List of top prize winners on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Below is a list of the winners of the top prize for each version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.
Top Winners
Country |
Name |
Date |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Arab World |
Khaled al-Mulla from UAE |
November 21, 2001 |
|
Arab World |
Mohammad Tanirah from Gaza Strip |
March 15, 2002 |
|
Arab World |
Sidi Ahmed weld A'ala from Mauritania |
January 2, 2003 |
|
Arab World |
Kenaan Matar from Lebanon |
May 15, 2007 |
First SR2,000,000 winner |
October 17, 2005 |
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Martin Flood |
November 14, 2005 |
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Anton Sutterlüty |
February 19, 2001 |
won öS10,000,000 |
|
Christiane de Piero |
November 11, 2002 |
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Sigrid Weiß-Lutz |
May 9, 2003 |
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Karin Huber |
November 3, 2003 |
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Elfriede ("El") Awadalla |
March 14, 2005 |
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Heide Gondek |
September 18, 2006 |
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(French) |
Katia Savignano |
2001 |
Won BFr10,000,000 |
Gonzalo Miranda |
2002 |
Won CLP$100,000,000 |
|
Enrique Carlos Castillo |
October 2006 |
Won COL$300,000,000 |
|
Mira Bićanić |
2002 |
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Anders & Peter Lund Madsens |
September 17, 2002 |
first Danish winners in charity edition. The prize donated to DanChurchAid |
|
Joachim, Lukkas and Daniel |
March 16, 2008 |
win 1.000.000 Krona on the junior edition of Danish WWTBAM. |
|
Maria Fernanda Compte |
November 24, 2002 |
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Frédéric Grégoire |
September 30, 2000 |
Won 4,000,000₣ |
|
Louis ??? |
2001 |
Won 4,000,000₣ |
|
Marie ??? |
August 27, 2004 |
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Eckhard Freise |
December 2, 2000 |
Won DM1,000,000 |
|
Marlene Grabherr |
May 20, 2001 |
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Gerhard Krammer |
October 18, 2002 |
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Dr. Maria Wienströer |
March 29, 2004 |
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Stefan Lang |
October 6, 2006 |
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Timur Hahn |
January 8, 2007 |
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Oliver Pocher |
May 30, 2008 |
Celebrity edition |
|
Thomas Gottschalk |
November 20, 2008 |
Celebrity edition |
|
Giorgios Georgopoulos |
October 2, 2001 |
Won ₯50,000,000 |
|
Stelios Stergiou |
November 21, 2003 |
Won €150,000 |
|
Wong Jim and Fung Po Po |
July 2001 |
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Stephen Chow and Lee Man |
August 2001 |
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Chan Hon-cheung |
November 2, 2001 |
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Gábor Cserey |
March 20, 2006 |
Won Ft40,000,000 |
|
Sveinn Valgeirsson |
March 24, 2002 |
Won ISK5.000.000 |
|
Harshvardhan Navathe |
October 19, 2000 |
Winner of Rs.1 crore |
|
Vijay Raul and Arundhati |
May 2, 2001 |
Winner of Kaun Banega Crorepati patni |
|
Ravi Saini |
May 14, 2001 |
Winner of KBC Junior |
|
Izhar Nevo |
August 7, 2000 |
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Francesca Cinelli |
March 18, 2001 |
Winner of ₤1,000,000,000 |
|
Davide Pavesi |
October 17, 2004 |
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Yasuyuki Kunimitsu |
July 27, 2000 |
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Yoshiaki Nagata |
August 10, 2000 |
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Naoko Imao |
November 2, 2000 |
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Hiroshi Hase |
November 23, 2000 |
Member of the Japanese House of Representatives and former professional wrestler |
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Kazuyuki Nose |
February 15, 2001 |
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Hitomi Sakamoto |
December 13, 2001 |
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Kikuchi Akishi |
June 27, 2002 |
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Michiko Eguchi |
August 1, 2002 |
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Naomi Osada |
November 14, 2002 |
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Shoko Mishima |
May 8, 2003 |
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Daichi Suzuki |
September 18, 2003 |
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Tsuyoshi Shinjo |
January 2, 2004 |
Professional baseball player |
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Takafumi Horie |
December 30, 2004 |
former CEO of Livedoor |
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Kazuko Hosoki |
December 30, 2004 |
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Masaaki Sakai |
April 7, 2005 |
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Yasuo Tanaka |
April 7, 2005 |
Author and governor of Nagano Prefecture |
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Kikuchi Tomohisa |
April 28, 2005 |
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Masahiko Hamada |
May 26, 2005 |
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Kotaro Koizumi |
January 2, 2006 |
Japanese actor and the eldest son of the former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi |
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Yuko Asano |
March 23, 2006 |
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Junko Nozoe |
June 29, 2006 |
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Keiko Ohi |
July 27, 2006 |
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Dai Tamesue |
September 14, 2006 |
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Mitsugoro Bando |
October 5, 2006 |
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Dewi Sukarno |
October 26, 2006 |
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Misako Konno |
February 15, 2007 |
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Shōsuke Tanihara |
July 5, 2007 |
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Shumiko Fuji |
March 27, 2008 |
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Kazuo Tokumitsu |
March 27, 2008 |
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Takeshi Kitano |
January 30, 2009 |
Only person to answer the final question incorrectly once, and later return and win the top prize. |
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Hikari Ota |
April 1, 2009 |
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Saule Akhmetova |
2002 |
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Irina Stal'naya |
2003 |
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Hans Peters |
January 6, 2001 |
Won ƒ1,000,000 |
|
Aroma Ufodike |
September 11, 2009 |
Won ₦10,000,000 |
|
Bjørn Lien |
January 19, 2010 |
First winner in Norway and of the Hot Seat format |
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Sharon Cuneta |
January 9, 2010 |
Won P2,000,000. |
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Renata Morgado |
May 2000 |
won 50 000 000$00 |
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Ana Damásio |
September 2000 |
