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 1940s Clear ×
Ken Murray (ice hockey)
Born 1948
Wayne Allison (Canadian football)
1949 - 2005
Andrew Burchill Lynch
1941 - 2002
Bram Morrison
Born 1940
Thomas C. MacMillan
Born 1948
Brad Nixon
Born 1949
Bill Holden (ice hockey)
Born 1949
Alan Robinson (politician)
1948 - 2013
Bill Ballinger
Born 1945
Michael Baker (physician)
Born 1943
Gordon Judges
Born 1947
David Cotey
Born 1948
Lorne Rubenstein
Born 1948
Dianne Leigh
Born 1940
William Humber
Born 1949
Maureen Kempston Darkes
Born 1948
Dean Oldershaw
Born 1946
George Astaphan
1946 - 2006
Bill Morris (ice hockey)
Born 1949
Tom Polanic
1943 - 2019
Dave Bailey (athlete)
Born 1945
Alex Cameron (artist)
Born 1947
Michael Walsh (film critic)
Born 1945
Dave Kelly (ice hockey, born 1943)
Born 1943
Jacquie Perrin
Born 1949
Dick Aldridge
1941 - 2004
Gary Marsh (ice hockey)
Born 1946
Miriam Adams
Born 1944
Steve King (ice hockey)
Born 1948
George Standing
Born 1941
Ken Desjardine
Born 1947
Heather Elizabeth Apple
Born 1948
Ellie Tesher
Born 1941
Bill Hodgson (curler)
Born 1943
Darlene Marzari
Born 1943
Douglas Bassett (media executive)
Born 1940
Ron Asselstine
Born 1946
Norah Stoner
Born 1945
Bill Knibbs
1942 - 2006
Neil Gunn (sailor)
Born 1945
Leon Stickle
Born 1948
Donald Curphey
Born 1948
Russ Powers
Born 1949
Mark J. Dworkin
1946 - 2012
Gary Jeffries
Born 1946
Bobby Taylor (Canadian football)
Born 1941
John Mark Robinson
Born 1948
David Chudnovsky (politician)
Born 1949
Roger Green (sailor)
Born 1943
Dick Proctor
Born 1941
Jonathan Larmonth Meakins
Born 1941
Ron Waples
Born 1944
Gershon Hundert
Born 1946
Amy Snider
Born 1942
Barbara Welch
Born 1948
Wayne Yetman
Born 1946
Mike Dietsch
1942 - 2014
Al Irwin
Born 1943
Barclay Livingstone
Born 1941
Prior Smith
Born 1944
Brian Swatuk
1949 - 2014
André Bourque
1947 - 2012
Robert Henry Peters
1946 - 1996
Patrick O'Donnell (Canadian general)
1940 - 2015
Deanna Kamiel
1946 - 2018
Bill Heikkila
Born 1944
Harvey Shank
Born 1946
William McGregor (judoka)
Born 1949
Peter H. Martyn
Born 1948
William Heikila
Born 1944
Donald Gordon Murray
Born 1943