At least to Americans, pro wrestler Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka is probably the most famous person from Fiji.
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Björk from Iceland.
Hanni Wenzel, from Liechtenstein, won several Olympic medals in alpine skiing.
I could list loads of folks from Wales, though what I find saddest is that the most famous ones (arguably Anthony Hopkins and Christian Bale these days) don’t speak the language. Bale doesn’t consider himself Welsh as he didn’t live there for long, though Sir Anthony has done a ton of charity work throughout the country and doesn’t shy away from his origins. Timothy Dalton was also born in Colwyn Bay (same town as Terry Jones) but with an English father and an Italian/Irish mother (how to win at trivia when the question is “Who was the Welsh James Bond?”) he doesn’t think of himself as Welsh either.
Also Dua Lipa (born in England, but an Albanian citizen).
Lou Diamond Phillips and Manny Pacquiao are both Filipino.
Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for inventing and promoting microcredit, is from Bangladesh.
Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, strongman athlete who played Gregor The Mountain Clegane on Game of Thrones is from Iceland
I find it fascinating that three currently very popular female singers are all Albanian: Dua Lipa, Rita Ora, and Bebe Rexha. A few years ago I probably would not have been able to name one famous Albanian.
At this point, you’d have to say the most famous Sri Lankan is the comedian Romesh Ranganathan. Lives, works, and is culturally English, but his Sri Lankan heritage is a big part of his act. According to Wikipedia, he was born in the UK, though, so maybe he doesn’t count.
As was Braves center fielder Andruw Jones.
Perhaps now surpassed in fame by the band Of Monsters And Men?
Martina Navratilova is probably the most world-famous Czech (born in then-Czechoslovakia).
Ivan Reitman was also born in Czechoslovakia, 10 years before Martina. He was born in a city now in Slovakia.
Basketball player Dikembe Mutombo is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
What about Franz Kafka, Jan Hus, Vaclav Havel and Antonin Dvorak? (and a few more)
I’m not sure which country should count as hers. She was born in Skopje, now the capital of North Macedonia. Ethnically she was a Kosovar Albanian. At various times she was a subject or citizen of the Ottoman Empire, Serbia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and India. She was finally granted Albanian citizenship only about 6 years before she died. She was also an honorary US citizen.
Maybe it’s generational? Kafka might be the most famous of all those, I suppose. I don’t know who Hus is. Havel, maybe, but he’s a political figure. It’d be like saying Bill Clinton is the most famous American or something. Dvorak, maybe, as his music lives on.
I suppose by the “generational” standard, Martina wouldn’t be too super well known today. I might be showing MY generational bias. But she also might be known to the most living people today?
Leif Erikson must be one of the most famous people from Greenland, where he lived from childhood on. He must also be one of the most famous from Iceland, where he was born.
Prime Minister Bonar Law of the United Kingdom. Born in the colony of New Brunswick. Which like the protectorate of Zanzibar, no longer exists in that form.
[Now I have an image of Bonar Law and Freddy Mercury hanging out together in a weird trivia afterlife.]
I never heard of Snuka, but I know who Vijay Singh is.
Jan Hus is an early Church reformator who lived in the 15th century and was burnt at the stake. A very important predecessor of Martin Luther. And Havel is about the same generation as Navratilova, and has a special place in history as a writer who lead a successful and peaceful revolution.