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José Fernandes |
April 2001 |
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António Franco |
December 2003 |
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2 people |
???? |
Won 1,000,000,000 old lei |
|
Igor Sazejev |
March 21, 2001 |
Won 1,000,000 roubles |
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Irina and Jury Chudinovskikh |
March 18, 2003 |
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Svetlana Yaroslavtseva |
February 19, 2006 |
Won 3,000,000 roubles |
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Peter Lazar |
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Akim Kysselef |
2002 |
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Matjaž Tanko |
2002 |
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Gorazd Škerbinek |
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Jaro Leskovsek |
2004 |
Won 15,000,000 Slovenian tolars |
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David Paterson |
2001? |
Won R1,000,000 |
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Anna Tran |
??? |
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Per Hörberg |
February 17, 2006 |
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Torgny Segerstedt |
March 1, 2008 |
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Enrique Chicote |
2000 |
Won ₧50,000,000; Used the phone a friend lifeline to call his wife in the last question, letting her know that he'd won. |
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Serhiy Karabynskyy |
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Svyatoslav Vakarchuk |
2005 |
First celebrity contestant outside of Japan to win top prize |
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Judith Keppel |
November 20, 2000 |
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David Edwards |
April 21, 2001 |
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Robert Brydges |
September 29, 2001 |
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Pat Gibson |
April 24, 2004 |
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Ingram Wilcox |
September 23, 2006 |
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John Carpenter |
November 19, 1999 |
First ever top prize winner in the Millionaire franchise. |
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Dan Blonsky |
January 18, 2000 |
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Joe Trela |
March 23, 2000 |
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Bob House |
June 13, 2000 |
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Kim Hunt |
July 6, 2000 |
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David Goodman |
July 11, 2000 |
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Kevin Olmstead |
April 10, 2001 |
Won $2,180,000. |
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Bernie Cullen |
April 15, 2001 |
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Ed Toutant |
September 7, 2001 |
Won $1,860,000 |
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Kevin Smith |
February 18, 2003 |
First winner of the syndicated series |
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Nancy Christy |
May 8, 2003 |
First female top-prize winner in the United States. |
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Sam Murray |
November 20, 2009 |
He didn't go all the way to a million the first time, winning $50,000; then came back to win the question in the "Million Dollar Tournament of Ten." He was also 8th seed in the tournament at the time of his winning. |
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Giovanni Grosso |
2002 |
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Antonio Ríos |
2002 |
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Eugenio Vargas |
2004 |
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Zulay Marcano |
July 2007 |
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Luis Olavarrieta |
2008 |
Celebrity edition |
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María Alejandra Requena |
2008 |
Celebrity edition |
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Elimination of Winnings
Some players had answered the top prize question correctly, but did not actually win the prize because of ineligibility, legal issues, or elimination from a contest.
Country |
Name |
Date |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Asen Angelov |
June 13, 2002 |
His daughter, Iskra Angelova, worked for Nova TV, which airs the show, a violation of game show rules, so he returned all prizes as he was not eligible. Employees of the local broadcaster, production company or distributor, sponsors, and Sony (which owns the franchise) are not eligible to participate in the show. As Angelov is the only Bulgarian to answer the final question correctly, no one in this version actually won the top prize. |
|
Major Charles Ingram |
Scheduled for September 18, 2001 but not actually broadcast until April 21, 2003 |
He was accused of cheating by using coughing patterns from the audience while playing the game. He was found guilty of fraud in the 2001 scandal and was stripped of his winnings. |
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Top-prize losers
While more people answered the question correctly, a few people internationally answered the top prize question incorrectly. It has especially occurred the most in the Japanese version of the show, having had 40 contestants to have ever done such thing. Note that in the Japanese Super Millionaire (10 question format), a contestant cannot walk away from the final two questions, while in the Australian "Hot Seat" version, a contestant cannot walk away at any question. In other versions, contestants may walk away without answering the question.
Country |
Name |
Date |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Barry Soraghan |
June 8, 2009 |
Lost AU$249,000 (Hot Seat Edition) |
|
Jeff Tarr |
September 28, 2009 |
Lost AU$249,000 (Hot Seat Edition) |
|
Yavor Kostov |
2005 |
Lost лв47,000 |
|
Harald Schmidt |
December 1, 2000 |
Lost DM468,000 (Celebrity Edition) |
|
Ling Wing Kuen(凌永權) and Ling Shuk Ling(凌淑玲) |
November 9, 2001 |
Lost HK$440,000 |
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Ganesh Shinde |
Lost Rs.4,680,000 |
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Netherlands |
Menno de Ruijter |
December 20, 2003 |
Lost €234,000 |
43 different people |
2000–2009 |
Lost ¥6,500,000 |
|
Filip Łapiński |
June 1, 2002 |
Lost 468,000 PLN (children edition) |
|
Galina Semenova |
2005 |
Lost 468,000 roubles |
|
Laurence and Jackie Llewelyn-Bowen |
February 11, 2006 |
Lost £468,000 |
|
Ken Basin |
August 23, 2009 |
Lost US$475,000 |
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Returning Contestants After Top Prize Loss
On rarer occasions, contestants return after answering the final question incorrectly.
Country |
Name |
Date |
Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
Harald Schmidt |
2002 |
Won €500,000 (Celebrity Edition) |
|
Takeshi Kitano |
January 30, 2009 |
Won the ¥10,000,000 (Celebrity Edition) |
|
Laurence and Jackie Llewelyn-Bowen |
February 11, 2006 |
Walked away with £500,000 after a flawed question (Celebrity Edition) |
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