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 1920s Clear ×
Clifford Geertz
1926 - 2006
Paul Desmond
1924 - 1977
Stuart Whitman
1928 - 2020
Gordon Moore
Born 1929
Allen Newell
1927 - 1992
Owen Chamberlain
1920 - 2006
Richard Egan (actor)
1921 - 1987
Pierre Salinger
1925 - 2004
Victor Wong (actor, born 1927)
1927 - 2001
Jerry Paris
1925 - 1986
Walter Tevis
1928 - 1984
Elmo Zumwalt
1920 - 2000
Vince Guaraldi
1928 - 1976
George Moscone
1929 - 1978
Frank Wolff (actor)
1928 - 1971
Leon Fleisher
1928 - 2020
Gregg Palmer
1927 - 2015
Pierre Koenig
1925 - 2004
Hal March
1920 - 1970
Hephzibah Menuhin
1920 - 1981
Paula Raymond
1924 - 2003
Yasuhiro Ishimoto
1921 - 2012
Jay Ward
1920 - 1989
Philip Lamantia
1927 - 2005
Jackie Jensen
1927 - 1982
Vicki Draves
1924 - 2010
Betty Edwards
Born 1926
Ann Curtis
1926 - 2012
Yaltah Menuhin
1921 - 2001
Victor Klee
1925 - 2007
Bill Perkins (saxophonist)
1924 - 2003
Bob Feerick
1920 - 1976
Ron Hayes
1929 - 2004
Eddie Firestone
1920 - 2007
José Sarria
1923 - 2013
Sam Spence
1927 - 2016
Charles Ginsburg
1920 - 1992
Charles Cooper (actor)
1926 - 2013
Eddie Duran
1925 - 2019
Gyo Obata
Born 1923
Gil McDougald
1928 - 2010
Donald Fisher
1928 - 2009
Donald Kingsbury
Born 1929
Howie Dallmar
1922 - 1991
Fred Scolari
1922 - 2002
Robert W. Straub
1920 - 2002
Myron Tribus
1921 - 2016
Bob Rosburg
1926 - 2009
Patricia Canning Todd
1922 - 2015
Philip Wolfe (mathematician)
1927 - 2016
Stanley Hiller
1924 - 2006
Kevin O'Shea (basketball)
1925 - 2003
Dan Kurzman
1922 - 2010
Russell Freedman
1929 - 2018
Francis Thomas Hurley
1927 - 2016
Frank Kudelka
1925 - 1993
Holt Ashley
1923 - 2006
Lou Cameron
1924 - 2010
Bill Calhoun (basketball)
Born 1927
Harold S. Sawyer
1920 - 2003
Joe McNamee
1926 - 2011
David Derek Stacton
1923 - 1968
Theodore H. Geballe
Born 1920
Gino Cimoli
1929 - 2011
Brenda Helser
1926 - 2001
James Gunn (screenwriter, born 1920)
1920 - 1966
Jim Fritzell
1920 - 1979
Hank Searls
1922 - 2017
Rex Downing
Born 1925
Barbara Scofield
Born 1926
Allan Birnbaum
1923 - 1976
Dick Stanfel
1927 - 2015
Kurt Chew-Een Lee
1926 - 2014
Del Martin
1921 - 2008
Robert Ignatius Burns
1921 - 2008
James Hardy (rower)
1923 - 1986
Sam Angel
1920 - 2007
Dick O'Keefe
1923 - 2006
John Lessard
1920 - 2003
Vera Franceschi
1926 - 1966
Charlie Silvera
1924 - 2019
Jade Snow Wong
1922 - 2006
Louis Leithold
1924 - 2005
Ralph Manza
1921 - 2000
Him Mark Lai
1925 - 2009
Philip Hyde (photographer)
1921 - 2006
José de Jesús Madera Uribe
1927 - 2017
Rudy Behlmer
1926 - 2019
Clarice Blackburn
1921 - 1995
Carole Gallagher
1923 - 1966
Kay Sekimachi
Born 1926
Louise Nalbandian
1926 - 1974
Arthur Gietzelt
1920 - 2014
Jack Stauffacher
1920 - 2017
Frank Haynes (musician)
1928 - 1965
Jerry Wunderlich
1925 - 1999
John D. Hawk
1924 - 2013
Robert Francis Peckham
1920 - 1993
Earl Watkins
1920 - 2007
Gene Gallette
1921 - 1976
Wheeler J. North
1922 - 2002
James Leong
1929 - 2011
Joe DeMaestri
1928 - 2016
Cesare Curzi
Born 1926
Betty Guy
1920 - 2016
Harold Levitt
1921 - 2003
Benjamen Chinn
1921 - 2009
Marigold Southey
Born 1928
Ron Crotty
1929 - 2015
Russell Solomon
1925 - 2018
Windy McCall
1925 - 2015
Barbara Jensen
1929 - 2018
Frank Lucchesi
1927 - 2019
Bob deLauer
1920 - 2002
Lisa Ben
1921 - 2015
Samuel B. Roberts
1921 - 1942
Milton Marks
1920 - 1998
Jim Baxes
1928 - 1996
Jocelyn Vollmar
1925 - 2018
Jewel McGowan
1921 - 1962
Alan Short
1920 - 2004
Paul M. Ellwood Jr.
