Watching Ken Burns’ Jazz, it was mentioned that Louis Armstrong publicized that he was born on July 4th, 1900, to his dying day. He wasn’t-- but the evidence indicates that he didn’t know for sure one way or the other.
I wonder: is there anybody in the public eye today - perhaps a politician, entertainer, musician, etc. - about whose date of birth we’re just approximating?*
*Let’s leave out people who have deliberately obfuscated their age, like Charo.
Interesting question, I don’t have an answer yet, but I’ll bet $5 it is a Dominican baseball player.
See the disclaimer about people deliberately obfuscating their age. 
My money is on Kim Jong-Un, the leader of North Korea, born January 8 1983 or 1984.
( His father Kim Jong-Il was born February 16 1941 in Russia or February 16 1942 in Japanese Korea, so they don’t even know the country in his case… )
nvm
Perhaps Sir Run Run Shaw. His birthdate is unclear.
Michael Hogan (i.e., Col. Tigh from Battlestar Galactica) has done a pretty good job of keeping his age out of the press, to the point that even IMDB and Wikipedia don’t know when he was born. His actual birthday is presumably known by somebody, though.
Just saw that the actress Jessica Chastain has never revealed her age or birth date. I think that’s pretty rare for Hollywood these days.
Oops, IMDB says her birthday is in 1977 so I guess they think they know.
A buddy of mine was a foundling (literally, left in a basket on the front steps of the church). He has absolutely no idea when he was born.
However, he is not particularly in the public eye, so probably doesn’t qualify here.
Are there any celebrities who were adopted as children from third-world orphanages? A friend of mine has a daughter from India, and they’re certain from the medical evidence that the orphanage lied about her age, but less certain about what the truth was. They suspect that the orphanage gave the correct date but in the wrong year, and that’s what they use as her official birth date, but there’s no way to know definitively.
Nobody knows the precise age of Soon-Yi, Woody Allen’s wife, who was found wandering the streets in South Korea as a child and was brought to an orphanage:
http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/archive/1992/11/farrow199211#
I would guess the same to be true with both names I mentioned. At the time they were born, they were not thought to become leaders. Kim Jong-Il’s father wasn’t yet that important and Kim Jong-Un is the third son ( note that his two elder brothers have unambiguous birth dates ). I’m guessing the day was just fabricated 'cause there had to be a day for celebrations and parading ( well, they use plywood missiles, so what’s with the accurate day ).
Of others mentioned here I have heard only Soon-Yi, who, I think, hardly is prominent. But maybe there would be some Arab leader, the OP says currently, not youngest or even still alive.
( And waiting for somebody to throw in Obama… after all the place is ambiguous, so… )
My grandma. Not only was she unsure of the date, but even the year! Born in either 1905 or 06, we celebrated her birthday on August 8. A few years b4 her death she told us she was born in what we now call Poland, in a small town. Not being Christian, birth records weren’t considered important by the Czarist authorities, and the birth record was either lost in the mail or simply never recorded. To confuse things further, she was Jewish, and didn’t know her Jewish birthdate either! Seems the temple where that record was kept was destroyed by the Cossacks, and both parents died relatively soon after she was a little girl. [The Jewish calendar operates on lunar cycles; usually the real & lunar dates line up within a couple of weeks]. Her parents were secular, and didn’t give much weight to the Jewish date; the Czarists didn’t care enough about the real date. As a result, by the time she became old enough to realize its importance, no one could be found who could pinpoint it with any certainty. She was ‘pretty sure’ it was 8/8/05, & that’s the d8 on her greencard, on record with Social Security, and tombstone. It didn’t bother her a whit, & knowing her, probably give her a big laugh - ‘…only God knows when I was made’, she used to say.
I presume that the OP is talking about living people. If you’re going to include dead people (and furthermore dead people who were never famous), you’re going to have to include nearly everyone who ever lived.
Just thought it was funny & a good story, someone in my family born in the 20th Century was unsure of her birthdate & year.
My wife’s grandmother was a foundling, found inside a church in Philadelphia. Based on the ethnic composition of the neighborhood, they figured she was most likely Irish, but I believe they never knew her exact birthday.
In several parts of the world, accurate and compulsory recording of births did not take place until comparatively recently. In Pakistan for example it was not made compulsory until…2002. Over there many “birth dates” are approximates.
I’d say Jimbo Wales, founder and starter of Wikipedia, apparently.
For years and years people (including himself) would argue that the birth date on his article was wrong…and–believe it or not–nobody could verify what day it was. They knew it was the 7th or the 8th of August, but not which one and for months and years, it was a huge debate.
No, really.
Read all about it if you ever have the time. You can click on each month/year link to see all the discussion from it, or just read the timeline.
They finally agreed to resolve it somehow and come up with solution that made everyone happy.
Just out of curiosity, what does he do when a date of birth is required, e.g. for forms etc (and for celebrating his birthday)? Did he just choose a date, or what? Did he get issued a birth certificate retrospectively?
A high school friend is a niche celebrity. She gets very nervous if anyone mentions on Facebook when we went to high school. Looking at her you could see her pulling off pretending to be in her 30s. It makes a difference in her profession. Also a reasonably well know writer my sister went to high school with reports his age as being 3 years younger than he is. I wouldn’t trust a lot of the ages as reported.