39.9292° N, 75.2300° W

PHILADELPHIA

Most Famous People Born in Philadelphia, USA

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.

Standouts

What Philadelphia Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Politician is Philadelphia's biggest profession — 9% of all notables (482).

Philadelphia over-indexes on baseball 6.0× the global rate.

Philadelphia under-produces football — only 0.4× the global rate.

  1. Politician 482 0.7×
  2. Actor 414 1.4×
  3. Baseball 383 6.0×
  4. Basket 260 3.7×
  5. Football 251 0.4×
  6. Music 206 2.6×
  7. Lawyer 185 1.9×
  8. Singer 161 1.4×
  1. Baseball 383 6.0×
  2. Basket 260 3.7×
  3. Boxer 72 3.3×
  4. Rower 57 2.8×
  5. Music 206 2.6×
  6. Officer 84 2.3×
  7. Lawyer 185 1.9×
  8. Film 113 1.6×
  1. Football 251 0.4×

Profession Mix Over Time

Each band shows a profession family's share of Philadelphia's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.

1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000
  • Sports
  • Politics & Law
  • Film & TV
  • Music
  • Writing
  • Art & Design
  • Other
All5,575
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Showing 73 of 5,575 notable people

0227 MILITAR

John C. Pemberton

1814 - 1881

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0334 BEEKEEPER

L. L. Langstroth

1810 - 1895

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0356 POLITICIAN

Fernando Wood

1812 - 1881

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0504 OFFICER

Andrew A. Humphreys

1810 - 1883

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0537 ENGINEER

Herman Haupt

1817 - 1905

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0665 POLITICIAN

Thomas Dunn English

1819 - 1902

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0869 POLITICIAN

William D. Kelley

1814 - 1890

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0976 COMPOSER

William Henry Fry

1813 - 1864

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1041 PALAEONTOLOGIST

William Parker Foulke

1816 - 1865

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1109 POLITICIAN

James Campbell (postmaster general)

1812 - 1893

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1162 PAINTER

Charles Deas

1818 - 1867

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1200 AUTHOR

Samuel Austin Allibone

1816 - 1889

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1297 PRIEST

James Frederick Wood

1813 - 1883

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1300 PHYSICIAN

Joseph Barnes

1817 - 1883

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1372 EXPLORER

Edwin De Haven

1816 - 1865

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1471 JOURNALIST

George Rex Graham

1813 - 1894

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1631 LAWYER

Charles John Biddle

1819 - 1873

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1639 GEOLOGIST

Peter Lesley

1819 - 1903

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1736 DIPLOMAT

Edward Joy Morris

1815 - 1881

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1746 POLITICIAN

Richard Vaux

1816 - 1895

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1793 LAWYER

George A. Bicknell

1815 - 1891

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1883 OFFICER

Henry Morris Naglee

1815 - 1886

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1949 MILITAR

Charles G. Dahlgren

1811 - 1888

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1968 ENGINEER

William Milnor Roberts

1810 - 1881

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2082 PHOTOGRAPHER

Gabriel Harrison

1818 - 1902

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2094 NOVELIST

Anne Hampton Brewster

1818 - 1892

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2150 POLITICIAN

John F. Starr

1818 - 1904

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2166 POLITICIAN

Thomas Birch Florence

1812 - 1875

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2259 PHYSICIAN

Alfred Stillé

1813 - 1900

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2327 POLITICIAN

Henry Myer Phillips

1811 - 1884

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2425 COMPOSER

Edwin Pearce Christy

1815 - 1862

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2516 POLITICIAN

John Wood (congressman)

1816 - 1898

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2555 POLITICIAN

James Landy

1813 - 1875

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2598 ABOLITIONIST

Joseph Parrish Thompson

1819 - 1879

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2676 POLITICIAN

John Guier Scott

1819 - 1892

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2721 THEOLOGIAN

John McClintock (theologian)

1814 - 1870

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2816 LAWYER

Robert T. Conrad

1810 - 1858

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2857 LAWYER

Richard Howell Gleaves

1819 - 1907

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2859 EXPLORER

Charles Guillou

1813 - 1899

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2866 MISSIONARY

James Lloyd Breck

1818 - 1876

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2950 POLITICIAN

Sharon Tyndale

1816 - 1871

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2997 POLITICIAN

Thomas Marshal Bibighaus

1817 - 1853

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3329 ARCHITECT

John Trautwine

1810 - 1883

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3367 WRITER

Henry Wikoff

1813 - 1884

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3376 ABOLITIONIST

Harriet Forten Purvis

1810 - 1875

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3377 ACTOR

William Warren (actor)

1812 - 1888

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3378 LITHOGRAPHER

John Carlin

1813 - 1891

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3406 EPISCOPAL

William Henry Odenheimer

1817 - 1879

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3615 POLITICIAN

Alexander Starne

1813 - 1886

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3687 POLITICIAN

John How

1813 - 1885

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3837 POLITICIAN

Richard Griffith (general)

1814 - 1862

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3847 ACADEMIC

James Clark (college president)

1812 - 1874

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3902 ASTRONOMER

Hannah Mary Bouvier Peterson

1811 - 1870

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3958 ORGANIST

John C. Bowers

1811 - 1873

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3992 CLERGY

William Henry Gilder (clergyman)

1812 - 1864

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4013 ATTORNEY

William Axton Stokes

1814 - 1877

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4041 HISTORIAN

Charles Jacobs Peterson

1818 - 1887

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4107 OFFICER

John Cummings Howell

1819 - 1892

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4261 PAINTER

Ann Sophia Towne Darrah

1819 - 1881

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4262 MILITAR

George A.H. Blake

1810 - 1884

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4284 FEMINIST

Jane Hunt

1812 - 1889

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4504 PRESBYTER

Alfred Ryors

1812 - 1858

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4570 DOCTOR

Anna Pierce Hobbs Bixby

1812 - 1873

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4666 LAWYER

James L. English

1813 - 1889

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4955 POLITICIAN

Thomas R. Potts

1810 - 1874

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5127 POLITICIAN

Alfred D. Jones

1814 - 1902

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5152 LAWYER

Thomas E. Franklin (lawyer)

1810 - 1884

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5458 MERCHANT

Jacob R. Snyder

1812 - 1878

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5484 POLITICIAN

Samuel G. King

1816 - 1899

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5485 BUSINESS

Zedekiah Johnson Purnell

Born 1813

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5542 WRITER

Jonathan Falconbridge Kelly

Born 1817

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5551 LAWYER

Thomas W. Sutherland

1817 - 1859

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5557 BISHOP

Thomas A. Starkey

1819 - 1903

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