34.4348° N, 81.0284° W
CHARLESTON
Most Famous People Born in Charleston, United States
- Notable people
- 749
- Peak decade
- 1940s
- Median birth year
- 1920
- Most distinctive
- Baseball 4.5×
Charleston's profile is frozen in antebellum amber: an outsized Lawyer and Judge class built by the planter bar that dominated South Carolina politics from secession through Reconstruction, with an Officer bench propped up by the Citadel and the Confederate officer corps. The smaller, stranger note is the Novelist thread — Charleston Renaissance writers like DuBose Heyward, whose Porgy became the seed for American opera.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Charleston during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1940s with 63 notable births.
What Charleston Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Politician is Charleston's biggest profession — 22% of all notables (166).
Charleston over-indexes on baseball — 4.5× the global rate.
Charleston under-produces writer — only 0.6× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Charleston's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Politics & Law
- Sports
- Film & TV
- Music
- Writing
- Science
- Other
- Filtered to 1910s Clear ×
Robert F. Furchgott
1916 - 2009
Freddie Green
1911 - 1987
Red Sovine
1918 - 1980
Willie Smith (alto saxophonist)
1910 - 1967
John Weakland
1919 - 1995
Mary Lee Settle
1918 - 2005
Roger Price (comedian)
1918 - 1990
Alice Childress
1916 - 1994
Julie Mitchum
1914 - 2003
Hal Jackson
1915 - 2012
Jamie Whitten
1910 - 1995
Stephen Pace (artist)
1918 - 2010
Julian Dash
1916 - 1974
Cliff Smalls
1918 - 2008
John M. Slack Jr.
1915 - 1980
Elbert Root
1915 - 1983
Georgette Seabrooke
1916 - 2011
Keg Purnell
1915 - 1965
William Melton Halsey
1915 - 1999
John W. Mitchell (United States Air Force)
1915 - 1995
Sam Bartholomew
1917 - 1999
John N. McLaughlin
1918 - 2002
Urylee Leonardos
1910 - 1986
John A. Field Jr.
1910 - 1995
Ernie Nevel
1918 - 1988
Bill Cox (baseball)
1913 - 1988
Bernice Robinson
1914 - 1994
Watson B. Duncan III
1915 - 1991
Tom Delaney
1911 - 2006
Lee R. Scherer
1919 - 2011
Ralph Leon Bagley
1913 - 2008
Earl Songer
1916 - 1972
James E. Bracken
1918 - 2008