
• Charles Lane (1905-Living)
• Francis Lederer (1899-2000)
• Frederica Sagor Maas (1900-Living)
• Audrey Munson (1891-1996)
• Ivan Novikoff (1899-2002), ballet teacher
• Risto Orko (1899-2001), Finnish film producer and director
• Irving Rapper (1898-1999), film director
• Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003), German filmmaker
• Hal Roach (1892-1992)
• Tonio Selwart (1896-2002), actor and stage performer
• Athene Seyler (1889-1990)
• Ninette de Valois (1898-2001)
• Señor Wences (1896-1999)
• Estelle Winwood (1883-1984)
• Adolph Zukor (1873-1976)

Artists

• Manuel Alvarez Bravo (1902-2002)
• Theresa Ferber Bernstein (1890?-2002)
• Alphaeus Philemon Cole (1876-1988)
• Hiragushi Denchu (1872-1979), Japanese sculptor
• Boris Efimov (1900-Living), cartoonist
• Kathleen Hale (1898-2000), British illustrator
• Grandma Moses (1860-1961)
• Mirko Racki (1879-1982), Croatian painter
• Bernarda Bryson Shahn (1903-2004)
• Beatrice Wood (1893-1998)

Authors/poets/journalists

• Ba Jin (1904-Living), Chinese author
• Arthur Judson Brown (1856-1963)
• Fulgence Charpentier (1897-2001), Canadian journalist and columnist
• Nirad Chaudhuri (1897-1999)
• Eve Curie LaBouisse (1904-Living), author of biography of her mother Marie Curie
• Geoffrey Dearmer (1893-1996)
• The Delany Sisters (1889-1999; 1891-1995)
• Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890-1998)
• Richard Eberhart (1904-2005), Pulitzer-Prize winning poet
• Juan Filloy (1894-2000), Argentine writer
• Dorothy Frooks (1896-1997)
• Gregorio Fuentes (1897-2002)
• Edward K. Gaylord (1873-1974), newspaper publisher and philanthropist
• Ernst Jünger (1895-1998), german writer (In Stahlgewittern)
• Joseph Nathan Kane (1899-2002)
• Stanley Kunitz (1905-Living), Poet Laureate of the United States
• Arthur Lehning (1899-2000), Dutch writer and anarchist-archivist
• Frances Partridge (1900-2004)
• Fernando Pessa (1902-2002), Portuguese journalist and radio broadcaster
• Carl Rakosi (1903-2004)
• Robert St. John (1902-2003)
• George Seldes (1890-1995)
• Madame Simone (1877-1985) Pen name for Pauline Benda; French actress, writer; obituary in 1985 Britannica Book of the Year
• Grace Zaring Stone (1891-1991), pseudonym: Ethel Vance
• Walter Trohan (1903-2003), Chicago Tribune bureau chief and reporter
• Edward Wagenknecht (1900-2004), American writer and historian
• Phyllis A. Whitney (1903-Living)
• Catherine Woolley (1904-2005), Children's book author

Businessmen

• Edward Bernays (1891-1995)
• Andrew George Burry (1873-1975)
• Godfrey Lowell Cabot (1861-1962), Cabot Corporation
• Albert Hamilton Gordon (1901-Living), Kidder, Peabody & Co.
• Cecil H. Green (1900-2003), Texas Instruments co-founder
• Garnet Hercules Mackley (1883-1986), Head of New Zealand Railways
• R. Samuel McLaughlin (1871-1972)
• Roy Neuberger (1903-Living)
• Mohan Singh Oberoi (1898-2002)
• Frits Philips (1905-Living)
• Günter Reimann (1904-2005), economist
• James Stillman Rockefeller (1902-2004), First National City Bank of New York (see also under Sportspeople)
• Jacob Sapirstein (1885-1987) founded American Greetings
• Hermann von Siemens (1885-1986)
• Sir Thomas Sopwith (1888-1989), aircraft pioneer
• W. Clement Stone (1902-2002), insurance leader
• Sir James Swinburne (1858-1958)
• Frank H. Wheaton Sr. (1881-1983) chaired Wheaton Industries until his death
• Abdul Majid Zabuli (1896-1998)

Educators/school administrators

• John Morton-Finney (1889-1998)
• Bertrand Leslie Hallward (1901-2003)
• Emily Howland (1827-1929)
• Seymour Lubetzky (1898-2003), librarian
• Millicent Carey McIntosh (1898-2001), President of Barnard College
• Albert E. Meyzeek (1862-1963) "Dean of Negro Education"
• Norman Walker Porteous (1898-2003), Dean at University of Edinburgh
• Laura Woolsey Lord Scales (1879-1990), Dean at Smith College
• Louis Round Wilson (1876-1979) librarian

