Famous People Born in New York
See our top list of the most famous people from New York. We’ve chosen people like athletes, actors, civil rights activists, scientists and people from other walks of life that have come from the “The Empire State”.
George Abbott stage producer, Forestville
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar basketball player, NYC
George Babcock inventor, Unadilla Forks
Lucille Ball actress, Jamestown
Humphrey Bogart actor, NYC
James Cagney actor, NYC
Maria Callas soprano, NYC
Benjamin N. Cardozo jurist, NYC
Willis Haviland Carrier inventor, Angola
Paddy Chayefsky playwright, NYC
Bruce Cooper Clark general, Adams
Sean Combs Puff Daddy music, NYC
Peter Cooper industrialist, philanthropist, NYC
Aaron Copland composer, Brooklyn
Tom Cruise actor, Syracuse
Claire Danes actress, NYC
Sammy Davis, Jr. actor, singer, NYC
Agnes de Mille choreographer, NYC
George Eastman inventor, Waterville
Gertrude Belle Elion inventor, NYC
Millard Fillmore U.S. president, Locke
Henry Louis Gehrig baseball player, NYC
Sarah Gellar actress, NYC
George Gershwin composer, Brooklyn
Jackie Gleason comedian, actor, Brooklyn
Bret Harte writer, Albany
Learned Hand jurist, Albany
Chamique Holdsclaw basketball player, Flushing
Edward Hopper painter, Nyack
Julia Ward Howe poet, social reformer, NYC
Charles Evans Hughes jurist, Glens Falls
Washington Irving author, NYC
Henry James author, NYC
John Jay jurist, NYC
Billy Joel singer, composer, Hicksville
Michael Jeffery Jordan basketball player, Brooklyn
Jerome Kern composer, NYC
Rockwell Kent painter, Terrytown
Frank Langellaactor, Bayonne
Victor Lasky author, Liberty
Vince Lombardi football coach, NYC
Chico, Groucho, Harpo, Zeppo Marx comedians, NYC
Herman Melville author, NYC
Ethel Merman singer, actress, Astoria
Ogden Nash poet, Rye
Rosie O’Donnel comedian, Commach
Eugene O’Neill playwright, NYC
George Pullman inventor, Brocton
Red Jacket Seneca chief
Christopher Reeve actor, spokesperson, Manhattan
John D. Rockefeller industrialist, Richford
Norman Rockwell painter, illustrator, NYC
Mickey Rooney actor, Brooklyn
Anna Eleanor Roosevelt reformer, humanitarian, NYC
Franklin D. Roosevelt U.S. president, Hyde Park
Theodore Roosevelt U.S. president, NYC
Jonas Salk polio researcher, NYC
Margaret Sanger birth control, Corning
Alfred Emanuel Smith politician, NYC
Leland Stanford railroad magnate, Watervliet
Barbara Stanwyck actress, Brooklyn
Rise Stevens mezzo-soprano, NYC
Barbra Streisand singer, actress, NYC
Tupac Shakur rapper, Bronx
Louis Comfort Tiffany painter, craftsman, NYC
Martin Van Buren U.S. president, Kinderhook
Mae West actress, Brooklyn
George Westinghouse Jr. inventor, Central Bridge
Edith Wharton author, NYC
Walt Whitman poet, West Hills
John N. Willys indrustrialist, Canandaiqua
Frank Winfield Woolworth merchant, Rodman
Linus Yale inventor, Salisbury