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: Politician Clear ×
Samuel Adams
1722 - 1803
Charles Sumner
1811 - 1874
Henry Cabot Lodge
1850 - 1924
Frances Perkins
1882 - 1965
Charles Colson
1931 - 2012
Maggie Hassan
Born 1958
Frank Knox
1874 - 1944
William M. Evarts
1818 - 1901
John F. Fitzgerald
1863 - 1950
Edward Seaga
1930 - 2019
Thomas Menino
1942 - 2014
John E. Sununu
Born 1964
James Michael Curley
1874 - 1958
James Bowdoin
1726 - 1790
Samuel Dexter
1761 - 1816
Robert Charles Winthrop
1809 - 1894
Sixto Durán Ballén
1921 - 2016
Richard Armitage (naval officer)
Born 1945
Stephen F. Lynch
Born 1955
William Hooper
1742 - 1790
Gerry Connolly
Born 1950
P. J. Kennedy
1858 - 1929
William Hale Thompson
1869 - 1944
Bob Taft
Born 1942
Nathaniel Gorham
1738 - 1796
John W. McCormack
1891 - 1980
Christopher Gore
1758 - 1827
Caleb Blood Smith
1808 - 1864
Alvan T. Fuller
1878 - 1958
Harrison Gray Otis (politician)
1765 - 1848
Warren Rudman
1930 - 2012
Josiah Quincy III
1772 - 1864
George von Lengerke Meyer
1858 - 1918
John F. Kelly
Born 1950
Paul Mitchell (politician)
Born 1956
Neal Dunn
Born 1953
Moses Gill
1734 - 1800
Charles Bass
Born 1952
Paul A. Dever
1903 - 1958
Peter Plympton Smith
Born 1945
Henry Gardner
1819 - 1892
Jonathan Mason (Massachusetts politician)
1756 - 1831
Gina McCarthy
Born 1954
Augustus Peabody Gardner
1865 - 1918
Robert F. Bradford
1902 - 1983
Richard B. Spencer
Born 1978
Curtis Guild Jr.
1860 - 1915
Roger Wolcott (Massachusetts)
1847 - 1900
Lawrence Hogan
1928 - 2017
James Lovell (Continental Congress)
1737 - 1814
Joe Moakley
1927 - 2001
Howard Phillips (politician)
1941 - 2013
John G. Palfrey
1796 - 1881
Jonathan Williams (engineer)
1751 - 1815
George Goldthwaite
1809 - 1879
Andrew Oliver
1706 - 1774
Samuel Atkins Eliot (politician)
1798 - 1862
Thomas W. Thompson
1766 - 1821
John Phillips (mayor)
1770 - 1823
William B. Calhoun
1796 - 1865
Robert W. Upton
1884 - 1972
Benjamin Gorham
1775 - 1855
James A. Burke (Massachusetts politician)
1910 - 1983
Edward M. Kennedy Jr.
Born 1961
William Dummer
1677 - 1761
Andrew James Peters
1872 - 1938
Kevin White (politician)
1929 - 2012
James A. Gallivan
1866 - 1928
Joseph H. Walker
1829 - 1907
Edward Burnett
1849 - 1925
Samuel H. Walley
1805 - 1877
William Parmenter
1789 - 1866
Selwyn Z. Bowman
1840 - 1928
J. Wiley Edmands
1809 - 1877
Roswell Farnham
1827 - 1903
John Andrew Sullivan
1868 - 1927
Brian J. Donnelly
Born 1946
Thomas J. Geary
1854 - 1929
Joseph Allen (congressman)
1749 - 1827
Roger Putnam
1893 - 1972
William W. Warren
1834 - 1880
William Gordon (New Hampshire politician)
1763 - 1802
Benjamin Thompson (politician)
1798 - 1852
Thomas Dawes
1731 - 1809
Paul W. Cronin
1938 - 1997
Robert Bernard Hall
1812 - 1868
Leonard Jarvis
1781 - 1854
James Parker (Massachusetts)
1768 - 1837
George H. Tinkham
1870 - 1956
John W. Candler
1828 - 1903
Fred Richmond
1923 - 2019
Baruch Marzel
Born 1959
Samuel Miller Quincy
1832 - 1887
Robert Semple (Canada)
1777 - 1816
Theodore Lyman (militiaman)
1792 - 1849
Peter Francis Tague
1871 - 1941
William Francis Murray
1881 - 1918
Thomas A. Flaherty
1898 - 1965
James A. D. Richards
1845 - 1911
Edward Dowse
1756 - 1828
John A. Keliher
1866 - 1938
Charles F. Sprague
1857 - 1902
Ephraim Wales Bull
1806 - 1895
Samuel Breck (politician)
1771 - 1862
John L. Blake
1831 - 1899
Sonia Chang-Díaz
Born 1978
Martin Lomasney
1859 - 1933
Charles Edward Coffin
1841 - 1912
Peter A. Garland
1923 - 2005
Skip Bafalis
Born 1929
Kathy Davis
Born 1956
William Phillips Jr.
