# Who is the most famous non-fictional Belgian? (updated) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 3, 2020, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-non-fictional-belgian-updated/924651 "2020-11-03T15:10:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-non-fictional-belgian-updated/924651/81 "2020-11-15T06:44:15Z")
> [@Kron](#): > > Apple-in-front-of-bowler-hat-guy? That one and “This is not a pipe.” But I’ll admit the first thought I have when I hear his name is the Paul Simon song. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2020, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-non-fictional-belgian-updated/924651/82 "2020-11-15T22:49:15Z")
Another famous Belgian I just came across: Sister Luc-Gabrielle (born Jeanine Deckers), the “Singing Nun”, Dominican nun who wrote and recorded “[Dominique](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO7cD6qmydo)”, released under the name Soeur Sourire (Smiling Sister) in 1963. From this Song Facts page about her and this song: > **[Dominique by The Singing Nun - Songfacts](https://www.songfacts.com/facts/the-singing-nun/dominique)** > > Dominique by The Singing Nun song meaning, lyric interpretation, video and chart position > [@](#): > > The Singing Nun was Sister Luc-Gabrielle (born Jeanine Deckers), from a Fichermont, Belgium convent. Not to be confused with The Flying Nun. That was Sally Field. > > The nun wrote several tunes that won prizes at religious youth retreats. One of the order’s elders asked her to record an LP, of which the convent could make a few hundred copies to distribute as gifts. Luc-Gabrielle and a chorus of four other nuns recorded her songs at the Phillips studios in Brussels, but when the executives of the record company heard the songs, the LP was commercially released (with the credit to “Soeur Sourire” - Sister Smile) in Europe to great success. > > The album was released in the US as The Singing Nun, but there was no American reaction until “Dominique” was released as a single. Then, both the album and the single worked up to the top of their charts. It was the first time a single topped the Hot 100 at the same time its LP topped the Billboard albums chart. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum\_45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum_45/32/3385_2.png) [@eburacum\_45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum_45)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-non-fictional-belgian-updated/924651/83 "2020-11-16T11:37:12Z")
I voted for Hergé, but my wife suggested Georges Lemaître > **[Georges Lemaître](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lema%C3%AEtre)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître (/ləˈmɛtrə/ lə-MET-rə; French: \[ʒɔʁʒ ləmɛːtʁ\] (listen); 17 July 1894 – 20 June 1966) was a Belgian Catholic priest, theoretical physicist, mathematician, astronomer, and professor of physics at the Catholic University of Louvain. He was the first to theorize that the recession of nearby galaxies can be explained by an expanding universe, which was observationally confirmed soon afterwards by Edwin Hubble. He... who was probably one of the smartest people in the entire 20th century. ---
**Author:** ![DaphneBlack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daphneblack/32/5389_2.png) [@DaphneBlack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaphneBlack)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2020, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-non-fictional-belgian-updated/924651/84 "2020-11-16T13:29:11Z")
Yes, Lemaitre was popular in another version I did of this poll as a write-in. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-non-fictional-belgian-updated/924651/85 "2020-12-11T02:23:11Z")
I chose Leopold without looking at the choices. JVCD probably wouldn’t have pinged my radar despite his sobriquet. I’m a huge fan of Merckx, but I would have to think about it before I pegged him as Belgian. I’ve been to a couple of shows of Magritte, but I didn’t even realize he was Belgian. I think a lot of people would recognize his painting of the dude in the bowler hat with the apple in front of his face, but would not be able to name the artist. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-non-fictional-belgian-updated/924651/86 "2020-12-11T02:26:09Z")
> [@Darryl\_Lict](#): > > I think a lot of people would recognize his painting of the dude in the bowler hat with the apple in front of his face, but would not be able to name the artist. That just means **Hampshire** and **Bone** to me. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-non-fictional-belgian-updated/924651/87 "2020-12-11T04:36:07Z")
> [@Tusculan](#): > > Leopold is not known outside Belgium and a handful of historians etc., Eh, [King Leopold’s Ghost](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Leopold%27s_Ghost) sold around 600,000 copies and was a bestseller. Pretty good for a popular history. I was thinking Leopold before I even opened the thread because history nerd. But I’m not surprised at the SDMB polling. Since Van Damme wasn’t on the list (I would have voted for Leopold regardless), it makes sense to me that Leopold is better known as symbol of Belgian-ness than Magritte. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-non-fictional-belgian-updated/924651/88 "2020-12-11T05:15:25Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > I was thinking Leopold before I even opened the thread because history nerd. Ditto. Reading through the list I agreed that some of them were excellent choices, but I stuck with Leopold. Hadn’t realised Audrey was born in Belgium – her father was British and her mother was Dutch, and as noted above she spent the war in the Netherlands (she was in Arnhem at the time of the “bridge too far” battle). ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b77776/32.png) [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_was_in_Saudi)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-non-fictional-belgian-updated/924651/89 "2020-12-11T06:20:15Z")
