Music · born 1940
Smokey Robinsonsinger, songwriter, record producer, record executiveNorth End native who founded the Miracles, gave Motown its first million-seller and wrote many of the label's defining hits while serving as its vice president.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)
1949 people · 3/41 page
Music · born 1940Smokey Robinsonsinger, songwriter, record producer, record executiveNorth End native who founded the Miracles, gave Motown its first million-seller and wrote many of the label's defining hits while serving as its vice president.
Architecture & design · 1873–1950
Eliel Saarinenarchitect, urban plannerFinnish architect who designed the Cranbrook campus in Bloomfield Hills and led the Cranbrook Academy of Art, making metro Detroit a center of modern design.
Music · 1924–1963Dinah Washingtonsinger, pianistThe “Queen of the Blues,” one of the top-selling Black singers of the 1950s, who married Detroit Lions star Dick “Night Train” Lane and died at their Detroit home in 1963.
Notorious figures · 1956–2002
Aileen Wuornosserial killerSerial killer executed in Florida in 2002, born in Rochester and raised in Troy, two Oakland County suburbs of Detroit.
Music · 1935–1998Sonny Bonosinger, songwriter, producer, politicianDetroit-born half of Sonny & Cher, who later became mayor of Palm Springs and a U.S. congressman; the family left Michigan for California when he was a boy.
Film & TV · born 1965Sherilyn Fennactress, authorTwin Peaks' Audrey Horne, born in Detroit into the Quatro rock family: Suzi Quatro is her aunt.
Film & TV · born 1975Judy Greeractress, authorDetroit-born character actress raised in Redford Township and Livonia, who writes fondly of her hometown in her memoir.
Film & TV · 1950–2009John Hughesfilm director, screenwriter, producerWriter-director of The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off, who spent his first twelve years in Grosse Pointe as a Gordie Howe fan.
Comedy · born 1969
Ken Jeongcomedian, actor, physicianDetroit-born comedian and licensed physician, famous as Mr. Chow in The Hangover and Ben Chang in Community.
Science & invention · born 1947Michael Portereconomist, management scholarHarvard Business School professor behind the five forces model of competitive strategy, born in Ann Arbor in 1947.
Film & TV · born 1933Tom Skerrittactor, directorEmmy-winning actor of M*A*S*H, Alien, Top Gun and Picket Fences who grew up in Detroit, graduated from Mackenzie High School and studied at Wayne State.
Sports · born 1989
Bojan Bogdanovićbasketball player, small forwardCroatian forward who anchored the Detroit Pistons' offense for two seasons, signing a contract extension before an injury-shortened tenure ended in a 2024 trade.
Film & TV · born 1966Dean Cainactor, producer, former football playerTV's 1990s Superman in Lois & Clark was born at Selfridge Air Force Base in Macomb County, northeast of Detroit.
Auto industry · 1875–1940Walter P. Chryslerfounder of Chrysler CorporationKansas railroad mechanic who ran Buick, founded Chrysler Corporation in Detroit in 1925 and made it one of the Big Three by buying Dodge in 1928.
Politics · born 1959Jennifer Granholmlawyer, governor of Michigan, U.S. energy secretaryCanadian-born lawyer who launched her career in Detroit as a clerk for Judge Damon Keith and Wayne County's top lawyer, then became Michigan's first woman attorney general and governor (2003–2011).
Film & TV · born 1969Martin Klebbaactor, stunt performerTroy native and Athens High School graduate, best known as the pirate Marty in the Pirates of the Caribbean films.
Film & TV · born 1975Elizabeth ReaseractressTwilight and Grey's Anatomy actress who was born in Bloomfield Hills and finished high school in Auburn Hills before training at Juilliard.
Music · born 1975Sufjan Stevenssinger, songwriter, multi-instrumentalistIndie songwriter born in Detroit who lived in the city until age nine and later saluted it on his 2003 album Michigan.
Press & broadcasting · 1918–2012Mike Wallacebroadcast journalist, 60 Minutes correspondentLegendary 60 Minutes interviewer who, fresh out of the University of Michigan, worked as an announcer at Detroit's WXYZ radio in 1940.
Sports · 1887–1975Avery Brundagesports administrator, former athleteDetroit-born fifth president of the International Olympic Committee, the only American to hold the post, who led the Olympic movement from 1952 to 1972.
Music · born 1941George Clintonsinger, songwriter, producer, bandleaderLeader of Parliament-Funkadelic, who worked as a Motown staff writer and built P-Funk on Detroit labels and in Detroit studios such as United Sound Systems.
Labor · 1913–1975Jimmy HoffaTeamsters union president (1957–1971)Detroit-raised Teamsters boss who built the union's power from Local 299, went to prison and vanished outside a suburban restaurant in 1975.
Music · 1948–2004Rick Jamessinger, songwriter, producerFunk star of “Super Freak” and “Mary Jane,” who first came to Detroit's Motown in 1966 with the Mynah Birds and later wrote and produced there as Ricky Matthews.
