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 1920s Clear ×
Yvonne De Carlo
1922 - 2007
James Doohan
1920 - 2005
Arthur Erickson
1924 - 2009
Daryl Duke
1929 - 2006
Doug Hepburn
1926 - 2000
Dave Broadfoot
1925 - 2016
Norma MacMillan
1921 - 2001
Raymond Moriyama
Born 1929
Diane Foster
Born 1928
Pat McGeer
Born 1927
Wally Fawkes
Born 1924
Dolores Claman
Born 1927
Anne Barbara Underhill
1920 - 2003
Sammy McKim
1924 - 2004
Kazuo Nakamura
1926 - 2002
Donald G. Higman
1928 - 2006
Bernard Cowan
1922 - 1990
Bob Alexander
1922 - 1993
Lee Patterson
1929 - 2007
Joan Balzar
1928 - 2016
Masaru Shintani
1927 - 2000
Dave Campbell (basketball)
1925 - 2015
Lorne Atkinson
1921 - 2010
Bill Parnell
1928 - 2008
James Michael Gardner Fell
1923 - 2016
John Willison Green
1927 - 2016
Jack Cowan
1927 - 2000
Ole Bakken
1926 - 1992
Bob Burtwell
1927 - 2012
Rohan O'Grady
1922 - 2014
Donald Jarvis
1923 - 2001
Nev Munro
1927 - 2003
Bobby Scarr
1926 - 2001
Richard Allen (Canadian politician)
1929 - 2019
Barry Cahill (actor)
1921 - 2012
Shirley Gordon
1927 - 2019
Patrick Sykes
1925 - 2014
Ron Kelly
Born 1929
Patricia Buckley
1926 - 2007
Jack Hutchins (athlete)
1926 - 2008
Barbara Howard (athlete)
1920 - 2017
Al Neil
1924 - 2017
Helen Callaghan
1923 - 1992
Lynda Adams
Born 1920
Ray Perrault
1926 - 2008
Paul Lin Ta-kuang
1920 - 2004
Charles Eric Dawson
1922 - 1993
Tom Campbell (Canadian politician)
1927 - 2012
Stuart Milton Hodgson
1924 - 2015
Ron Huntington
1921 - 1998
Paul Sultan
Born 1924
Doug Greig
1928 - 2003
John Gelder Horler Halstead
1922 - 1998
Rod Pantages
1929 - 2012
Kenneth McLennan
1925 - 2005
Lois Smith (dancer)
1929 - 2011
Lee Millar
1924 - 1980
Hedley Woodhouse
1920 - 1984
Betty Mochizuki
Born 1929
Jimmy Whalen
1920 - 1944
Pete Thodos
1927 - 2011
Donna Gilmore
Born 1929
Maureen Ogden
Born 1928
Gogie Stewart
1929 - 2003
Marge Callaghan
1921 - 2019
Don Petrie
1922 - 2015
Robert Bonner (politician)
1920 - 2005
Doug Reid
1924 - 2007
Frank Opsal
1928 - 2008
Bruce Yorke
1924 - 2015
Don Lord
1928 - 2010
Ernie Choukalos
1927 - 1993
Douglas Everett
1927 - 2018
Eileen Dailly
1926 - 2011
Pat Philley
Born 1929
Fred Whittaker (soccer)
1923 - 2006
Alexandra Denisova
1922 - 2018
Colleen Smith
1925 - 2019
Austin Pelton
1920 - 2003
John Lang Nichol
1924 - 2020
Doug Mowat
1929 - 1992
Stanley Albert Joseph
1928 - 2001
Ezra Henniger
Born 1928
Angus Creelman Ree
1929 - 2009
Nora McDermott
1927 - 2013
George Riley (Nova Scotia politician)
1922 - 2002
Rita Panasis
1922 - 2003