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 62 of 1,210 notable people

0016 ACTOR

Pat O'Brien (actor)

1899 - 1983

Preview
0048 ACTOR

Alfred Lunt

1892 - 1977

Preview
0049 OFFICER

Hoyt Vandenberg

1899 - 1954

Preview
0074 PSYCHOLOGIST

Floyd Henry Allport

1890 - 1979

Preview
0082 DIPLOMAT

Robert Daniel Murphy

1894 - 1978

Preview
0180 ENGINEER

Ernst Guillemin

1898 - 1970

Preview
0217 ACTOR

Ben Bard

1893 - 1974

Preview
0222 COMPOSER

Bernhard Kaun

1899 - 1980

Preview
0233 SCENOGRAPHER

Victor A. Gangelin

1899 - 1967

Preview
0263 RUNNER

Arlie Schardt

1895 - 1980

Preview
0273 CONDUCTOR

David Snell (composer)

1897 - 1967

Preview
0311 ACTOR

Ashton Dearholt

1894 - 1942

Preview
0313 POLITICIAN

Louise Goff Reece

1898 - 1970

Preview
0324 ACTOR

Bobby Dunn

1890 - 1937

Preview
0329 POET

Horace Gregory

1898 - 1982

Preview
0404 POLITICIAN

John C. Schafer

1893 - 1962

Preview
0422 BOXER

Bob Moha

1890 - 1959

Preview
0427 SOCIALITE

Tommy Manville

1894 - 1967

Preview
0447 SCREENWRITER

Alice D. G. Miller

1894 - 1985

Preview
0475 BASEBALL

Happy Felsch

1891 - 1964

Preview
0484 ACTOR

Sidney Fields

1898 - 1975

Preview
0488 BOXER

Pinky Mitchell

1899 - 1976

Preview
0497 WRITER

Marie Hall Ets

1895 - 1984

Preview
0509 INVENTOR

Rudolph Hass

1892 - 1952

Preview
0517 OFFICER

Earl E. Stone

1895 - 1989

Preview
0522 PERFORMER

Benny Fields

1894 - 1959

Preview
0600 PRIEST

Roman Richard Atkielski

1899 - 1969

Preview
0611 OFFICER

Lester J. Maitland

1899 - 1990

Preview
0613 BASEBALL

Joe Hauser

1899 - 1997

Preview
0642 MILITAR

Oscar Koch

1897 - 1970

Preview
0657 ZOOLOGIST

Walter Charles Kraatz

1893 - 1970

Preview
0683 SWIMMING

Katherine Whitney Curtis

1897 - 1980

Preview
0689 OFFICER

Augustus F. Gearhard

1893 - 1975

Preview
0708 BASEBALL

Fred Thomas (third baseman)

1892 - 1986

Preview
0770 FOOTBALL

Clem Neacy

1898 - 1968

Preview
0820 SCREENWRITER

Paul Gangelin

1898 - 1961

Preview
0822 BASEBALL

Mandy Brooks

1897 - 1962

Preview
0870 DIPLOMAT

Richard Paul Momsen

1891 - 1965

Preview
0885 BASEBALL

Joe Mathes

1891 - 1978

Preview
0886 ACTOR

James Harrison (acteur)

1891 - 1986

Preview
0909 FOOTBALL

Adolph Kliebhan

1897 - 1963

Preview
0931 MILITAR

George Croil

1893 - 1959

Preview
0934 OFFICER

Herbert J. Ray

1893 - 1970

Preview
0966 FOOTBALL

Shorty Barr

1897 - 1957

Preview
0976 FOOTBALL

Irv Langhoff

1897 - 1952

Preview
1059 POLITICIAN

Eric E. Hagedorn

1896 - 1963

Preview
1071 FOOTBALL

Art Schmaehl

1894 - 1967

Preview
1094 SPORT

Bernard Betke

1891 - 1975

Preview
1110 POLITICIAN

Joseph Przybylski

Born 1897

Preview
1137 POLITICIAN

George Czerwinski

Born 1890

Preview
1143 POLITICIAN

Irving P. Mehigan

1898 - 1980

Preview
1146 FOOTBALL

Hank Gillo

1894 - 1948

Preview
1153 FOOTBALL

Howard Stark (American football)

1896 - 1981

Preview
1158 OFFICER

Arthur L. McCullough

1896 - 1979

Preview
1176 FOOTBALL

Whitey Wolter

1899 - 1947

Preview
1184 LAWYER

Roland J. Steinle

1896 - 1966

Preview
1187 LAWYER

William H. Dieterich (judge)

1897 - 1964

Preview
1193 MUSIC

Paul A. Miedtke

1894 - 1959

Preview
1197 WRITER

Eleanore Barté

1893 - 1946

Preview
1206 FOOTBALL

Erwin C. Gerber

Born 1894

Preview
1209 POLITICIAN

Edward F. Mertz

Born 1890

Preview
1210 POLITICIAN

Paul Jaeger

Born 1891

Preview