Explorers

• Alexandra David-Néel (1868-1969)
• Ardito Desio (1897-2001)
• Helge Ingstad (1899-2001)
• Freya Stark (1893-1993)
• Jean-Frédéric Waldeck (1766-1875)

Jurists/practitioners of law

• Sampson Salter Blowers (1742-1842)
• William A. Bootle (1902-2005)
• Melville Henry Cane (1879-1980), American lawyer and poet
• Alfred Denning, Baron Denning (1899-1999), Master of the Rolls
• Rush Limbaugh Sr. (1891-1996), grandfather of talk radio star Rush Limbaugh
• Harold Raymond Medina (1888-1990)
• L. Welch Pogue (1899-2003)
• Hartley Shawcross (1902-2003)
• Samuel Williston (1861-1963)
• Joseph William Woodrough (1873-1977)

Military commanders

• Henry Allingham (1896-Living)
• Alfred Anderson (1896-Living)
• Aaron Bank (1902-2004), "Father of Special Forces"
• Sir Philip Christison (1893-1993), British general
• Henry Fancourt (1900-2004), Royal Navy officer, pioneering Naval Aviator
• Harold Gardner (1898-Living)
• David "Tex" Little (1901-Living)
• Sir George Higginson (1826-1927), British general
• John L. Hines (1868-1968), General, Chief of Staff, US Army
• Professer Harold Lawton (1899-Living)
• Stanislaw Maczek (1892-1994) Polish general
• Harry Patch (1898-Living)
• James Alward Van Fleet (1892-1992), US general
• Sir Provo Wallis (1791-1892), Admiral of the Fleet, Royal Navy
• André Debry (1898-2005)
• Alfred Finnigan (1896-2005)
• Albert "Smiler" Marshall (1897-2005)

Musicians/Composers/music patrons

• Irving Berlin (1888-1989), composer
• Eubie Blake (1883?-1983) Famed Jazz pianist and composer (may have been only 96)
• Irving Caesar (1895-1996)
• Jimmie Davis (1899-2000), singer, songwriter, Governor of Louisiana
• Anthony Galla-Rini (1904-Living), known as "Mister Accordion"
• Sidonie Goossens (1899-2004), harpist from famous music family
• Roy Henderson (1899-2000)
• Bill Johnson (1872-1972)
• Paul Le Flem (1881-1984) French composer
• Conrad Leonard (1898-2003), pianist and composer
• Sir Robert Mayer (1879-1985)
• Marcel Mule (1901-2001)
• Manuel Patricio Rodriguez Garcia (1805-1906), music and singing teacher
• Leo Ornstein (1892-2002)
• Uncle Charlie Osborne (1890-1992), Appalachian mountain music legend
• Joseph Salemi (1902-2003), jazz trombonist
• Nicolas Slonimsky (1894-1995)
• Tillit S. Teddlie (1885-1987), hymn composer
• Grete von Zieritz (1899-2001), pianist and composer

Nobility

• Dominick Geoffrey Edward Browne, 4th Baron Oranmore and Browne (1901-2002)
• Ethel Sydney Keith, Countess of Kintore (1874-1974)
• Frank Douglas-Pennant, 5th Baron Penrhyn (1865-1967)
• Judith, Countess of Listowel (1903-2003)
• Jean Pierre Francois Joseph Pineton, Marquis de Chambrun (1903-2004)
• Cora, Countess of Clancarty (1892-1993)
• Countess Elsa Bernadotte (1893-1996)

Philosophers/theologians

• Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002)
• Charles Hartshorne (1897-2000), pioneer of process theology
• Mordecai Kaplan (1881-1983)
• Oswald von Nell-Breuning (1890-1991)
• Alfred Vaucher (1887-1993), French theologian, church historian
• Paul Weiss (1901-2002)

