Famous People from Massachusetts

• Adams, Abigail (Weymouth)

  Wife of President John Adams

• Adams, Henry (Boston)

  The author of The Education of Henry Adams

• Adams, John (Braintree)

  President of the United States, 1797-1801

• Adams, John Quincy (Braintree)

  President of the United States, 1825-1829

• Adams, Samuel (Boston)

  Rabble-rousing Founding Father from Boston, with a beer named after him

• Adelson, Sheldon (Boston)

   The billionaire owner of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation

• Affleck, Casey (Falmouth)

  Ben Affleck's younger brother and the star of Gone, Baby, Gone

• Alger, Horatio (Chelsea)

  The 19th century author of "rags to riches" books

• Anthony, Susan B. (Adams)

  The women's rights activist on the one-dollar coin

• Appleseed, Johnny (Leominster)

  Apple-planting American pioneer

• Bancroft, Edward (Westfield)

  Double agent of the Revolutionary War

• Banks, Russell (Newton)

  Author of The Sweet Hereafter

• Barton, Clara (North Oxford)

  Founder of the American Red Cross

• Benchley, Robert (Worcester)

  1930s New Yorker theater critic and witty essayist

• Bhumibol Adulyadej, King (Cambridge)

  King of Thailand since 1946

• Bishop, Elizabeth (Worcester)

  Poet Laureate of the United States, 1949-50

• Bloomberg, Michael (Boston)

  The billionaire mayor of New York City, 2002-2014

• Borden, Lizzie (Fall River)

  Suspect in two 1892 family axe murders

• Bradlee, Ben (Boston)

  The editor of The Washington Post, 1968-91

• Brennan, Walter (Swampscott)

  Three-time Oscar-winning western sidekick

• Bulfinch, Thomas (Newton)

  The author of Bulfinch's Mythology

• Bulger, James "Whitey" (Boston)

  The Boston Irish gangster who was a fugitive, 1995-2011

• Burbank, Luther (Lancaster)

  Creator of the Burbank potato

• Burnham, Bo

  The comedian who directed the movie 'Eighth Grade'

• Bush, George Herbert Walker (Milton)

  President of the United States, 1989-93

• Carell, Steve (Concord)

  The star of The 40 Year Old Virgin and The Office

• Cena, John (West Newbury)

  The clean-cut, hip-hop loving WWE champ

• Chiklis, Michael (Lowell)

  Detective Vic Mackey on TV's The Shield

• Coakley, Martha (Pittsfield)

  Attorney General of Massachusetts, 2007-2015

• Colson, Charles "Chuck" (Boston)

  The jailed Watergate conspirator who became an evangelical Christian leader

• Cuffe, Paul (Cuttyhunk Island)

   The richest African American of the early 19th century

• Cummings, E. E. (Cambridge)

  The experimental poet who spelled his name without capitals

• Damon, Matt (Cambridge)

  The star of the Bourne action films

• Davis, Al (Brockton)

  General manager and owner of the Oakland Raiders, 1963-2011

• Davis, Bette (Lowell)

  The bug-eyed movie star from All About Eve

• Davis, Geena (Wareham)

  The leggy star of Thelma and Louise

• De Mille, Cecil B. (Ashfield)

  The legendary film director who did The Ten Commandments

• Dickinson, Emily (Amherst)

  The poet called "The Belle of Amherst"

• Du Bois, W.E.B. (Great Barrington)

  Author of The Souls of Black Folk

• Dukakis, Michael (Brookline)

  1988 Democratic nominee for U.S. President

• Dushku, Eliza (Boston)

  Faith on TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer

• Edelstein, Lisa (Boston)

  Dr. Lisa Cuddy on TV's House

• Emerson, Ralph Waldo (Boston)

  A founder of Transcendentalism

• Evans, Chris (Boston)

  He's Captain America in those Marvel movies

• Foley, Mark (Newton)

  The Florida email scandal congressman

• Foster, Ben (Boston)

  Chris Pine's co-star in 'Hell or High Water'

• Francis, Arlene (Boston)

  Longtime panelist on TV's What's My Line

• Franklin, Benjamin (Boston)

  The Founding Father who wrote Poor Richard's Almanac

• Fuller, Buckminster (Milton)

  the inventor of the geodesic dome

• Fuller, Margaret (Cambridge)

  The feminist who wrote 'Woman in the Nineteenth Century'

• Fuller, Samuel (Worcester)

  The director of Pickup on South Street and The Naked Kiss

• Garrison, William Lloyd (Newburyport)

  Civil War-era abolitionist who published The Liberator

• Gerry, Elbridge (Marblehead)

  The early American politician who gave us the term "gerrymandering"

• Greely, Adolphus (Newburyport)

  U.S. Army Arctic explorer

• Hancock, John (Braintree)

  The Founding Father with the giant signature

• Hawthorne, Nathaniel (Salem)

  The author of The Scarlet Letter

• Hines, Connie (Dedham)

  Wilbur's wife on the sitcom Mister Ed

• Hoffman, Abbie (Worcester)

  The yippie who wrote Steal This Book

• Holmes, Oliver Wendell Jr. (Boston)

  The U.S. Supreme Court's "Great Dissenter" from 1902-1932

• Holmes, Oliver Wendell Sr. (Cambridge)

  Author of The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table

• Homer, Winslow (Boston)

  The New England painter who did Breezing Up

• Howe, Elias (Spencer)

  The inventor of the sewing machine

• Janney, Allison (Boston)

  C. J. Cregg on TV's The West Wing

• Johnson, Amy Jo (Cape Cod)