Rubens ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2020, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-non-fictional-belgian-updated/924651/90 "2020-12-11T06:34:41Z")
Wikipedia lists “Flemish Painters” and “Belgian Painters” separately. Perhaps you only get to be Belgian after 1830? ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-non-fictional-belgian-updated/924651/91 "2020-12-12T17:07:18Z")
Rubens is clearly the answer if we’re talking about the most famous person from territories now know as ‘Belgium’. But quite apart from the wider definitional problems surrounding the Spanish Netherlands in that period, there is a complication - Rubens was born at Siegen, which is well within what is now Germany, and he spent his early childhood in Cologne. And do you know who thought this important? The Nazis. Purely by coincidence, the invasion of Belgium in 1940 almost exactly coincided with the tercentenary of Rubens’s death. The occupying authorities therefore played up the idea that Rubens was actually German, in the hope of persuading the Belgians that they were really Germans too. As for Leopold II, [he wanted to build a huge Panthéon commemorating famous Belgians on the Koekelberg Hill in Brussels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_the_Sacred_Heart,_Brussels#History). At the time there were doubts as to whether there were enough famous Belgians to justify this. ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-non-fictional-belgian-updated/924651/92 "2020-12-12T18:09:53Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Please explain your reasoning here. I certainly know where Brussels is, know about the dual Flemish / Walloon nature of Belgium, etc. That some actor’s stage name sounds like a mix of French & Dutch names is hardly determinative. Or is there more? I didn’t see where this got answered, but Jean Claude van Damme has often been styled as “The Muscles from Brussels,” so if you know that nickname and where Brussels is, his nationality is self-evident. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-non-fictional-belgian-updated/924651/93 "2020-12-12T18:14:43Z")
Thank you. I’d never heard of that name for him, but it make perfect sense. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-non-fictional-belgian-updated/924651/94 "2020-12-12T19:14:50Z")
I have to say, this thread was a bright spot for me during the long election season. No matter what disasters were being predicted or enacted, and one of the longest threads in SDMB history just took off to discuss every aspect of the election, this completely innocuous, oddity, thread about famous Belgians, just kept clicking along. Not everything in November was election-related, and Dopes continued to delve into some of the most obscure minutia possible, while simultaneously contemplating **The End of the American Experiment™**! Thanks, Dopers. 😄 ---
**Author:** ![Gymnopithys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@Gymnopithys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gymnopithys)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-non-fictional-belgian-updated/924651/95 "2020-12-12T19:46:44Z")
The most famous _now_ but who will remain famous ? Mercx and Van Damme will be forgotten in just a few years. ---
**Author:** ![DaphneBlack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daphneblack/32/5389_2.png) [@DaphneBlack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaphneBlack)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-non-fictional-belgian-updated/924651/96 "2020-12-12T21:00:53Z")
Thank you! I hoped exactly this. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum\_45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum_45/32/3385_2.png) [@eburacum\_45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum_45)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2020, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-non-fictional-belgian-updated/924651/97 "2020-12-12T21:20:21Z")
> [@Gymnopithys](#): > > The most famous _now_ but who will remain famous ? I suspect that Lemaître will still be famous hundreds of years from now, assuming the Big Bang theory holds up. He might even get a planet named after him. He’s already got an asteroid. > **[1565 Lemaître](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1565_Lema%C3%AEtre)** > > 1565 Lemaître, provisional designation 1948 WA, is a highly eccentric Phocaea asteroid and sizable Mars-crosser from the inner regions of the asteroid belt, approximately 8 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on 25 November 1948, by Belgian astronomer Sylvain Arend at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Uccle, Belgium. It was named after cosmologist and priest Georges Lemaître. > Lemaître is a Mars-crossing asteroid, as it crosses the orbit of Mars at 1.666 AU. It is also an eccentric memb... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-is-the-most-famous-non-fictional-belgian-updated/924651.md?page=4)