Born 1926
Earl Bernard Murray
1926 - 2002
Robert E. Alter
1925 - 1965
Harry Elliott (baseball)
1923 - 2013
Shirley Dinsdale
1926 - 1999
Robert W. Crown
1922 - 1973
Jon Baker (American football)
1923 - 1992
Edward A. Kawānanakoa
1924 - 1997
Peter D. Ashlock
1929 - 1989
Henry Villierme
1928 - 2013
Joan Bodger
1923 - 2002
Barbara Dulinsky
1928 - 1995
Miriam Solovieff
1921 - 2004
William Paul Morehouse
1929 - 1993
Eddie Forrest (American football)
1921 - 2001
James G. McCargar
1920 - 2007
Laurel van der Wal
1924 - 2009
Herb Gorman
1924 - 1953
Leo Righetti
1925 - 1998
Anatole Boris Volkov
1924 - 2000
Edsel Ford Fong
1927 - 1984
Ken Myer
1921 - 1992
Bob DiPietro
1927 - 2012
J. Roderick MacArthur
1920 - 1984
George Burt (Komponist)
1929 - 2015
Robert Leahy Fair
1923 - 1983
Fred Martin (artist)
Born 1927
Delia Bogard
1921 - 1995
Roger Boas
1921 - 2017
Sanford Diller
1927 - 2018
Dudley Allen Buck
1927 - 1959
Philip R. Lee
Born 1924
Con Dempsey
1922 - 2006
Rod Franz
1925 - 1999
Marion Irvine
Born 1929
Lee Van Atta
1922 - 2002
Roberto Robles Garnica
1927 - 2012
Bill Bagley
Born 1928
George P. Steele
1924 - 2018
Carl Fennema
Born 1926
Ray Perry (baseball)
1920 - 1973
Harry Likas
1924 - 2017
Rhoda Haas Goldman
1924 - 1996
Marion Dietrich
1926 - 1974
John Lo Schiavo
1925 - 2015
Janet Dietrich
1926 - 2008
Roy Barni
1927 - 1957
Paul Valenti
1920 - 2014
Dick Mesak
1920 - 2009
Rene Herrerias
Born 1926
Gene Merlino
Born 1928
Devol Brett
1923 - 2010
Edward A. Biery
1920 - 2012
Ivan L. Slavich Jr.
1927 - 2012
Eugene A. Valencia Jr.
1921 - 1972
Alexander Scordelis
1923 - 2007
Morey Leonard Sear
1929 - 2004
Jim Mangan
1929 - 2007
Charles K. Bockelman
1922 - 2002
Bill Cowden
1920 - 2007
Gino Baldi
1922 - 2010
Paul V. Priolo
1927 - 2018
John W. Holmdahl
1924 - 2017
Robert I. McCarthy
1920 - 2007
Vince Tringali
1928 - 2010
Pierre N. Charbonnet Jr.
1922 - 2005
Alexander J. Dessler
Born 1928