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
Jens Fredrick Larson
1891 - 1981
Frank Welch (American politician)
1835 - 1878
Joe Rinaldi
1914 - 1974
Edward Warren
1856 - 1930
Yasmin Siraj
Born 1996
Peter Rodman
1943 - 2008
William McVey (sculptor)
1905 - 1995
Gerard Cowhig
1921 - 1995
Robert Edwards Carter Stearns
1827 - 1909
Kerry Tribe
Born 1973
Elisabeth Subrin
Born 1964
Robert F. McDermott
1920 - 2006
Malcolm Margolin
Born 1940
Nancy Glass
Born 1957
James Savage (banker)
1784 - 1873
Dorothy Cheney (scientist)
1950 - 2018
William E. Caswell
1947 - 2001
Howard Koh
Born 1952
Flo Steinberg
1939 - 2017
Eric Francis MacKenzie
1893 - 1969
Danny Draven
Born 1978
Gordon Hugenberger
Born 1948
Barron H. Lerner
Born 1960
Lucius Manlius Sargent
1786 - 1867
Joanie Spina
1953 - 2014
David Borden
Born 1938
Edward D. Townsend
1817 - 1893
Sophie Matisse
Born 1965
Tracy Putnam
1894 - 1975
Samuel Langdon
1723 - 1797
David Cunniff
Born 1970
Eunice Alberts
1927 - 2012
Bill Lichtenstein
Born 1956
Ella Lola
1883 - 1960
Joseph Wightman
1812 - 1885
Gaetano Lanza
1848 - 1928
Erastus Otis Haven
1820 - 1881
Laurence Dreyfus
Born 1952
Grafton D. Cushing
1864 - 1939
Rebecca Eaton
Born 1947
Esta Spalding
Born 1966
A. K. M. Adam
Born 1957
David Endicott Putnam
1898 - 1918
Julius Chaloff
1892 - 1979
William Henry Furness
1802 - 1896
Joseph Lee (recreation advocate)
1862 - 1937
William Jarvis (merchant)
1770 - 1859
Richard W. Murphy
Born 1929
Stuart McNay
Born 1981
Arthur Cantor
1920 - 2001
Antonio Sacre
Born 1968
Margaret Stock
Born 1962
Paul Ryan Rudd
1940 - 2010
Elisha Cooke Sr.
1637 - 1715
Sékou (Rapper)
Born 1971
John Gorman (director)
1884 - 1936
David W. Latham
-
Charles W. Bailey II
1929 - 2012
Alex McKinnon (baseball)
1856 - 1887
Marilyn King
Born 1949
Bo Oshoniyi
Born 1971
Turk Farrell
1934 - 1977
Anna Coogan
Born 1981
Robert Traill Spence Lowell
1816 - 1891
Sonya Sones
Born 1950
William Chafe
Born 1942
James Hunt (sailor)
Born 1936
Emma Nutt
1860 - 1915
John Gibson (police officer)
1956 - 1998
Leah McGrath Goodman
-
Amy Maria Sacker
1872 - 1965
Ben Kurland
Born 1984
John Perkins Cushing
1787 - 1862
James J. Storrow
1864 - 1926
Rod Holt
Born 1934
Francis Russell (author)
1910 - 1989
David Parks (politician)
Born 1943
James Pallotta
Born 1958
William Croswell Doane
1832 - 1913
Daniel Sargent Curtis
1825 - 1908
Charles Sprague (poet)
1791 - 1875
Henry Botkin
1896 - 1983
Paul Sparer
1923 - 1999
Nathaniel Jeremiah Bradlee
1829 - 1888
Nancy Buchanan
Born 1946
Kristin Hedstrom
Born 1986
Katie Nolan
Born 1987
John Hynes (politician)
1897 - 1970
Phil Rasmussen
1918 - 2005
John Allis
Born 1942
Robert DeCourcy Ward
1867 - 1931
Blair Lent
1930 - 2009
Oliver Ditson
1811 - 1888
John Mulhern
1927 - 2007
Carl McCall
Born 1935
Horace Scudder
1838 - 1902
David Bowes
Born 1957
Robert M. White (meteorologist)
1923 - 2015
Landon Mackenzie
Born 1954