1750 - 1827
Jonathan Jackson (politician)
1743 - 1810
Philip Levine (politician)
Born 1962
Frederick Stevens (American politician)
1861 - 1923
John F. Collins
1919 - 1995
Marilinda Garcia
Born 1983
Frederic W. Lincoln Jr. (politician)
1817 - 1898
Rodolfo Padilla Sunseri
Born 1960
Charles J. McCarthy
1861 - 1929
John M. Bowers
1772 - 1846
Josiah Quincy Jr.
1802 - 1882
Charles Hale
1831 - 1882
Frank Welch (American politician)
1835 - 1878
Howard Koh
Born 1952
Joseph Wightman
1812 - 1885
Grafton D. Cushing
1864 - 1939
Elisha Cooke Sr.
1637 - 1715
David Parks (politician)
Born 1943
John Hynes (politician)
1897 - 1970
Carl McCall
Born 1935
Carol Ruth Silver
Born 1938
Linda Dorcena Forry
Born 1973
Jonathan L. Austin
1748 - 1826
Bill Cole (politician)
Born 1956
Peter E. Costello
1854 - 1935
Charles Edward Adams (politician)
1867 - 1936
Nancy Floreen
Born 1951
James F. McNulty Jr.
1925 - 2009
Irene E. Ryan
1909 - 1997
Francis E. Kelly
1903 - 1982
Samuel Davis Wilson
1881 - 1939
David Zuckerman (politician)
Born 1971
Joseph F. Timilty (state senator)
1938 - 2017
Michael J. Connolly
Born 1947
Willem Draps
Born 1952
Edward P. Barry
1864 - 1936
Edward F. McLaughlin Jr.
1920 - 2005
Thomas Forese
-
Jeff Miller (California politician)
Born 1963
Shirley Dysart
1928 - 2016
George Henry Sanderson
1824 - 1893
Salvatore DiMasi
Born 1945
Mason Sears
1899 - 1973
John O'Connor (Canadian politician)
1824 - 1887
Mark F. Miller
Born 1943
Aaron Michlewitz
Born 1978
Nathan Matthews Jr.
1854 - 1927
Hannah-Beth Jackson
Born 1950
John F. Parker
1907 - 1992
Charles Wells (American politician)
1786 - 1866
Wilma Chan
Born 1949
Andy Kim (politician)
Born 1982
Shannon O'Brien
Born 1959
William H. Hodgkins
1840 - 1905
Francis Bellotti
Born 1923
Robert G. Abboud
Born 1956
Stephen W. Doran
Born 1956
Steven McLaughlin
Born 1963
Cory Atkins
Born 1949
Tackey Chan
Born 1973
Theodore D. Mann
1922 - 1994
Cynthia Stone Creem
Born 1942
Warren Tolman
Born 1959
Paul McMurtry
-
Patrick H. McCarren
1849 - 1909
Bruce Ayers
Born 1962
Harrison Gray (Treasurer)
1711 - 1794
Gloria Fox
Born 1942
Daniel J. Hunt
-
Bradford Hill
Born 1967
Therese Murray
Born 1947
Elizabeth Poirier
Born 1942
Thomas Leverett
1765 - 1833
J. Michael Houston
Born 1994
Polly Trottenberg
-
John E. Kerrigan
1908 - 1987
James Otis (politician)
1826 - 1875
Mike Rush
-
George G. Crocker
1843 - 1913
Ron Nirenberg
Born 1977
Frederick C. Langone
1921 - 2001
Paul Aizley
Born 1936
Courtney Kennedy Hill
Born 1956
Henry F. Teschemacher
1823 - 1904
Michael A. McManus Jr.