Politicians/government servants

• Mahmud Celal Bayar (1884-1986), President of Turkey
• Samuel Brawand (1898-2001), Swiss politician
• Nripen Chakraborty (1904-2004), Indian politician, former Chief-minister of Tripura
• Roswell Keyes Colcord (1839-1939)
• Cornelius Cole (1822-1924), longest-lived US senator
• Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres (1721-1824)
• Georges-Casimir Dessaulles (1827-1930), Canadian senator
• Willem Drees (1886-1988), prime minister of the Netherlands
• Eleanor Lansing Dulles (1895-1996), U.S. diplomat
• Jules Ellenberger (1871-1973), British colonial administrator
• Josef Felder (1900-2000)
• Hamilton Fish III (1888-1991), US Congressman
• Marinus van der Goes van Naters (1900-2005), Dutch politician
• John Netherland Heiskell (1872-1972), 2nd US senator to reach 100 years
• Naruhiko Higashikuni (1887-1990)
• Christopher Hornsrud (1859-1960), Prime Minister of Norway
• Paula Karpinski (1897-2005), German politician
• Piet Kasteel (1901-2003), Dutch diplomat, governor of Curaçao
• George F. Kennan (1904-2005), Cold War policy architect
• Alfred M. Landon (1887-1987), governor of Kansas and presidential nominee
• Sir Moses Haim Montefiore (1784-1885)
• Sir William Mulock (1844-1944), Canadian politician and cabinet member
• Muhammad al-Muqri (c. 1840s? - 1957)
• George Alexander Parks (1883-1984), territorial governor of Alaska.
• Antoine Pinay (1891-1994), French prime minister
• Edward Raczynski (1891-1993), Polish diplomat
• Richard G. Reid (1879-1980), premier of Alberta
• Nellie Tayloe Ross (1876-1977)
• Susanna M. Salter (1860-1961), Mayor of Argonia, Kansas, first woman mayor in the United States
• Murray Seasongood (1878-1983), mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio
• Ramón Serrano Súñer (1901-2003), Spanish politician
• Emanuel Shinwell (1884-1986)
• Soong May-ling (Madame Chiang Kai-shek) (1898-2003)
• John Ward Studebaker (1887-1989)
• Reginald H. Sullivan (1876-1980), mayor of Indianapolis, Indiana
• Maurice H. Thatcher (1870-1973), US Congressman
• Strom Thurmond (1902-2003), US Senator
• David Wark (1804-1905), Canadian senator
• Zhang Qun (1889-1990), Chinese politician
• Zhang Xueliang (Chang Hsüeh-liang) (1901-2001), Chinese General, but placed in politician section due to his role in Xian Incident.
• Xenophon Zolotas (1904-2004), former Prime Minister of Greece

Relative of someone well-known

• Brooke Astor (1902-Living), wife of W. Vincent Astor
• Marshall Collier (1838?-1954), great-grandfather of Oscar Robertson
• Jean Faircloth (1898-2000), wife to Douglas MacArthur
• Jolie Gabor (ca. 1894-1997), mother of Gabor sisters
• Mary Hanford (1901-2004), mother of Elizabeth Dole
• Rose Kennedy (1890-1995), mother of John F. Kennedy
• Martin Konigsberg (1900-2001), father of Woody Allen
• Eve Curie LaBouisse (1904-Living), daughter of Marie Curie
• Richard Mudd (1901-2002), grandson of Samuel Mudd
• Ruby Muhammad (1897-Living) wife of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad
• Cecelia Gertrude Lenerz Pulvermacher (1895-1999), mother of Lucian Pulvermacher, self-made Antipope Pius XIII.

Religious leaders/Clergymen

• Laban Ainsworth (1757-1858), American clergyman and pastor
• Ananda Maitreya (1896-1998)
• Saint Anthony (251-356)
• Corrado Cardinal Bafile (1903-2005)
• Henry Boehm (1775-1875)
• Arthur Judson Brown (1856-1963) American clergyman, missonary and author
• Archbishop Alfonso Carinci (1862-1963), official of the Roman Curia
• Edward Howard (1877-1983), archbishop
• Francesco Minerva (1904-2004), Archbishop emeritus of Lecce, Italy
• John Linus Paschang (1895-1999), bishop of Grand Island, Nebraska
• Sophronius IV of Alexandria (1798-1899), Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria
• Sri Deep Narayan Mahaprabhuji (1828?-1963)
• Tillit Sidney Teddlie (1885-1987), American hymnalist and pastor
• Daniel Waldo (1762-1864)
• Herbert Welch (1862-1969), Methodist Bishop and President of Ohio Wesleyan University

Royalty

• Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester (1901-2004)
• Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (1900-2002)

