From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Newton, Massachusetts has been the home of many notable people.
Academics
Michael Rosbash , geneticist and chronobiologist at
Brandeis University , recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2017
Daron Acemoglu , economist and professor of economics at
MIT
Frederick M. Ausubel , molecular biologist, professor at
Harvard Medical School
David Berson , neurobiologist, professor at
Brown University
Jean Briggs , anthropologist and expert on
Inuit languages , raised in Newton
[1]
J. Walter Fewkes , ethnologist and archaeologist
Stanley Fischer , former governor of the
Bank of Israel , former professor at the
MIT Department of Economics
Alexandra I. Forsythe , author of the first
computer science textbook; helped found the
Stanford University Department of Computer Science
William Tudor Gardiner , 55th Governor of Maine, January 2, 1929 – January 4, 1933
Caroline D. Gentile , associate professor emeritus of education,
University of Maine at Presque Isle
Michael Hammer , one of the founders of the management theory of business process reengineering
H. Robert Horvitz , MIT professor of biology; won the
Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2002 together with
Sydney Brenner and
John Sulston
Steven Hyman , neuroscientist and Provost of
Harvard University
Ruth Langer , professor of theology at
Boston College ; expert on Jewish Liturgy and on Christian-Jewish relations
Robert C. Lieberman , political scientist and provost of the
Johns Hopkins University
William Stetson Merrill , classifier at
Newberry Library ; expert on classification of library books, author of A Code for Classifiers
Arnold A. Offner , historian, author, and former professor
Rosalind Picard , director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab
Jeffrey Sachs ,
Harvard professor, 1980–2002; current director of the
Earth Institute at
Columbia University
Ruggero Santilli ,
Center for Theoretical Physics of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jonathan Sarna , Joseph H. Braun and Belle R. Braun Professor of
American Jewish History in the department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies at
Brandeis University
Andrei Shleifer , economist and professor of economics at Harvard
Isadore Singer , mathematician, recipient of the
Abel Prize (2004) and
National Medal of Science (1983), and
Institute Professor in the Department of Mathematics at
MIT
Lawrence Summers , former Harvard president, former secretary of the treasury, and nephew of the Nobel Prize laureate
Paul Samuelson
Scott Sumner , economist and professor of economics at
Bentley University
Susumu Tonegawa , MIT professor; won the
Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1987
Edward Wagenknecht , literary critic, prolific writer and
Boston University professor, lived on Otis Street in West Newton
Melvin M. Weiner , electrical engineer, author, inventor, he was the first to reduce pass-bands and stop-bands in
photonic crystals to practice
Victor Weisskopf , theoretical physicist; worked with Heisenberg, Schrödinger and Niels Bohr; group leader of the Theoretical Division of the
Manhattan Project at Los Alamos
Howard Zinn , radical historian and author of
A People's History of the United States
Actors and actresses
Peggy Bernier , actress and comedienne
Virginia Bosler , actress
Louis C.K. , born Louis Szekely, stand-up comedian,
Louie TV series, actor and writer
Jessica Chaffin , actress, comedienne, and writer
Priyanka Chopra , actress
[2]
Matt Damon , actor, film producer, philanthropist and screenwriter
Dimitri Diatchenko , actor and musician
Anne Dudek , actress, played Dr. Amber Volakis in TV series
House
Kathryn Erbe , actress, star of
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Marin Hinkle , actress, best known for playing Judith Harper on CBS's
Two and a Half Men
Josephine Hull , actress
Jennifer Dundas , actress
Alex Karpovsky , actor, best known for playing Ray Ploshansky on HBO's
Girls
Jonathan Katz , actor, best known for his starring role on the animated sitcom
Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist
Karen Kondazian , actress and author
John Krasinski , actor, best known for playing
Jim Halpert on NBC's
The Office
Ben Kurland , actor
Matt LeBlanc , actor, best known for playing Joey Tribbiani on
Friends
Jack Lemmon ,
Oscar -winning actor
Christopher Lloyd , actor, best known for playing Rev. Jim in TV series
Taxi and as "Doc" (
Emmett Brown ) in
Back to the Future films
Robert Morse , actor, star of
How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and
Mad Men
Olga C. Nardone , actress, best known for playing three parts in
The Wizard of Oz
Hari Nef , actress, model, and writer
B. J. Novak , comedian, writer, best known for playing
Ryan Howard on
The Office
Rebecca Pidgeon , actress, singer and songwriter, wife of playwright
David Mamet
Amy Poehler , actress and comedian,
Saturday Night Live and
Parks and Recreation
Robert Preston , actor, "Professor" Harold Hill in
The Music Man
James Remar , actor, known for many films and TV series
Dexter
Joe Rogan , actor and comedian
Eli Roth , film director, producer, writer and actor
John Slattery , actor, best known for playing Roger Sterling in
Mad Men
Arnold Stang , comic actor
Brian J. White , actor, best known for his role in
The Shield
Artists
David Bowes , painter
Mickie Caspi , artist, calligrapher
Tama Hochbaum , artist and photographer
Plane Jane (Andrew Dunayevsky), drag performer and competitor on season 16 of
RuPaul's Drag Race
Roger Kellaway , Oscar-nominated and Grammy-winning composer, arranger, and pianist
Bow Sim Mark ,
wushu practitioner; mother of actor
Donnie Yen
Florence Maynard , photographer
Arthur Polonsky , draughtsman, painter and academic
Nancy Schön , sculptor of the
Make Way for Ducklings statues on
