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 1920s Clear ×
Russ Meyer
1922 - 2004
Thomas Schelling
1921 - 2016
Peter Hansen (actor)
1921 - 2017
Fernando J. Corbató
1926 - 2019
Jim Pollard
1922 - 1993
Marty Paich
1925 - 1995
Jerome Richardson
1920 - 2000
Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
1927 - 2001
Barbara Graham
1923 - 1955
Donald deAvila Jackson
1920 - 1968
Don Barksdale
1923 - 1993
Bud Anderson
Born 1922
Nathan Oliveira
1928 - 2010
Robert Colescott
1925 - 2009
Warren Barker
1923 - 2006
Elizabeth Roemer
1929 - 2016
Claude Heater
1927 - 2020
G. William Skinner
1924 - 2008
William Bergsma
1921 - 1994
Alfred Coppel
1921 - 2004
Robert Nichols (actor)
1924 - 2013
James Yimm Lee
1920 - 1972
Tom Rosqui
1928 - 1991
Marilyn Knowlden
Born 1926
Ron Livingstone
1925 - 1991
Richard Wyands
1928 - 2019
Avrum Stroll
1921 - 2013
Joyce Bryant
Born 1928
Morrie Turner
1923 - 2014
Don Lofgran
1928 - 1976
David Turner (rower)
1923 - 2015
Bill Pursell
1926 - 2020
Ben Chapman (actor)
1928 - 2008
Allen Steck
Born 1926
David Weyhe Smith
1926 - 1981
Ed Elisian
1926 - 1959
William G. Bade
1924 - 2012
Ian Turner (rower)
1925 - 2010
John Stephen Cummins
Born 1928
John Ralston (American football)
1927 - 2019
Warrington Colescott
1921 - 2018
George Earl Ortman
1926 - 2015
Richard Doell
1923 - 2008
Nicholas C. Petris
1923 - 2013
Tony DeLap
1927 - 2019
Clarence Ross
1923 - 2008
Stan Monteith
1929 - 2014
David Hogness
1925 - 2019
Patricia Bragg
Born 1929
Patsy Elsener
1929 - 2019
Mai Tai Sing
1923 - 2018
Wendell Phillips (Archäologe)
1925 - 1975
Pete Millar
1929 - 2003
Stephen Bechtel Jr.
Born 1925
Don Ferrarese
Born 1929
Nicholas A. Veliotes
Born 1928
Karl Harrington Potter
Born 1927
Bill Werle
1920 - 2010
Eddie McGah
1921 - 2002
Connie Cezon
1925 - 2004
Bob Chesnes
1921 - 1979
Al Martinez
1929 - 2015
Harrell F. Beck
1922 - 1987
Louise Erickson (actress)
1928 - 2019
Lee Mishkin
1927 - 2001
Donald Thompson (fencer)
1928 - 2013
Louis Schalk
1926 - 2002
Hank Norberg
1920 - 1974
John P. Vukasin Jr.
1928 - 1993
Roger Lee
1920 - 1981
Herb Wong
1926 - 2014
John Najarian
1927 - 2020
D. Bruce Berry
1924 - 1998
Burton P. Christenson
1922 - 1998
Roger Harding
1923 - 2009
Milton Lewis Schwartz
1920 - 2005
Norman J. Silberling
1928 - 2011
Wiley Manuel
1927 - 1981
Leland Smith
1925 - 2013
Fred Silva
1927 - 2004
William Arce
Born 1925
Debbie Abono
1929 - 2010
Ray Medeiros
1926 - 2003
Jackie Tobin
1921 - 1982
Jack Delinger
1926 - 1992
Al Endress
Born 1929
Herb Schmalenberger
1925 - 2006
Bob Sykes (American football)
1927 - 2020
Emanuel Raymond Lewis
1928 - 2014
Richard Jencks
1921 - 2014
Essex Scott
1921 - 1960
Jerre Denoble
1923 - 2011
Rudy Salvini
1925 - 2011
Joe Rossi (baseball)
1921 - 1999
Bill Durkee
1921 - 2006
Andrew Nisbet Jr.
1921 - 2013