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 120 of 1,210 notable people

0008 JUDGE

William Rehnquist

1924 - 2005

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0011 ACTOR

Charlotte Rae

1926 - 2018

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0033 ACTOR

Nancy Olson

Born 1928

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0063 ACTOR

Pamela Britton

1923 - 1974

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0079 FILM

Walter Grauman

1922 - 2015

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0101 AUTHOR

Donn F. Draeger

1922 - 1982

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0117 WRITER

Jack Ritchie

1922 - 1983

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0130 POLITICIAN

Lee S. Dreyfus

1926 - 2008

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0138 PROFESSOR

Edwin N. Lightfoot

1925 - 2017

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0150 FILM

Don Weis

1922 - 2000

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0151 LAWYER

Abner Mikva

1926 - 2016

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0166 LAWYER

Newton N. Minow

Born 1926

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0196 ACTOR

Gus Mercurio

1928 - 2010

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0202 EPISCOPAL

Richard Nelson Bolles

1927 - 2017

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0211 PSYCHIATRIST

David R. Hawkins

1927 - 2012

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0220 MUSIC

Jackie Cain

1928 - 2014

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0242 SINGER

Gene Puerling

1929 - 2008

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0251 MATHEMATICIAN

H. J. Ryser

1923 - 1985

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0298 PHOTOGRAPHER

Carlos Cortez

1923 - 2005

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0299 HISTORIAN

John E. Murdoch

1927 - 2010

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0303 SCHOLAR

Charles Thomas Horngren

1926 - 2011

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0305 CHEMIST

Donald Hornig

1920 - 2013

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0331 ASTRONOMER

Stewart Sharpless

1926 - 2013

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0332 FOOTBALL

Pat Harder

1922 - 1992

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0340 BOTANIST

Alice F. Tryon

1920 - 2009

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0345 ATHLETIC

Ken Wiesner

Born 1925

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0352 ACTOR

Gerald Hiken

Born 1927

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0358 LAWYER

Vel Phillips

1924 - 2018

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0362 JUDGE

Richard Dickson Cudahy

1926 - 2015

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0365 BASKET

Gene Berce

1926 - 2018

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0374 JOURNALIST

Jerry Dunphy

1921 - 2002

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0377 BIOCHEMIST

Roy Mackal

1925 - 2013

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0386 CHEMIST

George Rathmann

1927 - 2012

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0405 PRELATE

Charles Asa Schleck

1925 - 2011

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0420 WRITER

Ellen Raskin

1928 - 1984

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0441 ACTOR

Eddie Garrett

1927 - 2010

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0453 PAINTER

Joan Arend Kickbush

1926 - 2006

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0467 PHOTOGRAPHER

Howard Sochurek

1924 - 1994

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0480 WRITER

Robert Kraus

1925 - 2001

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0516 PROFESSOR

Irene Tinker

Born 1927

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0524 BASKET

Doug Holcomb

1925 - 2008

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0536 ANNOUNCER

Ray Szmanda

1926 - 2018

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0552 ACTOR

Harold Bergman

1920 - 2019

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0558 ENGINEER

David H. Shepard

1923 - 2007

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0565 MATHEMATICIAN

Mary Tsingou

Born 1928

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0574 PAINTER

Arthur Thrall

1926 - 2015

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0580 HISTORIAN

Earl F. Ziemke

1922 - 2007

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0581 ENTREPRENEUR

Michael Cudahy (electronics)

Born 1924

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0582 ARTIST

Eli Bornstein

Born 1922

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0584 ANTHROPOLOGIST

Nancy Oestreich Lurie

1924 - 2017

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0590 ARCHITECT

John Randal McDonald

1922 - 2003

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0593 MILITAR

Ralph Ignatowski

1926 - 1945

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0622 SOLDIER

Einar H. Ingman Jr.

