42.3449° N, 71.0753° W
BOSTON
Most Famous People Born in Boston, United States
- Notable people
- 3,663
- Peak decade
- 1950s
- Median birth year
- 1926
- Most distinctive
- Novelist 3.5×
America's oldest civic intelligentsia. Boston's notables are unusually concentrated in the 1700s and 1800s by American standards, and the distinctive shelves still read like a Yankee almanac — novelists, lawyers, military officers, mathematicians, and diplomats, the trades of a city where Harvard, the State House, and the Old North Church share a few square miles. The modern half tilts more conventionally toward Red Sox baseball, actors, and a deep college-bred music scene.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Boston during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1950s with 348 notable births.
What Boston Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Actor is Boston's biggest profession — 9% of all notables (314).
Boston over-indexes on novelist — 3.5× the global rate.
Boston under-produces football — only 0.2× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Boston's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Politics & Law
- Sports
- Writing
- Film & TV
- Science
- Music
- Other
- Filtered to 1860s Clear ×
William C. Durant
1861 - 1947
James Brendan Connolly
1868 - 1957
John F. Fitzgerald
1863 - 1950
F. Holland Day
1864 - 1933
Will H. Bradley
1868 - 1962
William Hale Thompson
1869 - 1944
Richard Sears (tennis)
1861 - 1943
William Fogg Osgood
1864 - 1943
Maxime Bôcher
1867 - 1918
Wilhelm Berger
1861 - 1911
Charles Warren (U.S. author)
1868 - 1954
Gelett Burgess
1866 - 1951
Margaret Ruthven Lang
1867 - 1972
Edward Perry Warren
1860 - 1928
Archibald Cary Coolidge
1866 - 1928
Ernest Amory Codman
1869 - 1940
Charles Sumner Hamlin
1861 - 1938
Augustus Peabody Gardner
1865 - 1918
Curtis Guild Jr.
1860 - 1915
Godfrey Lowell Cabot
1861 - 1962
Lillie P. Bliss
1864 - 1931
Sumner Paine
1868 - 1904
Arthur Dehon Little
1863 - 1935
William Morris (actor)
1861 - 1936
Tommy McCarthy
1863 - 1922
Sidney Homer
1864 - 1953
Abbott Lawrence Rotch
1861 - 1912
Philip Leslie Hale
1865 - 1931
Marcella Boveri
1863 - 1950
John Oliver Hobbes
1867 - 1906
James A. Gallivan
1866 - 1928
Eugene de Salignac
1861 - 1943
Gamaliel Bradford (biographer)
1863 - 1932
John Andrew Sullivan
1868 - 1927
Frank Sheridan
1869 - 1943
Ogden Codman Jr.
1863 - 1951
Caspar Whitney
1864 - 1929
Paddy Duffy
1864 - 1890
Anne Caldwell
1867 - 1936
Charles Gordon Curtis
1860 - 1953
George Lyman Kittredge
1860 - 1941
Adelaide Cole Chase
1868 - 1944
John A. Keliher
1866 - 1938
William Lyman Underwood
1864 - 1929
Lida Shaw King
1868 - 1932
Albert Angus Turbayne
1866 - 1940
Marion Boyd Allen
1862 - 1941
Matthew Sullivan
1868 - 1948
Alfred Church Lane
1863 - 1948
George Fabyan
1867 - 1936
G. P. Huntley
1868 - 1927
John Thayer (ornithologist)
1862 - 1949
Frederick Stevens (American politician)
1861 - 1923
Emilie Loring
1864 - 1951
Sears Gallagher
1869 - 1955
Charles J. McCarthy
1861 - 1929
Joseph Hart (entertainer)
1861 - 1921
Grafton D. Cushing
1864 - 1939
Joseph Lee (recreation advocate)
1862 - 1937
Emma Nutt
1860 - 1915
James J. Storrow
1864 - 1926
Robert DeCourcy Ward
1867 - 1931
Joseph Henry Beale
1861 - 1943
George C. Adams
1863 - 1900
Prescott F. Hall
1868 - 1921
Charles Edward Adams (politician)
1867 - 1936
Ellis Loring Dresel
1865 - 1925
Joseph Gaudentius Anderson
1865 - 1927
Ed Crane (baseball)
1862 - 1896
Edward P. Barry
1864 - 1936
Mary Hazelton Blanchard Wade
1860 - 1945
William Henry Baldwin Jr.
1863 - 1905
Florida Ruffin Ridley
1861 - 1943
Eben Ezra Roberts
1866 - 1943
Charles Robert Sanger
1860 - 1912
Quincy Shaw
1869 - 1960
John Gardner Coolidge
1863 - 1936
Ella Lyman Cabot
1866 - 1934
Florence Cushman
1860 - 1940
Percy Stickney Grant
1860 - 1927
Virginia Harned
1868 - 1946
John Francis Moakley
1863 - 1955
Julia de Wolf Gibbs
1860 - 1952
Helen Messinger Murdoch
1862 - 1956
Frank Elmer Smith
1864 - 1943
James Donnelly (baseball)
1867 - 1933
Francis Kelly (Medal of Honor)
1860 - 1938
George A. Hibbard
1864 - 1910
Herbert K. Job
1864 - 1933
Frederick Field Bullard
1864 - 1904
Wadsworth Harris
1864 - 1942
Henry Paul Talbot
1864 - 1927
John Corbett (coach)
1869 - 1947
Mike Slattery (baseball)
1866 - 1904
Jim Sullivan (1890s pitcher)
1867 - 1901
Miah Murray
1865 - 1922
John James Doran
1864 - 1904
Belle Armstrong Whitney
1861 - 1922
Anthony J. Carson
1869 - 1943
Dan Cotter
1867 - 1935
Alice May Bates Rice
1868 - 1907
Jerry Hurley (1890s catcher)
1863 - 1950
Arthur Messinger Comey
1861 - 1933
Bertram Ellis
1860 - 1920
Kid Butler (outfielder)
1861 - 1921
Joseph Francis Scott
1864 - 1941
Charles L. Burrill
1862 - 1931
Pat Hartnett (baseball)
1863 - 1935
John E. Beck
Born 1869
Herman Page (father)
1866 - 1942
Herbert P. Wasgatt
1865 - 1934
Nick Wise
1866 - 1923
Alonzo B. Cook
Born 1866
Frank Palmer Speare
1869 - 1954
Homer Pierce Clark
1868 - 1970
Grace Sturtevant
1865 - 1947
Frank Dayton
1865 - 1924
Joe Vila
1866 - 1934
Winfield F. Prime
Born 1860
Amy Height
1866 - 1913
Walter F. Clayton
1865 - 1942
Mike Sullivan (pitcher)
1866 - 1906
James E. Hayes
1865 - 1898
Joseph N. Dinand
1869 - 1943
Grace Lincoln Temple
1865 - 1953
J. Edwin Ganong
1866 - 1944
George K. Hooper
1868 - 1939
Bobby Wheelock
1864 - 1928
Harry Foote Hodges
1860 - 1929
Dan Long (baseball)
1867 - 1929
Benjamin Pierce Cheney Jr.
1866 - 1942
Algernon Coolidge
1860 - 1912
Laura Schirmer Mapleson
1862 - 1894