Boston Common ; also did statues of
Winnie-the-Pooh and
Eeyore at the
Newton Free Library
Sidewalk Sam (Robert Guillemin), folk artist
Edwin Lord Weeks , painter
Morgan Bassichis , American comedic performer, writer, and artist
Authors, writers, journalists, poets
Binyamin Appelbaum , journalist
Tom Ashbrook , journalist and radio broadcaster
Isaac Asimov , prolific science fiction and non-fiction writer
Russell Banks , writer of fiction and poetry
Alex Beam , columnist for the
Boston Globe
Thomas Bulfinch , author of
Bulfinch's Mythology
Ty Burr , film critic for the Boston Globe
Virginia Lee Burton , illustrator and author of children's books
Russell Gordon Carter , writer
Anita Diamant , author of fiction and nonfiction books
Ralph Waldo Emerson , essayist, poet, lecturer, philosopher
Bill Everett , comic book writer, artist (creator of Sub-Mariner , co-creator of Daredevil )
Ellen Goodman ,
Pulitzer Prize -winning syndicated columnist
Ann Warren Griffith , writer
Dan Harris , correspondent for
ABC News ; anchor for
Nightline ; co-anchor for the weekend edition of
Good Morning America
Nate Kenyon , author
Raymond Kurzweil , writer, futurist, inventor
Don Lessem , author
Barry Levy , screenwriter, best known for the 2008 film
Vantage Point
Bill Lichtenstein , Peabody Award-winning journalist and filmmaker
Melissa Lozada-Oliva , poet and spoken word artist
David Mamet , playwright, screenwriter and film director
Adam Mansbach , novelist
Elizabeth McCracken , author
Tova Mirvis , novelist
Diana Muir , writer and historian
Charles J.V. Murphy , journalist and author
Michael Novak , author
William Novak , author
Robert Pinsky , former
Poet Laureate of the United States
Caroline Mehitable Fisher Sawyer , writer, editor
Anne Sexton , poet, writer
Edward Sheehan , journalist and author
Samuel Shem , playwright
Harriet Beecher Stowe , author of
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Andrew Szanton , collaborative memoirist
Celia Thaxter , poet and writer
Ben Ames Williams , novelist
Jonathan Wilson , novelist and critic
Business and industry
Roger Berkowitz , owner of
Legal Sea Foods
Charles Bilezikian , co-founder of
Christmas Tree Shops
[3]
Elizabeth Boit , textile manufacturer
Richard B. Carter , head of
Carter's Ink Company 1905–1949
Jim Davis , CEO of
New Balance
Semyon Dukach , professional gambler, entrepreneur, writer
Leo Kahn , co-founder of
Staples
Jim Koch , co-founder and chairman of the Boston Beer Company
Louis K. Liggett , drug store magnate
Eddie Lowery , golf caddy, auto dealer
John Palmer Parker , early Hawaiian rancher, married into Hawaiian royal family
Sumner Redstone , global media businessman
Francis Edgar Stanley (1849–1918), co-inventor of the
Stanley Steamer
Freelan Oscar Stanley (1849–1940), co-inventor of the
Stanley Steamer and builder of the
Stanley Hotel
Donald Valle , founder and owner of
Valle's Steak House
Richard Valle , restaurateur; son of
Donald Valle ; owner of Valle's Steak House
Peter Lynch , Mutual Fund Manager & Philanthropist; Managed Fidelity Magellan Fund 1977-1990
[4]
Colonial figures
Environmentalists
Government, education and politics
Benigno Aquino Jr. and
Corazon Aquino , Filipino public intellectual and political figures; lived with their five children in Newton, 1980–1983; Corazon eventually became the first woman president of the Philippines (1986–1992); their third child and only son, Benigno III or "Noynoy", was elected president in 2010
Benigno Aquino III , 15th president of the Philippines (assumed office June 2010; term ended June 2016), lived in Newton 1980–1983
Jake Auchincloss , member of the
U.S. House of Representatives for
Massachusetts's 4th congressional district
Thomas Cardozo , first African American State Superintendent of Education in Mississippi (1874–1876)
Evan Falchuk , founder of the
United Independent Party and candidate for governor of Massachusetts in 2014
Barney Frank , former
U.S. Representative for
Massachusetts's 4th congressional district
Joseph Healy , U.S. Representative from
New Hampshire
Joseph Kennedy III , son of
Joseph P. Kennedy II and former
U.S. Representative for
Massachusetts's 4th congressional district
Richard Lakin ,
Freedom Rider , school principal, terrorism victim
Horace Mann , public educator, college president (
Antioch College ) and U.S. Representative from
Massachusetts
Lisa Monaco ,
United States Deputy Attorney General and former
Homeland Security Advisor
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi , Shah of Iran; exiled after
Ayatollah Khomeini took power; lived for a short time in Newton
Cyrus Peirce , public educator, college president of
Framingham State College (once located in West Newton); namesake of the
Peirce School in West Newton
John Pigeon , representative of Newton to the
Massachusetts Provincial Congress and served as Massachusetts Commissary General while a resident
Roger Sherman , only person to have signed all four basic documents of American sovereignty: the
Continental Association of 1774 , the
Declaration of Independence , the
Articles of Confederation , and the
United States Constitution ; born and spent his first two years in Newton
Henry Lawrence Southwick , author, actor and 3rd President of
Emerson College (1908–1932)
Nguyen Van Thieu , exiled President of
South Vietnam
Rochelle Walensky , Director of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
John W. Weeks , mayor of Newton; U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator from Massachusetts; U.S. Secretary of War under Harding
Sinclair Weeks , son of
John W. Weeks ; born in West Newton; like his father, served as mayor of Newton and U.S. Senator; U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Dwight Eisenhower
Harry F. Stimpson Jr. , lawyer who was the
United States Ambassador to Paraguay
Military
Music
Leonard Bernstein , composer, conductor, pedagogue, pianist.
