41.2568° N, 81.8815° W

CLEVELAND

Most Famous People Born in Cleveland, United States

Notable people
2,168
Peak decade
1950s
Median birth year
1942
Most distinctive
Baseball 6.3×

A Great Lakes industrial city whose distinctive professions are baseball at six times the global rate, novelists, screenwriters, music, and basketball — the shape of a postwar industrial city that built a deep entertainment-and-letters bench out of its working-class neighbourhoods. Halle Berry, Henry Mancini, Jerry Siegel (who invented Superman here with Joe Shuster), and Tracy Chapman all belong to this bench. The 19th-century tail is thin; the city was essentially built by the oil and steel booms of the 1890s.

Through the Decades

One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Cleveland during each.

Notable Births by Decade

Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1950s with 303 notable births.

What Cleveland Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Football is Cleveland's biggest profession — 10% of all notables (226).

Cleveland over-indexes on baseball6.3× the global rate.

Cleveland under-produces politician — only 0.6× the global rate.

  1. Football226
  2. Actor171
  3. Politician163
  4. Baseball156
  5. Music81
  6. Basket66
  7. Lawyer61
  8. Singer57
  1. Baseball1566.3×
  2. Novelist293.4×
  3. Screenwriter293.1×
  4. Music812.6×
  5. Basket662.4×
  6. Business452.1×
  7. Artist381.7×
  8. Film451.7×
  1. Politician1630.6×
  2. Writer480.7×

Profession Mix Over Time

Each band shows a profession family's share of Cleveland's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.

18251850187519001925195019752000
  • Sports
  • Film & TV
  • Politics & Law
  • Music
  • Writing
  • Science
  • Other
All2,168
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Showing 79 of 2,168 notable people

0005 ACTOR

Burgess Meredith

1907 - 1997

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0012 ARCHITECT

Philip Johnson

1906 - 2005

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0020 FILM

Margaret Hamilton (actress)

1902 - 1985

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0048 ACTOR

Brian Donlevy

1901 - 1972

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0058 ACTOR

Howard Da Silva

1909 - 1986

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0113 ANIMATOR

Eric Larson

1905 - 1988

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0169 CINEMA

William Daniels (cinematographer)

1901 - 1970

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0187 CURATOR

James Rorimer

1905 - 1966

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0190 WRITER

Jack Schaefer

1907 - 1991

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0192 MILITAR

Kenneth Nichols

1907 - 2000

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0199 FILM

Ralph Graves

1900 - 1977

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0203 BANDLEADER

Freddy Martin

1906 - 1983

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0212 ACTOR

Florence Rice

1907 - 1974

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0217 FOOTBALL

Benny Friedman

1905 - 1982

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0263 ACTOR

Alice Calhoun

1900 - 1966

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0306 SCREENWRITER

Todhunter Ballard

1903 - 1980

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0355 SCENOGRAPHER

Walter M. Scott

1906 - 1989

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0360 MATHEMATICIAN

Mina Rees

1902 - 1997

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0364 SCULPTOR

Dorothy Dehner

1901 - 1994

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0377 LAWYER

Kingsley A. Taft

1903 - 1970

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0415 RABBI

Elmer Berger (rabbi)

1908 - 1996

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0495 FOOTBALL

Mike Michalske

1903 - 1983

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0529 ACTOR

Jerry Hausner

1909 - 1993

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0548 PAINTER

Charles Biederman

1906 - 2004

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0608 GOLF

Denny Shute

1904 - 1974

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0638 ACTOR

Adrienne Marden

1909 - 1978

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0643 OLYMPIC

Earl Foster Thomson

1900 - 1971

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0658 JOURNALIST

Orville Prescott

1906 - 1996

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0697 ACTOR

Mickey Katz

1909 - 1985

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0762 SKIPPER

Herman Whiton

1904 - 1967

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0798 ANIMATOR

Amby Paliwoda

1909 - 1999

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0882 PHYSICIAN

Saul Hertz

1905 - 1950

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0942 BIOGRAPHER

Gerold Frank

1907 - 1998

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0972 ETHNOLOGIST

John C. Ewers

1909 - 1997

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1008 CERAMIST

Edris Eckhardt

1905 - 1998

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1041 ACADEMIC

Lawrence Bayard Kiddle

1907 - 1991

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1077 POLITICAL SCIENTIST

Robert K. Carr

1908 - 1979

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1119 PRIEST

Floyd Lawrence Begin

1902 - 1977

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1127 AVIATOR

Blanche Noyes

1900 - 1981

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1156 SKIER

Helen Boughton-Leigh

1906 - 1999

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1198 LAWYER

Mark McElroy

1906 - 1981

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1235 PRIEST

Clarence Edward Elwell

1904 - 1973

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1289 BUSINESS

Vernon Stouffer

1901 - 1974

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1300 BASKET

Bill Orwig

1907 - 1994

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1377 BASEBALL

Bill Sweeney (first baseman)

1904 - 1957

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1442 ONCOLOGIST

Roy Hertz

1909 - 2002

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1449 JOURNALIST

Henry Lee Moon

1901 - 1985

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1451 PRIEST

Albert A. Chambers

1906 - 1993

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1457 BASEBALL

Joe Kuhel

1906 - 1984

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1471 FILM

Paolo William Tamburella

1909 - 1951

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1499 FILM

W. D. Flick

1900 - 1965

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1527 ACTOR

Jean Inness

1900 - 1978

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1567 BASEBALL

Ellis Ryan

1904 - 1966

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1574 CHEMIST

Earle R. Caley

1900 - 1984

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1593 BASEBALL

Dutch Henry

1902 - 1968

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1654 BASEBALL

Ab Wright

1905 - 1995

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1668 BASEBALL

Arlie Tarbert

1904 - 1946

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1675 FOOTBALL

Leo Raskowski

1906 - 1952

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1698 ARTIST

Mel Graff

1907 - 1975

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1735 ACTOR

Cully Richards

1908 - 1978

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1745 COACH

Harold Ave

1900 - 1986

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1759 FOOTBALL

Don Newmeyer

1902 - 1992

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1783 CORRESPONDENT

Tom Grandin

1907 - 1977

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1835 JUDGE

J. J. P. Corrigan

1901 - 1982

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1946 BASEBALL

Frank Doljack

1907 - 1948

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1948 BASEBALL

Ray Novotny

1907 - 1995

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1949 CRIMINAL

Louis Rothkopf

1903 - 1956

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1955 FOOTBALL

Delbert Fowler

Born 1908

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1966 BASEBALL

Louis Brower

1900 - 1994

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1994 CHESS

Richard Eugene Cheney

1908 - 1967

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2004 LAWYER

Ben Charles Green

1905 - 1983

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2031 BUSINESS

Robert Elton Brooker

1905 - 2001

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2041 ILLUSTRATOR

Henry M. Eichner

1909 - 1971

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2084 ACADEMIC

Hurst Robins Anderson

1904 - 1989

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2086 FOOTBALL

Al Cornsweet

1906 - 1991

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2095 SURGEON

Carl W. Walter

1906 - 1992

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2120 ACTOR

Georgie Stone

1909 - 2010

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2124 JUDGE

Leonard J. Stern

1904 - 1988

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2152 SPORT

Myles D. Evans

1901 - 1982

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