Famous People Born in Missouri
See our top list of the most famous people from Missouri. We’ve chosen people like athletes, actors, civil rights activists, scientists and people from other walks of life that have come from the “The Show Me State”.
Robert Altman film director, Kansas City
Burt Bacharach songwriter, Kansas City
Josephine Baker singer, dancer, Saint Louis
Wallace Beery actor, Kansas City
William Bent fur trader, pioneer, Saint Louis
Robert Russell Bennett composer, Kansas City
Yogi Berra baseball player, Saint Louis
Thomas Hart Benton painter, Neosho
Bill Bradley basketball player, Crystal City
Omar Nelson Bradley five-star general, Clark
Grace Bumbry soprano, Saint Louis
William Burroughs writer, Saint Louis
Sarah Caldwell opera director, conductor, Maryville
Martha Jane Canary (Calamity Jane) frontierswoman, Princeton
Dale Carnegie teacher of public speaking, Maryville
George Washington Carver educator, agricultural chemist, Diamond Grove
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) author, Florida
Walter Cronkite TV newscaster, Saint Joseph
Robert Cummings actor, Joplin
Jane Darwell actress, Palmyra
Charles Stark Draper inventor, Windsor
Jeanne Eagels actress, Kansas City
T. S. Eliot poet, Saint Louis
James Fergason inventor, Wakenda
Eugene Field author, poet, Saint Louis
Redd Foxx actor, comedian, Saint Louis
James W. Fulbright senator, Sumner
John Goodman actor, Affton
Betty Grable actress, Saint Louis
Dick Gregory comic, activist, Saint Louis
Jean Harlow actress, Kansas City
Edwin Hubble astronomer, Marshfield
Jack S. Kilby inventor, Jefferson City
James Langston Hughes poet, Joplin
William Lear aviation inventor, Hannibal
Rush Limbaugh communicator, Cape Girardeau
John Huston film director, Nevada
Jesse James outlaw, Centerville
Bernarr MacFadden physical culturist, Mill Springs
Mary Margaret McBride TV hostess, Paris
Robert D. Maurer inventor, St. Louis
Marianne Moore poet, Saint Louis
Geraldine Page actress, Kirksville
James C. Penney merchant, Hamilton
Marlin Perkins TV host, zoo director, Carthage
John J. Pershing army leader, pershing rifles, Linn County
Vincent Price actor, Saint Louis
Ginger Rogers dancer, actress, Independence
Charles M. Russell painter, artist St. Louis
Nellie Tayloe Ross first woman elected governor of a state, Saint Joseph
Ted Shawn dancer, choreographer, Kansas City
Casey Stengel baseball player, Kansas City
Gladys Swarthout soprano, Deepwater
Sara Teasdale poet, Saint Louis
Virgil Thomson composer, Kansas City
Harry S. Truman U.S. president, Lamar
Mark Twain author, Florida
Dick Van Dyke actor, West Plains
Dennis Weaver actor, Joplin
Pearl White actress, Greenridge
Roy Wilkins civil rights leader, Saint Louis