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 1910s Clear ×
Billie Holiday
1915 - 1959
Robert K. Merton
1910 - 2003
Broderick Crawford
1911 - 1986
Richard Brooks
1912 - 1992
Jacqueline Susann
1918 - 1974
Richard Helms
1913 - 2002
Milton Babbitt
1916 - 2011
Mae Clarke
1910 - 1992
J. Presper Eckert
1919 - 1995
Walt Kelly
1913 - 1973
Hugh Marlowe
1911 - 1982
Martin Gabel
1912 - 1986
Edward Binns
1916 - 1990
Eve Arnold
1912 - 2012
Russell L. Ackoff
1919 - 2009
Helene Hanff
1916 - 1997
David Raksin
1912 - 2004
Alexander Courage
1919 - 2008
Vincent Persichetti
1915 - 1987
David Goodis
1917 - 1967
Laird Cregar
1913 - 1944
Lyle Bettger
1915 - 2003
Morton Smith
1915 - 1991
Herbert Rudley
1910 - 2006
Edward S. Aarons
1916 - 1975
C. West Churchman
1913 - 2004
Willie Mosconi
1913 - 1993
Walter Isard
1919 - 2010
Charles Coles
1911 - 1992
Nedrick Young
1914 - 1968
Harry Gold
1910 - 1972
Jean Vander Pyl
1919 - 1999
Rudy Bond
1912 - 1982
Dennis Patrick
1918 - 2002
Frank Piasecki
1919 - 2008
Tommy Potter
1918 - 1988
N. Richard Nash
1913 - 2000
Silvan Tomkins
1911 - 1991
Bill Doggett
1916 - 1996
Sol Kaplan
1919 - 1990
Oscar Shumsky
1917 - 2000
Edmund Bacon (architect)
1910 - 2005
Ziggy Elman
1914 - 1968
Charlie Ventura
1916 - 1992
Martin Nodell
1915 - 2006
Morton DaCosta
1914 - 1989
Clinton Rossiter
1917 - 1970
Richard Neustadt
1919 - 2003
Edward Norris
1911 - 2002
Frances Dade
1910 - 1968
Joe Masteroff
1919 - 2018
Louis Faurer
1916 - 2001
Robert Baker Aitken
1917 - 2010
Herbert Callen
1919 - 1993
William T. Cahill
1912 - 1996
W. Allen Wallis
1912 - 1998
Ronny Graham
1919 - 1999
Billy Kyle
1914 - 1966
Bill Harris (musician)
1916 - 1973
Ralph Landau
1916 - 2004
Tom Kelley (photographer)
1914 - 1984
David Lewis (American actor)
1916 - 2000
Phil Stern
1919 - 2014
Glenn Doman
1919 - 2013
Sidney Dancoff
1913 - 1951
Arnold Jacobs
1915 - 1998
Bertram Myron Gross
1912 - 1997
Arthur Milgram
1912 - 1961
Gordon Merrick
1916 - 1988
Martin Nicholas Lohmuller
1919 - 2017
Joseph Ashbrook
1918 - 1980
Joan McCracken
1917 - 1961
Herman Stein
1915 - 2007
Cass Daley
1915 - 1975
Eugene List
1918 - 1985
Elizabeth Russell (actress)
1916 - 2002
Paul Murray Kendall
1911 - 1973
Carmen Mathews
1911 - 1995
Dorothy Lavinia Brown
1919 - 2004
William H. Meyer
1914 - 1983
Dorothy Short
1915 - 1963
Betty Holberton
1917 - 2001
Amos E. Joel Jr.
1918 - 2008
John Macionis
1916 - 2012
Martin Agronsky
1915 - 1999
Eve Merriam
1916 - 1992
Matt Guokas Sr.
