List of Foreign Legionnaires

Updated on Dec 07, 2024

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Notable people who served in the French Foreign Legion. The following is a list of legionnaires who have gained fame or notoriety inside or outside of the legion.

Officers

Alexandre Joseph Count Colonna-Walewski, non-marital son of Napoleon I

HRH Prince Aage of Denmark

Dimitri Amilakvari - Georgian noble, became an iconic figure of the Free French Forces.

Paul Arnaud de Foïard

Crown Prince Bảo Long (Chữ nôm 保隆) of Vietnam - head of the Nguyễn Dynasty, the now deposed Emperors of Vietnam

François Achille Bazaine - Marshal of France

Prince Louis Napoléon - Prince Imperial

Dominique Borella- French mercenary and anti-Communist

François Certain Canrobert - Marshal of France

Jean Danjou - Commander at the Battle of Camarón

Jules Gaucher - commander 13 DBLE, killed at Battle of Dien Bien Phu.

Georges Hamacek

John F. "Jack" Hasey

Pierre Jeanpierre

Aarne Juutilainen

Pierre Koenig

André Lalande

Jean-Marie Le Pen

HSH Prince Louis II of Monaco

Patrice MacMahon - Marshal of France

Raoul Magrin-Vernerey

Pierre Messmer

Peter Ortiz, (Acting Lieutenant)

Henri, comte de Paris

Zinovy Peshkov

Rémy Raffalli

Peter I of Serbia King of Serbia and SHS

Jacques Leroy de Saint Arnaud - Marshal of France

Hélie de Saint Marc - former resistant deported to Buchenwald, participated in the Algiers putsch.

Gabriel Brunet de Sairigné - Colonel dead on duty in 1948, Compagnon de la Libération

Pierre Segrétain

Sisowath Monivong, 1908-9, then prince, later King of Cambodia

Josef Šnejdárek- French legionnaire, officer and later Czechoslovakian general

Susan Travers

James Waddell - New Zealander in the French Foreign Legion

Enlisted

Léon Ashkenazi, also known as Manitou, Jewish philosopher

Shapour Bakhtiar, Iranian Prime minister

Arthur Bluethenthal, All American football player and decorated World War I pilot

Giuseppe Bottai, Italian minister

Eugene Bullard, First African-American military pilot

Blaise Cendrars, Swiss novelist and poet

Max Deutsch, Austrian composer

François Faber, Luxembourgian cyclist and Tour de France winner

Siegfried Freytag, German fighter ace

Jean Genet, French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist

Ante Gotovina, former lieutenant general of the Croatian Army

Hans Hartung, German-French painter

Erwin James (Monahan), British journalist and murderer

Ernst Jünger, German writer

Aarne Juutilainen, Finnish army captain

Norman Kerry, U.S. actor

Moise Kisling, Polish painter

Arthur Koestler, Jewish-Hungarian polymath author

Raoul Lufbery, French-American fighter pilot and flying ace in World War I

Rodion Malinovsky, Soviet Marshal and Defence Minister.

Simon Murray, British businessman, adventurer, author and the oldest man to reach the South Pole unsupported

Peter Julien Ortiz, American, later decorated USMC officer and OSS operative in Occupied France during WWII (Also served in the Legion as an acting Lieutenant)

Radomir Pavitchevitch

Cole Porter, American composer and songwriter

Alex Rowe, serving British national

Akihiko Saito, Japanese hostage in Iraq who later died in captivity

Pal Sárközy de Nagy-Bócsa, advertiser, father of French President Nicolas Sarkozy

Alan Seeger, American poet

Rolf Steiner, Professional Soldier of Fortune in Biafra and Southern Sudan

Milorad Ulemek, Serbian former militant

Oswald Watt, Australian aviator

William A. Wellman, American film director