A list of people who have either received Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) or The Commonwealth equivalent: Companion of the Order of the [a Commonwealth country] (C[letter of country; CC for Canada, for example]).note Unless bracketed otherwise, honourees are CBEs by default.
- Christiane Amanpour
- Rowan Atkinson
- Margaret Atwood [Companion, Canada]
- Leslie Banks
- Michael Bentine
- Algernon Blackwood
- Cate Blanchett [Companion, Australia]
- Claire Bloom
- Robert Bolt
- Helena Bonham Carter
- Richard Briers
- Raymond Briggs
- Barbara Broccoli
- Richard Burton
- Kate Bush
- Earl Cameron
- James Cameron [Companion, Canada]
- Lee Child
- Eric Clapton
- Petula Clark
- Leonard Cohen [Companion, Canada]
- Olivia Colman
- Jacques Cousteau [Honourary Companion, Australia]
- Brian Cox
- Kenneth Cranham
- Michael Crawford
- David Cronenberg [Companion, Canada]
- Benedict Cumberbatch
- Céline Dion [Companion, Canada]
- Julia Donaldson
- Lindsay Duncan
- Paul Eddington
- Chiwetel Ejiofor
- Denholm Elliott
- Colin Firth
- Ken Follett
- Frederick Forsyth
- Dick Francis
- Greer Garson
- Maurice and Robin Gibb
- Lewis Gilbert
- David Gilmour
- Julian Glover
- Paul Greengrass
- Wayne Gretzky [Companion, Canada]
- Susan Hampshire
- Robert Hardy
- Tom Hardy
- L.P. Hartley
- Stephen Hawking
- Michael Hordern
- Trevor Horn
- Anthony Horowitz
- Barry Humphries
- Celia Imrie
- Hugh Jackman [Companion, Australia]
- Glenda Jackson
- Clive James
- Norman Jewison [Companion, Canada]
- Jonathan Kent
- Deborah Kerr
- Nicole Kidman [Companion, Australia]
- Lynda La Plante
- Philip Larkin
- Hugh Laurie
- Margaret Leighton
- Eugene Levy (of Canada)
- Damian Lewis
- Gordon Lightfoot [Companion, Canada]
- Margaret Lockwood
- David Lodge (Writer)
- Lesley Manville
- Nick Mason
- Anna Massey
- Alec McCowen
- Lorne Michaels [Companion, Canada]
- Anthony Minghella
- Joni Mitchell [Companion, Canada]
- Nancy Mitford
- Dudley Moore
- Robert Morley
- Rupert Murdoch [Companion, Australia]
- Sophie Okonedo
- Nick Park
- Leslie Phillips
- Harold Pinter
- Robert Plant
- Alan Plater
- Christopher Plummer [Companion, Canada]
- Ian Richardson
- Mordecai Richler [Companion, Canada]
- Emily Rodda [Companion, Australia]
- Nicolas Roeg
- Geoffrey Rush [Companion, Australia]
- Siegfried Sassoon
- Prunella Scales
- John Schlesinger
- Paul Scofield
- Peter Sellers
- Fiona Shaw (Honourary)
- Delia Smith
- Imelda Staunton
- Sting
- Rosemary Sutcliff
- Donald Sutherland [Companion, Canada]
- Meera Syal
- Eric Sykes
- John Thaw
- J. R. R. Tolkien
- Pierre Trudeau [Companion, Canada]
- Rick Wakeman
- Billie Whitelaw
- Kate Winslet
- Victoria Wood
- Catherine Zeta-Jones
