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
Lowell Davidson
1941 - 1990
Eliza Biscaccianti
1824 - 1896
Philip Grosser
1890 - 1933
Tim Taylor (ice hockey coach)
1942 - 2013
Robert Dana
1929 - 2010
Abby May
1800 - 1877
Wendy Artin
Born 1963
Charles K. Tuckerman
1827 - 1896
Joseph Warren Revere (general)
1812 - 1880
Peter A. Garland
1923 - 2005
Thomas O. Larkin
1802 - 1858
Skip Bafalis
Born 1929
Al Pierotti
1895 - 1964
Mark Goulston
Born 1948
Peter Theroux
Born 1956
P. T. Deutermann
Born 1941
John J. McNamara (author)
1932 - 1986
Stefan de Leval Jezierski
Born 1954
Richard Jeffrey
1926 - 2002
Peter Wylde
Born 1965
Warren Cummings Smith
Born 1992
Matthew Sullivan
1868 - 1948
Grady O'Malley
Born 1948
Alfred Church Lane
1863 - 1948
Kathy Davis
Born 1956
Gretchen Woodman Rogers
1881 - 1967
B. Ruby Rich
Born 1948
Julie Nathanson
Born 1975
Deborah Copaken
Born 1966
Arnold Ross (musician)
1921 - 2000
David Wilczewski
1952 - 2009
Sarah Lamb
Born 1980
Alex Wexo
-
Beverly Swerling
1949 - 2018
George Robert Twelves Hewes
1742 - 1840
William Phillips Jr.
1750 - 1827
John Wilmerding
Born 1938
Roger Wheeler (businessman)
1926 - 1981
Laurence J. Dorr
Born 1953
Frederic Woodman Root
1846 - 1916
M-Dot
Born 1984
Harry Rowen
1925 - 2015
George Fabyan
1867 - 1936
Lizé Santana
Born 1980
Mariska Aldrich
1881 - 1965
Valentine Bialas
1903 - 1965
Nancy Hale
1908 - 1988
John Kelly (actor)
1901 - 1947
Mark Erelli
Born 1974
Alan Trustman
Born 1930
Clint Conley
-
John Snyder (actor)
Born 1950
Jonathan Jackson (politician)
1743 - 1810
James Driscoll
Born 1977
George Howard Monks
1853 - 1933
Harald Malmgren
Born 1935
Elliot Hovey
Born 1983
G. P. Huntley
1868 - 1927
Charles Russell Lowell
1835 - 1864
John T. Bowen
1857 - 1940
Dan Weinstein (speed skater)
Born 1981
Benjamin F. Nutting
1803 - 1887
Robert Zildjian
1923 - 2013
Joe Nash
Born 1960
Zelda Fichandler
1924 - 2016
Stephen Budiansky
Born 1957
Robert Polito
Born 1951
Maud Howe Elliott
1854 - 1948
Robert Grant (novelist)
1852 - 1940
Tim Sweeney (ice hockey)
Born 1967
Arthur Emmons Raymond
1899 - 1999
Arthur Woods
1870 - 1942
Philip Levine (politician)
Born 1962
Kassim Osgood
Born 1980
John Quincy
1689 - 1767
Jamie Denbo
Born 1973
Frank Blake
Born 1949
Jason Nash
Born 1973
Thomas Willis Pratt
1812 - 1875
Christine Frederick
1883 - 1970
Chris Kilham
Born 1952
Emily Mann (director)
Born 1952
Walter R. Mansfield
1911 - 1987
James Greenleaf
1765 - 1843
Guy Lowell
1870 - 1927
Francis J. Ricciardone Jr.
Born 1951
Jenna Lyons
Born 1969
Daniel S. Weld
Born 1960
Alexandra Neil
Born 1955
Daniel Yankelovich
1924 - 2017
Burnell Poole
1884 - 1933
John G. Heyburn II
1948 - 2015
Lawrence Berk
1908 - 1995
David Viscott
1938 - 1996
James Henigan
1892 - 1950
Andrea Kalin
-
Timothy B. Dyk
Born 1937
Mark Mitchell (American figure skater)
Born 1968
Eric Fehrnstrom
Born 1961
Amos Elkana
Born 1967
Patricia J. Williams
Born 1951
Patricia Knight
1915 - 2004
Kate Taylor
Born 1949
Virginia Belmont
1921 - 2014
Mike Collins (ice hockey)
Born 1990
James Freeman (clergyman)
1759 - 1835
Edward A. Calahan
1838 - 1912
Alfred Charles Hobbs
1812 - 1891
Julie Goldman
-
William G. Preston
1842 - 1910
William Bentley
1759 - 1819
Carol Beckwith
Born 1945
Chris Dwyer
Born 1988
Craig Ross Jr.