Robert Beaser , composer, professor, The Juilliard School
Dai Buell , pianist, performed the first piano recital on radio in 1921, lived at the Aloha Bungalow
Ralph Burns , songwriter, bandleader, composer, conductor, arranger and bebop pianist
Rob Chiarelli , multiple
Grammy Award winner
Catie Curtis , folk/pop singer
Stephen Custer , cellist with the
Los Angeles Philharmonic , grew up in Newton
Fat Mike , lead singer and bassist of punk rock band NOFX
Alfred Genovese , principal oboist of
Metropolitan Opera and
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Osvaldo Golijov ,
Grammy award-winning composer of classical music
Avi Jacob , singer-songwriter
Mike Mangini , drummer for
Dream Theater
Vaughn Monroe , singer, trumpeter and big band leader
Jane Morgan , popular singer, specializing in traditional pop music
Jesse Novak , composer
Aoife O'Donovan , singer-songwriter, lead singer of band
Crooked Still
Seiji Ozawa ,
Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Director Laureate
Horatio Parker , composer, first Dean of
Yale School of Music , born in
Auburndale (a village of Newton)
Rachel Platten , singer and songwriter
Seth Putnam , singer and leader of grindcore band
Anal Cunt
Fritz Richmond , jug and washtub bass player
Mark Sandman , lead singer of the alternative rock band
Morphine
Jason Solowsky , composer
Philosophy, religion and spirituality
Physicians
Political activists
Producers and directors
Brad Falchuk , writer, director, and producer of
Nip/Tuck and
Glee
Andrew Bujalski , film director, screenwriter, and actor
Lyn Greene , writer, director and producer of
Nip/Tuck ,
Boss and
Masters of Sex
Eli Roth , film director, producer, actor
Bruce Sinofsky , director of documentary films,
Brothers Keeper , The Paradise Lost Trilogy ,
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (TV series),
Iconoclasts
Julie Taymor , director of Broadway theatre and film
Psychologists and psychiatrists
Radio, television personalities
Science, medicine and technology
Michael Rosbash , geneticist and chronobiologist at
Brandeis University , recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2017
Dan Bricklin , with
Bob Frankston , co-creator of
VisiCalc , the first spreadsheet
Charles Stark Draper , inventor of the aircraft inertial guidance system; founder of
MIT's Draper Labs
Wes Hildreth , a
USGS geologist born in Newton.
Reginald Fessenden (1866–1932), inventor and radio pioneer; his
house at 45 Waban Hill Road is listed in the
National Register of Historic Places
Bob Frankston , with
Dan Bricklin , co-creator of
VisiCalc , the first spreadsheet
Atul Gawande , surgeon, writer for
The New Yorker
Ashish Jha , Dean of
Brown University School of Public Health and White House
COVID-19 pandemic Response Coordinator
Jonathan Mann , head of the
World Health Organization 's global AIDS project
Charles Johnson Maynard , naturalist and ornithologist; lived in the
Charles Maynard House
Thomas C. Peebles , physician, responsible for first isolating the
measles virus, setting the stage for the development of a vaccine
Judy Smith , nurse who disappeared from Philadelphia in 1997; found murdered in North Carolina five months later
Rochelle Walensky , Director of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at
Massachusetts General Hospital
Frank E. Winsor ,
civil engineer and chief engineer of the
Quabbin Reservoir project
Songwriters
Sports
Auto racing
Baseball
The following also played Major League Baseball:
The following play for a national team:
Basketball
Boxing
Fencing
Figure skating
Tenley Albright (born 1935 in Newton Centre), first American female skater to win an Olympic gold medal; other titles included 1952 Olympic silver medal, 1953 and 1955 World Champion, 1953 and 1955 North American champion, and 1952–1956 U.S. national champion
Gracie Gold , 2014 and 2016 U.S. champion, Olympic team bronze medalist, born in Newton
Jennifer Kirk , 2000 World Junior champion, born in Newton
John Summers , 1978–80 national champion in ice dancing
Soccer
Skateboarding
References