Scientists/mathematicians

• Charles G. Abbot (1872-1973), astronomer and secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
• Horace Alexander (1889-1989), British biologist
• Wilson Baker, FRS (1900-2002) headed school of chemistry at University of Bristol, England
• Arnold O. Beckman (1900-2004)
• Hans Erhard Bock (1903-2004), German physician, Tübingen
• Boris Yakovlovic Bukreev (1859-1962), Russian mathematician
• Su Buqing (1902-2003), Chinese mathematician
• Henri Cartan (1904-Living), French mathematician
• Michel Eugène Chevreul (1786-1889), French chemist
• Harriette Chick (1875-1977), British biologist
• Samuel Rickard Christophers (1873-1978), protozoologist
• William David Coolidge (1873-1975), American engineer, developer of the Coolidge tube for production of x rays
• Ray Crist (1900-2005), chemist, retired from teaching post in 2004
• Leila Denmark (1898-Living), pediatrician, discovered pertussis vaccine
• Gordon S. Fahrni (1887-1995), physician, expert on goiter
• Raymond Firth (1901-2002), New Zealand anthropologist
• Viktor Hamburger (1900-2001). German biologist
• Arthur R. von Hippel (1898-2003), German-American physicist, codeveloper of radar
• Rudolf Hell (1901-2002), American inventor
• Edward Augustus Holyoke (1728-1829), American physician
• Ancel Keys (1904-2004), American biologist
• Nathaniel Kleitman (1895-1999), American physician, discoverer of REM sleep
• Paul E. Klopsteg (1889-1991), American physicist
• Jerome F. Lederer (1902-2004), American engineer
• Inge Lehmann (1888-1993), Danish seismologist
• Ernst Mayr (1904-2005), German-American biologist
• Margaret Alice Murray (1863-1963), British anthropologist
• Pelageya Polubarinova-Kochina (1899-1999), Russian mathematician
• Franco Rasetti (1901-2001), Italian physician
• Henry Nicholas Ridley, British biologist
• Waldo Semon (1898-1999), American chemist
• Brian Shaw (1898-1999), chemist famous for his lectures on explosives
• Nilakantha Somayaji (1444-1544), Indian mathematician
• Dirk Jan Struik (1894-2000), Dutch mathematician
• F. William Sunderman (1898-2003), American physician
• Leopold Vietoris (1891-2002), Austrian mathematician
• Zheng Ji (1900-Living) professor of Nanjing University, Chinese pioneer of nutriology and biochemistry.

Sportspeople

• Constance M. K. Applebee (1873-1981), field hockey
• Jacques Gerschwiler (1898-2000), figure skating
• Chet Hoff (1891-1998), oldest MLB player
• Fred W. Hooper (1897-2000), racehorse owner
• Ulrich Inderbinen (1900-2004), mountain guide
• Keizo Miura (1904-Living), Japanese skier and ski instructor
• Philip Rabinowitz, (1904-Living), South African sprinter.
• Ted Radcliffe (aka "Double Duty Radcliffe") (1902-2005)
• James Stillman Rockefeller (1902-2004), rowing, Olympic gold medal (see also under Business)
• Herman Smith-Johannsen (1875-1987), cross-country skiing
• Amos Alonzo Stagg (1862-1965), American football
• Leon Stukelj (1898-1999), olympian
• Rhys Thomas (1904-2004), Rugby Union

Miscellaneous

• Percy & Florence Arrowsmith, (1900-2005; 1904-Living), longest marriage for a living couple and the oldest aggregate age of a married couple (according to the Guinness Book of Records). After Percy Arrowsmith died,Guinness recognized Herbert (two days younger than Percy) and Magda (two weeks younger than Florence) Brown as oldest couple. However, Le Monde newspaper revealed that one couple in France was even older than the Arrowsmiths or Browns: André Debry (June 15, 1898-August 31,2005) and Marguerite Pingaud (born October 10, 1904) were married on August 12, 1924 and celebrated their 81st wedding anniversary in August 2005 shortly before his death. John Rocchio of North Providence, Rhode Island (age 101) and his wife Emelia, 99,celebrated their 82nd wedding anniversary February 10, 2005 and were recognized by Guinness in late July.
• Indra Devi (1899-2002)
• Henri Dufaux (1879-1980), aviator
• Ida May Fuller (1874-1975), first U.S. citizen to receive a social security check
• Eleanor Lambert (1903-2003), U.S. fashion pioneer
• Thomas (1787-1893) and Elizabeth Morgan (1786-1891), Welsh couple, whose combined age for a married couple (209 years) is claimed to be a world record.
• Irene Wells Pennington (1898-2003), multimillionaire oil widow
• Connie Douglas Reeves (1901-2003), cowgirl
• Saadi (1184-1283/1291), Iranian poet
• Sir Thomas Sopwith (1888-1989), aviation pioneer
• Gladys Tantaquidgeon (1899-Living), Mohegan tribal matriarch
• Catherine Uhlmeyer (1893-2002), last survivor to remember, and Adella Wotherspoon (1903-2004), last survivor of, the General Slocum disaster of 1904
• Len Vale-Onslow (1900-2004), British motorcycle maker

Known for attaining high age

See also supercentenarian, longevity myths.

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• Katherine Young (1901-Living), may be the oldest internet user
• Anne Samson (1891-2004), oldest nun ever documented
• Moses Hardy (1893-Living), World War I veteran, may be the oldest living man in the United States
• George Johnson (1894-Living), World War I veteran
• Maurice Hoquet (1894-Living)
• Jerzy Pajaczkouvski (1894-Living)
• Merlyn Krueger (1895-Living)
• Ernest Charles Pusey (1895-Living)
• Arthur Warmington (1895-Living)