-
Edward Fletcher
Born 1970
John Thayer (ornithologist)
1862 - 1949
Jess Nevins
Born 1966
Isaiah Thomas (publisher)
1749 - 1831
Robert Gould Shaw II
1872 - 1930
Darby Field
1610 - 1649
Edith Philips
1892 - 1983
Vail Bloom
Born 1982
Makoto Fujimura
Born 1960
Nathan Azrin
1930 - 2013
William Lawrence (bishop)
1850 - 1941
Erna Lazarus
1903 - 2006
Benjamin John Parrillo
Born 1969
Geoffrey Sayre-McCord
Born 1956
Alice Parker
Born 1925
Brenda Wineapple
Born 1949
Adeline Pond Adams
1859 - 1948
Mike Schwartz
-
William "Honey" Mellody
1884 - 1919
Frederick Stevens (American politician)
1861 - 1923
Dorothy Quincy
1747 - 1830
John F. Collins
1919 - 1995
Phil Hale
Born 1963
Robert Rheault
1925 - 2013
John Lowell (judge, 1865–1884)
1824 - 1897
Miles Crowley
1859 - 1921
Arnold S. Shapiro
1921 - 1962
Jeffrey Brown (journalist)
Born 1956
Judy Malloy
Born 1942
Deborah Sasson
Born 1959
Heidi Berry
Born 1958
Gotham Chopra
Born 1975
Tom McHale (American football)
1963 - 2008
Michael Africk
Born 1975
Ronald Hunter
1943 - 2013
Randy Wayne (biologist)
Born 1955
Henry P. Kidder
1823 - 1886
Carl Frederick Tandberg
1910 - 1988
Eliza Lee Cabot Follen
1787 - 1860
Ned Dowd
Born 1950
Eileen Rose
Born 1965
Howard Bryant
Born 1968
Gregory G. Katsas
Born 1964
Alan Shapiro
Born 1952
Karyn Bryant
Born 1968
William Parsons Winchester Dana
1833 - 1927
Emilie Loring
1864 - 1951
David Galenson
Born 1951
Mary Stolz
1920 - 2006
Robbin Thompson
1949 - 2015
Stanley Zdonik
-
Dexter Perkins
1889 - 1984
Leone Lane
1908 - 1993
Anne Warner (rower)
Born 1954
Timothy Dowling
Born 1973
Korey Dropkin
Born 1995
Allen Zadoff
Born 1950
Kiara Muhammad
Born 1998
Jane Turell
1708 - 1735
Charles Chauncy (1705–1787)
1705 - 1787
Joseph Tuckerman
1778 - 1840
C. Z. Guest
1920 - 2003
Marilinda Garcia
Born 1983
Robert Sidney Bowen
1900 - 1977
Chris Lynch
Born 1962
Frederic W. Lincoln Jr. (politician)
1817 - 1898
Jonathan L. Halperin
Born 1949
Jack Hagerty
1903 - 1982
John Rous
1702 - 1760
Grace Hutchins
1885 - 1969
Marjorie Harris Carr
1915 - 1998
Mario Roccuzzo
Born 1940
William G. Binney
1833 - 1909
Dale Resteghini
Born 1968
Franklin W. Smith
1826 - 1911
Timothy Cutler
1684 - 1765
Nancy Pimental
Born 1965
Andrew Bowen
Born 1972
Kate Davis (director)
Born 1960
Sara Wilford
Born 1932
Karl Kirchwey
Born 1956
Michael Cox (running back)
Born 1988
Isabelle Raubitschek
1914 - 1988
Eloise Gerry
1885 - 1970
Stanford Luce
1923 - 2007
Stephen A. Higginson
Born 1961
Anna Adams Gordon
1853 - 1931
Sarah Glidden
Born 1980
Benjamin Edes
1732 - 1803
Sonya Rapoport
1923 - 2015
David Shiner (clown)
Born 1953
George A. Keyworth II
1939 - 2017
Allan Frost Archer
1908 - 1994
Thomas J.C. Amory
1828 - 1864
