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 1900s Clear ×
Ansel Adams
1902 - 1984
Mel Blanc
1908 - 1989
Mervyn LeRoy
1900 - 1987
Lloyd Nolan
1902 - 1985
Elisha Cook Jr.
1903 - 1995
Irving Stone
1903 - 1989
Pat Brown
1905 - 1996
Charles Lane (actor)
1905 - 2007
Delmer Daves
1904 - 1977
Raymond Bailey
1904 - 1980
Malvina Reynolds
1900 - 1978
Joe Cronin
1906 - 1984
Lloyd Corrigan
1900 - 1969
Milt Kahl
1909 - 1987
John A. McCone
1902 - 1991
Hugo Friedhofer
1901 - 1981
Philip Arthur Fisher
1907 - 2004
Charles Barton (director)
1902 - 1981
Tony Lazzeri
1903 - 1946
Phillip Terry
1909 - 1993
Lynn Townsend White Jr.
1907 - 1987
Paul Hartman
1904 - 1973
Wini Shaw
1907 - 1982
Louise Lorraine
1901 - 1981
Lionel Lindon
1905 - 1971
John Eldredge (actor)
1904 - 1961
Robert T. Frederick
1907 - 1970
Kathryn Forbes
1908 - 1966
Sheila Bromley
1907 - 2003
Kam Tong
1906 - 1969
Irving Asher
1903 - 1985
Wilhelmina von Bremen
1909 - 1976
John F. Shelley
1905 - 1974
Jerry Fairbanks
1904 - 1995
Dolph Camilli
1907 - 1997
Olin Chaddock Wilson
1909 - 1994
Emerson Spencer
1906 - 1985
Lloyd French
1900 - 1950
Sidney Robertson Cowell
1903 - 1995
Boris Pash
1900 - 1995
Lloyd (Bud) Winter
1909 - 1985
Kathryn Hulme
1900 - 1981
Winthrop Sargeant
1903 - 1986
Mike Quin
1906 - 1947
Henri LaBorde
1909 - 1993
Grace Hartman (actress)
1907 - 1955
Richard Hyland (rugby)
1900 - 1981
Mark Koenig
1904 - 1993
Heaton Wrenn
1900 - 1978
Elbridge Durbrow
1903 - 1997
Hugh Aloysius Donohoe
1905 - 1987
Milton Wexler
1908 - 2007
Harold Olmo
1909 - 2006
Nat Ross
1902 - 1941
Agness Underwood
1902 - 1984
Alfred Brousseau
1907 - 1988
Robert T. Orr
1908 - 1994
Frankie Klick
1907 - 1982
Willie Kamm
1900 - 1988
Robert Adair (actor)
1900 - 1954
Sterling Noel
1903 - 1984
Sammee Tong
1901 - 1964
Dorr Bothwell
1902 - 2000
Thomas C. Lynch
1904 - 1986
Mario J. Ciampi
1907 - 2006
Lloyd Leith
1902 - 1979
Henry Clausen
1905 - 1992
Frances Baldwin
1907 - 1999
George Mitchell (water polo)
1901 - 1988
Emil M. Mrak
1901 - 1987
Chester Gan
1908 - 1959
Elizabeth Gilmore Holt
1905 - 1987
Frederick Wolters
1904 - 1990
Ray Casey
1900 - 1982
Alfred Boeddeker
1903 - 1994
August Ludwig Hormay
1907 - 1999
Jack Silver (boxer)
1903 - 1994
Merv Shea
1900 - 1953
Harry Rosenberg
1908 - 1997
A. Arthur Schiller
1902 - 1977
John K. Butler
1908 - 1964
Allen J. Greenough
1905 - 1974
Leslie Skinner
1900 - 1978
Bill Posedel
1906 - 1989
Edith Cross
1907 - 1983
Robert E. Cornish
1903 - 1963
Raymond Puccinelli
1904 - 1986
Vernon DeMars
1908 - 2005
James Thomas O'Dowd
1907 - 1950
Lou Rosenberg
1904 - 1991
Lincoln Fitzell
1903 - 1958
Rose Terlin
1908 - 1979
Ralph Marcus
1900 - 1956
Joe Petrali
1904 - 1973
Blake Colburn Wilbur
1901 - 1974
Robert Carlson (sailor)
1905 - 1965
Francis James Carmody
1907 - 1982
Art Garibaldi
1907 - 1967
Lawrence V. Castner
1902 - 1949
Lester Smith (swimmer)
1902 - 1957
Fred H. Swan
1902 - 1993
Rimo Carlo Felice Bacigalupi
1901 - 1996
John Paul Chase
1901 - 1973
Mathew Tobriner
1904 - 1982
Harry L. Wolf
1908 - 1993
Barbara Ochs Adler
1903 - 1971
George Puccinelli
1907 - 1956
Henry M. Leicester
1906 - 1991
Gus Suhr
1906 - 2004
Lindsay C. Howard
1904 - 1971
Gerald A. Drew
1903 - 1970
Mary Wynn
1902 - 2001
Leon Goldman
1906 - 1997
Irving P. Krick
1906 - 1996
Ruby Foo
1904 - 1950
Betty Marsh
1909 - 1994
Willie Ludolph
1900 - 1952
Franz Rohwer
1905 - 1981
Karl Ichiro Akiya
1909 - 2001
George Hurley (American football)
1909 - 1995
Leon Goldman (1904-1975)
1904 - 1975
Bruce Cunningham
1905 - 1984
Charles Litton Sr.
1904 - 1972
David Young III
Born 1905
Hank Patterson (baseball)
1907 - 1970
Barbara Perkins Gamow
1905 - 1975
Earl Fuller (athlete)
1904 - 1956
Juddy Ash
1900 - 1965
William J. Hirsch
1909 - 1997
Bud Connolly
1901 - 1964
Raymond L. Sullivan
1907 - 1999
Dick Gyselman
1908 - 1990
Albert Charles Wollenberg
1900 - 1981
Mario Balistreri
1901 - 1979
George Bernard Harris
1901 - 1983
Louise Todd Lambert
1905 - 1991
Vincent Barrisa
Born 1903
J. N. A. Hawkins
1907 - 1966
Ed Montague (shortstop)
1905 - 1988
Jim Begley
1902 - 1957
B. J. Feigenbaum
1900 - 1984
Stu Clarke
1906 - 1985
Barbara Leonard
1908 - 1971