Who Has Been Knighted? A Quick Guide to Famous Recipients

9 December 1934 in Heworth, York

A stage career that began with the Old Vic in 1957, an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love, and eight minutes of screen time as M in the James Bond films.

DBE, New Year Honours 1988. She was appointed an OBE in 1970 and skipped the CBE entirely, jumping two ranks in one go.

25 May 1939 in Burnley, Lancashire

Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, Magneto in the X-Men films, and a stage career built on Shakespeare.

Knight Bachelor, New Year Honours 1991. He was made a Companion of Honour in 2008 for services to drama and to equality, having come out publicly in 1988 while campaigning against Section 28.

15 April 1959 in Paddington, London

An Oscar for acting in Howards End and a second Oscar for writing the screenplay for Sense and Sensibility, plus Love Actually and the Nanny McPhee films.

DBE, New Year Honours 2018, "For services to Drama". She was appointed a CBE in 2000, having become one of only a handful of people to hold Oscars for both acting and screenwriting.

6 September 1972 in Hackney, London

Luther, The Wire, and a second career as a DJ and producer.

Knight Bachelor, New Year Honours 2026, "For services to Young People". The citation is telling: the honour recognises his campaigning against knife crime rather than his acting, for which he received an OBE in 2016.

26 July 1945 in Chiswick, London

An Oscar-winning performance as the monarch in The Queen, and DCI Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect.

DBE, New Year Honours 2003, "For services to Drama". She had been made a CBE in 1996 and went on to receive the BAFTA Fellowship in 2014.

18 June 1942 in Liverpool

The Beatles, Wings, and six decades of songwriting that made him the most commercially successful composer in popular music.

Knight Bachelor, New Year Honours 1997, "For services to Music". He was made an MBE with the rest of the Beatles in 1965, and later became a Companion of Honour.

8 January 1937 in Cardiff, Wales

The only artist to sing three James Bond themes — "Goldfinger", "Diamonds Are Forever" and "Moonraker" — across a recording career spanning seven decades.

DBE, New Year Honours 2000, "For services to the Performing Arts". She was appointed a CBE in 1993 and made a Companion of Honour in 2024.

25 March 1947 in Pinner, Middlesex

Five decades of hits from "Your Song" to "Rocket Man", and one of the best-selling solo artists in music history.

Knight Bachelor, New Year Honours 1998, "For services to Music and Charitable Services". He was made a CBE in 1995 and founded the Elton John AIDS Foundation in 1992.

7 July 1940 in Liverpool

Drummer for The Beatles, and a solo career including "Photograph" and "You're Sixteen".

Knight Bachelor, New Year Honours 2018, "For services to Music". He was made an MBE with the rest of the Beatles in 1965, 53 years before his knighthood.

19 June 1947 in Bombay (now Mumbai), India

Midnight's Children, winner of the Booker Prize in 1981, and The Satanic Verses, which prompted a fatwa against him in 1989.

Knight Bachelor, Birthday Honours 2007, "For services to Literature". The announcement caused diplomatic protests in Iran and Pakistan.

6 July 1952 in Glossop, Derbyshire (died 22 September 2022)

The Wolf Hall trilogy; she remains the only woman, and one of only four novelists, to win the Booker Prize twice.

DBE, New Year Honours 2014, "For services to Literature". She had been appointed CBE in 2006.

28 April 1948 in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire

The Discworld series, more than 40 novels that made him one of the best-selling authors of his generation.

Knight Bachelor, New Year Honours 2009, "For services to Literature". He had been made an OBE in 1998, and continued writing after a 2007 Alzheimer's diagnosis until his death in 2015.

24 August 1936 in Sheffield

Possession, which won the Booker Prize in 1990 and was later adapted into a film.

DBE, New Year Honours 2008, "For services to Literature". She was appointed CBE in 1999.

19 October 1946 in Norwich

The His Dark Materials trilogy, beginning with Northern Lights in 1995, adapted for film and television.

Knight Bachelor, Birthday Honours 2019, "For services to Literature", more than two decades after the books that made him famous.

2 May 1975 in Leytonstone, London

115 England caps, six Premier League titles with Manchester United, and a long second career as an ambassador for UNICEF.

Knight Bachelor, King's Birthday Honours 2025, "For services to Sport and to Charity". He collected it at Windsor Castle that November, 22 years after his OBE.

19 April 1970 in Pembury, Kent

Winning gold in both the 800m and the 1500m at the 2004 Athens Olympics, at the age of 34.

DBE, New Year Honours 2005, "For services to Athletics". She had already been made an MBE while serving as a sergeant in the British Army.

7 January 1985 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire

Seven Formula One world championships and more race wins than any other driver in the sport's history.

Knight Bachelor, New Year Honours 2021, "For services to Motorsports", announced days after he finished the season as runner-up in the closest title fight of his career.

18 July 1950 in Blackheath, London

Building the Virgin Group from a mail-order record business into an airline, a rail franchise and a spaceflight company.

Knight Bachelor, New Year Honours 2000, "For services to Entrepreneurship".

16 September 1933 in Dortmund, Germany; arrived in Britain in 1939 as an unaccompanied Kindertransport refugee

Founding a software company in 1962 staffed almost entirely by women working flexibly from home, at a time when married women were routinely barred from professional jobs; it later floated for hundreds of millions of pounds.

DBE, New Year Honours 2000, "For services to Information Technology". She has since given away more than £67 million, mostly to autism research and charities, inspired by her late son.

2 May 1947 in Cromer, Norfolk

The bagless vacuum cleaner, arrived at after more than 5,000 prototypes, and the engineering institute he founded in Wiltshire.

Knight Bachelor, New Year Honours 2007, "For services to Business", following a CBE in 1998.

17 October 1935 in Pilton, Somerset

Starting a festival on his dairy farm in 1970, after seeing Led Zeppelin at the nearby Bath Festival of Blues. Glastonbury now hosts around 200,000 people.

Starting a festival on his dairy farm in 1970, after seeing Led Zeppelin at the nearby Bath Festival of Blues. Glastonbury now hosts around 200,000 people.

8 June 1955 in London

Inventing the World Wide Web at CERN in 1989, and giving it away rather than patenting it.

KBE, New Year Honours 2004, "For services to the global development of the Internet". He was made an OBE in 1997 and joined the Order of Merit in 2007.

1962 in Kettering, Northamptonshire

Leading the Oxford team that designed the Oxford–AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, which was distributed at cost to much of the world.

DBE, King's Birthday Honours 2021, in the same list as Dame Kate Bingham, who chaired the UK's Vaccine Taskforce.

8 May 1926 in Isleworth, London

Life on Earth, The Blue Planet and 70 years of natural history broadcasting, first as a producer and controller at the BBC and then as the voice of the genre.

Knight Bachelor, Birthday Honours 1985. He has since collected almost everything the honours system can offer, including the Order of Merit and a GCMG, and turned 100 in May 2026.

27 July 1976 in London

Co-founding DeepMind, whose AlphaFold system predicted the structure of nearly every known protein, and sharing the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Knight Bachelor, announced in a special honours list in March 2024, "For Services to Artificial Intelligence". Not every knighthood waits for New Year or June.