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
Film29
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Showing 29 of 1,210 notable people

0021 FILM

David Zucker (director)

Born 1947

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0022 FILM

John Ridley

Born 1965

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0026 FILM

Jerry Zucker

Born 1950

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0044 FILM

David Lowery (director)

Born 1980

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0047 FILM

Brittany Andrews

Born 1973

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0052 FILM

George Tillman Jr.

Born 1969

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0060 FILM

Michael Schultz

Born 1938

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0072 FILM

Richard Schickel

1933 - 2017

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0078 FILM

James Benning (film director)

Born 1942

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0079 FILM

Walter Grauman

1922 - 2015

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0095 FILM

Joseph Anthony

1912 - 1993

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0110 FILM

Tom Cross (film editor)

-

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0150 FILM

Don Weis

1922 - 2000

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0179 FILM

Marsha Garces Williams

Born 1956

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0199 FILM

Leigh Slawner

Born 1972

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0214 FILM

Will Ryder

-

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0225 FILM

Theodore Wharton

1875 - 1931

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0284 FILM

Niels Mueller

Born 1961

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0300 FILM

Peter Schneider (film executive)

Born 1951

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0310 FILM

Ernie Gehr

Born 1943

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0321 FILM

Ralph Wilcox (actor)

Born 1950

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0327 FILM

Eric Simonson

Born 1960

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0339 FILM

Arthur Berthelet

1879 - 1949

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0457 FILM

Jerry Ziesmer

Born 1939

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0500 FILM

Jake Szymanski

Born 1981

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0839 FILM

E. J. Babille

1883 - 1970

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0857 FILM

Jozef K. Richards

Born 1989

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1069 FILM

Michael Brown (film director)

Born 1978

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1198 FILM

Burton F. Miller

1905 - 1976

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