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 1890s Clear ×
Man Ray
1890 - 1976
Marian Anderson
1897 - 1993
Henry Hazlitt
1894 - 1993
John J. McCloy
1895 - 1989
Stuart Davis (painter)
1892 - 1964
Walter Jackson Freeman II
1895 - 1972
Ralph Linton
1893 - 1953
Charlotte Greenwood
1890 - 1977
Eleanor Boardman
1898 - 1991
Blossom Rock
1895 - 1978
William Christian Bullitt Jr.
1891 - 1967
Louis Fischer
1896 - 1970
Helen Broderick
1891 - 1959
Ruth Plumly Thompson
1891 - 1976
El Brendel
1890 - 1964
Joseph Breen
1890 - 1965
Anthony Joseph Drexel Biddle Jr.
1897 - 1961
James P. McGranery
1895 - 1962
Morris Stoloff
1898 - 1980
Legs Diamond
1897 - 1931
Elaine Hammerstein
1897 - 1948
Gus Arnheim
1897 - 1955
Leonard Carmichael
1898 - 1973
Battling Levinsky
1891 - 1949
Phil Baker (comedian)
1896 - 1963
Sam Wooding
1895 - 1985
Albert Hay Malotte
1895 - 1964
Donald Lippincott
1893 - 1963
Bert Schneider (boxer)
1897 - 1986
Bert Bell
1895 - 1959
Otho Lovering
1892 - 1968
Baynard Kendrick
1894 - 1977
Norman T. Whitaker
1890 - 1975
Theresa Bernstein
1890 - 2002
Lew Tendler
1898 - 1970
Paul Costello
1894 - 1986
Thomas K. Finletter
1893 - 1980
David Howard (director)
1896 - 1941
Alfred Irving Hallowell
1892 - 1974
Philip Loeb
1891 - 1955
John McDermott (golfer)
1891 - 1971
Vivian Rich
1893 - 1957
Benjamin Stoloff
1895 - 1960
Dorothy Kelly
1894 - 1966
Joseph Auslander
1897 - 1965
Edmund Burns
1892 - 1980
Archer Taylor
1890 - 1973
Vivienne Segal
1897 - 1992
Margaret Schlauch
1898 - 1986
Russ Brown (actor)
1892 - 1964
Max Hoff (mobster)
1892 - 1941
E. Urner Goodman
1891 - 1980
Edna Mayo
1895 - 1970
Laurence B. Keiser
1895 - 1969
Walter Reckless
1899 - 1988
Eddie Phillips (actor)
1899 - 1965
Harry Revier
1890 - 1957
Walter Yust
1894 - 1960
John C. Bell Jr.
1892 - 1974
Ora Washington
1898 - 1971
Albert C. Baugh
1891 - 1981
Jackie Saunders
1892 - 1954
Olga Printzlau
1891 - 1962
Jimmy Dykes
1896 - 1976
Phil Boutelje
1895 - 1979
Katherine Milhous
1894 - 1977
Isaac Starr
1895 - 1989
Alfred C. Redfield
1890 - 1983
Rolfe Humphries
1894 - 1969
Jack Thayer
1894 - 1945
John McShain
1898 - 1989
Max C. Freedman
1893 - 1962
Mark Fisher (songwriter)
1895 - 1948
Kathryn Meisle
1899 - 1970
Israel Goldstein
1896 - 1986
Lee Phelps
1893 - 1953
Robert Armbruster
1897 - 1994
Alan Bridge
1891 - 1957
Clarence Gaskill
1892 - 1947
Emilio Núñez Portuondo
1898 - 1978
Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander
1898 - 1989
Charlie Johnson (bandleader)
1891 - 1959
Ben Fletcher
1890 - 1949
John Vincent Lawless Hogan
1890 - 1960
Richard Harrison Shryock
1893 - 1972
Marian Swayne
1891 - 1973
Franz Federschmidt
1894 - 1956
Seth Hoffman (artist)
1895 - 1948
William Howard Shuster
1893 - 1969
Vinton Freedley
1891 - 1969
Erich Federschmidt
1895 - 1962
Roy Coffin
1898 - 1982
Allan Travers
1892 - 1968
William A. Barrett
1896 - 1976
William T. Granahan
1895 - 1956
D. Lane Powers
1896 - 1968
Otto Siegel
1897 - 1962
Alexander R. Bolling
1895 - 1964
Edward Jennings (rowing)
1898 - 1975
Georgia Tann
1891 - 1950
Raymond Pace Alexander
1898 - 1974
Clare G. Fenerty
1895 - 1952
Howard Lanin
1897 - 1991
Dorothy Green (tennis)
1897 - 1964
Edwin Byrne
1891 - 1963
Harry Fritz
1890 - 1974
Carolyn Haywood
1898 - 1990
Michael J. Bradley
1897 - 1979
William H. Milliken Jr.
1897 - 1969
Dick Spalding
1893 - 1950
Lud Wray
1894 - 1967
Elizabeth Hirsh Fleisher
1892 - 1975
Ethelind Terry
1899 - 1984
Margaret Katherine Majer
1898 - 1990
Ethel V. Ashton
1896 - 1975
Frank J. G. Dorsey
1891 - 1949
Henry Clarence Pitz
1895 - 1976
Frank A. Mathews Jr.
