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 1880s Clear ×
John Barrymore
1882 - 1942
W. C. Fields
1880 - 1946
Ed Wynn
1886 - 1966
Sam Wood
1884 - 1949
Charles Sheeler
1883 - 1965
George Bancroft (actor)
1882 - 1956
John B. Kelly Sr.
1889 - 1960
Leon Schlesinger
1884 - 1949
William Keighley
1889 - 1984
Edwin Boring
1886 - 1968
John Wray (actor)
1887 - 1940
George Kelly (playwright)
1887 - 1974
Louis J. Mordell
1888 - 1972
Herbert E. Ives
1882 - 1953
David H. Keller
1880 - 1966
Philip Francis Nowlan
1888 - 1940
Harry Elkins Widener
1885 - 1912
Joe McCarthy (manager)
1887 - 1978
Charles Darrow
1889 - 1967
Alan Goodrich Kirk
1888 - 1963
John L. Balderston
1889 - 1954
Joseph Sweeney (actor)
1884 - 1963
William Francis Gibbs
1886 - 1967
Carey Wilson (writer)
1889 - 1962
Luckey Roberts
1887 - 1968
Florence Reed
1883 - 1967
Frank Orth
1880 - 1962
Henry Cadbury
1883 - 1974
Harry McCoy
1889 - 1937
Alice Middleton Boring
1883 - 1955
Morton Livingston Schamberg
1881 - 1918
Arthur Lange
1889 - 1956
Miriam Allen deFord
1888 - 1975
Joseph Hergesheimer
1880 - 1954
Mabel Ballin
1887 - 1958
Jam Handy
1886 - 1983
Satyananda Stokes
1882 - 1946
Harry Vandiver
1882 - 1973
William Clothier
1881 - 1962
E. Newton Harvey
1887 - 1959
Frank Bettger
1888 - 1981
Julian Abele
1881 - 1950
Gunboat Smith
1887 - 1974
Duke Worne
1888 - 1933
T. Hayes Hunter
1884 - 1944
Lesley Ashburner
1883 - 1950
Arthur Fields
1888 - 1953
Gail Kane
1887 - 1966
Charles Armstrong (rower)
1881 - 1952
E. Haldeman-Julius
1889 - 1951
Arthur Beecher Carles
1882 - 1952
Harry Lott
1880 - 1949
Joe Burke (composer)
1884 - 1950
James Flanagan (rower)
1884 - 1937
David Lawrence (publisher)
1888 - 1973
Louis Mitchell
1885 - 1957
Wilson Brown (admiral)
1882 - 1957
Dorothy Harrison Eustis
1886 - 1946
Oscar Shaw
1887 - 1967
Will S. Davis
1880 - 1920
George Matthews Harding
1882 - 1959
Bob Kortman
1887 - 1967
Louis Douglas
1889 - 1939
Lewis Ferry Moody
1880 - 1953
Sigmund Spaeth
1885 - 1965
Wallace F. Johnson
1889 - 1971
Edgar T. Wherry
1885 - 1982
Laura Scudder
1881 - 1959
Ollie Kirkby
1886 - 1964
Susan Delano McKelvey
1883 - 1964
Gladys Huntington
1887 - 1959
George Biddle
1885 - 1973
Richard S. Edwards
1885 - 1956
Allan Muhr
1882 - 1944
Al Thompson
1884 - 1960
Harriet Whitney Frishmuth
1880 - 1980
Conyers Read
1881 - 1959
Wharton Esherick
1887 - 1970
Florence Moore
1886 - 1935
Benjamin F. James
1885 - 1961
J. William Ditter
1888 - 1943
John B. Clymer
1887 - 1937
Amos Strunk
1889 - 1979
Ralph Morgan (basketball)
1884 - 1965
Norman Clyde
1885 - 1972
Henry Lorenz Viereck
1881 - 1931
Robert N. McGarvey
1888 - 1952
Dick Harlow
1889 - 1962
Edward L. Stokes
1880 - 1964
Clayton Barney Vogel
1882 - 1964
Anna Rosemond
1886 - 1966
Fred Lieb
1888 - 1980
William S. Reyburn
1882 - 1946
Henry D. Phillips
1882 - 1955
Paul Neill
1882 - 1968
Samuel Crowther (journalist)
1880 - 1947
James J. Connolly
1881 - 1952
Arthur "Bugs" Baer
1886 - 1969
Raymond Pitcairn
1885 - 1966
Hart Wood
