Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

Václav Havel (Czech pronunciation: [ˈvaːtslav ˈɦavɛl] ; 5 October 1936 – 18 December 2011) was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright and dissident. Havel served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia on 31 December, before he became the first president of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003. He was the first democratically elected president of either country after the fall of communism. As a writer of Czech literature, he is known for his plays, essays and memoirs.
His educational opportunities having been limited by his bourgeois background, when freedoms were limited by the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Havel first rose to prominence as a playwright. In works such as The Garden Party and The Memorandum, Havel used an absurdist style to criticize the Communist system. After participating in the Prague Spring and being blacklisted after the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, he became more politically active and helped found several dissident initiatives, including Charter 77 and the Committee for the Defense of the Unjustly Prosecuted. His political activities brought him under the surveillance of the StB secret police, and he spent multiple periods as a political prisoner, the longest of his imprisoned terms being nearly four years, between 1979 and 1983. In this period, Samuel Beckett wrote a play Catastrophe in Havel's Support. Havel wrote his short play Mistake in response to Beckett. Both plays were published by Index On Censorship in 1984. In 2022, Reza Shirmarz, an Iranian playwright, was asked by Index to write a play (Muzzled) in response to both playwright after a couple decades presenting the ongoing issue of censorship and self-censorship.[1]
Havel's Civic Forum party played a major role in the Velvet Revolution that toppled the Communist system in Czechoslovakia in 1989. He assumed the presidency shortly thereafter, and was re-elected in a landslide the following year and after Slovak independence in 1993. Havel was instrumental in dismantling the Warsaw Pact and enlargement of NATO membership eastward. Many of his stances and policies, such as his opposition to Slovak independence, condemnation of the treatment of Sudeten Germans and their mass expulsion from Czechoslovakia after World War II, as well as granting of general amnesty to all those imprisoned under the Communist era, were very controversial domestically. By the end of his presidency, he enjoyed greater popularity abroad than at home. Havel continued his life as a public intellectual after his presidency, launching several initiatives including the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, the VIZE 97 Foundation, and the Forum 2000 annual conference.
Havel's political philosophy was one of anti-consumerism, humanitarianism, environmentalism, civil activism, and direct democracy. He supported the Czech Green Party from 2004 until his death. He received numerous accolades during his lifetime, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Gandhi Peace Prize, the Philadelphia Liberty Medal, the Order of Canada, the Four Freedoms Award, the Ambassador of Conscience Award, and the Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award. The 2012–2013 academic year at the College of Europe was named in his honour. He is considered by some to be one of the most important intellectuals of the 20th century. The international airport in Prague was renamed Václav Havel Airport Prague in 2012.

Paul Leonard Newman (January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008) was an American actor, film director, racing driver, philanthropist, and entrepreneur. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Silver Bear, a Cannes Film Festival Award, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.Born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, Newman showed an interest in theater as a child and at age 10 performed in a stage production of Saint George and the Dragon at the Cleveland Play House. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in drama and economics from Kenyon College in 1949. After touring with several summer stock companies including the Belfry Players, Newman attended the Yale School of Drama for a year before studying at the Actors Studio under Lee Strasberg. His first starring Broadway role was in William Inge's Picnic in 1953.
Newman won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in The Color of Money (1986). His other Oscar-nominated performances were in
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), The Hustler (1961), Hud (1963), Cool Hand Luke (1967), Absence of Malice (1981), The Verdict (1982), Nobody's Fool (1994), and Road to Perdition (2002). He also starred in such films as Harper (1966), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), The Sting (1973), The Towering Inferno (1974), Slap Shot (1977), and Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981). He also voiced Doc Hudson in Cars (2006).
Newman won several national championships as a driver in Sports Car Club of America road racing. He was a co-founder of Newman's Own, a food company from which he donated all post-tax profits and royalties to charity. As of 2020, these donations have totaled over US$570 million.
Newman continued to found such charitable organizations such as the SeriousFun Children's Network in 1988 and the Safe Water Network in 2006. Newman was married twice and fathered six children. He was the husband of the actress Joanne Woodward until his death.

Laurence Equilbey (born 6 March 1962) is a French conductor, known for her work in the choral repertoire, and more recently as the founder and music director of the Insula Orchestra.Equilbey studied piano and flute in her early life. She undertook formal music education in Paris, Vienna, London and Scandinavia. Her teachers included Eric Ericson, Denise Ham, Colin Metters and Jorma Panula.
Equilbey founded the chamber choir Accentus in 1991, and continues as its music director. With Accentus, she has conducted commercial recordings for such labels as Naïve. In 1995, she founded the Jeune Chœur de Paris, which in 2002 was incorporated as a department of the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris. She co-directs the programme with Geoffroy Jourdain. Since the 2009–2010 season, Equilbey has been an associate artist, with Accentus, of the Ensemble orchestral de Paris.
Equilbey invented the "e-tuner", an electronic means of tuning quarter tones and 1/3 tones. Outside of conventional classical music, she is a collaborator in the Private Domain project, which has included work with Émilie Simon, Murcof, Para One, and Marc Collin of Nouvelle Vague.
In 2008, Equilbey was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. In 2012, she founded the Insula Orchestra. One of their goals is to perform the neglected works by historic women composers, such as Louise Farrenc. In July 2021, Erato released their recording of Farrenc's Symphony nos. 1 and 3.

Jacques Sereys (2 June 1928 – 1 January 2023) was a French actor and theatre director.

Claude Léon Auguste Piéplu (9 May 1923, Paris – 24 May 2006, Paris) was a French theater, film and television actor. He was known for his hoarse and frayed voice.A follower of aerial humor and tongue-in-cheek humor, he distinguished himself in theater and cinema and, for the general public, is remembered as the narrator of the animated series Les Shadoks or the man with the keys to gold from the comedy TV series Palace.In 1987 he was nominated for a Cesar Award for his role in Michel Deville's Le Paltoquet.

Bettina Caroline Germaine Rheims (French pronunciation: [bɛtina kaʁɔlin ʒɛʁmɛn ʁɛ̃s]; born 18 December 1952) is a French photographer.

Jacques Garcia, (born 25 September 1947) is a French architect, interior designer and garden designer, best known for his contemporary interiors of Paris hotels and restaurants. He is the current owner of the Château du Champ-de-Bataille, a Baroque château lying between the communes of Neubourg and Sainte-Opportune-du-Bosc. It was built in the 17th century for the Maréchal de Créqui, however, he has made significant changes to the property, most notably building the French formal garden; since his acquisition of the property in 1992.

France Clidat (Nantes, 22 November 1932 – Paris, 17 May 2012) was a French pianist renowned for her interpretations of the works of Franz Liszt, a great many of which she recorded, and Erik Satie, whose complete piano works she recorded.

Étienne Martin (4 February 1913 – 21 March 1995) was a French non-figurative sculptor.

Michel Pastoureau (born 17 June 1947) is a French professor of medieval history and an expert in Western symbology.