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.
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 rapper — 23.4× the global rate.
Oakland under-produces politician — only 0.4× the global rate.
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.
- Sports
- Music
- Film & TV
- Politics & Law
- Writing
- Art & Design
- Other
- Filtered to 1900s Clear ×
George Stevens
1904 - 1975
Harry Partch
1901 - 1974
Buster Crabbe
1908 - 1983
Eddie "Rochester" Anderson
1905 - 1977
Milman Parry
1902 - 1935
Walter Plunkett
1902 - 1982
Andrew L. Stone
1902 - 1999
Alvino Rey
1908 - 2004
Daniel Mainwaring
1902 - 1977
Dorothy Revier
1904 - 1993
Ernie Lombardi
1908 - 1977
Alta Allen
1904 - 1998
Val Peterson
1903 - 1983
Bernice Claire
1907 - 2003
Bonnie Cashin
1907 - 2000
Teddy Powell
1905 - 1993
Caryl Lincoln
1903 - 1983
Jack Z. Anderson
1904 - 1981
Dean Burk
1904 - 1988
Edith Hamlin
1902 - 1992
Gene Kloss
1903 - 1996
Helen Sharsmith
1905 - 1982
Hubert A. Caldwell
1907 - 1972
Norman Cleaveland
1901 - 1997
Horace Barker
1907 - 2000
Eugenia Clinchard
1904 - 1989
Roy Riegels
1908 - 1993
Marjorie Eaton
1901 - 1986
Monte Pearson
1908 - 1978
George Post (painter)
1906 - 1997
James Keller
1900 - 1977
Peter Clentzos
1909 - 2006
Sumner Getchell
1906 - 1990
Grace Clements (artist)
1905 - 1969
Henry Arnold Karo
1903 - 1986
Zinky Cohn
1908 - 1952
Dorothy McCullough Lee
1901 - 1981
Lita Chevret
1908 - 2001
Arthur Austin (water polo)
1902 - 1962
Kenneth K. Bechtel
1904 - 1978
André-ani
1901 - 1953
Edward Hagedorn (artist)
1902 - 1982
Johnny Vergez
1906 - 1991
Frances Teague
1905 - 1969
Hans Riemer
1901 - 1963
Bernie DeViveiros
1901 - 1994
Robert Warren Wilson
1909 - 2006
Joe Mellana
1905 - 1969
John Stuart Rowley
1907 - 1968
Walter Early Craig
1909 - 1986
John Gillespie (baseball)
1900 - 1954
Kathie Fischer
1907 - 1988
Clarence Matthews
1906 - 2017