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.
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 hockey — 8.4× the global rate.
Montreal under-produces football — only 0.3× the global rate.
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.
- Sports
- Film & TV
- Politics & Law
- Writing
- Music
- Art & Design
- Other
- Filtered to 1870s Clear ×
Émile Nelligan
1879 - 1941
Raoul Barré
1874 - 1932
Matheson Lang
1879 - 1948
William Sutherland Maxwell
1874 - 1952
Thibaudeau Rinfret
1879 - 1962
Éva Circé-Côté
1871 - 1949
Arthur Farrell
1877 - 1909
Albéric Bourgeois
1876 - 1962
Justine Lacoste-Beaubien
1877 - 1967
Mike Grant
1873 - 1955
Walter Ewing
1878 - 1945
Graham Drinkwater
1875 - 1946
Idola Saint-Jean
1879 - 1945
Albert Lozeau
1878 - 1924
Amédée Tremblay
1876 - 1949
Aegidius Fauteux
1876 - 1941
Frédéric Pelletier
1870 - 1944
Clarence McKerrow
1877 - 1959
James E. Norris
1879 - 1952
George Beattie (shooter)
Born 1877
Jean Charbonneau
1875 - 1960
Georges Gauthier
1871 - 1940
Beaudry Leman
1878 - 1951
Henry Hoobin
1879 - 1921
Edward William Archibald
1872 - 1945
Georges-Alphonse Monette
1870 - 1941
Winnifred Eaton (writer)
1875 - 1954
Herbert Meredith Marler
1876 - 1940
Philémon Cousineau
1874 - 1959
Charles Walter Simpson (Canadian artist)
1878 - 1942
Elzéar Hamel
1870 - 1944
Ethel Seath
1879 - 1963
Jérémie-Louis Décarie
1870 - 1927
Percy Quinn
1878 - 1944
Mabel May
1877 - 1971
Albert Ferland
1872 - 1943
Jean-Omer Marchand
1872 - 1936
Arthur de Bussières
1877 - 1913
Rose Stahl
1870 - 1955
Peter Bercovitch
1879 - 1942
Sydney B. Mitchell
1878 - 1951
Andrew Ross McMaster
1876 - 1937
Joseph Archambault
1879 - 1964
Ernie McLea
1876 - 1931
Celia Levetus
1874 - 1936
James Strachan (ice hockey)
1876 - 1939
Harold Wolferstan Thomas
1875 - 1931
Alphonse Venne
1875 - 1934
Harold Saunders (chess player)
1875 - 1950
Joseph-Rodolphe Ouimet
1878 - 1948
Archibald Query
1873 - 1964
Lorne Campbell (ice hockey)
1879 - 1957
Joseph-Théodule Rhéaume
1874 - 1954
Romain Pelletier
1875 - 1953
Wilfrid Gariépy
1877 - 1960
Alexandre Thurber
1871 - 1958
Herbert Molson
1875 - 1938
Joseph Melançon
1877 - 1956
Paul Beau (ferronnier)
1871 - 1949
Hartland MacDougall
1875 - 1947
Eugène Payette
1875 - 1959
René-Arthur Fréchet
1877 - 1950
Cresswell Shearer
1874 - 1941
Adolphe Lecours
1878 - 1955
René-Charles Béliveau
1872 - 1914
Gustave Benjamin Boyer
1871 - 1927
Billy Nicholson (ice hockey)
1878 - 1947
Joseph Mercier
1874 - 1935
Emmett Quinn
1877 - 1930
Alberta Cleland
1876 - 1960
William Frederic Kay
1876 - 1942
Raoul Duquette
1879 - 1962
Michael Copps Costello
1875 - 1936
Joseph Charlebois
1872 - 1935
Arthur Marcotte
1873 - 1958
George Allen Ross
1879 - 1946
Billy Barlow
1871 - 1963
Robert Jones (ice hockey)
Born 1877
Shirley Davidson
1874 - 1907
Joseph Gauthier (Quebec MLA)
1877 - 1934
Alfred Lamoureux
1876 - 1954
Robert Hutcheson
1870 - 1939
Rodolphe Monty
1874 - 1928
Billy Christmas
1879 - 1941
Pete LePine
1876 - 1949
Charlie Liffiton
1878 - 1941
Marian Osborne
1871 - 1931
Joseph Henry Dillon
1877 - 1938
Charles-Philippe Beaubien
1870 - 1949
Haviland Routh
1871 - 1959
Jean-Noël Charbonneau
1875 - 1945
Joseph Piché
1877 - 1939
Céline Marier
1871 - 1940