37.9074° N, 121.0764° W

OAKLAND

Most Famous People Born in Oakland, United States

Notable people
1,016
Peak decade
1940s
Median birth year
1949
Most distinctive
Rapper 23.4×

The Rapper bench here runs at better than twenty-three times the global baseline — Too $hort, MC Hammer, and the entire Bay Area hyphy lineage compressed into one line of the panel, a regional rap dialect invented the way New Orleans invented jazz. The deep Baseball count is the other Oakland story, the A's dynasty years and the West Oakland sandlots that produced Rickey Henderson, while the outsized Artist bench still runs on Black Panther-era visual culture.

Through the Decades

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

Notable Births by Decade

Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1940s with 138 notable births.

What Oakland Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Football is Oakland's biggest profession — 12% of all notables (118).

Oakland over-indexes on rapper23.4× the global rate.

Oakland under-produces politician — only 0.4× the global rate.

  1. Football118
  2. Baseball102
  3. Actor85
  4. Basket52
  5. Politician50
  6. Music47
  7. Singer35
  8. Artist35
  1. Rapper2623.4×
  2. Baseball1028.8×
  3. Basket524.1×
  4. Artist353.4×
  5. Music473.2×
  6. Novelist112.7×
  7. Film241.9×
  8. Lawyer321.8×
  1. Politician500.4×
  2. Writer230.7×

Profession Mix Over Time

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

18001825185018751900192519501975
  • Sports
  • Music
  • Film & TV
  • Politics & Law
  • Writing
  • Art & Design
  • Other
All1,016
Sort By

Showing 53 of 1,016 notable people

0009 FILM

George Stevens

1904 - 1975

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0018 COMPOSER

Harry Partch

1901 - 1974

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0020 ACTOR

Buster Crabbe

1908 - 1983

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0039 ACTOR

Eddie "Rochester" Anderson

1905 - 1977

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0049 PHILOLOGIST

Milman Parry

1902 - 1935

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0086 COSTUME DESIGNER

Walter Plunkett

1902 - 1982

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0094 FILM

Andrew L. Stone

1902 - 1999

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0104 BANDLEADER

Alvino Rey

1908 - 2004

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0114 WRITER

Daniel Mainwaring

1902 - 1977

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0142 ACTOR

Dorothy Revier

1904 - 1993

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0201 BASEBALL

Ernie Lombardi

1908 - 1977

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0209 ACTOR

Alta Allen

1904 - 1998

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0211 POLITICIAN

Val Peterson

1903 - 1983

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0213 ACTOR

Bernice Claire

1907 - 2003

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0266 DESIGNER

Bonnie Cashin

1907 - 2000

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0290 BANDLEADER

Teddy Powell

1905 - 1993

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0306 ACTOR

Caryl Lincoln

1903 - 1983

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0312 POLITICIAN

Jack Z. Anderson

1904 - 1981

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0320 CHEMIST

Dean Burk

1904 - 1988

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0330 ARTIST

Edith Hamlin

1902 - 1992

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0333 PAINTER

Gene Kloss

1903 - 1996

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0368 BOTANIST

Helen Sharsmith

1905 - 1982

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0377 ROWER

Hubert A. Caldwell

1907 - 1972

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0401 PLAYER

Norman Cleaveland

1901 - 1997

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0404 BIOCHEMIST

Horace Barker

1907 - 2000

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0409 ACTOR

Eugenia Clinchard

1904 - 1989

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0418 FOOTBALL

Roy Riegels

1908 - 1993

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0420 ACTOR

Marjorie Eaton

1901 - 1986

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0422 BASEBALL

Monte Pearson

1908 - 1978

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0461 PAINTER

George Post (painter)

1906 - 1997

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0465 PRIEST

James Keller

1900 - 1977

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0480 ATHLETIC

Peter Clentzos

1909 - 2006

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0487 ACTOR

Sumner Getchell

1906 - 1990

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0489 PAINTER

Grace Clements (artist)

1905 - 1969

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0529 ADMIRAL

Henry Arnold Karo

1903 - 1986

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0551 MUSIC

Zinky Cohn

1908 - 1952

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0563 LAWYER

Dorothy McCullough Lee

1901 - 1981

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0572 ACTOR

Lita Chevret

1908 - 2001

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0595 POLO

Arthur Austin (water polo)

1902 - 1962

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0601 BUSINESS

Kenneth K. Bechtel

1904 - 1978

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0604 COSTUME DESIGNER

André-ani

1901 - 1953

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0619 ARTIST

Edward Hagedorn (artist)

1902 - 1982

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0698 BASEBALL

Johnny Vergez

1906 - 1991

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0740 ACTOR

Frances Teague

1905 - 1969

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0741 POLITICIAN

Hans Riemer

1901 - 1963

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0784 BASEBALL

Bernie DeViveiros

1901 - 1994

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0785 PALAEONTOLOGIST

Robert Warren Wilson

1909 - 2006

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0853 BASEBALL

Joe Mellana

1905 - 1969

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0900 ORNITHOLOGIST

John Stuart Rowley

1907 - 1968

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0959 LAWYER

Walter Early Craig

1909 - 1986

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0997 BASEBALL

John Gillespie (baseball)

1900 - 1954

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1007 ACTOR

Kathie Fischer

1907 - 1988

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1009 SUPERCENTENÁRI

Clarence Matthews

1906 - 2017

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