D. S. Bradford
Born 1982
Paul Brodeur
Born 1931
Chris Gamble
Born 1983
Joseph Henry Beale
1861 - 1943
Carol Ruth Silver
Born 1938
Henry Burbeck
1754 - 1848
Richard Werbner
Born 1937
George C. Adams
1863 - 1900
John William Ward (professor)
1922 - 1985
Paul M. English
Born 1963
Sylvia Edwards
1937 - 2018
Albert Fox
1881 - 1964
William Sumner Appleton
1874 - 1947
George Hoyt
1883 - 1962
Jimmy Earl
Born 1957
Anne Walker
Born 1933
Nike Doukas
Born 1958
Teddy Quinlivan
Born 1994
Prescott F. Hall
1868 - 1921
Linda Dorcena Forry
Born 1973
Anthony Lapsley
Born 1980
Richard Bowes
Born 1944
Frederick Gilbert Bourne
1851 - 1919
Liza Featherstone
Born 1969
Melvin Johnson
1909 - 1965
Richard Barnet
1929 - 2004
Jimmy Flynn
Born 1934
John Weiss
1818 - 1879
Jack Santino
Born 1947
Mieka Pauley
Born 1980
Peg LaCentra
1910 - 1996
Peter Walker (guitarist)
Born 1937
Alan Trefler
Born 1956
Mary Greenleaf Clement Leavitt
1830 - 1912
Ward Nicholas Boylston
1747 - 1828
Yvonne Jung
Born 1969
Jonathan L. Austin
1748 - 1826
Bruce Hunter (swimmer)
1939 - 2018
Bill Collins (cestista)
1953 - 2008
Bill Cole (politician)
Born 1956
Billie Lawless
Born 1950
Josh Wolf (comedian)
Born 1977
James G. Carr
Born 1940
Max Pavey
1918 - 1957
Peter Palandjian
Born 1964
Quincy Howe
1900 - 1977
John Pollini
Born 1945
Charles H. Taylor (publisher)
1846 - 1921
Grant Gilmore
1910 - 1982
Michelle Citron
-
Theophilus P. Chandler Jr.
1845 - 1928
Brendan Beiser
Born 1970
Holden Furber
1903 - 1993
Charlie Wolf
Born 1959
James D. Morgan
1810 - 1896
John Benedetto
Born 1939
Flip Gordon
Born 1991
Ed Sprague Sr.
1945 - 2020
Sarah Smith (writer)
Born 1947
Henry Simmons Frieze
1817 - 1889
Charles Daniel Tenney
1857 - 1930
Walter V. Robinson
Born 1946
Peter E. Costello
1854 - 1935
Charles McArther Emmanuel
Born 1977
Jessica Rosenworcel
Born 1971
C. Allen Thorndike Rice
1851 - 1889
Samuel Eliot
1821 - 1898
Edward Clarke Cabot
1818 - 1901
Greg Kelley
Born 1973
Bertram Shapleigh
1871 - 1940
Mark E. Brennan
Born 1947
John Fenno
1751 - 1798
Carl Alpert
1913 - 2005
Margaret Martonosi
-
Harold Zirin
1929 - 2012
Ray Perry
1915 - 1950
Richard H. Holm
Born 1933
Deborah Howe
1946 - 1978
Bernard Robichaud
Born 1960
Charles Edward Adams (politician)
1867 - 1936
Shano Collins
1885 - 1955
Kelly Lange
Born 1937
Susan Band Horwitz
Born 1937
Bob Davis (businessman)
Born 1956
Richard M. Locke
Born 1959
Dianne Walker
Born 1951
Muriel Rahn
1911 - 1961
Paula Hyman
1946 - 2011
Ellis Loring Dresel
1865 - 1925
Leland Benham
1905 - 1976
Joseph Gaudentius Anderson
1865 - 1927
John Marston (sailor)
1795 - 1885
Henry L. Eustis
1819 - 1885
Letterio Calapai
1902 - 1993
Ron Stone (American football)
Born 1971
Michael di Santo
Born 1989
David Riker
Born 1963
Sean McDonough
Born 1962
David Niles
1888 - 1952
Samuel Adams Drake
1833 - 1905
Joshua Weiner
Born 1963
Ned Havern
Born 1982
Rose Rosengard Subotnik
