Famous People Born in Pennsylvania a to z

Louisa May Alcott was an American author who wrote the classic novel Little Women, as well as various works under pseudonyms.

Born into slavery in 1760, Richard Allen bought his freedom at age 17 and went on to found the first national black church in the United States, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in 1816.

Marian Anderson was an African American singer, one of the finest contraltos of her time, and recipient of the Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

James Mitchell Ashley was best known as a U.S. congressman and abolitionist who laid the foundation to pass the 13th Amendment, outlawing slavery.

Teen idol Frankie Avalon is known for singing the hit "Venus" and for starring in the popular Beach Party film series with Annette Funicello.

Kevin Bacon is known for numerous movies (especially Footloose), his marriage to Kyra Sedgwick and the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

Head of the famous Barrymore acting family, Lionel Barrymore was one of the most important character actors of the early 29th century.

David Berger was a lawyer who won large settlements in several high-profile class-action lawsuits as a pioneer in the practice of such suits.

Former Delaware Senator Joe Biden was elected the 47th U.S. vice president with President Barack Obama in 2008. He earned a second term as vice president when Obama was re-elected to the presidency in 2012.

J. Michael Bishop is a Nobel Prize winning physician and scholar who made groundbreaking discoveries in cancer research.

Art Blakey was an influential jazz drummer associated with the modern bebop style. He played with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Thelonious monk and countless other jazz greats.

Bluford became the first African American to travel in space in 1983, as a mission specialist aboard the space shuttle Challenger.

Nellie Bly was an American journalist known for her investigative and undercover reporting. She earned acclaim in 1887 for her exposé on the conditions of patients at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, and achieved further fame after the New York World sent her on a trip around the world in 1889.

American explorer and frontiersman Daniel Boone blazed a trail to the far west though the Cumberland Gap, thereby providing access to the frontier.

American actor Peter Boyle is best known as the grumpy dad on the CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, a role he held for eleven years.

Donnie Brasco was the alias of Joseph Pistone, an undercover FBI agent that infiltrated the Bonanno crime family.

American film Charles Bronson is best known for playing tough-guy, vigilante roles in films like The Magnificent Seven (1960) and Death Wish (1974).

Kobe Bryant is an NBA athlete who's one of the leading players in career points, having earned multiple championship rings. He has also won two Olympic gold medals with the U.S. basketball team.

James Buchanan was the 15th president of the United States. He served from 1857 to 1861, during the build-up to the Civil War.

Solomon Burke was an African-American soul singer who released a number of hits in the 1960s, including "Cry to Me" and "Got to Get You off My Mind."

Simon Cameron was a Pennsylvania senator who later served as President Abraham Lincoln's secretary of war.

Rachel Carson was a marine biologist, environmentalist and writer who alerted the world to the environmental impact of fertilizers and pesticides.

Ted Cassidy was a 6’9” American actor known for his work in The Addams Family TV series and the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Famed scholar Noam Chomsky is known for both his groundbreaking contributions to linguistics and his penetrating critiques of political systems.

Singer Perry Como is best known for his warm baritone crooning which came to characterize popular music in the 40s and 50s.

Bradley Cooper is an actor who first made a name for himself on the TV series Alias and has since become a successful film actor.

Bill Cosby is an American comedian, actor and producer, who has played a major role in the development of more positive portrayal of African-Americans on television.

Grammy Award-winning musician Wayne Coyne has been the frontman of the Flaming Lips since 1983.

Jim Croce was an American folk singer and songwriter. He released five studio albums between 1966 and 1973, before his untimely death in 1973.

Famous in the NBA for his zealous management of the Dallas Mavericks, entrepreneur Mark Cuban has also owned multiple Internet startups and a theater chain.

Republican politician Mitch Daniels is the governor of Indiana and worked in the administrations of presidents George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan.

Ernie Davis became the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy before his life was tragically cut short by leukemia at the age of 23.

Jack "Legs" Diamond was a Prohibition-era mob leader, hit man and bootlegger who was based in New York.

Hilda Doolittle (or H.D.) was a poet of the avant-garde Imagist movement and was openly bisexual.

Jimmy Dorsey was known for playing the clarinet and alto saxophone in the Dorsey Brothers, which performed with all the big names in big band and swing music.