Berj Zamkochian
1929 - 2004
David Plowden
Born 1932
Rodolfo Padilla Sunseri
Born 1960
Barry Brown (American football)
Born 1943
Dorothy Nelkin
1933 - 2003
Richard S. Cohen
1937 - 1998
Robert M. O'Neil
1934 - 2018
Larry Ruttman
Born 1931
Frederick Hartt
1914 - 1991
Sears Gallagher
1869 - 1955
Bettye Lane
1930 - 2012
Josh Grispi
Born 1988
Marita Bonner
1899 - 1972
Robert Rimmer
1917 - 2001
Jonathan Cohler
Born 1959
Charles J. McCarthy
1861 - 1929
Charles Fessenden Morse
1839 - 1926
Fay Davis
1872 - 1945
Lisa Monaco
Born 1968
Marc Rotenberg
Born 1960
Bruce Pirnie
Born 1942
Anna Brackett
1836 - 1911
Liz Prince
Born 1981
Gerard Alessandrini
Born 1953
Philip J. Landrigan
Born 1942
Mary Traill Spence Lowell Putnam
1810 - 1898
Sarah Sewall
Born 1961
Michael Botticelli (figure skater)
Born 1959
Theodore R. Davis
1840 - 1894
Steven Kivelson
Born 1954
Ant (comedian)
Born 1967
Frank Jacobsson
1930 - 2017
Peter Dean (sailor)
Born 1951
Timothy Johnson (medical journalist)
Born 1936
Jonathan B. Tucker
1954 - 2011
Sally Price
Born 1943
Mary Cabot Wheelwright
1878 - 1958
John C. Cremony
1815 - 1879
Matthew Pollock
Born 1990
John M. Bowers
1772 - 1846
Frank Stillinger
Born 1934
Lawrence Joseph Riley
1914 - 2001
Arthur Corbin Gould
1850 - 1903
Joseph Hart (entertainer)
1861 - 1921
Stephanie Braxton
Born 1944
Charles R. Codman
1893 - 1956
Barry Hollowell
1948 - 2016
Edith Fishtine Helman
1905 - 1994
Abraham M. Halpern
1914 - 1985
John Callender (clergyman)
1706 - 1748
Christopher C. Cummins
Born 1966
Josiah Quincy Jr.
1802 - 1882
Alan David Lourie
Born 1935
George Aiken (playwright)
1830 - 1876
Al Carmichael
1928 - 2019
Wilfred Kaplan
1915 - 2007
Elizabeth A. T. Smith
Born 1958
Frederic Crowninshield
1845 - 1918
Charles Hale
1831 - 1882
Aimee Buchanan
Born 1993
Dede Griesbauer
Born 1970
Harriet Hallowell
1873 - 1943
Thomas Ridgeway Gould
1818 - 1881
Quincy Adams Shaw
1825 - 1908
Lucretia Peabody Hale
1820 - 1900
Charles Edward Pratt
1911 - 1996
Josie Mansfield
1847 - 1931
James Jackson Jarves
1818 - 1888
John Peters (chess player)
Born 1951
Bob Backus
1926 - 1999
Tom Kratman
Born 1956
Tom Jung
Born 1942
Red Gendron
Born 1957
J. Lester Madden
1909 - 1984
John Patrick Boles
1930 - 2014
Aurelia Plath
1906 - 1994
Percy Jewett Burrell
1877 - 1964
Richard Kennelly
Born 1965
Mark L. Wolf
Born 1946
Damian O'Flynn
1907 - 1982
Thomas Melvill (American patriot)
1751 - 1832
Roland Merullo
Born 1953
Donald H. Weingarten
Born 1945
Matthew Aucoin
Born 1990
Joel Perez
-
Charles Chapman Grafton
1830 - 1912
Jonathan Sewall
1729 - 1796
Jack Rusher
Born 1967
Fanny Garrison Villard
1844 - 1928
John Rennie (editor)
Born 1959
Thomas Dwight
1843 - 1911
Joshua Loring
1716 - 1781