Film & TV · born 2004Kaitlyn Mahersinger, actressSinger and actress born in Novi, northwest of Detroit, who became the youngest top-10 finalist in America's Got Talent history at age four.
Film & TV · born 1956Rob Paulsenvoice actor, voice directorDetroit-born voice of Yakko and Pinky in Animaniacs and of two different Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Music · 1941–2006Wilson Pickettsinger, songwriterSoul singer of "In the Midnight Hour" and "Mustang Sally" who moved to Detroit at 14 and learned his craft in its gospel groups and with the Falcons.
Film & TV · born 1971Mary Lynn Rajskubactress, comedianDetroit-born, Downriver-raised comedian and actress, known as Chloe O'Brian on 24, who studied art in Detroit before turning to comedy.
Music · born 1971Kid Rocksinger, rapper, songwriterMacomb County-born rap-rocker who came up in the 1980s Detroit hip-hop scene and made his breakthrough album Devil Without a Cause at a downtown Detroit studio.
Press & broadcasting · 1920–2013Helen Thomasjournalist, White House correspondent, columnistThe pioneering White House reporter who covered ten presidents grew up in a Lebanese immigrant family in Detroit, studied at Wayne University and is buried in the city.
Sports · born 1974Rasheed Wallacebasketball player and coachFour-time All-Star power forward whose defense and clutch shooting anchored the Pistons' surprise 2004 NBA championship and five straight conference finals runs.
Film & TV · born 1952Billy Westvoice actor, musicianDetroit-born voice of Futurama's Fry, Farnsworth and Zoidberg, Ren & Stimpy and the red M&M, who grew up in Boston and New Jersey.
Sports · born 1981
José Calderónbasketball point guard, team executiveSpanish point guard who spent 14 NBA seasons mostly with Toronto but returned to the Pistons twice, once as a starter and once at the end of his career.
Literature · born 1960Jeffrey Eugenidesnovelist, short-story writerDetroit-born, Grosse Pointe-raised novelist whose The Virgin Suicides and Pulitzer-winning Middlesex are among the best-known literary portraits of the city and its suburbs.
Press & broadcasting · born 1959Chris Hansentelevision journalist, presenterDateline NBC's To Catch a Predator host, who grew up in the Detroit suburbs and learned investigative reporting at WXYZ and WDIV.
Film & TV · born 1945Ernie Hudsonactor, playwrightGhostbusters' Winston Zeddemore, who came to Detroit as a young man, wrote plays for the Black theater company Concept East and graduated from Wayne State in 1973.
Politics · 1920–2009Janet Jaganpolitician, President of GuyanaChicago-born activist who became Guyana's first woman president (1997–1999); as a young woman she studied at the University of Detroit and Wayne University.
Fashion · born 1955Anna Suifashion designerDetroit-born fashion designer whose rock-and-roll, vintage-inspired label became a global brand; she keeps returning to her hometown.
Music · 1903–1931Bix Beiderbeckejazz cornetist, pianist, composerLegendary 1920s cornetist who played in Jean Goldkette's Detroit-based orchestra, headlining at the Graystone Ballroom in 1926–1927 before his greatest recordings.
Sports · born 1965
Dominik Hašekice hockey goaltenderCzech Hall of Fame goaltender, widely considered among the greatest ever, who won both of his Stanley Cups with the Detroit Red Wings.
Business & brands · 1913–2001Bill Hewlettengineer, entrepreneurCo-founder of Hewlett-Packard, born in Ann Arbor, where his father taught at the University of Michigan Medical School.
Film & TV · born 1953Tom Hulceactor, theater producerOscar-nominated Mozart of Amadeus, born in Detroit and raised in Plymouth, the son of a Ford Motor Company employee.
Sports · born 1985
Darko Miličićbasketball player, centerSerbian center whom the Pistons drafted second overall in 2003, ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, and who won an NBA championship ring with Detroit in 2004 despite barely playing.
Science & invention · born 1932Alvin PlantingaphilosopherLeading Christian philosopher of religion and Templeton Prize laureate, born in Ann Arbor, who began his professorial career at Wayne State University in Detroit (1958–1963).
Sports · born 1980Tayshaun Princebasketball player, small forwardDefensive-minded small forward on the Pistons' 2004 championship team, remembered in Detroit for "The Block," his chase-down rejection of Reggie Miller in the 2004 playoffs.
Film & TV · born 1985Crystal ReedactressDetroit-raised actress, Allison Argent on Teen Wolf, who graduated from Roseville High School and studied acting at Wayne State.
Music · 1942–2023Sixto Rodriguezsinger-songwriter, guitaristDetroit's “Sugar Man”: a working-class songwriter who spent his whole life in the city, unaware for decades that he was a star in South Africa.
Music · born 1988Big Seanrapper, songwriterRapper raised in Detroit from infancy whose albums Detroit and Detroit 2 honor his hometown; he runs a youth foundation in the city and works with the Pistons.
Sports · born 1974Ben Wallacebasketball player, centerUndrafted defensive anchor who became the heart of the Pistons' 2004 championship team, winning a record-tying four NBA Defensive Player of the Year awards.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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