33 Pairs Of Icons Who Were Surprisingly Alive At The Same Time

Published October 8, 2017

Celebrities, artists, and political leaders you'd never guess were on this Earth together.

Chaplin Cent
Edison Shatner
Bell White
Einstein Oprah
33 Pairs Of Icons Who Were Surprisingly Alive At The Same Time
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So often it seems as though certain celebrities have been around forever. After all, look at Betty White, who has been around longer than we can all remember and is literally older than sliced bread. Then, there are others who seem perpetually young, when really they're over 50 (looking at you, Brad Pitt.)

So, naturally, it's easy to confuse which pairs of celebrities were actually alive at the same time.

And not just celebrities, but famous scientists, inventors, and writers as well. So many historic discoveries and breakthroughs took place so long ago, it can be easy to forget that the inventors and discoverers in question lived long after their respective claims to fame shook the world.

Take Madame Curie, for example. She discovered radium in 1898, but she lived for almost 30 years after that. And though Paul Revere is most famous for his midnight "one if by land, two if by sea" warning ride in 1775, he lived for another 45 years after that.

And it's not even just time, but also location that plays a part in our perception and memory of what happened when. While something huge might be happening in New York, something equally as fascinating might be happening at the same on the other side of the world, but because of the difference in location, it can seem like they happened years apart.

These kinds of misperceptions take root in all of our brains all the time, so the pairs of famous people who were alive at the same time in the gallery above are bound to shock you.


Next, allow this infographic to reveal other pairs of famous people that you wouldn't think were alive at the same time. Then, read up on some of the famous descendants of history's most important figures.

author
Katie Serena
author
A former staff writer at All That's Interesting, Katie Serena has also published work in Salon.
editor
John Kuroski
editor
John Kuroski is the editorial director of All That's Interesting. He graduated from New York University with a degree in history, earning a place in the Phi Alpha Theta honor society for history students. An editor at All That's Interesting since 2015, his areas of interest include modern history and true crime.
Cite This Article
Serena, Katie. "33 Pairs Of Icons Who Were Surprisingly Alive At The Same Time." AllThatsInteresting.com, October 8, 2017, https://allthatsinteresting.com/famous-people-alive-same-time. Accessed April 20, 2024.