List of personalities of the city of Louisville

The list of personalities in the city of Louisville includes people who were born in Louisville, Kentucky , USA , as well as those who worked in Louisville without being born there. Both sections are sorted chronologically according to the year of birth. The list does not claim to be complete.

Louisville Born Personalities

To 1900

• Richard Mentor Johnson (1780–1850), politician
• Lewis F. Linn (1795–1843), politician
• Robert Anderson (1805–1871), officer
• John Edwards (1805-1894), politician
• Charles Anderson (1814–1895), politician
• Henry Massey Rector (1816–1899), politician and governor of Arkansas
• John Pope (1822-1892), general
• Thomas James Churchill (1824–1905), politician
• Richard Taylor (1826–1879), politician and lieutenant general
• James Fleming Fagan (1828–1893), politician and major general
• George Blake Cosby (1830–1909), Brigadier General
• Bertha Honoré Palmer (1849–1918), entrepreneur, philanthropist and patron
• Louis Brandeis (1856–1941), lawyer
• Elizabeth Robins (1862–1952), actress, writer and suffragette
• Oscar Underwood (1862-1929), politician
• T. Coleman du Pont (1863–1930), businessman and politician
• Simon Flexner (1863-1946), medical doctor
• Ogden Hammond (1869–1956), local politician
• Enid Yandell (1869–1934), sculptor
• Frank W. Hunt (1871–1906), politician
• William Marshall Bullitt (1873-1957), lawyer
• Walter Ufer (1876–1936), painter
• Edwin Franko Goldman (1878–1956), composer, conductor and cornetist
• Tod Browning (1882–1962), film director
• Sara Martin (1884–1955), blues and vaudeville singer
• Ollie Powers (1886-1928), jazz musician
• Anthony Coldeway (1887–1963), screenwriter
• Tom London (1889–1963), actor with the most reputed film appearances
• Buddy Burton (1890–1976), blues and jazz musician
• Broadus Farmer (1890–1959), Canadian violinist and music teacher
• Doc Cook (1891–1958), big band leader and arranger
• Billy Gilbert (1894–1971), comedian and actor
• Hunt Stromberg (1894–1968), film producer
• Marion Sunshine (1894–1963), actress, songwriter and composer
• Maurine Dallas Watkins (1896–1969), reporter and screenwriter
• Edith Wilson (1896–1981), singer
• Sylvester Weaver (1897–1960), blues guitarist and country blues pioneer
• Irene Dunne (1898–1990), theater and film actress
• George Mitchell (1899–1972), cornet player and hot jazz trumpeter
• Charles H. Parrish Jr. (1899-1989), sociologist
• Jimmy Harrison (1900–1931), jazz trombonist and swing singer

1901 to 1920

• Jimmy Blythe (1901-1931), jazz and boogie pianist
• Stanley G. Weinbaum (1902-1935), science fiction author
• Thomas D. Clark (1903-2005), historian
• Buck Washington (1903–1955), jazz pianist, singer and dancer
• Louis Bacon (1904–1967), jazz trumpeter and singer of swing
• Thruston Ballard Morton (1907-1982), politician
• Bill Beason (1908–1988), swing jazz drummer
• Lionel Hampton (1908-2002), jazz musician
• Jonah Jones (1908-2000), swing jazz trumpeter
• Lannie Scott (* 1908), American boogie-woogie and jazz pianist
• James B. Pritchard (1909–1997), archaeologist and religious scholar
• George Devol (1912-2011), inventor
• Thomas Harvey (1912–2007), neurologist and thief of Albert Einstein's brain
• Herman Felhoelter (1913–1950), priest
• Helen Humes (1913–1981), jazz and blues singer
• Victor Mature (1913–1999), actor
• Daniel Taradash (1913–2003), screenwriter and film director
• James G. Baker (1914-2005), systems developer
• Rogers Morton (1914–1979), politician
• Al Casey (1915-2005), jazz musician
• Charles Mengel Allen (1916-2000), federal judge
• Alvin Colt (1916–2008), costume designer
• Charles A. Hufnagel (1916–1989), surgeon, inventor of the artificial heart valve
• William Conrad (1920–1994), actor

1921 to 1940

• Leon Bibb (1922–2015), folk singer and actor
• Marshall Allen (* 1924), alto saxophonist
• Mickey Baker (1925–2012), blues and jazz guitarist
• Sarah McLawler (1926–2017), jazz and rhythm and blues pianist, organist and singer
• Jimmy Raney (1927–1995), modern jazz guitarist
• Bobby Jones (1928–1980), musician
• Mitchell Ryan (born 1928), actor
• Harvey Fuqua (1929-2010), doo-wop singer and rhythm and blues producer
• Frank O'Bannon (1930-2003), politician
• Johnny Hammond Smith (1933–1997), jazz musician and composer
• Rahn Burton (1934-2013), jazz pianist
• John Wright (1934-2017), jazz pianist
• Paul Hornung (born 1935), American football player
• Gene Dinwiddie (1936-2002), blues saxophonist
• Mary Travers (1936–2009), folk singer and singer-songwriter
• Ned Beatty (born 1937), actor
• Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005), writer and reportage journalist
• Julia Carson (1938–2007), politician
• George Whitesides (born 1939), chemist
• Odell Brown (1940–2011), jazz musician, arranger and songwriter
• Jimmy Ellis (1940-2014), boxer
• Sue Grafton (1940-2017), crime novelist

