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 bank5.8× 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
All736
Sort By

Showing 41 of 736 notable people

0014 ACTOR

Ruth Hussey

1911 - 2005

Preview
0031 WRITER

Grace Lee Boggs

1915 - 2015

Preview
0040 MUSIC

Bobby Hackett

1915 - 1976

Preview
0054 WRITER

Edwin O'Connor

1918 - 1968

Preview
0081 PAINTER

William Congdon

1912 - 1998

Preview
0109 ACTOR

Richard Hart (actor)

1915 - 1951

Preview
0112 DIPLOMAT

Leonard Woodcock

1911 - 2001

Preview
0116 COMPOSER

Joseph J. Lilley

1913 - 1971

Preview
0139 COMPOSER

Irving Gertz

1915 - 2008

Preview
0148 POLITICIAN

John E. Fogarty

1913 - 1967

Preview
0156 FOOTBALL

Bill Osmanski

1915 - 1996

Preview
0208 LINGUIST

William G. Moulton

1914 - 2000

Preview
0209 HAMMER THROWER

Robert Bennett (athlete)

1919 - 1974

Preview
0230 LAWYER

Frank Licht

1916 - 1987

Preview
0265 LAWYER

John S. McKiernan

1911 - 1997

Preview
0268 PAEDIATRICIAN

Morris A. Wessel

1917 - 2016

Preview
0284 PRIEST

Bernard Matthew Kelly

1918 - 2006

Preview
0291 DIPLOMAT

Henry J. Tasca

1912 - 1979

Preview
0296 PRIEST

Michael James Dempsey

1912 - 1996

Preview
0309 BOXER

Joey Archibald

1914 - 1998

Preview
0326 JUDGE

Lucien Cardin

1919 - 1988

Preview
0355 FOOTBALL

Joe Osmanski

1917 - 1993

Preview
0393 SWIMMER

John Higgins (swimmer)

1916 - 2004

Preview
0419 PAINTER

Maxwell Mays

1918 - 2009

Preview
0430 MUSIC

Frank Paparelli

1917 - 1973

Preview
0439 ARCHITECT

Ira Rakatansky

1919 - 2014

Preview
0440 ENVIRONMENTALIST

Irving Stowe

1915 - 1974

Preview
0451 ACTOR

Dorothy Lovett

1915 - 1998

Preview
0493 POLITICIAN

Aldo Tatangelo

1913 - 2008

Preview
0514 JUDGE

Joseph A. Bevilacqua Sr.

1918 - 1989

Preview
0517 ACTOR

Harry Clark (actor)

1910 - 1956

Preview
0534 PASTOR

Rolf McPherson

1913 - 2009

Preview
0541 SCHOLAR

Cedric Whitman

1916 - 1979

Preview
0562 FOOTBALL

Ray Monaco

1918 - 2002

Preview
0592 BASKET

Joe Zabilski

1917 - 2002

Preview
0596 LAWYER

Edward P. Gallogly

1919 - 1995

Preview
0637 PRODUCER

Rudy Traylor

1918 - 1992

Preview
0655 COACH

Clarence Boston

1917 - 2002

Preview
0706 LAWYER

Raymond James Pettine

1912 - 2003

Preview
0708 LIEUTENANT

Leonard Holland

1916 - 1999

Preview
0715 MILITAR

Gerald F. Russell

1916 - 2014

Preview