Born 1942
George Edward Ellis
1814 - 1894
Thomas Russell Sullivan
1849 - 1916
Ellen Segal Huvelle
Born 1948
Clifton A. Hall
1826 - 1913
Richard Wainwright (American Civil War naval officer)
1817 - 1862
Robert Fields
Born 1938
Margaret Darst Corbett
1889 - 1962
Vanu Bose
1965 - 2017
Cervin Robinson
Born 1928
William A. Worton
1897 - 1973
Dmitre Razgulajevs
Born 1996
Courtney Eldridge
Born 1980
Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney
1824 - 1904
Thomas Oliver Selfridge
1804 - 1902
Tyler Jewell
Born 1977
Herbert Gross
1929 - 2020
Frederick O. Prince
1818 - 1899
Lucy Toulmin Smith
1838 - 1911
Arthur Curley
1938 - 1998
Alex Edelman
Born 1989
Che Pope
-
Nancy Floreen
Born 1951
Dick Carlson
Born 1941
Francis Scully (sailor)
1925 - 1998
Lorna Thayer
1919 - 2005
Dave Krinsky
Born 1963
James Elliot Cabot
1821 - 1903
Louis de Rochemont
1899 - 1978
Henry Hewes
1917 - 2006
Francis J. Higginson
1843 - 1931
Richard R. Peabody
1892 - 1936
Fred Whittingham
1939 - 2003
Gordon Stanley
Born 1951
James F. McNulty Jr.
1925 - 2009
Robert Livingston (scientist)
1918 - 2002
Robert Richenburg
1917 - 2006
Samuel Kneeland (naturalist)
1821 - 1888
John Joseph Glynn
1926 - 2004
Constance Adams
1964 - 2018
Reatha King
Born 1938
Motion Potion
Born 1973
Ruth Abrams
1930 - 2019
Charles Gaynor
1909 - 1975
Belleruth Naparstek
Born 1942
Irene E. Ryan
1909 - 1997
Alfred Browning Parker
1916 - 2011
Goodluck Okonoboh
Born 1994
Ted Vogel
1925 - 2019
Joseph P. Hoar
Born 1934
Eileen Quinlan
Born 1972
Dudley Fitts
1903 - 1968
Arnette Lamb
1947 - 1998
Julie Kane
Born 1952
David Batteau
Born 1949
Christoph Poschenrieder
Born 1964
Manuel Siebenmann
Born 1959
Janet Daley
Born 1944
Stephen Gill Spottswood
1897 - 1974
James Vorenberg
1927 - 2000
Tom van der Geld
Born 1947
Ethel Isadore Brown
1871 - 1944
Sandra Newman
Born 1965
Benjamin Knower
1775 - 1839
Howard Deering Johnson
1897 - 1972
Harold Metcalf
Born 1940
Francis E. Kelly
1903 - 1982
Benjamin Russell (journalist)
1761 - 1845
William P. Murphy Jr.
Born 1923
John Connolly (FBI)
Born 1940
Aida Rodriguez
Born 1977
Samuel Davis Wilson
1881 - 1939
Joseph A. Zilber
1923 - 2009
Mya Byrne
Born 1978
Johnny Contardo
Born 1951
Ellen Thayer Fisher
1847 - 1911
Jacob Bannon
Born 1976
Maia Reficco
Born 2000
Samuel Burtis Baker
1882 - 1967
Justin Beckett
Born 1963
Burt Green Wilder
1841 - 1925
David Zuckerman (politician)
Born 1971
Richard Solomon (psychologist)
1918 - 1995
John Thompson III
Born 1966
Joseph F. Timilty (state senator)
1938 - 2017
Russell Sturgis (1805–1887)
1805 - 1887
Paul O'Keefe
Born 1951
David Henley
1749 - 1823
Loren Galler-Rabinowitz
Born 1986
Michael J. Connolly
Born 1947
Gennaro Angiulo
1919 - 2009
Darin Jordan
Born 1964
Matia Karrell
-
Joe Reilly
1880 - 1951
John R. McNamara
1927 - 2001
Gretchen Donlan
Born 1993
Dave Gettleman
Born 1951
John Nerbonne
Born 1951
Leon Adams
1905 - 1995