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 58 of 1,210 notable people

0001 ACTOR

Spencer Tracy

1900 - 1967

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0007 HISTORIAN

George F. Kennan

1904 - 2005

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0056 PSYCHOLOGIST

Neal E. Miller

1909 - 2002

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0061 BASEBALL

Al Simmons

1902 - 1956

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0064 ACTOR

Eduard Franz

1902 - 1983

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0065 WRITER

Mildred Harnack

1902 - 1943

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0066 SCREENWRITER

Abner Biberman

1909 - 1977

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0067 BUSINESS

Walter Annenberg

1908 - 2002

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0071 ACTOR

Ray "Crash" Corrigan

1902 - 1976

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0076 COMPOSER

Heinz Roemheld

1901 - 1985

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0096 ENGINEER

Lloyd Berkner

1905 - 1967

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0103 WRITER

Marguerite Henry

1902 - 1997

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0113 COMPOSER

Otto Luening

1900 - 1996

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0124 PRELATE

Albert Gregory Meyer

1903 - 1965

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0157 SCREENWRITER

William Berke

1903 - 1958

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0201 ACTOR

Marie Eline

1902 - 1981

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0210 ANTHROPOLOGIST

Sol Tax

1907 - 1995

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0287 ENGINEER

George Harold Brown

1908 - 1987

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0344 EDUCATOR

Morris Asimow

1906 - 1982

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0348 LAWYER

LaVern Dilweg

1903 - 1968

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0367 PRELATE

Alphonse James Schladweiler

1902 - 1996

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0381 FOOTBALL

Red Dunn

1901 - 1957

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0397 ACTOR

William Tubbs

1907 - 1953

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0407 POLITICIAN

Thaddeus Wasielewski

1904 - 1976

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0424 POLITICIAN

Ned R. Healy

1905 - 1977

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0442 POLITICIAN

Thomas O'Malley (congressman)

1903 - 1979

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0443 CONDUCTOR

Mitchell Ayres

1909 - 1969

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0456 PHOTOJOURNALIST

Harrison Forman

1904 - 1978

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0470 ART HISTORIAN

Carl Schuster

1904 - 1969

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0471 POLITICIAN

Lewis D. Thill

1903 - 1975

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0529 MAFIA

Frank Bompensiero

1905 - 1977

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0698 DESIGNER

Abe Feder

1908 - 1997

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0702 FOOTBALL

Fred Miller (American football, born 1906)

1906 - 1954

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0709 HISTORIAN

Harold C. Deutsch

1904 - 1995

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0775 EXECUTIVE

Franklin Orth

1907 - 1970

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0783 LAWYER

Robert Emmet Tehan

1905 - 1975

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0832 ACTOR

Jay Jostyn

1905 - 1977

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0833 COACH

John W. Breen

1907 - 1984

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0867 PHOTOGRAPHER

Herman V. Wall

1905 - 1997

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0888 NUN

Elizabeth Hirschboeck

1903 - 1986

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0916 POLITICIAN

Carl Zeidler

1908 - 1942

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0917 FOOTBALL

John Doehring

1909 - 1972

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0928 TECHNICIAN

Donovan Werner

1902 - 1988

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0956 RACECAR

Carl Marchese

1905 - 1984

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0973 GEOLOGIST

Gilbert Oscar Raasch

1903 - 1999

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0991 FOOTBALL

George Berry (American football)

1900 - 1986

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0996 BASEBALL

Al Eckert

1906 - 1974

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1008 FOOTBALL

Fritz Breidster

1900 - 1982

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1036 MILITAR

Frederick L. Wieseman

1908 - 1994

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1058 COACH

Marshall Klevenow

1901 - 1976

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1066 LAWYER

Cornelius T. Young

1908 - 1980

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1085 LAWYER

Leonard Fons

1903 - 1956

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1088 ASSEMBLY

John C. McBride

1908 - 1979

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1130 POLITICIAN

John C. Doerfer

1904 - 1992

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1144 JUDGE

John E. Reilly Jr.

1902 - 1963

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1161 OFFICER

Herbert W. Ehrgott

1904 - 1982

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1198 FILM

Burton F. Miller

1905 - 1976

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1205 POLITICIAN

William Luebke

1906 - 1960

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