Born 1943
Stephen Kulik
Born 1950
Mark Ciommo
Born 1956
William B. Golden
Born 1948
Thomas Coffin (pre-confederation Canadian politician)
1762 - 1841
Louis Kafka
Born 1945
Samuel Gay
1755 - 1847
Charles Flaherty (politician)
Born 1938
David B. Cohen (mayor)
Born 1947
Maryanne Lewis
Born 1963
George A. Hibbard
1864 - 1910
James Colt
1932 - 2008
Daniel A. Whelton
1872 - 1953
Marjorie Clapprood
Born 1949
Elizabeth Brater
Born 1951
John Copp
1673 - 1751
Francis H. Woodward
Born 1939
Sanford Bates
1884 - 1982
Matthew Sherman
1827 - 1898
Jim Miceli
1935 - 2018
Francis Roache
Died 2018
Jim Coburn
Born 1944
Julie Belaga
Born 1930
Pasquale Caggiano
1909 - 1972
Frank Cousins (American politician)
Born 1958
John Coffin Jones Jr.
1796 - 1861
Susan Tracy
Born 1960
David Linsky
Born 1957
Michael G. Bellotti
Born 1963
Daniel Koh
Born 1985
John E. Powers
1910 - 1998
James Dana (mayor)
1811 - 1890
Mary Z. Connaughton
Born 1960
James Adams (Massachusetts politician)
1810 - 1880
Arthur E. Reimer
1882 - 1969
Jerry Relph
Born 1944
Benjamin Gerrish
1717 - 1772
Charles A. Phelps
1820 - 1902
Michael E. Haynes
1927 - 2019
Barry Locke
1930 - 2007
George P. Bemis
1838 - 1916
David J. O'Connor
1924 - 2011
Samuel Welles de Lavalette
1834 - 1892
Henry J. Daggett
1826 - 1910
Allen McCarthy
Born 1970
Peter Cushman Jones
1837 - 1922
Gardner S. Hardee
1842 - 1926
Paul J. Gannon
Born 1960
Isaac Bradford
1834 - 1898
John J. Finnegan
Born 1938
Charles Yancey
Born 1948
Proctor L. Dougherty
1873 - 1966
William E. Carney
Born 1878
Joseph A. Langone Jr.
1896 - 1960
David H. Locke
1927 - 2019
James Jackson (Massachusetts politician)
Born 1881
Michael Whalley
1953 - 2008
Charles W. Eldridge
Born 1877
Herbert Tuckerman
1921 - 2007
Michael J. Coppola
1942 - 2005
Marc Draisen
Born 1956
Charles L. Burrill
1862 - 1931
Clarence "Jeep" Jones
1933 - 2020
Henry B. Metcalf
1829 - 1904
John E. Beck
Born 1869
John M. Tobin Jr.
Born 1969
Alonzo Cooper Rand
1831 - 1885
Thomas C. O'Brien
1887 - 1951
Clementina Poto Langone
1896 - 1964
Peter E. Madden
Born 1942
Herbert P. Wasgatt
1865 - 1934
Robert C. Buell
1931 - 2018
Steve Cassano
Born 1947
Stephen Davenport
1924 - 2011
Bill Gillis
1936 - 2009
Sid Lovett
Born 1928
Betty Jo Nelsen
Born 1935
Alonzo B. Cook
Born 1866
Charles E. Harwood
1851 - 1924
Marilyn R. Goldwater
Born 1927
Robert A. Vinal
1821 - 1887
Ginny Coppola
Born 1949
William H. Dolben
1878 - 1948
Carroll Sheehan
1925 - 2016
James Morris Whiton Hall
1842 - 1926
William B. Broydrick
Born 1948
Elizabeth Metayer
1911 - 1998
Henry O. Fairbanks
Born 1852
Daniel H. Coakley Jr.
1906 - 1964
Will Rogers (Maine politician)
Born 1938
Walter F. Clayton
1865 - 1942
Joseph M. Connolly
1924 - 2007
Tony Barton (politician)
Born 1961
Edward F. McLaughlin
1883 - 1953
Kenneth Weyler
Born 1941
Henry E. Turner (Massachusetts politician)
1842 - 1911
Warren E. Barry
1933 - 2016
James E. Hayes
1865 - 1898
Henry Parkman Jr.
1894 - 1958
Mirjam Ballmer
Born 1982
Joseph Lee (American politician)
1901 - 1991
Susan McLane
1929 - 2005
H. James Shea Jr.
1939 - 1970
Kelly Timilty
1962 - 2012
Abraham Edwards
1796 - 1870