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
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1940s with 556 notable births.
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.
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.
- Sports
- Politics & Law
- Film & TV
- Music
- Writing
- Art & Design
- Other
- Filtered to 1820s Clear ×
George B. McClellan
1826 - 1885
Joseph Leidy
1823 - 1891
John Gibbon
1827 - 1896
Elisha Kane
1820 - 1857
Joseph Wharton
1826 - 1909
Charles Godfrey Leland
1824 - 1903
Anthony Joseph Drexel
1826 - 1893
Silas Weir Mitchell (physician)
1829 - 1914
Joseph Jefferson
1829 - 1905
Samuel J. Randall
1828 - 1890
Henry Charles Lea
1825 - 1909
Thomas W. Evans
1823 - 1897
Thomas L. Kane
1822 - 1883
Septimus Winner
1827 - 1902
Alfred Sully
1821 - 1879
Robert Lowry (hymn writer)
1826 - 1899
Samuel Washington Woodhouse
1821 - 1904
F. O. C. Darley
1822 - 1888
Benjamin Chew Tilghman
1821 - 1901
Edward Clark (architect)
1822 - 1902
Napoleon LeBrun
1821 - 1901
Robert Pearsall Smith
1827 - 1898
William Gambel
1823 - 1849
Francis Wharton
1820 - 1889
George Law Curry
1820 - 1878
Anna T. Jeanes
1822 - 1907
Divie Bethune McCartee
1820 - 1900
Mathew Carey Lea
1823 - 1897
Jonathan Clarkson Gibbs
1821 - 1874
John O'Neill (congressman)
1822 - 1905
Frank J. Webb
1828 - 1894
Charles O'Neill (Pennsylvania politician)
1821 - 1893
Charles Grymes McCawley
1827 - 1891
Joseph Lucien Bonaparte
1824 - 1865
Edwin Henry Fitler
1825 - 1896
James Williams (Delaware representative)
1825 - 1899
Mifflin Wistar Gibbs
1823 - 1915
Edward Kern
1822 - 1863
Alfred C. Harmer
1825 - 1900
George Henry Boker
1823 - 1890
William Eckart Lehman
1821 - 1895
William Millward
1822 - 1871
Henry Louis Stephens
1824 - 1883
Francis Anthony Drexel
1824 - 1885
Isaac J. Wistar
1827 - 1905
James St. Clair Morton
1829 - 1864
Albert Cardozo
1828 - 1885
Hiram Corson
1828 - 1911
David Bustill Bowser
1820 - 1900
Edward Parrish
1822 - 1872
Eliza Sproat Turner
1826 - 1903
Hermann Vezin
1829 - 1910
George M. Willing
1829 - 1874
F. Carroll Brewster
1825 - 1898
Hector Tyndale
1821 - 1880
Daniel Dougherty
1826 - 1892
Washington Carroll Tevis
1828 - 1900
Frances Cox Henderson
1820 - 1897
Charles M. Wetherill
1825 - 1871
John Watkinson Douglass
1827 - 1909
Barclay White
1821 - 1906
Benjamin H. Rand
1827 - 1883
Thomas H. Neill
1826 - 1885
Francis E. Patterson
1821 - 1862
George Hewston
1826 - 1891
Thomas Bowers (singer)
1823 - 1885
Alexander Henry Hoff
1822 - 1876
Benjamin H. Warder
1824 - 1894
Henry FewSmith
1821 - 1846
Elwood Evans
1828 - 1898
Henry T. Johns
1828 - 1906
William G. Taylor
1829 - 1910
William S. Stokley
1823 - 1902
John H. Dialogue
1828 - 1898
Edwin Augustus Rigg
1822 - 1882
Edward C. Bosbyshell
1822 - 1894
John Bond Trevor
1822 - 1890
Helen Hinsdale Rich
1827 - 1915
George Hussey Earle Sr.
1823 - 1907
Samuel Brown Wylie Mitchell
1828 - 1879
William M. Clayton
1824 - 1892
Sarah Clotworthy Stevenson
1824 - 1885
Charles Mitchell Smith Leslie
1827 - 1889