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 38 of 4,921 notable people

0103 POLITICIAN

Victor Bruce, 9th Earl of Elgin

1849 - 1917

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0237 FEMINIST

Henrietta Edwards

1849 - 1931

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0615 PAINTER

Henry Sandham

1842 - 1910

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0757 LACROSSE

William George Beers

1843 - 1900

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0806 THEOSOPHIST

Robert Crosbie

1849 - 1919

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1166 LAWYER

David Ross McCord

1844 - 1930

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1419 BUSINESS

Henry Birks

1840 - 1928

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1433 JOURNALIST

Arthur Buies

1840 - 1901

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1478 PHOTOGRAPHER

John A. Hammond

1843 - 1939

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1513 COMPOSER

Romain-Octave Pelletier I

1843 - 1927

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1623 ARCHITECT

Alexander Francis Dunlop

1842 - 1923

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1628 POLITICIAN

John L. Jolley

1840 - 1926

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1752 POLITICIAN

Jean Blanchet (Quebec politician)

1843 - 1908

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1913 POLITICIAN

Arthur Turcotte

1845 - 1905

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2045 LAWYER

John Joseph Curran

1842 - 1909

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2108 MINISTER

Zoé Laurier

1841 - 1921

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2133 MUSIC

Dominique Ducharme (musician)

1840 - 1899

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2170 PRIEST

Zotique Racicot

1845 - 1915

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2242 PHYSICIAN

Emmanuel Persillier-Lachapelle

1845 - 1918

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2369 PHOTOGRAPHER

William James Topley

1845 - 1930

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2558 BARON

Charles Colmore Grant, 7th Baron de Longueuil

1844 - 1898

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2561 FARMER

William Soltau Davidson

1846 - 1924

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2567 COMPOSER

Samuel Prowse Warren

1841 - 1915

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2913 WRITER

Alfred Duclos DeCelles

1843 - 1925

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2981 CONDUCTOR

Joseph-A. Fowler

1845 - 1917

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2999 PUBLISHER

William Southam

1843 - 1932

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3073 PLAYER

Cyrille Dion

1843 - 1878

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3855 SOLDIER

Alexander Scott (Medal of Honor)

1844 - 1923

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3875 POLITICIAN

Edward Holton

1844 - 1907

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4172 LAWYER

Frederick Mackenzie (Quebec politician)

1841 - 1889

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4213 NAVY

Louis G. Chaput

1845 - 1916

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4267 POLITICIAN

Christopher Benfield Carter

1844 - 1906

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4401 BUSINESS

Jean-Damien Rolland

1841 - 1912

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4542 POLITICIAN

Reuben Eldridge Truax

1847 - 1935

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4692 MUSIC

Charles-Marie Panneton

1845 - 1890

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4830 PIANIST

Salomon Mazurette

1847 - 1910

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4899 POLITICIAN

Napoléon-Charles Cormier

1844 - 1915

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4914 MUSIC

Moïse Saucier

1840 - 1912

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