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 96 of 1,016 notable people

0006 FILM

Russ Meyer

1922 - 2004

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0011 ECONOMIST

Thomas Schelling

1921 - 2016

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0066 ACTOR

Peter Hansen (actor)

1921 - 2017

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0073 COMPUTER SCIENTIST

Fernando J. Corbató

1926 - 2019

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0074 BASKET

Jim Pollard

1922 - 1993

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0085 BANDLEADER

Marty Paich

1925 - 1995

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0088 COMPOSER

Jerome Richardson

1920 - 2000

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0098 PRIEST

Sivaya Subramuniyaswami

1927 - 2001

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0099 CRIMINAL

Barbara Graham

1923 - 1955

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0113 PSYCHIATRIST

Donald deAvila Jackson

1920 - 1968

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0124 BASKET

Don Barksdale

1923 - 1993

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0129 OFFICER

Bud Anderson

Born 1922

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0145 PAINTER

Nathan Oliveira

1928 - 2010

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0149 PAINTER

Robert Colescott

1925 - 2009

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0155 COMPOSER

Warren Barker

1923 - 2006

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0164 ASTRONOMER

Elizabeth Roemer

1929 - 2016

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0167 OPERA

Claude Heater

1927 - 2020

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0169 ANTHROPOLOGIST

G. William Skinner

1924 - 2008

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0171 COMPOSER

William Bergsma

1921 - 1994

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0179 NOVELIST

Alfred Coppel

1921 - 2004

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0215 ACTOR

Robert Nichols (actor)

1924 - 2013

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0218 WRITER

James Yimm Lee

1920 - 1972

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0223 ACTOR

Tom Rosqui

1928 - 1991

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0237 ACTOR

Marilyn Knowlden

Born 1926

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0244 BASKET

Ron Livingstone

1925 - 1991

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0256 MUSIC

Richard Wyands

1928 - 2019

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0267 PHILOSOPHER

Avrum Stroll

1921 - 2013

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0282 MUSIC

Joyce Bryant

Born 1928

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0285 CARTOONIST

Morrie Turner

1923 - 2014

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0304 BASKET

Don Lofgran

1928 - 1976

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0317 ROWER

David Turner (rower)

1923 - 2015

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0331 PIANIST

Bill Pursell

1926 - 2020

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0335 ACTOR

Ben Chapman (actor)

1928 - 2008

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0339 MOUNTAINEER

Allen Steck

Born 1926

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0348 PAEDIATRICIAN

David Weyhe Smith

1926 - 1981

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0359 DRIVER

Ed Elisian

1926 - 1959

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0371 MATHEMATICIAN

William G. Bade

1924 - 2012

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0378 ROWER

Ian Turner (rower)

1925 - 2010

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0395 PRIEST

John Stephen Cummins

Born 1928

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0399 COACH

John Ralston (American football)

1927 - 2019

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0405 ARTIST

Warrington Colescott

1921 - 2018

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0411 ARTIST

George Earl Ortman

1926 - 2015

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0416 ACADEMIC

Richard Doell

1923 - 2008

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0452 SENATOR

Nicholas C. Petris

1923 - 2013

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0466 ARTIST

Tony DeLap

1927 - 2019

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0469 BODYBUILDER

Clarence Ross

1923 - 2008

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0475 AUTHOR

Stan Monteith

1929 - 2014

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0481 BIOCHEMIST

David Hogness

1925 - 2019

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0495 AUTHOR

Patricia Bragg

Born 1929

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0498 DIVER

Patsy Elsener

1929 - 2019

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0511 ACTOR

Mai Tai Sing

1923 - 2018

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0514 ARCHAEOLOGIST

Wendell Phillips (Archäologe)

1925 - 1975

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0532 ARTIST

Pete Millar

1929 - 2003

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0549 ENGINEER

Stephen Bechtel Jr.

Born 1925

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0552 BASEBALL

Don Ferrarese

Born 1929

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0556 DIPLOMAT

Nicholas A. Veliotes

Born 1928

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0557 ACADEMIC

Karl Harrington Potter

Born 1927

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0566 BASEBALL

Bill Werle

1920 - 2010

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0613 BASEBALL

Eddie McGah

1921 - 2002

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0636 ACTOR

Connie Cezon

1925 - 2004

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0637 BASEBALL

Bob Chesnes

1921 - 1979

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0651 JOURNALIST

Al Martinez

1929 - 2015

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0663 SCHOLAR

Harrell F. Beck

1922 - 1987

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0667 ACTOR

Louise Erickson (actress)

1928 - 2019

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0682 FILM

Lee Mishkin

1927 - 2001

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0686 FENCER

Donald Thompson (fencer)

1928 - 2013

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0694 AVIATOR

Louis Schalk

1926 - 2002

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0701 FOOTBALL

Hank Norberg

1920 - 1974

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0707 LAWYER

John P. Vukasin Jr.

1928 - 1993

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0715 ARCHITECT

Roger Lee

1920 - 1981

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0736 AUTHOR

Herb Wong

1926 - 2014

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0744 SURGEON

John Najarian

1927 - 2020

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0757 ARTIST

D. Bruce Berry

1924 - 1998

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0759 FISICA

Burton P. Christenson

1922 - 1998

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0763 FOOTBALL

Roger Harding

1923 - 2009

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0787 LAWYER

Milton Lewis Schwartz

1920 - 2005

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0819 PALAEONTOLOGIST

Norman J. Silberling

1928 - 2011

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0850 LAWYER

Wiley Manuel

1927 - 1981

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0852 BASSOONIST

Leland Smith

1925 - 2013

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0856 FOOTBALL

Fred Silva

1927 - 2004

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0858 BASEBALL

William Arce

Born 1925

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0864 BANK

Debbie Abono

1929 - 2010

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0894 BASEBALL

Ray Medeiros

1926 - 2003

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0902 BASEBALL

Jackie Tobin

1921 - 1982

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0909 BODYBUILDER

Jack Delinger

1926 - 1992

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0913 FOOTBALL

Al Endress

Born 1929

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0939 BASKET

Herb Schmalenberger

1925 - 2006

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0942 FOOTBALL

Bob Sykes (American football)

1927 - 2020

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0943 LIBRARIAN

Emanuel Raymond Lewis

1928 - 2014

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0952 LAWYER

Richard Jencks

1921 - 2014

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0953 SINGER

Essex Scott

1921 - 1960

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0961 BASEBALL

Jerre Denoble

1923 - 2011

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0971 MUSIC

Rudy Salvini

1925 - 2011

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0976 BASEBALL

Joe Rossi (baseball)

1921 - 1999

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0978 BASKET

Bill Durkee

1921 - 2006

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0990 POLITICIAN

Andrew Nisbet Jr.

1921 - 2013

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