40.4418° N, 80.0008° W
PITTSBURGH
Most Famous People Born in Pittsburgh, United States
- Notable people
- 2,110
- Peak decade
- 1940s
- Median birth year
- 1938
- Most distinctive
- Baseball 6.2×
A steel city with an unusually literary bench — novelists, screenwriters, and musicians at the top, the legacy of Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh — alongside the expected baseball and basketball shelves. Pittsburgh's most famous son is Andy Warhol, with Gene Kelly, Gertrude Stein, Martha Graham, and Mary Cassatt a few shelves down; the philanthropic tradition is what happens when the Mellons, Fricks, and Carnegies all live on the same hill.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Pittsburgh during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1940s with 233 notable births.
What Pittsburgh Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Football is Pittsburgh's biggest profession — 11% of all notables (242).
Pittsburgh over-indexes on baseball — 6.2× the global rate.
Pittsburgh under-produces painter — only 0.7× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Pittsburgh's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Sports
- Politics & Law
- Film & TV
- Music
- Writing
- Science
- Other
- Field: Writer Clear ×
Gertrude Stein
1874 - 1946
Mary Roberts Rinehart
1876 - 1958
Augusten Burroughs
Born 1965
David Leavitt
Born 1961
Joseph Wambaugh
Born 1937
Martha Grimes
Born 1931
Jeff Grubb
Born 1957
Hervey Allen
1889 - 1949
Robert Munsch
Born 1945
Peter Hessler
Born 1969
Stewart O'Nan
Born 1961
Megan McDonald
Born 1959
Deirdre Bair
1935 - 2020
Jack Shaheen
1935 - 2017
Christian Cameron
Born 1962
David Wellington (author)
Born 1971
Hallie Quinn Brown
1849 - 1949
Gaelen Foley
Born 1973
Zak Ebrahim
Born 1983
William Demby
1922 - 2013
Florence Parry Heide
1919 - 2011
Ivan Misner
Born 1956
Lee Gutkind
Born 1945
Jeanne Marie Laskas
Born 1958
Will Hobbs
Born 1947
Bill Strickland
Born 1947
Alan Green
1906 - 1975
Philip Furia
1943 - 2019
William Margolis
1944 - 2004
Theodore Gordon
1854 - 1915
Greg Taylor (author)
Born 1951
George A. Burk
Born 1941
Rebekah Modrak
Born 1971
Irwin Shapiro (writer)
1911 - 1981
Leonard Baker
1931 - 1984
James Holding
1907 - 1997
Jack Perkowski
-
Paula Martinac
Born 1954
Kate Harrington (poet)
1831 - 1917
Elizabeth Neff Walker
Born 1944
Matthew Brown Riddle
1836 - 1916
Gene Hong
-
Mary Lowenthal Felstiner
Born 1941
Kathleen Cambor
-
Paul Downs Colaizzo
Born 1985
Kathy Gruver
Born 1970
Richard R. Werry
1916 - 1987
Joe Bartnick
-
Ronald Caplan
Born 1945
Kelly Starling Lyons
Born 1963
Samuel Casey Carter
-
Robert W. Krepps
1919 - 1980