39.9292° N, 75.2300° W

PHILADELPHIA

Most Famous People Born in Philadelphia, United States

Notable people

5,575

Peak decade

1940s

Median birth year

1928

Most distinctive

Baseball 6.0×

The original American capital, then the capital of nothing in particular, then a sports town. Philadelphia's notables run thick through the 18th century — lawyers, philanthropists, financiers — and then settle into a long, steady output of baseball players, basketball players, jazz bandleaders, and character actors. The city has one of the highest shares of notables in organized labor of the early 20th century and one of the deepest benches of soul singers of the late 20th.