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
Film45
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Showing 45 of 2,168 notable people

0004 FILM

Wes Craven

1939 - 2015

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0020 FILM

Margaret Hamilton (actress)

1902 - 1985

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0037 FILM

Lee Unkrich

Born 1967

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0046 FILM

Stephen Gyllenhaal

Born 1949

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0073 FILM

Phil Donahue

Born 1935

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0086 FILM

Richard Brooks (actor)

Born 1962

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0092 FILM

Mark L. Lester

Born 1946

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0093 FILM

Dwight H. Little

Born 1956

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0127 FILM

Ross Hunter

1920 - 1996

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0131 FILM

Dede Allen

1923 - 2010

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0179 FILM

Roland West

1885 - 1952

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0198 FILM

Quinton Flynn

Born 1964

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0199 FILM

Ralph Graves

1900 - 1977

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0235 FILM

Andrew Weisblum

Born 1971

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0260 FILM

Jeff Schaffer

Born 1970

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0262 FILM

Gilbert Moses

1942 - 1995

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0288 FILM

Lee Rich

1918 - 2012

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0289 FILM

Anthony Spinelli

1927 - 2000

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0345 FILM

Todd Lieberman

Born 1973

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0420 FILM

Robert Abel (animator)

1937 - 2001

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0439 FILM

Johnnie Keyes

1940 - 2018

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0440 FILM

Jack Harvey (director)

1881 - 1954

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0448 FILM

Peter Tewksbury

1923 - 2003

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0459 FILM

Nicole Marie Lenz

Born 1980

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0530 FILM

Oscar Rudolph

1911 - 1991

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0611 FILM

Khashyar Darvich

Born 1966

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0620 FILM

Paul Krasny

1935 - 2001

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0750 FILM

Richard Smith (silent film director)

1886 - 1937

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0776 FILM

Harvey S. Laidman

Born 1942

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0806 FILM

Paul Fonoroff

Born 1954

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0962 FILM

Jeffrey Vance

Born 1970

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0999 FILM

Joe Russo (Regisseur)

Born 1971

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1018 FILM

Anthony Russo

Born 1970

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1046 FILM

Larry Clark (filmmaker)

Born 1948

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1061 FILM

Steven Caple Jr.

Born 1988

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1155 FILM

Geoff LaTulippe

-

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1176 FILM

Alan Schechter (film producer)

1965 - 2005

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1210 FILM

Guy Manos

Born 1959

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1304 FILM

Rick Reinert

1925 - 2018

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1322 FILM

Robert Banks (filmmaker)

Born 1966

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1443 FILM

David Karlak

-

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1471 FILM

Paolo William Tamburella

1909 - 1951

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1498 FILM

Mort Greene

1912 - 1992

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1499 FILM

W. D. Flick

1900 - 1965

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1828 FILM

Sam Manners

1921 - 2012

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