100 Greatest Romanians

In 2006, Romanian Television (Televiziunea Română, TVR) conducted a vote to determine whom the general public considered the 100 Greatest Romanians of all time, in a version of the British TV show 100 Greatest Britons. The resulting series, Great Romanians (Mari Români), included individual programmes on the top ten, with viewers having further opportunities to vote after each programme. It concluded with a debate. On 21 October, TVR announced that the "greatest Romanian of all time" according to the voting was Stephen the Great.

Full list

 * 1) Stephen the Great
 * 2) Carol I
 * 3) Mihai Eminescu
 * 4) Mihai Viteazul
 * 5) Richard Wurmbrand
 * 6) Ion Antonescu
 * 7) Mircea Eliade
 * 8) Alexandru Ioan Cuza
 * 9) Constantin Brâncuși
 * 10) Nadia Comăneci
 * 11) Nicolae Ceaușescu (1918–1989) – last communist dictator of Romania
 * 12) Vlad Țepeș (1431–1476) – Prince of Wallachia
 * 13) Gigi Becali (1958– ) – politician and businessman, football club owner
 * 14) Henri Coandă (1886–1972) – inventor and aerodynamics pioneer
 * 15) Gheorghe Hagi (1965– ) – football player
 * 16) Ion Luca Caragiale (1852–1912) – playwright and short story writer
 * 17) Nicolae Iorga (1871–1940) – historian, writer, and politician
 * 18) Constantin Brâncoveanu (1654–1714) – Prince of Wallachia
 * 19) George Enescu (1881–1955) – composer and musician
 * 20) Gregorian Bivolaru (1952– ) – founder of MISA yoga organization
 * 21) Mirel Rădoi (1980– ) – football player
 * 22) Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (1899–1938) – founder of the Legionary Movement, the main Romanian fascist movement during the 1930s
 * 23) Nicolae Titulescu (1882–1941) – diplomat, president of the League of Nations
 * 24) Ferdinand I of Romania (1865–1927) – King of Romania during World War I, who oversaw the creation of "Greater Romania"
 * 25) Mihai I (1921–2017) – last King of Romania before communist period
 * 26) Decebalus (87–106) – last King of Dacia before Roman conquest
 * 27) Traian Băsescu (1951–) – politician, former President of Romania
 * 28) Gheorghe Mureșan (1971– ) – NBA basketball player
 * 29) Ion I. C. Brătianu (1864–1927) – liberal politician, Prime Minister of Romania for five terms
 * 30) Răzvan Lucescu (1969– ) football player and football club manager
 * 31) Nicolae Paulescu (1869–1931) – physiologist, one of the scientists who developed diabetes treatment with insulin
 * 32) Iuliu Maniu (1873–1953) – politician, fought for the national rights of the Romanians of Transylvania
 * 33) Iuliu Hossu (1885–1970) – Greek-Catholic bishop, victim of the communist regime
 * 34) Emil Cioran (1911–1995) – philosopher, writer, and essayist
 * 35) Avram Iancu (1824–1872) – leader of the 1848 Romanian revolution in Transylvania
 * 36) Burebista (? – 44 BC) – King of Dacia
 * 37) Marie of Romania (1875–1938) – Queen of Romania
 * 38) Petre Țuțea (1902–1991) – philosopher, Christian-fascist intellectual, victim of the communist regime
 * 39) Corneliu Coposu (1914–1995) – liberal politician, victim of the communist regime
 * 40) Aurel Vlaicu (1882–1913) – inventor, aviation pioneer
 * 41) Iosif Trifa (1888–1938) – Eastern Orthodox priest, founder of the "Oastea Domnului" ("Lord's Army") Christian organisation
 * 42) Nichita Stănescu (1933–1983) – poet and essayist
 * 43) Ion Creangă (1837–1889) – writer
 * 44) Mădalina Manole (1967–2010) – pop singer
 * 45) Corneliu Vadim Tudor (1949–2015) – ultranationalist politician, writer and journalist; founder and leader of the Greater Romania Party
 * 46) Traian Vuia (1872–1950) – inventor, aviation pioneer
 * 47) Lucian Blaga (1895–1961) – poet, playwright, and philosopher
 * 48) George Emil Palade (1912–2008) – cell biologist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (1974)
