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 1950s Clear ×
Will Patton
Born 1954
Mo Brooks
Born 1954
Ann Magnuson
Born 1956
Tom Rice
Born 1957
Jim Justice
Born 1951
Eric Massa
Born 1959
Chip Cravaack
Born 1959
Beth Daniel
Born 1956
Carolyn S. Gordon
Born 1950
Robert R. Shafer
Born 1958
Joe Gilliam
1950 - 2000
Brooke McEldowney
Born 1952
Mike McCurry (press secretary)
Born 1954
Gorman Thomas
Born 1950
Shelley Taylor Morgan
Born 1950
James D. Bissell
Born 1951
Carol Ross
Born 1959
Walt Easley
1957 - 2013
Dennis Harrah
Born 1953
Jeff Gossett
Born 1957
Bruce Howe Hendricks
Born 1957
Keri Pickett
Born 1959
Ruth Samuelson
1959 - 2017
Jim Lett
Born 1951
Michael P. Mills
Born 1956
Malcolm Barnwell
Born 1958
Jesse Johnson (politician)
Born 1959
Harlan Greene
Born 1953
Paul Root Wolpe
Born 1957
Joyce Ingalls
1950 - 2015
Mike Phillips (Montana politician)
Born 1958
Charlie Brown (wide receiver)
Born 1958
Ricky Frazier
Born 1958
Wendell Gilliard
Born 1954
Cedric Minter
Born 1958
R. Jay GaBany
Born 1954
Bob Ashley
Born 1953
David Walker (West Virginia politician)
Born 1952
Jonathan Moore (basketball)
Born 1958
Nancy Jacobs
Born 1951
Gary Stubblefield
Born 1951
Vicky Hamilton
Born 1958
John Tecklenburg
Born 1955
Ron McCartney
Born 1954
Walter Hundley
Born 1953
David Mack (politician)
Born 1953
Fred Jordan (baseball coach)
Born 1950
Rick Nuzum
Born 1952
Peter Frame
1957 - 2018
Jim Washington (Canadian football)
1951 - 2018
Virgil Fludd
Born 1958
Brad Diller
Born 1955
Randy White (West Virginia politician)
Born 1955
Thomas Reynolds II
Born 1954
Carol Baker Tharp
1952 - 2007
Linda Whittington
Born 1950
Al Jones (baseball)
Born 1959
Mike Woodard (politician)
Born 1959
Paul Frame
Born 1957
Chip Campsen
Born 1959