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 63 of 1,016 notable people

0008 SCREENWRITER

Robert Culp

1930 - 2010

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0028 BANDLEADER

Carla Bley

Born 1936

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0033 SINGER

Rod McKuen

1933 - 2015

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0051 POLITICIAN

Ron Dellums

1935 - 2018

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0054 LAWYER

Edwin Meese

Born 1931

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0071 ACTOR

Max Baer Jr.

Born 1937

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0126 ARTIST

William Van Horn

Born 1939

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0127 NOVELIST

Norman Rush

Born 1933

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0139 GOLF

Tony Lema

1934 - 1966

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0184 BIOGRAPHER

Carlo D'Este

Born 1936

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0189 COMPOSER

Constance Demby

Born 1939

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0217 ACTOR

Patricia Bosworth

1933 - 2020

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0234 BIOLOGIST

Harry F. Noller

Born 1939

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0249 MATHEMATICIAN

William Arveson

1934 - 2011

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0253 PLAYER

Whitney Reed

1932 - 2015

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0254 BASKET

Ron Tomsic

Born 1933

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0324 PLAYWRIGHT

Olwen Wymark

1932 - 2013

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0354 BASEBALL

Marty Keough

Born 1935

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0400 DIPLOMAT

William Clark Jr. (diplomat)

1930 - 2008

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0415 POLITICIAN

Wally George

1931 - 2003

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0429 BASEBALL

Andy Carey

1931 - 2011

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0432 JUDGE

Raymond C. Fisher

1939 - 2020

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0445 POET

Nellie Wong

Born 1934

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0446 JOURNALIST

Gerald Nachman

1938 - 2018

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0482 SWIMMER

Nancy Simons

Born 1938

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0484 BASEBALL

Chris Cannizzaro

1938 - 2016

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0497 BASEBALL

Dennis Bennett (baseball)

1939 - 2012

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0502 ACTOR

Jess Osuna

1933 - 2011

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0533 COMPOSER

Elinor Armer

Born 1939

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0546 BOTANIST

Dennis E. Breedlove

1939 - 2012

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0570 PRIEST

Nicholas C. Dattilo

1932 - 2004

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0611 BASEBALL

Charlie Beamon

1934 - 2016

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0627 MISSING

George Wethern

Born 1939

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0628 FOOTBALL

Chris Burford

Born 1938

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0634 FILM

Fritz Manes

Born 1932

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0641 ACTOR

Joe Knowland

1930 - 2019

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0652 HISTORIAN

Robert Albo

1932 - 2011

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0662 WRITER

Peter Stafford

1939 - 2007

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0664 ARTIST

Thomas W. Benton

1930 - 2007

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0668 LAWYER

Joseph Grodin

Born 1930

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0693 LAWYER

William B. Shubb

Born 1938

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0697 PHOTOGRAPHER

Richard Overstreet

Born 1935

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0729 FILM

Robert N. Zagone

Born 1938

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0755 MATHEMATICS

Jim Warren (computer specialist)

Born 1936

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0789 FOOTBALL

Ted Connolly

1931 - 2014

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0790 FOOTBALL

Clark Miller

1938 - 2008

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0793 ANTHROPOLOGIST

Chester Gorman

1938 - 1981

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0803 ACTIVIST

John Froines

Born 1939

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0809 LAWYER

James Keith Singleton Jr.

Born 1939

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0831 MUSIC

Earl Freeman

Born 1937

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0836 CHEMIST

Frederick N. Tebbe

1935 - 1995

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0840 OFFICER

Eugene E. Habiger

Born 1939

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0893 PIANIST

Bob Smale

1931 - 2010

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0906 FOOTBALL

Jesse Murdock

1938 - 1965

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0949 HELLENIST

John Vaio

Born 1939

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0950 AUTHOR

Elaine Flinn

1939 - 2008

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0954 FOOTBALL

Maury Duncan

Born 1931

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0972 POLITICIAN

Ervin Dennis

Born 1936

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0984 OFFICER

Lester L. Westling Jr.

1930 - 2019

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0993 PHARMACIST

Jere E. Goyan

1930 - 2007

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0994 PHOTOGRAPHER

Marion Gray

1934 - 2016

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0996 WRITER

Ron Hudson

1939 - 2011

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1002 POLITICIAN

Carol Boyd Hallett

Born 1937

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