41.7866° N, 71.5578° W

PROVIDENCE

Most Famous People Born in Providence, United States

Notable people
736
Peak decade
1940s
Median birth year
1927
Most distinctive
Bank 5.8×

Providence's Bank bench is what's left of the old Rhode Island mercantile and textile fortunes that built Federal Hill and the Brown family empire, with a Lawyer class drawn from the same patrician pipeline. The Baseball count reaches back to the Providence Grays of the 1880s, while a modern RISD-and-Brown creative vein runs through the Music and Screenwriter lines — Damien Chazelle and a thick seam of film composers.

Through the Decades

One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Providence during each.

Notable Births by Decade

Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1940s with 86 notable births.

What Providence Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Politician is Providence's biggest profession — 16% of all notables (116).

Providence over-indexes on bank — 5.8× the global rate.

Providence under-produces football — only 0.3× the global rate.

  1. Politician116
  2. Lawyer54
  3. Actor50
  4. Baseball39
  5. Football22
  6. Music20
  7. Writer17
  8. Painter17
  1. Bank75.8×
  2. Baseball394.7×
  3. Lawyer544.2×
  4. Boxer82.7×
  5. Officer112.3×
  6. Screenwriter72.2×
  7. Diplomat92.1×
  8. Music201.9×
  1. Football220.3×

Profession Mix Over Time

Each band shows a profession family's share of Providence's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.

1700175018001850190019502000
  • Politics & Law
  • Sports
  • Film & TV
  • Writing
  • Music
  • Science
  • Other
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Showing 28 of 736 notable people

0059 POLITICIAN

Theodore F. Green

1867 - 1966

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0080 WRITER

Georges Polti

1867 - 1946

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0095 DIPLOMAT

Frederic M. Sackett

1868 - 1941

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0097 PAINTER

Dodge MacKnight

1860 - 1950

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0135 POLITICIAN

Jesse H. Metcalf

1860 - 1942

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0168 TYPOGRAPHER

Daniel Berkeley Updike

1860 - 1941

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0173 DRAMA

George Pierce Baker

1866 - 1935

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0211 MUSIC

Richard Aldrich (music critic)

1863 - 1937

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0248 ECONOMIST

Henry B. Gardner

1863 - 1939

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0267 ECONOMIST

Carl C. Plehn

1867 - 1945

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0358 COLLECTOR

John Nicholas Brown I

1861 - 1900

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0390 BASEBALL

Ed Daily

1862 - 1891

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0412 COLLECTOR

Lucy Aldrich

1869 - 1955

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0448 BOTANIST

Jane Boit Patten

1869 - 1964

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0463 PHILANTHROPIST

Harold Brown (Rhode Island)

1863 - 1900

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0498 BASEBALL

Tom Lovett

1863 - 1928

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0510 BASEBALL

Scott Stratton

1869 - 1939

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0550 SPORT

Hope Goddard Iselin

1868 - 1970

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0606 BASEBALL

Edgar Smith (pitcher)

1862 - 1892

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0608 BASEBALL

John Cattanach

1863 - 1926

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0634 BASEBALL

Artie Clarke

1865 - 1949

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0642 BASEBALL

Hank Morrison

1866 - 1927

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0647 POLITICIAN

Ralph Metcalf (Washington politician)

1861 - 1939

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0653 BASEBALL

Bill Sullivan (pitcher)

1868 - 1905

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0671 BASEBALL

Art Hagan

1863 - 1936

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0682 BASEBALL

Dennis Driscoll

1862 - 1901

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0698 BASEBALL

Joe Flynn (baseball)

1861 - 1933

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0721 BANK

Elisha Dyer III

1862 - 1917

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