  Julie Emrick on the 1990s TV show Felicity

• JoJo (Foxboro)

  Singer of "Leave (Get Out)"

• Kaling, Mindy (Cambridge)

  Kelly Kapoor on TV's The Office

• Kennedy, Edward (Ted) (Brookline)

  U.S. senator from Massachusetts, 1962-2009

• Kennedy, John F. (Brookline)

  President of the United States, 1961-63

• Kennedy, Joseph Jr. (Hull)

  The older brother of president John Kennedy

• Kennedy, Joseph Sr. (Boston)

  The millionaire father of President John F. Kennedy

• Kennedy, Patrick (Brighton)

  U.S Representative from Rhode Island, 1995-2011

• Kennedy, Robert F. (Brookline)

  The assassinated brother of John Kennedy

• Kennedy, Rosemary (Brookline)

  The Kennedy sister who had a lobotomy

• Kerouac, Jack (Lowell)

  Beat-era author of On The Road

• Kerry, Alexandra

  The eldest daughter of Sen. John Kerry

• Kerry, Vanessa

  The youngest daughter of Senator John Kerry

• Krasinski, John (Newton)

  Jim Halpert on TV's The Office

• Kunitz, Stanley (Worcester)

  U.S. Poet Laureate, 2000-01

• Leary, Denis (Worcester)

  Star of cable TV's Rescue Me

• Leary, Timothy (Springfield)

  The drug-taking professor who said "Turn on, tune in, drop out"

• Lemmon, Jack (Newton)

  Felix Ungar in the movie The Odd Couple

• Lobo, Rebecca (Southwick)

  Star of the U. of Connecticut's 1995 championship basketball team

• Lowell, Robert (Boston)

  The "confessional" poet with the collection Life Studies

• Mann, Horace (Franklin)

  The "Father of American Education"

• McAuliffe, Christa (Boston)

  The teacher who died in the Challenger explosion

• McKeown, Erin (Boston)

  Singer of "Queen of Quiet"

• Morse, Samuel F. B. (Charlestown)

  The telegraphic pioneer who invented Morse Code

• Mott, Lucretia (Nantucket Island)

  The Quaker minister who was the first to sign the Seneca Falls women's rights declaration

• Nimoy, Leonard (Boston)

  Mr. Spock on the original Star Trek

• O'Brien, Conan (Brookline)

  Host of The Tonight Show, 2009-2010

• Orkin, Ruth (Boston)

  Photographer of An American Girl in Italy

• Perry, Matthew (Williamstown)

  Chandler Bing on the TV series Friends

• Pixies, The (Boston)

  The band who recorded "Monkey Gone to Heaven"

• Plath, Sylvia (Jamaica Plain)

  Poet and author of The Bell Jar

• Poe, Edgar Allan (Boston)

  The author of the poem "The Raven"

• Poehler, Amy (Burlington)

  The diminutive blonde star of Parks and Recreation

• Pompeo, Ellen (Everett)

  Dr. Meredith Grey on TV's Grey's Anatomy

• Ray, Rachael (Cape Cod)

  Peppy host of TV's 30 Minute Meals

• Revere, Paul (Boston)

  The American colonist of midnight ride fame

• Roth, Eli (Boston)

  The director of 'Hostel'

• Russell, Kurt (Springfield)

  Snake Plissken in the movie Escape From New York

• Schilling, Taylor (Boston)

  Piper in the TV series Orange Is the New Black

• Seuss, Dr. (Springfield)

  Author of The Cat In the Hat

• Sexton, Anne (Newton)

  Confessional American poet of the 1960s and '70s

• Shaw, Robert Gould (Boston)

  Civil War leader of the African-American 54th Massachusetts Infantry

• Short, Elizabeth (Hyde Park)

  The "Black Dahlia" murder victim

• Shriver, Eunice Kennedy (Brookline)

  The founder of the Special Olympics

• Slattery, John (Boston)

  The silver-haired, hot-headed ad executive on TV's Mad Men

• Smith, Tracy L. (Falmouth)

  U.S. Poet Laureate named in 2017

• Souter, David (Melrose)

  U.S. Supreme Court Justice, 1990-2009

• Spader, James (Boston)

  Alan Shore on TV's Boston Legal

• Sullivan, Anne (Feeding Hills)

  Helen Keller's tutor

• Summer, Donna (Boston)

   The Queen of Disco who did "I Feel Love" and "Last Dance"

• Sumner, Charles (Boston)

  The anti-slavery activist who was caned in the U.S. Senate in 1856

• Taylor, James (Boston)

  Folk-pop singer of "Fire and Rain" and "Carolina in My Mind"

• Taymor, Julie (Newton)

  The director of the Broadway musical The Lion King

• Thoreau, Henry David (Concord)

  Author of Walden

• Thurman, Uma (Boston)

  The sexy, lanky star of the Kill Bill movies

• Wahlberg, Donnie (Boston)

  Danny on the TV cop show Blue Bloods

• Wahlberg, Mark (Boston)

  Dirk Diggler in Boogie Nights

• Wakefield, Ruth

  The inventor of the Toll House chocolate chip cookie

• Wallace, Mike (Brookline)

  The tough TV interviewer who was an original on 60 Minutes

• Walters, Barbara (Boston)

  20/20 veteran and host of ABC's The View

• Whistler, James McNeill (Lowell)

  Portraitist and painter of Whistler's Mother

• Whitney, Eli (Westboro)

  Inventor of the cotton gin

• Witt, Alicia (Worcester)

  Co-star of TV's Cybill

• Zombie, Rob (Haverhill)

  Front man for the rock band White Zombie

See also: Index of all US States