1929 - 2015

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0626 FOOTBALL

Warren Giese

1924 - 2013

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0638 BIOGRAPHER

Lois Mark Stalvey

1925 - 2004

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0640 JOURNALIST

Bob Teague

1929 - 2013

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0644 BASEBALL

Red Wilson

1929 - 2014

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0650 FOOTBALL

Bill Boedeker

1924 - 2014

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0659 FOOTBALL

Terry Brennan

Born 1928

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0682 PROFESSOR

Earl E. Rosenthal

1921 - 2007

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0707 FOOTBALL

Chuck Ortmann

1929 - 2018

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0711 PHOTOGRAPHER

Hazel Larsen Archer

1921 - 2001

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0712 FOOTBALL

Don Kindt

1925 - 2000

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0718 FOOTBALL

Mel Maceau

1921 - 1981

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0723 WRITER

Anne Sayre

1923 - 1998

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0732 ACTOR

Charlotte Zucker

1921 - 2007

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0738 EDITOR

Grafton K. Mintz

1925 - 1983

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0744 SPORT

Gil Krueger

1929 - 2016

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0747 PAINTER

Angela von Neumann

1928 - 2010

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0750 ACADEMIC

Howard W. Polsky

1928 - 2003

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0759 BIOLOGIST

Daniel C. Tosteson

1925 - 2009

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0762 BUSINESS

Edmund B. Fitzgerald

1926 - 2013

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0789 JOURNALIST

Don L. Johnson

1927 - 2006

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0790 POLITICIAN

John C. Pritzlaff Jr.

1925 - 2005

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0794 POLITICIAN

Jay Kerttula

1928 - 2020

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0797 BASEBALL

Vivian Anderson (baseball)

1921 - 2012

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0801 FOOTBALL

Ray Kuffel

1921 - 1974

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0811 WRITER

James W. Cleary

1927 - 2007

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0817 FOOTBALL

Johnny Strzykalski

1921 - 2002

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0836 MUSIC

Billy Wallace (Pianist)

1929 - 2017

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0845 AUTHOR

Arlene Swidler

Born 1929

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0853 BASEBALL

Paul Schramka

1928 - 2019

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0880 FOOTBALL

Ken Kranz

1923 - 2017

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0894 BASEBALL

Bob Scherbarth

1926 - 2009

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0896 COACH

Jack Wink

1922 - 1995

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0897 FOOTBALL

Al Klug

1920 - 1957

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0900 BUSINESS

William Kasik

1920 - 1986

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0905 FOOTBALL

Wally Dreyer

1923 - 2002

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0910 POLITICIAN

James B. Brennan

Born 1926

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0912 ARCHITECT

Donald Perry Polsky

Born 1928

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0913 COACH

Morley Fraser

1922 - 2004

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0980 LAWYER

John Louis Coffey

1922 - 2012

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0984 BASEBALL

Eileen Burmeister

1924 - 1990

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0989 ACADEMIC

Franklin Dickey

Born 1921

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0997 RUNNER

Don Gehrmann

Born 1927

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0999 POLITICIAN

Eugene Hahn

Born 1929

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1007 LAWYER

Kirby Hendee

1923 - 2016

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1009 BASEBALL

Betty Moczynski

1926 - 2017

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1017 FOOTBALL

Dick Loepfe

1922 - 2010

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1024 BASEBALL

Sylvia Wronski

1924 - 1997

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1033 BASEBALL

Marie Kazmierczak

1920 - 2000

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1038 POLITICIAN

Gus Menos

1920 - 1990

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1040 LAWYER

John E. McCormick

1924 - 2010

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1047 FOOTBALL

Gene Felker

Born 1929

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1049 POLITICIAN

Otto Junkermann

1929 - 2016

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1056 LAWYER

Robert M. Curley

1922 - 2001

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1061 LAWYER

Michael T. Sullivan

1924 - 2007

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1074 PRIEST

John E. Naus

1924 - 2013

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1082 POLITICIAN

Douglas C. Steltz

1920 - 2009

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1105 LAWYER

Harry F. Franke Jr.

1922 - 2012

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1109 ROWER

Carl Holtz

1920 - 2006

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1113 OFFICER

William Westcott (aviator)

1922 - 2016

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1119 OFFICER

James B. Currie

1925 - 2009

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1125 BUSINESS

David Vogel Uihlein Sr.

1920 - 2010

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1147 LAWYER

Donald W. Steinmetz

1924 - 2013

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1148 POLITICIAN

Earl Keegan Jr.

1921 - 1977

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1156 BUSINESS

Frederick C. Kulow

1925 - 2004

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1171 LAWYER

Paul C. Gartzke

1927 - 2009

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1174 BASKET

Bob Jake

1923 - 2013

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1204 SINGER

Ted Alevizos

1926 - 2009

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