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.
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 baseball — 5.0× the global rate.
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.
- Sports
- Politics & Law
- Film & TV
- Science
- Writing
- Music
- Other
- Filtered to 1910s Clear ×
Herbert A. Simon
1916 - 2001
Woody Herman
1913 - 1987
Cordwainer Smith
1913 - 1966
Jack Finney
1911 - 1995
Joseph Anthony
1912 - 1993
Dickey Chapelle
1919 - 1965
Raymond A. Palmer
1910 - 1977
Frank Parker
1916 - 1997
Marjorie Grene
1910 - 2009
Brooks Stevens
1911 - 1995
Wilbur J. Cohen
1913 - 1987
Richard Lippold
1915 - 2002
Herschel Burke Gilbert
1918 - 2003
Clement J. Zablocki
1912 - 1983
Dean Amadon
1912 - 2003
Eugene Loring
1911 - 1982
Kent Kennan
1913 - 2003
William Campbell Gault
1910 - 1995
Henry S. Reuss
1912 - 2002
Frank Zeidler
1912 - 2006
Gordon Zahn
1918 - 2007
Don Towsley (animator)
1912 - 1986
John Crosby (media critic)
1912 - 1991
Gil Turner (animator)
1913 - 1967
Frank K. Edmondson
1912 - 2008
Dick Wessel
1913 - 1965
Ken Keltner
1916 - 1991
Cy Howard
1915 - 1993
John C. Trever
1916 - 2006
Isadore Perlman
1915 - 1991
Johnny Jacobs
1916 - 1982
Sylvia Fein
Born 1919
John Wilde
1919 - 2006
Kenneth M. Stampp
1912 - 2009
Jon Schueler
1916 - 1992
Myron Fohr
1912 - 1994
Thomas E. Fairchild
1912 - 2007
Johnny Standley
1912 - 1992
Irv Comp
1919 - 1989
Gina Cerminara
1914 - 1984
Ralph Hermann
1914 - 1994
Nevin S. Scrimshaw
1918 - 2013
Carl Koch (architect)
1912 - 1998
Delbert Lamb
1914 - 2010
Ben L. Salomon
1914 - 1944
Robert E. Gilka
1916 - 2013
Eddie Jankowski
1913 - 1996
Tony Knap
1914 - 2011
Elmer Winter
1912 - 2009
Ed Dancker
1914 - 1991
Charles Wedemeyer
1911 - 1999
Karl Priebe
1914 - 1976
Jerome J. Hastrich
1914 - 1995
Norman Wengert
1916 - 2001
Dave Quabius
1916 - 1983
Arthur Guepe
1915 - 2001
Frank Zummach
1911 - 2012
John C. Becher
1915 - 1986
Dick Bilda
1919 - 1996
Theodore Saloutos
1910 - 1980
Chet Laabs
1912 - 1983
Joe Just
1916 - 2003
Hugh Carson Cutler
1912 - 1998
Gerald Kron
1913 - 2012
Arno H. Luehman
1911 - 1989
Robert Uihlein Jr.
1916 - 1976
Jerome Vinograd
1913 - 1976
Bob Mavis
1918 - 2005
Norm Wallen
1918 - 1994
Roy Schoemann
1914 - 1972
Donald Pellmann
1915 - 2020
Al Lindow
1919 - 1989
Fabian Gaffke
1913 - 1992
Herman Salmon
1913 - 1980
Anthony J. Travia
1911 - 1993
Roman R. Blenski
1917 - 2002
Mary T. Reynolds
1913 - 2000
Edmund V. Bobrowicz
1919 - 2003
Bob Eckl
1917 - 1961
Robert William Pennak
1912 - 2004
Frank Bohlmann
1917 - 1999
Stan Galle
1919 - 2006
Larry Borenstein
1919 - 1981
William F. Double
1910 - 1996
Hubert Louis Will
1914 - 1995
Raymond J. Tobiasz
1916 - 1976
Robert C. Cannon
1917 - 2008
Ruth Bachhuber Doyle
1916 - 2006
Ted Cieslak
1912 - 1993
George Jablonski
1919 - 1992
James L. Callan
1910 - 1991
Margaret P. Varda
1917 - 2011
John A. Decker
1915 - 2006
Robert W. Hansen
1911 - 1997
David Groos
1918 - 1976