1940 births

Jean-Paul Proust (3 March 1940 – 8 April 2010) was a French and Monegasque civil servant. He served as the Minister of State of Monaco.

Raymond Soubie (born 23 October 1940) is a former social affairs advisor to former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Alain Deloche (born 2 September 1940 in Paris) is a French surgeon. Ex member of Médecins Sans Frontières, he cofounded Médecins du Monde and is board member of the Surgeons of Hope Foundation since 1988.

Marc Eugène Charles Ladreit de Lacharrière (born November 6, 1940) is the CEO of FIMALAC (a.k.a. Financière Marc de Lacharrière), once majority owner of credit rating agency Fitch Group from which it divested between 2015 and 2018, selling its stake to Hearst Corporation.On the Forbes 2016 list of the world's billionaires, he was ranked #722 with a net worth of US$2.4 billion.

Jean-Philippe Douin (8 April 1940 – 19 January 2016) was a French Air Force general. He was the Chief of Staff of the French Air Force from 1994 to 1995 and Chief of the Defence Staff from 1995 to 1998. There was some controversy surrounding his appointment since, as a Conscript between 1958 and 1959, he had served in a French Marine Light Cavalry/Light Armored Reconnaissance Regiment (Régiment d'infanterie-chars de marine) in Algeria that was accused of committing war crimes during the Algerian War; later, as a young Air Force Lieutenant and Dassault Mirage III fighter pilot in 1961, his unit had taken part in the Algiers Putsch under the command of Air Vice Marashal Jouhaud. For most of his flying career, Douin piloted the Dassault Mirage III and the Dassault Mirage 5, commanding a squadron, wing and fighter group, before becoming the French Air Attache to Pakistan and Chile. After entering the General Ranks he served variously as a doctrinal specialist in the Air Force Staff & Training Command, the chief of Aerial Intelligence for a Fighter Division, and Commander of a Fighter Division.

Jacques Abel Jules Revaud (French pronunciation: [ʒak abɛl ʒyl ʁøvo]; born 11 July 1940), known as Jacques Revaux ([ʁøvo]), is a French songwriter, most famous for his 1968 writing collaboration with singer Claude François on the song "Comme d'habitude", whose text was reworked by Canadian singer-songwriter Paul Anka into the English language as "My Way", which was in turn a hit first recorded by Frank Sinatra. He co-founded Trema Records with Regis Talar. Revaux also wrote many hit songs for another French singing star, Michel Sardou.

Jean-Claude Malgoire (25 November 1940 – 14 April 2018) was a French oboist and later conductor.

Alain Lombard (born 4 October 1940, Paris) is a French conductor.

Danielle Collobert (French pronunciation: [danjɛl kɔlɔbɛʁ]) was a French author, poet and journalist.

John Massis (4 June 1940 – 12 July 1988) was a Flemish strongman and teeth-acrobat. His real name was Wilfried Morbée.
Massis specialized in bending iron with his teeth. He also performed stunts where he lifted cars, pulled trains and stopped motorbikes and even helicopters and hot air balloons with his teeth. This resulted in several entries in the Guinness World Records book. He even stopped 4 small sport planes of lifting off in 4 different directions.
In 1980 he started pirate radio "Radio Superstar" and also recorded the song John Massis de krachtpatser. In 1987 he recorded Zet er je tanden in, with Willy Sommers.
In 1983 he also funded a political party called Positief Radicalen in Dutch or Positive Radicals.
He had a few roles too in the Flemish films The Leeuw Van Vlaanderen (1984) and Merlina
In 2004 Johan Heldenbergh performed a play based on Massis' life: Massis, the musical.
In 2005 he became number 172 on the list of the most famous Belgian ever in history.
He was also a source of inspiration for the cartoonist Pirana in the 80's to draw "Het Land Zonder Tanden" (1986). They were also close personal friends.
He also made an appearance in the Kiekeboe-album De spray-historie (1988) with cartoon character "John Massif".
In 1999 the band Noordkaap referred to John Massis by naming their album Massis.