1941 to 1960

• Tommy Kirk (born 1941), actor and businessman
• Muhammad Ali (1942-2016), boxer
• Jeremy BC Jackson (* 1942), paleontologist, ecologist and marine biologist
• William L. Kruer (* 1942), physicist
• Bob Buckley (born 1943), science fiction author
• Don Francisco (* 1946), singer and composer
• Rudy Rucker (* 1946), mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author and philosopher
• Wes Unseld (1946-2020), basketball player
• Pat Brady (* 1947), comic artist
• J. Richard Gott (* 1947), theoretical physicist and astrophysicist
• Marsha Norman (* 1947), writer and screenwriter
• David Schmoeller (* 1947), film director and screenwriter
• Terry Adams (* 1948), fusion musician
• Telma Hopkins (born 1948), singer and actress
• Vonda N. McIntyre (1948-2019), science fiction writer
• Paul Wagner (* 1948), film director, film producer, screenwriter and film editor
• Bub Asman (* 1949), sound designer and film editor
• Danny Sullivan (born 1950), racing car driver
• Dolores French (* 1951), prostitute and women's rights activist
• Don Rosa (* 1951), comic book writer and illustrator
• Gus Van Sant (* 1952), film director, producer, photographer and musician
• J. Smith-Cameron (born 1957), actress
• John Goldsby (* 1958), jazz bassist
• Darrell Griffith (born 1958), basketball player
• Guy Kemper (* 1958), visual artist
• Greg Page (1958-2009), boxer
• David Blatt (* 1959), basketball coach
• Joe Jacoby (born 1959), football player
• Sean Young (born 1959), actress
• Lance Burton (born 1960), magician
• Mark Thomas Miller (born 1960), actor
• Gary Sullivan (* 1960), software developer

1961 to 1980

• James E. Cornette (* 1961), manager, commentator, promoter and booker in wrestling
• Charles Coleman Thompson (born 1961), Roman Catholic clergyman, Archbishop of Indianapolis
• James Kottak (born 1962), musician
• Kurt McKinney (born 1962), actor
• Mary T. Meagher (born 1964), swimmer
• Stephen Gaghan (* 1965), screenwriter and film director
• William Mapother (born 1965), actor
• John Medeski (* 1965), organist, keyboardist and composer
• Lucy Tyler-Sharman (* 1965), Australian track cyclist
• Robert Bingham (1966–1999), writer and journalist
• Clark Adams (1969-2007), civil rights activist
• Will Oldham (* 1970), songwriter and musician
• Adam Davies (born 1971), writer
• Allan Houston (born 1971), basketball player
• John van Buskirk (* 1972), football player and coach
• Dotsie Bausch (* 1973), racing cyclist
• Larry Birkhead (* 1973), photojournalist
• Derek Anderson (born 1974), basketball player
• Stephen Garrett (1974–2008), hip hop and contemporary R&B producer, rapper and singer
• Peter Gilbert (* 1975), composer and music teacher
• Richard Lambourne (born 1975), volleyball player
• Wes Ramsey (born 1977), actor
• Jennifer Carpenter (born 1979), actress
• Audrey Hollander (* 1979), porn actress
• Maggie Lawson (born 1980), actress

From 1981

• Desi Lydic (born 1981), actress
• Jessica Dawley (born 1983), poker player
• AJ Foyt IV (* 1984), racing car driver
• Rajon Rondo (* 1986), basketball player
• Charley Chase (born 1987), porn actress
• Jennifer Lawrence (born 1990), actress
• Libby Stout (* 1990), soccer goalkeeper
• John Edwards (* 1991), racing driver
• Alexandria Mills (* 1992), beauty queen and model
• Bryson Tiller (* 1993), singer and rapper
• D'Angelo Russell (born 1996), basketball player

Famous Louisville residents

• Frederick Weygold (1870–1941), artist and scientist
• Wendell Cherry (1935–1991), lawyer, entrepreneur, art collector and patron
• Karen Grassle (born 1942), actress
• Rachel Komisarz (* 1976), swimmer
• Memphis Monroe (* 1985), porn actress

Web links

Commons : People of Louisville, Kentucky  - Collection of Pictures, Videos, and Audio Files