Press & broadcasting · 1864–1949
George Gough Boothnewspaper publisher, arts patronDetroit News publisher who, with his wife Ellen Scripps Booth, founded Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills and championed the Arts and Crafts movement in Detroit.DETROIT / A living lexicon / ¼
Famous Detroiters
People who were born here, moved here or built their careers in Detroit: musicians, carmakers, athletes, writers, inventors, civil-rights leaders and a few notorious names. With their dates, their Detroit story and the places where they lived, worked and played, closed ones included.
- 1,949 famous people
- 516 Detroit places
- 22 fields
Hungarian ties 31 Detroiters with Hungarian ties →
Origin and citizenship
Field
Connection
Born in
A–Z (family name)
90 people · 2/2 page
Clear filtersPress & broadcasting · 1864–1949George Gough Boothnewspaper publisher, arts patronDetroit News publisher who, with his wife Ellen Scripps Booth, founded Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills and championed the Arts and Crafts movement in Detroit.
Music · 1885–1957Gene Bucklyricist, sheet music illustrator, producer, ASCAP presidentCorktown-raised illustrator and lyricist who wrote for the Ziegfeld Follies, discovered Will Rogers and Ed Wynn for Broadway and led ASCAP from 1925 to 1942.Jimmy DeSanaphotographerDetroit-born photographer who became a key figure of New York's East Village punk and No Wave art scene of the late 1970s and 1980s.
Music · born 1983Jimmy Edgarelectronic producer, sound designer, visual artistDetroit-born producer who played the city's raves at 15, signed to Warp at 18 and set out to “capture the essence of Detroit” on his debut Color Strip.
Business & brands · 1854–1919Charles Lang Freerrailcar manufacturer, art collector, founder of the Freer GalleryDetroit railcar industrialist whose Asian and Whistler collection, once housed in his Ferry Avenue home, became the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Art.
Visual art · 1888–1964Betsy Graves Reyneauportrait painterPainter raised in Detroit whose portraits of prominent African Americans, including Detroit's Joe Louis, toured the nation from 1944 to 1954.
Press & broadcasting · 1835–1906
James E. Scrippsnewspaper publisher, founder of The Detroit News, art patronLondon-born publisher who founded The Evening News (today's Detroit News) in 1873 and helped create the Detroit Museum of Art, forerunner of the DIA.Toshiko Takaezuceramic artist, painter, weaverHawaiian-born ceramic artist who studied and taught at Cranbrook in the 1950s under Maija Grotell and became a leader of abstract American ceramics.
Business & brands · 1924–2015A. Alfred Taubmanshopping-mall developer, owner of Sotheby's, philanthropistPontiac-born developer who helped define the American indoor shopping mall, owned Sotheby's and gave large sums to Detroit-area art and education.
William Valentinerart historian, museum directorGerman-born director of the Detroit Institute of Arts from 1924 to 1945, who built its collections and brought Diego Rivera to paint Detroit Industry.
Visual art · 1905–2000Todd WebbphotographerDetroit-born documentary photographer of New York, Paris and the American West, who learned his craft at the Detroit Camera Club while working for Chrysler.
Visual art · 1879–1968
Loja Saarinentextile artist, sculptorFinnish textile artist who founded Cranbrook's weaving department and designed the rugs and tapestries of its Saarinen buildings.
Visual art · 1926–2013
Balthazar Korabarchitectural photographer, architectHungarian-born architect-photographer who joined Eero Saarinen's Michigan office in 1955 and became one of America's leading architectural photographers from his Detroit-area base.
Music · born 1955Niagarasinger, painterDetroit-born singer of the art-punk band Destroy All Monsters and a painter of pop-noir women whose shows made her the “Queen of Detroit” of lowbrow art.
Corrado Parducciarchitectural sculptorItalian-born architectural sculptor who came to Detroit in 1924 to work for Albert Kahn and decorated some 600 buildings, including the Guardian, Penobscot and Fisher buildings.McArthur BinionpainterAbstract painter raised in Detroit, the first Black MFA graduate in painting from Cranbrook, who founded an artists' residency in the city in 2019.
Visual art · 1908–1998Marshall FrederickssculptorSculptor of The Spirit of Detroit, the city's best-loved statue, who lived and worked in the Birmingham area for more than sixty years.