Tommy Dorsey was an American trombonist and band leader who, with his brother Jimmy, was best known as one-half of The Dorsey Brothers during the Big Band and Swing eras.

Thomas Eakins was a naturalist figure painter, portraitist and sculptor. He is considered one of the most influential artists in U.S. history.

J. Presper Eckert Jr. was the award-winning co-inventor of the first general purpose digital computer.

Barney Ewell was one of the leading sprinters of the 1940s, and won three medals at the 1948 Olympics.

Christopher Ferguson became famous when NASA selected him to fly aboard Atlantis on the last ever space shuttle launch.

Tina Fey is an American actress, comedian, writer and producer best known for her roles on Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock.

James Forten was an African-American businessman and black leader in pre-Civil War Philadelphia.

Composer Stephen Foster is lauded as the progenitor of American popular music, penning classics like “Oh! Susanna” and “Swanee River.”

Henry Frick was an industrialist who headed the Carnegie Steel Company and the United States Steel Corporation. His mansion later became the Frick Museum.

American engineer and inventor Robert Fulton is best know for developing the first successful steamboat and the world's first steam warship.

Thomas Gallaudet was an education pioneer and established the American School for the Deaf in 1817.

Erroll Garner was a virtuosic and popular jazz pianist known for creating one of the best-selling albums in jazz, Concert by the Sea (1958).

Silent film actress Janet Gaynor won the first-ever Academy Award for Best Actress in 1929, for her role in the movie Seventh Heaven.

Bernice Gera became the first female umpire of a baseball game in 1972, but later resigned, reportedly because other umpires refused to work with her.

Richard Gere is an American actor best known for his status as an American sex symbol and his leading film roles, including in Report to the Commissioner, American Gigolo, An Officer and A Gentleman, Pretty Woman and Chicago.

Stan Getz was an American jazz saxophonist best known for his popularization of the bossa nova sound.

With his "Contract with America," former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich established his position as the head of the anti-Clinton Republican wave in 1994.

Jeff Goldblum is a film, TV and stage actor known for his roles in work like The Fly, Jurassic Park, Igby Goes Down and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.

Prominent book author and magazine writer, Adam Gopnik is a leading arts and culture writer.

Charles Goren was an American lawyer and world champion bridge player known for his books and television program on the game.

Reality television star Kate Gosselin starred on TLC's Jon and Kate Plus 8, and went through a very public divorce as a result of the show's success.

Martha Graham is considered by many to be the 20th century's most important dancer and the mother of modern dance.

Actor Seth Green gained notoriety as Scott Evil in Austin Powers, and also as Oz on the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He also played Jimmy Bender on Greg the Bunny.

American professional baseball player Ken Griffey, Jr. was a dominant power hitter of the 1990s and ranked among the best defensive outfielders of all time.

Charles Grodin is an actor, comedian and talk show host known for his roles in The Heartbreak Kid and Beethoven.

Benjamin Guggenheim was an heir in the wealthy Guggenheim family. Following a trip to Europe, he decided to sail on the maiden voyage of the Titanic.

Solomon R. Guggenheim was an American business magnate and art lover who provided the initial collection and name for the Guggenheim Museum.

Daryl Hall is a musician whose group Hall & Oates burned up the charts in the 1970s and early 1980s.

During his all-too-brief life, artist Keith Haring became a sensation in the art world with his bold, cartoon and graffiti influenced works during the 1980s.

Comedian and actor Kevin Hart came to fame as a stand-up comic. He has appeared in several films and has three albums, including the 2011 hit Laugh at My Pain.

Actor Sherman Hemsley played the popular television character George Jefferson in All in the Family and The Jeffersons in the 1970s and 1980s.

American manufacturer and philanthropist who founded the Hershey Chocolate Corporation and popularized chocolate candy throughout much of the world.

Billie Holiday was one of the most influential jazz singers of all time. She had a thriving career for many years before she lost her battle with addiction.

Hedda Hopper, a woman with amazing hats, was an American gossip columnists during the first half of the 1900s. She was also an actress and radio personality.

Chris Hurley is best known as the co-founder and former CEO of the video sharing website YouTube.com. Hurley and his partners sold YouTube to Google for $1.65 billion in stock in 2006.