49.2608° N, 123.1138° W
VANCOUVER
Most Famous People Born in Vancouver, Canada
- Notable people
- 1,538
- Peak decade
- 1980s
- Median birth year
- 1965
- Most distinctive
- Hockey 6.1×
A young Pacific city whose economy runs on trees, ships, and Hollywood North. Vancouver's distinctive professions are ice hockey players, sprinters, swimmers, rowers, skaters, and actors — the last because American studios have been shooting television and film here since the 1990s. Ryan Reynolds, Seth Rogen, Hayden Christensen, Cobie Smulders, and Joshua Jackson all grew up in the same few neighbourhoods; the pre-1900 tail is almost nonexistent.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Vancouver during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1980s with 281 notable births.
What Vancouver Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Actor is Vancouver's biggest profession — 20% of all notables (304).
Vancouver over-indexes on hockey — 6.1× the global rate.
Vancouver under-produces writer — only 0.4× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Vancouver'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 1910s Clear ×
John Ireland (actor)
1914 - 1992
Ann Rutherford
1917 - 2012
June Havoc
1912 - 2010
William H. McNeill (historian)
1917 - 2016
Laurence J. Peter
1919 - 1990
Katherine DeMille
1911 - 1995
Mickey Moore
1914 - 2013
Pete Newell
1915 - 2008
Ivan M. Niven
1915 - 1999
Robert F. Christy
1916 - 2012
Edmund Hockridge
1919 - 2009
Peggy Cartwright
1912 - 2001
John Drainie
1916 - 1966
Douglas Stewart (film editor)
1919 - 1995
Ronald Bladen
1918 - 1988
L. S. Stavrianos
1913 - 2004
Bernard Braden
1916 - 1993
Ward Hawkins
1912 - 1990
Chuck Chapman
1911 - 2002
Henry Pybus Bell-Irving
1913 - 2002
Lillian Palmer (athlete)
1913 - 2001
Dal Richards
1918 - 2015
Harry Snyder
1913 - 1976
Douglas Albert Munro
1919 - 1942
Frank Elliott (cyclist)
1911 - 1964
David Ross MacDonald
1915 - 1983
Andrew McKellar
1910 - 1960
Yuki Yoshida
Born 1914
Oliver Philpot
1913 - 1993
Irene Uchida
1917 - 2013
Stan Leonard
1915 - 2005
Ricky Hyslop
1915 - 1998
Elizabeth Chater
1910 - 2004
Bill Mathews
1919 - 2003
John Avison
1915 - 1983
Alexander Macdonald (British Columbia politician)
1918 - 2014
Emilio Reuben
1913 - 1988
Sheilah Beckett
1913 - 2013
Ruth apRoberts
1919 - 2006
Robert Neale (pilot)
1914 - 1994
James Carney (bishop)
1915 - 1990
James Beveridge
1917 - 1993
Marshall Limon
1915 - 1965
Glen Stewart Morley
1912 - 1996
Bob Osborne
1913 - 2003
William Rathie
1914 - 1994
Robert Hooper (swimmer)
Born 1918
Max Bernays
1910 - 1974
John Russell Taylor (politician)
1917 - 2002
Frederick Howard Buller
1914 - 1994
George Burrows (swimmer)
1910 - 1987
Howie McPhee
1916 - 1940
Wesley Drewett Black
1910 - 2000
Stanley C. Soderland
1917 - 2001
Edward McGill
1912 - 1996
Trevor Harvey (footballer)
1916 - 1988
Ethel Boyce
1917 - 1996
Frank Christian (politician)
1911 - 1988
Jean Gordon (politician)
1918 - 2008
John Groves Gould
1912 - 2002
Jack Pearsall
1915 - 1982
Campbell Millar
1911 - 1991
Frederick Morton Sharp
1911 - 2002