43.0497° N, 87.9501° W

MILWAUKEE

Most Famous People Born in Milwaukee, United States

Notable people
1,210
Peak decade
1950s
Median birth year
1940
Most distinctive
Baseball 5.0×

Milwaukee's bench leans hard on mid-century brains and beer-league sport: a thick Baseball and Basket cohort traces back to the Braves-then-Brewers years and Marquette's old basketball powerhouse, while an outsized Lawyer class reflects the Gilded Age German-American legal scene that eventually sent a chief justice to the Supreme Court. The quieter Film vein belongs to the studio-era screenwriters and directors who filtered up through Chicago on their way to Hollywood.

Through the Decades

One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Milwaukee during each.

Notable Births by Decade

Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1950s with 140 notable births.

What Milwaukee Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Politician is Milwaukee's biggest profession — 12% of all notables (148).

Milwaukee over-indexes on baseball5.0× the global rate.

  1. Politician148
  2. Football111
  3. Actor82
  4. Baseball69
  5. Lawyer69
  6. Basket62
  7. Writer31
  8. Film29
  1. Baseball695.0×
  2. Basket624.1×
  3. Lawyer693.3×
  4. Officer182.3×
  5. Film291.9×

Profession Mix Over Time

Each band shows a profession family's share of Milwaukee's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.

1850187519001925195019752000
  • Sports
  • Politics & Law
  • Film & TV
  • Science
  • Writing
  • Music
  • Other
All1,210
Sort By

Showing 45 of 1,210 notable people

0051 COMPOSER

Herbert Stothart

1885 - 1949

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0090 PRELATE

Aloisius Joseph Muench

1889 - 1962

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0147 ENGINEER

William S. Harley

1880 - 1943

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0159 ACTOR

Robert Emmett O'Connor

1885 - 1962

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0215 CHEMIST

Hermann Irving Schlesinger

1882 - 1960

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0241 ARCHITECT

David Adler (architect)

1882 - 1949

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0247 WEIGHTLIFTER

Oscar Osthoff

1883 - 1950

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0296 DIPLOMAT

John Cudahy

1887 - 1943

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0304 BASEBALL

Bobby Marshall

1880 - 1958

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0343 BASKET

Christian Steinmetz

1882 - 1963

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0387 POLITICIAN

Fred R. Zimmerman

1880 - 1954

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0396 PHOTOGRAPHER

Lejaren Hiller Sr.

1880 - 1969

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0398 ENFANT

Edna Gladney

1886 - 1961

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0411 BOTANIST

Lewis Knudson

1884 - 1958

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0430 LAWYER

John C. Kleczka

1885 - 1959

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0446 SWIMMER

Jerome Steever

1880 - 1957

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0489 ACTOR

Joseph Graybill

1887 - 1913

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0499 HISTORIAN

Frederick Merk

1887 - 1977

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0548 BUSINESS

Arthur Davidson (motorcycling)

1881 - 1950

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0549 PRIEST

William Patrick O'Connor

1886 - 1973

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0662 SPORT

Anthony Williamsen

1880 - 1956

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0678 BASEBALL

Fred Luderus

1885 - 1961

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0688 BASEBALL

George McBride

1880 - 1973

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0701 BASEBALL

Art Kores

1889 - 1974

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0705 WRITER

Eleanor Mercein Kelly

1880 - 1968

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0716 JOURNALIST

Ruth Mitchell

1888 - 1969

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0740 BASEBALL

Brick Owens

1885 - 1949

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0745 BASEBALL

Art Bues

1888 - 1954

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0802 ACTOR

Lillian Knight

1883 - 1946

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0810 BASKET

Haskell Noyes

1886 - 1948

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0823 SINGER

Anna Ecklund

Born 1882

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0835 POLITICIAN

Leo Krzycki

1881 - 1966

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0839 FILM

E. J. Babille

1883 - 1970

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0851 NOVELIST

Gertrude Sanborn

1881 - 1928

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0856 OFFICER

Abraham DeSomer

1884 - 1974

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0911 BASEBALL

Frank Schneiberg

1880 - 1948

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0942 POLITICIAN

George Hampel (legislator)

1885 - 1954

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0983 ENTOMOLOGIST

Richard Anthony Muttkowski

1887 - 1943

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0994 COMPOSER

Marion Blackwell

1887 - 1987

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1120 LAWYER

Alfred Tweedy

Born 1880

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1121 BUSINESS

Tobé Coller Davis

1888 - 1962

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1135 LAWYER

William F. Quick

1885 - 1966

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1181 RACECAR

Will Jones (racing driver)

1889 - 1972

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1191 POLITICIAN

Sandy MacKay

1881 - 1952

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1194 BASEBALL

Lou Manske

1884 - 1963

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