Curated playlist
French emigrants to the United States
- Roman PolanskiRoman Polanski survived the Holocaust by pretending to be Catholic. As a boy in Poland, he memorized prayers to hide.
- Marcel DuchampIn 1917, Marcel Duchamp submitted a signed urinal to a New York show, and the committee turned it away.
- Tony ParkerTony Parker was nearly sent home from a Spurs camp after 10 minutes. A highlight tape won him a second chance.
- Michel GondryMichel Gondry pioneered "bullet time" in a 1996 vodka ad. The effect was later adapted for The Matrix.
- Esther DufloEsther Duflo was 46 when she became the youngest Nobel economics winner ever. She shared it in 2019.
- Marc Isambard BrunelWithin 15 weeks of its opening, one million people had walked through the Thames Tunnel, the first tunnel ever built under a river. Its builder was Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, a French-British engineer best known for the work he did in…
- Vladimir NabokovNovelist Vladimir Nabokov also named butterfly species, and later genetic research backed his theory.
- Joseph BonaparteJoseph Bonaparte hid on a ship under a false name while British officers searched it three times.
- Yann LeCunYann LeCun spent a postdoc year under Geoffrey Hinton, then shared a Turing Award with him.
- George SteinerGeorge Steiner was born Francis George Steiner on the 23rd of April 1929. He was a literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist and educator, and he is described as both French and American. Harriet Harvey-Wood, a former literature…