Visual art · born 1955Tyree GuytonartistDetroit artist who in 1986 turned his childhood street on the east side into the Heidelberg Project, one of the world's best-known outdoor art environments.Hughie Lee-Smithpainter, teacherAfrican American painter of haunting, surreal cityscapes who built his career in Detroit in the 1940s and 1950s and won top prizes at the DIA.Ruth Adler Schneetextile and interior designerGerman-born textile designer who fled the Nazis as a girl, studied at Cass Tech and Cranbrook, and brought post-war modernism to Detroit homes and offices.Leni Sinclairphotographer, activistGerman-born photographer who documented Detroit's jazz and rock underground from the 1960s, co-founded the Detroit Artists Workshop and the White Panther Party, and still lives in Detroit.Gilda Snowdenpainter, educatorDetroit abstract painter and beloved College for Creative Studies professor whose work drew on the city's streets, gardens and family history.Ferenc VargasculptorHungarian sculptor who fled after World War II, settled in Detroit in the 1950s and made public monuments for the city's Polish and Catholic communities, including a Pulaski monument.Zelooperzrapper, painterDetroit rapper and painter of Danny Brown's Bruiser Brigade, known for eccentric, prolific albums whose covers he often paints himself.
Business & brands · 1866–1970Anna Thompson Dodgephilanthropist, heiress of Dodge BrothersScottish-born widow of Horace Dodge, one of the richest women in the world, who backed the DSO and paid for the Dodge fountain in Hart Plaza.
Visual art · 1896–1976Eleanor Clay Fordphilanthropist, art patron, Ford Motor Company shareholderDetroit-born niece of J. L. Hudson and wife of Edsel Ford, a major DIA patron who willed the family's Grosse Pointe estate to the public.Gary Grimshawgraphic artist, rock poster designer, light-show artistLincoln Park–raised poster artist who designed the Grande Ballroom's very first poster in 1966 and gave Detroit's rock revolution its psychedelic look.
Music · born 1963Alan Oldhamtechno DJ, producer, graphic artist, painterDetroit radio host, comic artist and techno DJ known as DJ T-1000, who drew techno's early record art and toured with Underground Resistance.Bill Rauhauserphotographer, educatorDetroit street photographer who documented the city from the 1940s onward and taught photography at the College for Creative Studies for over thirty years.
Visual art · 1867–1961Mary Chase Perry Strattonceramic artist, founder of Pewabic PotteryCeramic artist who co-founded Pewabic Pottery in 1903, whose iridescent tiles decorate the Guardian Building, the DIA and churches across Detroit.
Music · born 1975Waajeedproducer, DJ, visual artistConant Gardens-raised producer and Slum Village insider who moved from J Dilla-era hip-hop to Detroit house with his Dirt Tech Reck label.Shirley Woodsonpainter, art educatorDetroit painter and teacher whose vivid figurative work on African American history spans six decades; named Kresge Eminent Artist in 2021.Johnny “Bee” Badanjekdrummer, singer, songwriter, painterDetroit drummer whose break on Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels' “Devil with a Blue Dress On” is legendary, later co-founder of the Rockets and a drummer on Alice Cooper's Detroit Stories.Josephine Harreld Loveconcert pianist, musicologist, museum founderConcert pianist and musicologist who moved to Detroit in 1941 and in 1969 co-founded Your Heritage House, a fine arts museum and studio for the city's children.Paul McPharlinpuppeteer, puppet maker, historian of puppetryDetroit puppeteer who staged some twenty productions in the city (1928–1937), founded the Marionette Fellowship of Detroit and co-founded the Puppeteers of America.Zoltan Sepeshypainter, art educatorHungarian-born painter who settled in Detroit in 1921 and later led the Cranbrook Academy of Art for about two decades.Robert Hudson Tannahillart collector, benefactorDetroit-born heir to the Hudson's department store fortune who became one of the Detroit Institute of Arts' greatest benefactors.George Fraynepianist, singer, bandleader, painterAs Commander Cody, the University of Michigan art student founded the Lost Planet Airmen in Ann Arbor in 1967, pioneering boogie-woogie country rock and the hit “Hot Rod Lincoln.”Cary Lorenguitarist, filmmaker, photographer, booksellerDetroit-born filmmaker and guitarist who co-founded Destroy All Monsters and has run the Book Beat, an Oak Park bookstore, since 1982.The lexicon keeps growing. Every entry lists its sources at the bottom. Dates were checked against Wikidata and Wikipedia. The texts are our own. Famous people's places among the sights ↗
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