1915 - 1993
Nathan S. Kline
1916 - 1983
Eleanor Sayre
1916 - 2001
Mary Ann McCall
1919 - 1994
Ted Harris (mathematician)
1919 - 2005
Tana Hoban
1917 - 2006
Jack Bernhard
1914 - 1997
Henny Backus
1911 - 2004
Calvin Jackson
1919 - 1985
Max Goberman
1911 - 1962
Joseph de Pasquale
1919 - 2015
Nathan Fine
1916 - 1994
Angelo Musi
1918 - 2009
Arthur Knight (film critic)
1916 - 1991
John Adriano Acea
1917 - 1963
Hershy Kay
1919 - 1981
John Sylvester White
1919 - 1988
Walter Seltzer
1914 - 2011
Jeanne Behrend
1911 - 1988
Seymour S. Kety
1915 - 2000
Midget Wolgast
1910 - 1955
Francis De Sales (actor)
1912 - 1988
Oliver Payne Pearson
1915 - 2003
Kermit Gordon
1916 - 1976
Daniel J. Terra
1911 - 1996
Kal Mann
1917 - 2001
Jumbo Elliott (coach)
1915 - 1981
Bill Fiedler
1910 - 1985
Edmund Clowney
1917 - 2005
Morris Weiss
1915 - 2014
Al Harker
1910 - 2006
Mary T. Clark
1913 - 2014
Paul T. Bateman
1919 - 2012
Milton A. Rothman
1919 - 2001
Murray Grand
1919 - 2007
Charles Kieffer
1910 - 1975
Norman Rose
1917 - 2004
Jimmy Nelson (singer)
1919 - 2007
Joseph Esherick (architect)
1914 - 1998
Ernest Leo Unterkoefler
1917 - 1993
Gerald Vincent McDevitt
1917 - 1980
James Alfred Perkins
1911 - 1998
W. Nelson Francis
1910 - 2002
Howard G. Minsky
1914 - 2008
Nora Levin
1916 - 1989
James B. Carey
1911 - 1973
Isidore Dyen
1913 - 2008
Sheri Martinelli
1918 - 1996
Petey Rosenberg
1918 - 1997
Dorothy Dare
1911 - 1981
Jane Piper
1916 - 1991
Irv Docktor
1918 - 2008
John Scott (writer)
1912 - 1976
Joe Carroll (singer)
1919 - 1981
William J. Green Jr.
1910 - 1963
Eddie Stanky
1916 - 1999
John Joseph Graham
1913 - 2000
Joseph Hirsch
1910 - 1981
John Hyland
1912 - 1998
Tom Glazer
1914 - 2003
Jacob Pressman
1919 - 2015
Harry O'Neill (catcher)
1917 - 1945
Leroy Lovett
1919 - 2013
Myer Feldman
1914 - 2007
Richard T. James
1914 - 1974
Ruth Goetz
1912 - 2001
Harold Weisberg
1913 - 2002
Edith Grosz
1919 - 2011
Raymond J. Broderick
1914 - 2000
Alice Arden (athlete)
1914 - 2012
John Sebastian (classical harmonica player)
1914 - 1980
Charles Godfrey (physician)
Born 1917
John G. Fuller
1913 - 1990
Thomas J. McDonough
1911 - 1998
Edward Kilenyi, Jr.
1910 - 2000
Louise Rosskam
1910 - 2003
Sidney Fernbach
1917 - 1991
Oscar Fraley
1914 - 1994
Howard Schachman
1918 - 2016
Virginia Knauer
1915 - 2011
Mary Meigs
1917 - 2002
James Hugh Joseph Tate
1910 - 1983
Lloyd Quarterman
1918 - 1982
Jacob Landau (artist)
1917 - 2001
Leonard Silk
1918 - 1995
William Herrmann (gymnast)
1912 - 2003
E. W. Etchells
1911 - 1998
George Tyne
1917 - 2008
Jack H. Harris
1918 - 2017
Sidney Glazier
1916 - 2002
Francis R. Smith
1911 - 1982
Skip Alexander
1918 - 1997
Malcolm H. Stern
1915 - 1994
Samuel Bookatz
1910 - 2009
Jerome Toobin
1919 - 1984
Nathan Gershman
1917 - 2008
Lloyd M. Mustin
1911 - 1999
Editta Sherman
1912 - 2013
Jane M. Oppenheimer
1911 - 1996
Dennis Sandole
1913 - 2000
Robert H. Adleman
1919 - 1995
Hy Hirsh
1911 - 1961
Raúl Hellmer
1913 - 1971
Frank Reagan
1919 - 1972
James Kelly (abstract expressionist artist)
1913 - 2003
Lavinia Williams
1916 - 1989
Jim Brown (basketball)
1912 - 1991
William Siri
1919 - 2004
Jack Pleis
1917 - 1990
Oscar Zimmerman
1910 - 1987
Al Brancato
1919 - 2012
Polly Rowles
1914 - 2001
Billie Seward
1912 - 1982
Herman H. Fussler
1914 - 1997
Bob Finkel
1918 - 2012
Charlotte Serber
1911 - 1967
J. Malcolm Greany
1915 - 1999
George Malcolm Laws
1919 - 1994
John F. Harvey
1918 - 2010
Rene Cailliet
1917 - 2015
Rodman W. Paul
1912 - 1987
Harold A. Fidler
1910 - 2004
Carl Lerner
1912 - 1973
Donald Gaines Murray
1914 - 1986
George W. Sarbacher Jr.
