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
- Field: Music Clear ×
Black Francis
Born 1965
Guru (rapper)
1961 - 2010
Oneohtrix Point Never
Born 1982
Jon Foster
Born 1984
Arthur Fiedler
1894 - 1979
Josiah Warren
1798 - 1874
Shar Jackson
Born 1976
Don Costa
1925 - 1983
H. C. Robbins Landon
1926 - 2009
Danny Wood
Born 1969
Shifty Shellshock
Born 1974
Peter Guralnick
Born 1943
Mr. Lif
Born 1977
Eric Griffin
Born 1976
Alexander Perls
Born 1976
Ruby Braff
1927 - 2003
Chris Garneau
Born 1982
Kane Roberts
Born 1962
Bill Keith (musician)
1939 - 2015
Ricky Ford
Born 1954
Mary Halvorson
Born 1980
Clifford Jarvis
1941 - 1999
Sib Hashian
1949 - 2017
Pat Badger
Born 1967
Peter Rowan
Born 1942
Watermelon Slim
Born 1949
George Garzone
Born 1950
Michael Jenkins Moynihan
Born 1969
Marc Ferrari
Born 1962
Tom Werman
Born 1945
Fran Sheehan
Born 1949
Dwight York
Born 1935
Leo Reisman
1897 - 1961
Joe Gordon (musician)
1928 - 1963
Barry Goudreau
Born 1951
Walter Powers (musician)
Born 1946
Roland Alexander
1935 - 2006
John Fields (record producer)
Born 1968
Josh Roseman
Born 1972
Joe Chiccarelli
-
Billy Yule
Born 1954
Jack Lesberg
1920 - 2005
Toots Mondello
1911 - 1992
Susie Abromeit
Born 1982
Frances Wayne
1924 - 1978
Rachel Bissex
1956 - 2005
Paul Williams (journalist)
1948 - 2013
Bob Mover
Born 1952
Joshua Abrams (musician)
-
Ray Santisi
1933 - 2014
Lloyd Trotman
1923 - 2007
Bobby Donaldson
1922 - 1971
Johnny Rae
Born 1934
Edward Downes (American musicologist)
1911 - 2001
Turk Van Lake
1918 - 2002
Chadwick Stokes Urmston
Born 1976
George Lyman Kittredge
1860 - 1941
Craig Finn
Born 1971
Joe Derrane
1930 - 2016
Malakoff Kowalski
Born 1979
Arnold Ross (musician)
1921 - 2000
David Wilczewski
1952 - 2009
Mark Erelli
Born 1974
Lawrence Berk
1908 - 1995
Deborah Sasson
Born 1959
Carl Frederick Tandberg
1910 - 1988
Dale Resteghini
Born 1968
Laurence Dreyfus
Born 1952
Ray Perry
1915 - 1950
Rose Rosengard Subotnik
Born 1942
Tom van der Geld
Born 1947
Thom Gimbel
Born 1959
Ray Pitts
1932 - 2012
Adam Birnbaum
Born 1979
Jonathan Anastas
-
Johnny Catron
1916 - 1998
Leonora Jackson McKim
1879 - 1969
Rocky Boyd
Born 1936
Chris Julian (musician)
Born 1957
Michael Kanan
-
Bob Gullotti
1949 - 2020
Joyce Wein
1928 - 2005
Keith Dunn (musician)
-
Rob Schneiderman
Born 1957
Khari Wynn
Born 1981
Bob Enos
1947 - 2008
Louis Kelterborn
1891 - 1933
Seán McKiernan
-
Laurence Cook
Born 1939
Alice May Bates Rice
1868 - 1907
Lloyd Ulyate
1927 - 2004
Gary War
-
Eddie Mottau
-
Eric Zinman
Born 1963
Ben Fagan
Born 1984
John Goetchius
Born 1965
Kevin Garant
Born 1963
Larry Roland
Born 1950
Skipp Whitman
-
Margaret Kohn (Pianistin)
Born 1928
Harry Rogers Pratt
1884 - 1956
Howard Johnson (Altsaxophonist)
1905 - 1991