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 1930s Clear ×
James Jamerson
1936 - 1983
Alexandra Ripley
1934 - 2004
Allison Hayes
1930 - 1977
Hot Rod Hundley
1934 - 2015
Mabel King
1932 - 1999
Sara Jane Moore
Born 1930
Jim Harrick
Born 1938
Mr. Wrestling II
1934 - 2020
Mark Workman
1930 - 1983
Rufus "Speedy" Jones
1936 - 1990
Martha Rivers Ingram
Born 1935
Robert V. Barron
1932 - 2000
Bobby Smith (basketball)
Born 1937
George B. Rabb
1930 - 2017
Brad Dye
1933 - 2018
Lawrence Eugene Brandt
Born 1939
Janie Bradford
Born 1939
John G. Hutchinson
Born 1935
James David Barber
1930 - 2004
Tony Brown (journalist)
Born 1933
Dick Zimmerman
Born 1937
Harriet McDougal
Born 1939
Bill Crosby (politician)
Born 1937
Chauncey H. Browning Jr.
1934 - 2010
Charles Q. Williams
1933 - 1982
Eugene Figg
1936 - 2002
Carolyn Tomei
Born 1936
Ray Fisher (defensive lineman)
Born 1934
Ronnie Free
Born 1936
Russ McCubbin
1935 - 2018
Rutledge Dennis
Born 1939
Charles William Smith
1937 - 1994
Jack Buckalew
1932 - 2016
Iris Bell
1934 - 2008
Richard A. Pettigrew
Born 1930
J. Sidi Limehouse III
Born 1938