45.5089° N, 73.5618° W

MONTREAL

Most Famous People Born in Montreal, Canada

Notable people
4,921
Peak decade
1960s
Median birth year
1948
Most distinctive
Hockey 8.4×

Bilingual, with a comic streak. Montreal's distinctive profession is hockey at more than eight times the global rate, alongside an unusually thick column of actors, filmmakers, singers, and poets — the city's notables split almost evenly between French and English in every category. Hockey is the constant, but the comedy tradition that runs from the cabarets of Saint-Laurent through the National Film Board to the Just for Laughs festival is the cultural surprise the panel can't quite carry.

Through the Decades

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

Notable Births by Decade

Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1960s with 594 notable births.

What Montreal Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Actor is Montreal's biggest profession — 12% of all notables (592).

Montreal over-indexes on hockey8.4× the global rate.

Montreal under-produces football — only 0.3× the global rate.

  1. Actor592
  2. Politician522
  3. Hockey492
  4. Writer245
  5. Singer193
  6. Football157
  7. Film134
  8. Lawyer116
  1. Hockey4928.4×
  2. Actor5922.3×
  3. Film1342.2×
  4. Singer1931.9×
  5. Poet941.8×
  6. Business791.6×
  7. Writer2451.5×
  1. Football1570.3×

Profession Mix Over Time

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

16501700175018001850190019502000
  • Sports
  • Film & TV
  • Politics & Law
  • Writing
  • Music
  • Art & Design
  • Other
All4,921
Sort By

Showing 15 of 4,921 notable people

0991 LAWYER

Hector Fabre

1834 - 1910

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1350 BUSINESS

William Watson Ogilvie

1835 - 1900

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1392 POLITICIAN

Louis Beaubien

1837 - 1915

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1435 POLITICIAN

Thomas White (Canadian politician)

1830 - 1888

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1527 LAWYER

Louis François Georges Baby

1832 - 1906

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1683 POLITICIAN

James McShane

1833 - 1918

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2836 LAWYER

Médéric Lanctôt

1838 - 1877

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2890 ARCHITECT

Alexander Cowper Hutchison

1838 - 1922

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3005 POLITICIAN

Robert Alexander Harrison

1833 - 1878

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3041 POLITICIAN

Daniel-Jérémie Décarie

1836 - 1904

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3492 CIVIL SERVICE

Donald McIntosh

1838 - 1876

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3720 POLITICIAN

Louis-Alphonse Boyer

1839 - 1916

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3832 POLITICIAN

Roch Moïse Samuel Mignault

1837 - 1913

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4778 POLITICIAN

George Cox (Ottawa politician)

1834 - 1909

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4860 POLITICIAN

James Rayside

1836 - 1895

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