1890 - 1964
Ralph Pallen Coleman
1892 - 1968
Fred C. Gartner
1896 - 1972
John R. Paul
1893 - 1971
Franklin J. Maloney
1899 - 1958
Robert Lee Davis
1893 - 1967
Jimmy Lyggett Sr
1897 - 1955
John Edwin Pomfret
1898 - 1981
Allan Randall Freelon
1895 - 1960
Charles Karle
1898 - 1946
John Armstrong Drexel
1891 - 1958
Ernie Padgett
1899 - 1957
Theodore Pitcairn
1893 - 1973
Gordon Avil
1899 - 1970
Samuel Rosenberg (artist)
1896 - 1972
John Gray (athlete)
1894 - 1942
Loretta Perfectus Walsh
1896 - 1925
Audrey Chapman
1899 - 1993
Tom Gill (writer)
1891 - 1972
Paul McNally (astronomer)
1890 - 1955
Rensselaer W. Lee
1898 - 1984
Raymond Hornberger
1898 - 1976
Ralph Mattis
1890 - 1960
Dorothy Walcott Weeks
1893 - 1990
B. F. Zeidman
1896 - 1970
T.A.M. Craven
1893 - 1972
Walter Hoban
1890 - 1939
Frank Richardson (director)
1898 - 1962
Joe Berry (second baseman)
1894 - 1976
Albert Branson Maris
1893 - 1989
Madge Macklin
1893 - 1962
Charles Winter (Philadelphia cricketer)
1890 - 1969
Punk Berryman
1893 - 1988
Barclay Harding Warburton II
1898 - 1936
Alexander A. Aarons
1890 - 1943
Frances Carson
1895 - 1973
Socks Seibold
1896 - 1965
Louis R. Jones
1895 - 1973
Frank Sprogell
1895 - 1978
Stanley Woodward
1899 - 1992
Merritt Yerkes Hughes
1893 - 1971
Willard Nash
1898 - 1943
Ben Clime
1891 - 1973
John Gallagher (athlete)
Born 1890
Samuel Gross (Medal of Honor)
1891 - 1934
Edwin Horace Bryan junior
1898 - 1985
David Burpee
1893 - 1980
Ken Simendinger
1899 - 1972
Lou Young
1894 - 1948
Kempton Greene
1890 - 1939
Mike Pasquella
1898 - 1965
Heinrich Harry Deierling
1894 - 1989
William Demko
Born 1895
Mike Loan
1894 - 1966
Walter Otto Grimm
1897 - 1919
Bob Rice
1899 - 1986
Edwin J. Hill
1894 - 1941
Stanhope Wood Nixon
1894 - 1958
James Patrick Rossiter
1890 - 1943
Elwood Geiges
1895 - 1977
Bert Yeabsley
1893 - 1961
Bill Haeffner
1894 - 1982
Michael Lerner (angler)
1890 - 1978
Charlie Eckert
1897 - 1986
Joe Green (baseball, born 1897)
1897 - 1972
Ty Pickup
1897 - 1974
Charlie Young (baseball)
1893 - 1952
Allie Watt
1899 - 1968
Bill Warwick (baseball)
1897 - 1984
George Johnson (supercentenarian)
1894 - 2006
Carroll Livingston Wainwright I
1899 - 1967
Anna McGarry
1894 - 1978
Chick Keating
1891 - 1959
Raymond D. Tarbuck
1897 - 1986
Paul Newgarden
1892 - 1944
Jimmy Gleason
1898 - 1931
Elmer Kilroy
1895 - 1961
Mary B. Schuenemann
1898 - 1992
Frank Forbes
1891 - 1983
Sam McConnell (third baseman)
1895 - 1981
William Lodge (American football)
1890 - 1950
George Hesselbacher
1895 - 1980
Bill Knowlton
1898 - 1944
Wallace McCurdy
1892 - 1970
Gerald Nugent
1892 - 1970
Maury Henry Biddle Paul
1890 - 1942
Victor H. Blanc
1897 - 1968
Young Jack O'Brien
Born 1894
Albert Hoskins
Born 1899
Alan J. Gould
1898 - 1993
Bill Black (baseball)
1899 - 1968
Harry O'Donnell
1894 - 1958
Ed Lennon
1897 - 1947
Austin Meehan
1897 - 1961
Frederick Pitts
1898 - 1988
Susette Schultz Keast
1892 - 1932
John Karst
1893 - 1976
Jacques Michael Swaab
1894 - 1963
Howard Lohr
1892 - 1977
Frank Erdman Boston
1891 - 1960
George Durning
1898 - 1986
Edward McNichol
1895 - 1930
Harry Ellis Kalodner
1896 - 1977
Frances St John Chappelle
1897 - 1936
Johnny Hendren
1897 - 1964
Tod Dennehey
1899 - 1977
Chauncey McPherson
1892 - 1977
Edward Adam Strecker
1896 - 1959
Jock Gibson (footballer)
1898 - 1974
Oscar Schmidt Jr.
1896 - 1973
Charles C. Schrader
1893 - 1967
Bill Leinhauser
1893 - 1978
Ad Swigler
1895 - 1975
Raymond Marchand
1890 - 1969
Bill Hughes (pitcher)
1896 - 1963
Red Miller (baseball)
1897 - 1973
Marty Walker
1899 - 1978
George Stutz
1893 - 1930
John Quinn (umpire)
1897 - 1968
Hal Schwenk
1890 - 1955
James O. McManus
Born 1894
Louella Carr
1899 - 1937
Cecil J. Toor
1895 - 1969
Miles W. Lederer
1897 - 1953