1919 - 1973
William H. Scheide
1914 - 2014
George Tunnell
1912 - 1975
George Meade Easby
1918 - 2005
Shag Crawford
1916 - 2007
Florence Melton
1911 - 2007
Bill Dietrich
1910 - 1978
Vivian Burey Marshall
1911 - 1955
Bob Wian
1914 - 1992
Frank Coleman
1912 - 2008
William Craig Smith
1918 - 1986
Marcia Levin
1918 - 2006
Ben Wilson (American artist)
1913 - 2001
Leigh Lisker
1918 - 2006
Alexander Zatonski
1915 - 1941
Reds Bassman
1913 - 2010
Oscar Lerman
1919 - 1992
Sylvia Wald
1915 - 2011
George Benjamin Jr.
1919 - 1944
Evan C. Horning
1916 - 1993
Raymond G. Perelman
1917 - 2019
Jean Chandler Smith
1918 - 1999
Philip Siekevitz
1918 - 2009
S. Howard Woodson
1916 - 1999
Lefty Hoerst
1917 - 2000
Rick Lackman
1910 - 1990
Francis X. McGraw
1918 - 1944
Kirk Hershey
1918 - 1979
Ruth Hale Oliver
1910 - 1988
Carl Frederick Kauffeld
1911 - 1974
Henry Silver
1918 - 1991
Octavio M. Salati
1914 - 2001
Robert Lowe Kunzig
1918 - 1982
Dave Douglas (golfer)
1918 - 1978
Lobo Nocho
1919 - 1997
Bernard D. Meltzer
1914 - 2007
Robert G. Lewis
1916 - 2011
Louis Robertshaw
1912 - 2003
Simon Belasco
1918 - 1999
Joseph Shallit
1915 - 1995
Stan Javie
1919 - 2002
Martin Levey
1913 - 1970
Walter Rand
1919 - 1995
Frank Modell
1917 - 2016
Robert Enders (Regisseur)
1919 - 2007
Fred Lutkefedder
1910 - 1986
Peter Camiel
1910 - 1991
Tony Morgano
1913 - 1985
George Fazio
1912 - 1986
James Louis Schad
1917 - 2002
Edith Houghton
1912 - 2013
Nancy Kominsky
1915 - 2011
Dick Carter
1916 - 1969
Irving Guyer
1916 - 2012
Hal Kelleher
1914 - 1989
Harry Olivieri
1916 - 2006
Harold Miller Null
1916 - 1996
John P. Robertson
1913 - 1998
Albert O. Vorse Jr.
1914 - 1979
Walter J. Sheldon
1917 - 1996
Victor Potamkin
1912 - 1995
Frank Ford (broadcaster)
1916 - 2009
George Harold Waldo Haag
1910 - 1998
Tony Parisse
1911 - 1956
Paul Secon
1916 - 2007
Jeanne Burbank
1915 - 2002
John H. Hamilton Jr.
1919 - 1986
Mary Frances Gerety
1916 - 1999
Steve "Pablo" Davis
1916 - 2013
Jim Meade
1914 - 1977
Edward J. Sponga
1918 - 2000
Joseph A. Sullivan
1911 - 2002
Bernie Kaplan
1913 - 1992
Woody Wheaton
1914 - 1995
Joseph Simon Lord III
1912 - 1991
John Nanoski
1918 - 2011
Rose Toll
1911 - 1997
Joe Kohlman
1913 - 1974
Charles S. Trimmier
1918 - 1967
Edgar R. Bassett
1914 - 1942
Ann Wood-Kelly
1918 - 2006
James M. McIntyre
1918 - 1991
James Anthony Wills
1912 - 1993
Red Rosan
1911 - 1976
Francis Lund Van Dusen
1912 - 1993
Harry R. J. Comer
1912 - 1990
Roland Greenfield
1919 - 1997
Bernie Snyder
1913 - 1999
Thomas Mack (rowing)
1913 - 2002
Benjamin Donolow
1917 - 1972