37.7775° N, 122.4165° W
SAN FRANCISCO
Most Famous People Born in San Francisco, United States
- Notable people
- 2,619
- Peak decade
- 1960s
- Median birth year
- 1943
- Most distinctive
- Baseball 6.1×
A city of restless reinventions. San Francisco's notables are heavily literary and athletic in the 19th century, then heavily technological and countercultural in the 20th — the same town gave the world Jack London and Steve Jobs, Ansel Adams and Bruce Lee, the Beats and the venture capitalists. The dataset doesn't show the tech industry as a category, but you can see its silhouette in the unusually high share of entrepreneurs, engineers, and screenwriters with day jobs in software.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in San Francisco during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1960s with 295 notable births.
What San Francisco Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Actor is San Francisco's biggest profession — 15% of all notables (385).
San Francisco over-indexes on baseball — 6.1× the global rate.
San Francisco under-produces politician — only 0.4× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of San Francisco's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Sports
- Film & TV
- Music
- Politics & Law
- Writing
- Art & Design
- Other
- Filtered to 1890s Clear ×
Gracie Allen
1895 - 1964
Beatrice Wood
1893 - 1998
Dorothy Arzner
1897 - 1979
George O'Brien (actor)
1899 - 1985
Walter Wanger
1894 - 1968
David Butler (director)
1894 - 1979
Sidney Franklin (director)
1893 - 1972
Alma Rubens
1897 - 1931
Will Wright (actor)
1891 - 1962
Frank Fay (American actor)
1891 - 1961
Carmel Myers
1899 - 1980
Hal Mohr
1894 - 1974
Ruth Roland
1892 - 1937
Charles Lamont
1895 - 1993
Louise Dahl-Wolfe
1895 - 1989
Bill Johnston (tennis)
1894 - 1946
Roland Totheroh
1890 - 1967
Lillian Lorraine
1892 - 1955
Aileen Pringle
1895 - 1989
Daniel J. Callaghan
1890 - 1942
Harry Heilmann
1894 - 1951
Lefty O'Doul
1897 - 1969
Alfred Santell
1895 - 1981
Lewis Martin (actor)
1895 - 1974
Winifred Westover
1899 - 1978
Roy D'Arcy
1894 - 1969
Stanton A. Coblentz
1896 - 1982
George Eldredge
1898 - 1977
Fred Guiol
1898 - 1964
Robert Gordon Sproul
1891 - 1975
George Kelly (baseball)
1895 - 1984
Frederick Jacobi
1891 - 1952
Feg Murray
1894 - 1973
Alma Lavenson
1897 - 1989
William Gaxton
1893 - 1963
Lenore Coffee
1896 - 1984
Earle Nelson
1897 - 1928
Lawrence Gray
1898 - 1970
Emory Johnson
1894 - 1960
Jimmy Murphy (racing driver)
1894 - 1924
Josephine Hill
1899 - 1989
James David Zellerbach
1892 - 1963
Elmer Robinson
1894 - 1982
LeRoy Stone
1894 - 1949
Robert Lindley Murray
1892 - 1970
Walter Woolf King
1899 - 1984
Thomas Arthur Connolly
1899 - 1991
George P. Miller
1891 - 1982
Willie Ritchie
1891 - 1975
Charles Doe
1898 - 1995
John R. Deane
1896 - 1982
Carmen Phillips
1895 - 1936
Fay Babcock
1895 - 1970
Ernest Born
1898 - 1992
Timothy L. Pflueger
1892 - 1946
Haraden Pratt
1891 - 1969
Jack Sullivan (film director)
1893 - 1946
Cromwell Dixon
1892 - 1911
Douglas Campbell (aviator)
1896 - 1990
Allan Sproul
1896 - 1978
Harry Crocker
1893 - 1958
Swede Risberg
1894 - 1975
George Crone
1894 - 1966
George Nicholls Jr.
1897 - 1939
Florence Gould
1895 - 1983
Billie Rhodes
1894 - 1988
Chester Bennett
1892 - 1943
Vincent Hallinan
1896 - 1992
Norman Slater
1894 - 1979
Blossom Seeley
1891 - 1974
Ossie Vitt
1890 - 1963
Julian Rivero
1890 - 1976
Dorothy Van Doren
1896 - 1993
Gerald M. Loeb
1899 - 1974
Charles F. Curry Jr.
1893 - 1972
Herbert Maier
1893 - 1969
Edgar Magnin
1890 - 1984
William M. Callaghan
1897 - 1991
Chester Conn
1894 - 1973
Richard W. Dorgan
1892 - 1953
Zion Myers
1898 - 1948
Edward Graff
1897 - 1954
Chester Stock
1892 - 1950
Estelle Etterre
1899 - 1996
Philip Clark (rugby union)
1898 - 1985
Edna Maison
1892 - 1946
Babe Pinelli
1895 - 1984
Helen Katharine Forbes
1891 - 1945
Gerald Haxton
1892 - 1944
Jay McLean
1890 - 1957
Warren Atherton
1891 - 1976
Chicken Hawks
1896 - 1973
Birge Clark
1893 - 1989
Edward Turkington
1899 - 1996
You Chung Hong
1898 - 1977
Billy Orr (baseball)
1891 - 1967
Dan Totheroh
1894 - 1976
Howard J. Green
1893 - 1965
Bert Cole
1896 - 1975
Lurline Matson Roth
1890 - 1985
Bill Hubbell
1897 - 1980
Bill Cunningham (outfielder)
1894 - 1953
Heinie Sand
1897 - 1958
Marion E. Wong
1895 - 1970
Sam Bohne
1896 - 1977
James L. Underhill
1891 - 1991
Harold W. Roberts
1895 - 1918
Shirley Leon Quimby
1893 - 1986
Roxy Walters
1892 - 1956
Jack Howell (swimmer)
1899 - 1967
Charles Draper Faulkner
1890 - 1979
Walter Morosco
1899 - 1948
Cuckoo Christensen
1899 - 1984
John Kerr (baseball)
1898 - 1993
Charles Dorety
1898 - 1957
Ren Kelly
1899 - 1963
Doris Ryer Nixon
1893 - 1948
Dagmar Oakland
1893 - 1989
Eleanor Tennant
1895 - 1963
Noël Sullivan
1890 - 1956
Eddie Kenna
1897 - 1972
George Ellison (baseball)
1897 - 1978
Glover Edwin Ruckstell
1891 - 1963
Wilna Hervey
1894 - 1979
Ike Caveney
1894 - 1949
Henry Doelger
1896 - 1978
Milt Steengrafe
1898 - 1977
Charles Casimir Poniatowski
1897 - 1980
John R. Strachan
1895 - 1970
Gray C. Boyce
1899 - 1981
Daniel E. Koshland Sr.
1892 - 1979
Eva Prout
1899 - 1985
Homer R. Spence
1891 - 1973
Dink O'Brien
1894 - 1971
Roy Graham (baseball)
1895 - 1933
Charlie Dorman
1898 - 1928
Gus Peterson
1893 - 1969
Tallant Tubbs
1897 - 1969
Georgie Ratterman
1898 - 1961
Joe Connolly (1920s outfielder)
1894 - 1960
Melvyn I. Cronin
1898 - 1977
George Archibald (jockey)
1890 - 1927
Herb McQuaid
1899 - 1966
Phyllida Ashley
1894 - 1975
Luigi Giuntoli
1896 - 1971