 * 49) Ana Aslan (1897–1988) – biologist, physician and inventor, the author of essential research in gerontology
 * 50) Adrian Mutu (1979– ) – football player
 * 51) Florin Piersic (1936– ) – theater and film actor
 * 52) Mihail Kogălniceanu (1817–1891) – politician and historian, first Prime Minister of the United Principalities of Romania
 * 53) Iancsi Korossy (1926–2013) – jazz pianist
 * 54) Dimitrie Cantemir (1673–1723) – Prince of Moldavia and prolific man of letters
 * 55) Ilie Năstase (1946– ) – tennis player
 * 56) Gheorghe Zamfir (1941– ) – musician, pan flute player
 * 57) Gică Petrescu (1915–2006) – musician, folk and pop music composer and singer
 * 58) Elisabeta Rizea (1912–2003) – anti-communist partisan
 * 59) Bulă (fictional) – a stock character of Romanian jokes of the communist era
 * 60) Amza Pellea (1931–1983) – theater and film actor
 * 61) Matei Corvin (1443 (?) – 1490) – King of Hungary
 * 62) Mircea cel Bătrân (1355–1418) – Prince of Wallachia
 * 63) Titu Maiorescu (1840–1917) – literary critic and politician
 * 64) Toma Caragiu (1925–1977) – theater and film actor
 * 65) Mihai Trăistariu (1979– ) – pop singer
 * 66) Andreea Marin (1974– ) – TV show host
 * 67) Emil Racoviță (1868–1947) – biologist, co-founder of biospeleology and explorer of Antarctica
 * 68) Victor Babeș (1854–1926) – biologist and early bacteriologist, one of the founders of microbiology
 * 69) Nicolae Bălcescu (1819–1852) – leader of the 1848 Wallachian Revolution
 * 70) Horia-Roman Patapievici (1957– ) – writer and essayist
 * 71) Ion Iliescu (1930– ) – first President of Romania after the 1989 revolution
 * 72) Marin Preda (1922–1980) – novelist
 * 73) Eugen Ionescu (1909–1994) – playwright, one of the initiators of the theatre of the absurd
 * 74) Dumitru Stăniloae (1903–1993) – Eastern Orthodox priest and theologian
 * 75) Alexandru Todea (1905–2002) – Greek-Catholic bishop, victim of the communist regime
 * 76) Tudor Gheorghe (1945– ) – singer and theater actor
 * 77) Ion Țiriac (1939– ) – tennis player and businessman
 * 78) Ilie Cleopa (1912–1998) – Eastern Orthodox archimandrite
 * 79) Arsenie Boca (1910–1989) – Eastern Orthodox priest and theologian, victim of the communist regime
 * 80) Bănel Nicoliță (1985– ) – football player
 * 81) Dumitru Cornilescu (1891–1975) – Eastern Orthodox, then Protestant priest, translated the Bible into Romanian in 1921
 * 82) Grigore Moisil (1906–1973) – mathematician and computing pioneer
 * 83) Claudiu Niculescu (1976– ) – football player
 * 84) Florentin Petre (1976– ) – football player
 * 85) Marius Moga (1981– ) – pop music composer and singer
 * 86) Nicolae Steinhardt (1912–1989) – writer
 * 87) Laura Stoica (1967–2006) – pop and rock singer, composer and actress
 * 88) Cătălin Hâldan (1976–2000) – football player
 * 89) Anghel Saligny (1854–1925) – public works, chiefly railway engineer
 * 90) Ivan Patzaichin (1949–2021) – flatwater canoer who won seven Olympic medals
 * 91) Maria Tănase (1913–1963) – traditional and popular music singer
 * 92) Sergiu Nicolaescu (1930–2013) – film director, actor and politician
 * 93) Octavian Paler (1926–2007) – essayist
 * 94) The Unknown Soldier – the Romanian soldier in the national Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
 * 95) Ciprian Porumbescu (1853–1883) – composer
 * 96) Nicolae Covaci (1947– ) – founder of the Phoenix rock band
 * 97) Dumitru Prunariu (1952– ) – first Romanian cosmonaut
 * 98) Iancu de Hunedoara (c. 1387 – 1456) – Voivode of Transylvania, captain-general and regent of the Kingdom of Hungary
 * 99) Constantin Noica (1909–1987) – philosopher and essayist
 * 100) Badea Cârțan (1849–1911) – a shepherd who fought for the independence of the Romanians of Transylvania (then under Hungarian rule inside Austria-Hungary)

Other editions
Other countries have produced similar shows; see Greatest Britons spin-offs