1880 - 1957
J. David Stern
1886 - 1971
Michael Joseph Muldowney
1889 - 1947
Lillian Harmer
1883 - 1946
Bill Roper (American football)
1880 - 1933
Eddie Barry (actor)
1887 - 1967
Robert Clarkson Clothier
1885 - 1970
Charles Edward Knoeppel
1881 - 1936
Mickey Duffy
1888 - 1931
Edmund Gilchrist
1885 - 1953
Blanche Merrill
1883 - 1966
Billy Maharg
1881 - 1953
Beatrice Fenton
1887 - 1983
Edwin North McClellan
1881 - 1971
William Appleton Lawrence
1889 - 1968
Rutherford Boyd
1882 - 1951
Ralph Young (baseball)
1888 - 1965
Annie Traquair Lang
1885 - 1918
Moose McCormick
1881 - 1962
Richard Maury
1882 - 1950
James Earle Ash
1884 - 1986
Oliver Perry-Smith
1884 - 1969
Allan Murnane
1882 - 1950
Spencer Wishart
1889 - 1914
Frank Dobson (American football)
1885 - 1959
Bill Hinchman
1883 - 1963
Ruby Hoffman
1886 - 1973
Harry Bischoff Weiss
1883 - 1972
Margaret Lawrence (actress)
1889 - 1929
Wheaton Chambers
1887 - 1958
Paul E. Burns
1881 - 1967
Walter Atlee Edwards
1886 - 1928
Elida Morris
1886 - 1977
Edward Bennis
Born 1885
Arthur Byne
1883 - 1935
John Thomas Taylor
1886 - 1965
Tommy Madden
1883 - 1930
Brember Wills
1883 - 1948
Horatio B. Hackett
1880 - 1941
Patsy O'Rourke
1881 - 1956
John Knight (baseball)
1885 - 1965
Albert Giesecke
1883 - 1968
Albert Barron
1888 - 1962
Edward Jackson (photographer)
1885 - 1967
George Gaul
1885 - 1939
William Carleton Watts
1880 - 1956
Helen Knipe Carpenter
1881 - 1959
William Newhall
1883 - 1950
L. W. Riess
1887 - 1946
Ralph Caldwell
1884 - 1969
Henry Goddard Leach
1880 - 1970
M. S. Bennett
Born 1881
Tom Walker (1900s pitcher)
1881 - 1944
Bob Peterson (baseball)
1884 - 1962
Harry Pearce (baseball)
1889 - 1942
Howard Henry
1882 - 1919
Wally Smith (baseball)
1888 - 1930
Jack Ridgway
1888 - 1928
Chick Hartley
1880 - 1948
Bob Lindemann
1881 - 1951
John Barthold
1882 - 1946
Red McDermott
1888 - 1964
John Russell Young (Politiker)
1882 - 1967
William C. Ocker
1880 - 1942
Robert von Ezdorf
1889 - 1956
Samuel B. Booth
1883 - 1935
George Corneal
1883 - 1944
William Lyshon
1887 - 1918
Ed Irvin
1882 - 1916
Warren Miller (baseball)
1885 - 1956
Lefty Herring
1880 - 1965
Edith Longstreth Wood
1885 - 1967
Joe Ward (baseball)
1884 - 1934
Edna Buckman Kearns
1882 - 1934
Randolph Zane
1887 - 1918
Jim McGarr
1888 - 1981
Joseph C. Boyle
1888 - 1972
Wilmer G. Crowell
Born 1884
Willie Jensen
1889 - 1917
Joe Roseman
1888 - 1944
Dan McGarvey
1887 - 1947
Willard Graham
1882 - 1958
Joseph Parker (fencer)
1889 - 1951
Eleanor Caines
1880 - 1913
Arrah Lee Gaul
1888 - 1980
Malcolm Musser
1889 - 1969
Gustave Maurice Heckscher
1884 - 1967
Francis B. Foley
1887 - 1973
Jack Burke Sr.
1888 - 1943
Helen Chapman
1882 - 1947
Olive Wyndham
1886 - 1971
Walter M. Jeffords Sr.
1883 - 1960
Princess White
1881 - 1976
John Wendell (American football)
1885 - 1962
George Craig (baseball)
1887 - 1911
Katharine Hood McCormick
1882 - 1960
Helen Kiner McCarthy
1884 - 1927
Joe McCahey
1888 - 1917
Edward Makin Cross
1880 - 1965