43.6704° N, 79.3868° W
TORONTO
Most Famous People Born in Toronto, Canada
- Notable people
- 4,438
- Peak decade
- 1950s
- Median birth year
- 1956
- Most distinctive
- Hockey 12.0×
A hockey town with a film industry on the side. Hockey alone accounts for one in seven of Toronto's notable births, and the distinctive-profession list reads like a Canadian winter — ice hockey players at twelve times the global rate, figure skaters, rowers, and novelists close behind. Almost nothing here predates Confederation; the city's notables fan out from the late 19th century into a steady bench of actors, musicians, and filmmakers.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Toronto during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1950s with 570 notable births.
What Toronto Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Hockey is Toronto's biggest profession — 14% of all notables (633).
Toronto over-indexes on hockey — 12.0× the global rate.
Toronto under-produces football — only 0.6× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Toronto's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Sports
- Film & TV
- Politics & Law
- Music
- Writing
- Science
- Other
- Filtered to 1840s Clear ×
Robert Bell (geologist)
1841 - 1917
John Ross Robertson
1841 - 1918
H.J. Whitley
1847 - 1931
Frank Bell (governor)
1840 - 1927
John Morison Gibson
1842 - 1929
Alexander Croft Shaw
1846 - 1902
William Peyton Hubbard
1842 - 1935
James Loudon
1841 - 1916
Clara Morris
1849 - 1925
William Barclay McMurrich
1842 - 1908
Matilda Ridout Edgar
1844 - 1910
William Alexander Foster
1840 - 1888
J. S. Ewart
1849 - 1933
Alfred Baker (academic)
1848 - 1942
Frederick Charles Denison
1846 - 1896
James Mason (Canadian politician)
1843 - 1918
George Clay Ginty
1840 - 1890
James Woodsworth
1843 - 1917
I. F. Hellmuth
1845 - 1944
James Joseph Foy
1847 - 1916
H. J. Grasett
1847 - 1930
Nelson Bennett
1843 - 1913
Robert T. Davies
1849 - 1916
John P. McVeane
1842 - 1896
George Lemuel Dickinson
1848 - 1930
James Barnes (Canadian politician)
Born 1842