Famous People From Florence
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List of famous people from Florence, including photos when available. The people below are listed by their popularity, so the most recognizable names are at ...
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Rose McGowan, a prominent figure in Hollywood, has carved a niche for herself as an actress, activist, author, and director. Born on September 5, 1973, in Certaldo, Italy, she spent her early years in a controversial religious group, known as the Children of God. After her family's disassociation from the group, they moved to the United States where McGowan was discovered on the streets of Los Angeles, marking the beginning of her acting career. McGowan first gained prominence in the mid-1990s through her role in the dark comedy The Doom Generation, earning a nomination for Best Debut Performance at the Independent Spirit Awards. However, it was her portrayal of Paige Matthews in the television series Charmed that catapulted her to global fame. In addition to her acting prowess, McGowan demonstrated her versatility by stepping behind the camera, making her directorial debut with the short film Dawn, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Beyond her entertainment career, McGowan is a vocal advocate for women's rights and a key figure in the #MeToo movement. She publicly accused film producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, becoming one of the first of many women to do so. This led to his downfall and sparked a cultural reckoning on sexual harassment in Hollywood. Her bravery earned her recognition as one of TIME Magazine's Person of the Year in 2017, shared with other Silence Breakers. Furthermore, she penned a memoir titled Brave, a raw, honest account of her life, her struggles, and her journey towards activism, further solidifying her status as a beacon of strength and resilience.

Florence Nightingale, (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War, in which she organised care for wounded soldiers. She gave nursing a favourable reputation and became an icon of Victorian culture, especially in the persona of "The Lady with the Lamp" making rounds of wounded soldiers at night.Recent commentators have asserted Nightingale's Crimean War achievements were exaggerated by media at the time, but critics agree on the importance of her later work in professionalising nursing roles for women. In 1860, Nightingale laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of her nursing school at St Thomas' Hospital in London. It was the first secular nursing school in the world, and is now part of King's College London. In recognition of her pioneering work in nursing, the Nightingale Pledge taken by new nurses, and the Florence Nightingale Medal, the highest international distinction a nurse can achieve, were named in her honour, and the annual International Nurses Day is celebrated on her birthday. Her social reforms included improving healthcare for all sections of British society, advocating better hunger relief in India, helping to abolish prostitution laws that were harsh for women, and expanding the acceptable forms of female participation in the workforce. Nightingale was a prodigious and versatile writer. In her lifetime, much of her published work was concerned with spreading medical knowledge. Some of her tracts were written in simple English so that they could easily be understood by those with poor literary skills. She was also a pioneer in the use of infographics, effectively using graphical presentations of statistical data. Much of her writing, including her extensive work on religion and mysticism, has only been published posthumously.

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi (c. 1445 – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, Italian: [ˈsandro bottiˈtʃɛlli]), was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. He belonged to the Florentine School under the patronage of Lorenzo de' Medici, a movement that Giorgio Vasari would characterize less than a hundred years later in his Vita of Botticelli as a "golden age". Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century; since then, his work has been seen to represent the linear grace of Early Renaissance painting. As well as the small number of mythological subjects which are his best known works today, he painted a wide range of religious subjects and also some portraits. He and his workshop were especially known for their Madonna and Childs, many in the round tondo shape. Botticelli's best-known works are The Birth of Venus and Primavera, both in the Uffizi in Florence. He lived all his life in the same neighbourhood of Florence, with probably his only significant time elsewhere the months he spent painting in Pisa in 1474 and the Sistine Chapel in Rome in 1481–82.Only one of his paintings is dated, though others can be dated from other records with varying degrees of certainty, and the development of his style traced with confidence. He was an independent master for all the 1470s, growing in mastery and reputation, and the 1480s were his most successful decade, when all his large mythological paintings were done, and many of his best Madonnas. By the 1490s his style became more personal and to some extent mannered, and he could be seen as moving in a direction opposite to that of Leonardo da Vinci (seven years his junior) and a new generation of painters creating the High Renaissance style as Botticelli returned in some ways to the Gothic style. He has been described as "an outsider in the mainstream of Italian painting", who had a limited interest in many of the developments most associated with Quattrocento painting, such as the realistic depiction of human anatomy, perspective, and landscape, and the use of direct borrowings from classical art. His training enabled him to represent all these aspects of painting, without adopting or contributing to their development.