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
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Showing 56 of 736 notable people

0007 PSYCHIATRIST

Aaron T. Beck

Born 1921

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0012 ACTOR

David Hedison

1927 - 2019

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0015 ACTOR

Nicholas Colasanto

1924 - 1985

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0019 ACTOR

Alice Drummond

1928 - 2016

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0025 POLITICIAN

John Chafee

1922 - 1999

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0042 POET

Galway Kinnell

1927 - 2014

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0084 COMPOSER

Ben Weisman

1921 - 2007

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0089 POLITICIAN

Bruce Sundlun

1920 - 2011

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0096 ASTRONOMER

George B. Field

Born 1929

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0138 SCIENTIST

Richard H. Bube

1927 - 2018

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0191 POLITICIAN

Robert Tiernan

1929 - 2014

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0200 PSYCHOLOGIST

Robert Glaser

1921 - 2012

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0210 PSYCHOLOGIST

Ogden Lindsley

1922 - 2004

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0222 PUBLISHER

Donald M. Grant

1927 - 2009

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0240 ASTRONOMER

Gordon Pettengill

Born 1926

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0262 PRELATE

Daniel Patrick Reilly

Born 1928

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0274 MUSIC

George Crum (musician)

1926 - 2007

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0279 BASKET

Earl Shannon

1921 - 2002

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0289 BASEBALL

Lou Gorman

1929 - 2011

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0312 ILLUSTRATOR

Tom Adams (illustrator)

1926 - 2019

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0314 ACTOR

Paul Michael

1927 - 2011

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0315 HOCKEY

Gerald Kilmartin

1927 - 1970

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0318 SWIMMER

Clara LaMore

Born 1926

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0324 MUSIC

Eddie Zack

1922 - 2002

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0373 POLITICIAN

Giovanni Folcarelli

1926 - 1982

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0389 PRIEST

Ernest Bertrand Boland

Born 1925

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0392 DIPLOMAT

James Goodby

Born 1929

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0395 PRIEST

Francis Xavier Roque

1928 - 2019

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0403 MUSIC

Reuben Phillips (musician)

1920 - 1974

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0410 ENVIRONMENTALIST

Dorothy Stowe

1920 - 2010

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0424 ACTOR

Ida James

1920 - 1986

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0428 DIPLOMAT

Frederick Irving

1921 - 2016

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0429 ACADEMIC

Simon Ostrach

1923 - 2017

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0435 LAWYER

Ann Aldrich

1927 - 2010

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0462 PROFESSOR

Allen W. Phillips

1922 - 2011

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0487 PAINTER

Herbert Fink

1921 - 2006

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0515 WRITER

Elizabeth Pepper

1923 - 2005

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0528 FOOTBALL

Paul Briggs (American football)

1920 - 2011

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0530 ACTIVIST

Maurice Davis

1921 - 1993

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0543 POLITICIAN

Robert Q. Crane

1926 - 2018

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0557 LAWYER

Herbert F. DeSimone

1929 - 2013

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0574 MARINE

Harry Kizirian

1925 - 2002

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0581 FOOTBALL

Earl Audet

1921 - 2002

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0609 MUSIC

Feliciano Vierra Tavares

1920 - 2008

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0619 HOCKEY

Dick Rondeau

1921 - 1989

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0630 BASEBALL

Marilyn C. Jones

1927 - 2015

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0665 FOOTBALL

Walt Slater

1920 - 2012

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0666 LAWYER

Vincent Ragosta

1924 - 2017

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0674 LAWYER

Joseph R. Weisberger

1920 - 2012

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0675 PAINTER

Clement Micarelli

1929 - 2008

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0676 POET

George Leite

1920 - 1985

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0694 BASEBALL

Barbara Liebrich

1922 - 2006

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0703 LAWYER

Leonard Decof

1924 - 2010

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0707 LAWYER

Francis Joseph Boyle

1927 - 2006

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0719 BASEBALL

Anita Foss

Born 1921

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0720 JOURNALIST

John C. Quinn

1925 - 2017

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