Full Name: Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruiz z; Profession: Cuban communist revolutionary, head of government and head of state of Cuba (Prime Minister 1959–1976, President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers 1976–2008); Nationality: Cuban; Born: 13 August 1926; Birthplace: near Birán in eastern Cuba, in the former Oriente Province (now Holguín Province) on his father’s sugarcane estate; Generation: Greatest Generation (born in 1926, within the widely used 1901–1927 cohort that came of age during the Great Depression and World War II, sometimes also grouped at the very start of the Silent/Traditionalist generation in broader demographic studies); Chinese Zodiac: Fire Tiger (1926 is a Tiger year in the Chinese zodiac, and 1926 specifically is classified as a Fire Tiger year, associated with bold leadership, courage and revolutionary energy); Zodiac Sign: Leo (those born between July 23 and August 22, including August 13, are Leo, symbolized by the Lion and linked with charisma, authority and dramatic leadership); Age in 2026: 100 years old (he died in 2016 at age 90 but would have celebrated his 100th birthday on 13 August 2026); Marital Status: married in October 1948 to Mirta Díaz-Balart, a philosophy student from a wealthy Cuban political family, with the marriage ending in divorce in the mid‑1950s after his imprisonment and early revolutionary activities, and from the 1960s onward, in a long-term union with teacher Dalia Soto del Valle that many sources describe as a second marriage (often dated to a quiet civil ceremony around 1980) even though some accounts, including Castro’s own later statements, say they never formally wed in law; he also maintained significant relationships with other women such as Natalia Revuelta, all of which contributed to a complex private life kept largely hidden from the Cuban public. Children: at least nine known biological children from multiple relationships, including his eldest son Fidel Ángel “Fidelito” Castro Díaz‑Balart with his first wife Mirta Díaz‑Balart, five sons with Dalia Soto del Valle (commonly listed as Alejandro, Alexis, Angel, Antonio and Alexander/Álex), and additional children such as daughter Alina Fernández and others born out of wedlock; most biographical sources therefore describe his offspring as “at least nine” or “nine or more,” reflecting both the acknowledged children and those revealed by journalistic investigations and family testimonies. Description: Fidel Castro was the principal architect of the Cuban Revolution, leading the guerrilla struggle that overthrew Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and subsequently transforming Cuba into the first communist state in the Western Hemisphere, aligned for decades with the Soviet Union; as a lawyer‑turned‑revolutionary he became an iconic figure of 20th‑century anti‑imperialist movements, inspiring left‑wing parties and liberation struggles across Latin America, Africa and the developing world while simultaneously serving as a central antagonist in Cold War confrontations with the United States, including the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis; his rule combined sweeping social programs in education and health care with one‑party authoritarian control, extensive censorship and repression of dissent, producing a legacy viewed as heroic and emancipatory by supporters and as dictatorial and economically damaging by critics; internationally he was one of the most recognizable political leaders of his era, symbolizing defiance of U.S. hegemony, and domestically he remained the dominant figure in Cuban politics until ill health forced him to cede power provisionally in 2006 and formally in 2008, after which he continued to influence policy and ideology through writings and occasional public appearances; Cause of Death: natural causes at age 90 on 25 November 2016 in Cuba, as announced by his brother Raúl Castro on Cuban state television, with official statements simply reporting his passing and the decision to cremate his remains without specifying a precise medical diagnosis; external reporting has noted that he had long-standing health problems and was assessed by U.S. intelligence as suffering from Parkinson’s disease, but it remains unknown whether any particular illness, including Parkinson’s, directly caused his death, so biographers generally describe the cause as natural causes following years of declining health rather than a single documented terminal condition.