List of people from Newton, Massachusetts
Newton, Massachusetts has been the home of many notable people.
Academics
- 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
- 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 who 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
- 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 who 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
- Howard Zinn, radical historian and author of A People's History of the United States
Actors and actresses
- Louis C.K., born Louis Szekely, stand-up comedian, Louie TV series, actor and writer
- Matt Damon, actor and Oscar-winning screenwriter (with Ben Affleck) for Good Will Hunting
- Bette Davis, twice Oscar-winning actress
- 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
- 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
- John Krasinski, actor, best known for playing Jim Halpert on NBC's The Office
- Ben Kurland, actor
- Matt LeBlanc, actor, best known for role on sit-com 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, transgender 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
Artists
- David Bowes, painter
- Mickie Caspi, artist, calligrapher
- Roger Kellaway, Oscar-nominated and Grammy-winning composer, arranger, and pianist
- Bow Sim Mark, wushu practitioner; mother of actor Donnie Yen
- 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
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
- 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
- Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of novels The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance
- 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
- David Mamet, playwright, screenwriter and film director
- Adam Mansbach, novelist
- Elizabeth McCracken, author
- Tova Mirvis, novelist
- Diana Muir, writer and historian
- Michael Novak, author
- Robert Pinsky, former Poet Laureate of the United States
- Anne Sexton, poet, writer
- 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[2]
- Elizabeth Boit, textile manufacturer
- Richard B. Carter, head of Carter's Ink Company from 1905–1949
- Jim Davis, CEO of New Balance Athletic Shoe
- 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
- Sumner Redstone, global media businessman
- Francis Edgar Stanley (1849–1918), co-founder of the Stanley Steamer in 1902
- Freelan Oscar Stanley (1849–1940), co-founder of the Stanley Steamer in 1902
- Donald Valle, founder and owner of Valle's Steak House
- Richard Valle, restaurateur; son of Donald Valle; owner of Valle's Steak House
- J. J. Walworth, founder of the Walworth Manufacturing Company[3]
Colonial figures
- Waban, 17th-century American Indian tribal chief; lived in Nonantum
- Ephraim Williams, Colonel in the colonial militia during the French and Indian War and benefactor of Williams College
- Thomas Wiswall (1601–1683), prominent early citizen of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Cambridge Village, Massachusetts
Environmentalists
- Francis P. Farquhar, president of the Sierra Club, pioneering mountain climber
Government, education and politics
- Benigno Aquino, Jr. and Corazon Aquino, Filipino public intellectual and political figures; lived with their five children in Newton, 1980–83; Corazon eventually became the first woman president of the Philippines (1986–92); their third child and only son, Benigno III or "Noynoy", was elected President in 2010
- Benigno Aquino III, current president of the Philippines (assumed office June 2010; term ends June 2016), lived in Newton from 1980–83
- Barney Frank, Former United States Representative for Massachusetts's 4th congressional district
- Joseph Healy, United States Representative from New Hampshire
- Horace Mann, public educator, college president (Antioch College) and United States Representative from Massachusetts
- Lisa Monaco, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism
- 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
- Roger Sherman, the 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
- Nguyen Van Thieu, exiled President of South Vietnam
- John W. Weeks, mayor of Newton; U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator from Massachusetts; US 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 Eisenhower
Military
- James S. Gracey, Commandant of the United States Coast Guard
Music
- Robert Beaser, composer, professor, The Juilliard School
- Ralph Burns, songwriter, bandleader, composer, conductor, arranger and bebop pianist
- Rob Chiarelli, 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
- 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
- Dan Smith, guitarist and music instructor
Philosophy, religion and spirituality
- Ram Dass (Dr. Richard Alpert), author, philosophic and religious guru
- Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist; her last home has been preserved as the Dupee Estate-Mary Baker Eddy Home
- Timothy Leary, author, psychologist, lecturer at Harvard, advocate of L.S.D.-25 (i.e., lysergic acid diethylamide) and other entheogens, jailbird, computer enthusiast
Physicians
- Donald Berwick, former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; candidate for Massachusetts State Governor in 2014
- Atul Gawande, general and endocrine surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital
- Sara Murray Jordan, gastroenterologist
Political activists
- Charles Jacobs, founder of the American Anti-Slavery Group and of The David Project Center for Jewish Leadership
- Andrea Levin, director of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America
- Leonard Zakim, prominent New England religious and civil rights leader
Producers and directors
- Brad Falchuk, writer, director, and producer of Nip/Tuck and Glee
- Eli Roth, film director, producer, actor
- Julie Taymor, director of Broadway theatre and film
Psychologists and psychiatrists
- Julian Jaynes, psychologist
- Kenneth Levin, psychiatrist and historian
- Kurt Lewin, "the father of social psychology"
Radio, television personalities
- Paula S. Apsell, television producer
- Tom Ashbrook, host of the NPR radio show On Point
- Maria Lopez, former judge, TV personality
- Jade McCarthy, ESPN sportscaster
- Suzyn Waldman, color commentator for New York Yankees
Science, medicine and technology
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Frank E. Winsor, civil engineer and chief engineer of the Quabbin Reservoir project
Songwriters
- Katharine Lee Bates, professor of English at Wellesley College and author of the lyrics to "America the Beautiful"
- Samuel Francis Smith, Baptist minister and author of the lyrics to My Country, 'Tis of Thee, also known as "America"
Sports
Auto racing
- Pete Hamilton, NASCAR racer, winner of the 1970 Daytona 500
Baseball
- The following are current and former players of the Boston Red Sox:
- Matt Clement (former)
- Jim Corsi (former) (born in Newton)
- John Curtis (former) (born in Newton)
- Hal Deviney (former) (born in Newton)
- JD Drew (former)
- Bob Gallagher (former) (born in Newton)
- Mark Loretta (former)
- Doug Mirabelli (former)
- Trot Nixon (former)
- David Ortiz (current)
- Wily Mo Peña (former)
- Jimmy Piersall (former)
- Jason Varitek (former)
- Ted Williams (former)
- The following also played Major League Baseball:
- Bob Barr (born in Newton)
- Sean DePaula (born in Newton)
- Bob Dresser (born in Newton)
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
Football
- Kiko Alonso, (current) linebacker for the Miami Dolphins
- Patrick Sullivan, (former) general manager, New England Patriots
Soccer
- Daouda Kante, (former) New England Revolution player
- Taylor Twellman, (former) New England Revolution player
Skateboarding
- Andy MacDonald, eight-time X Games gold medalist and eight-time World Cup Skateboarding champion
Fictional Newtonians
- Gorgeous Rosensweig Teitelbaum, one of the three sisters in Wendy Wasserstein's 1994 play The Sisters Rosensweig, is a "housewife, mother and radio personality" who lives in Newton.
- Andrew Sabot, the male ingenue in Cole Porter's 1928 play Paris is a Mayflower descendant from Newton Center whose mother comes to Paris to prevent his marriage to a French actress.
References
- ↑ Sullivan, Joan (2016-08-12). "Anthropologist Jean L. Briggs' books on Inuit became classics". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2016-08-21.
- ↑ Marquard, Bryan (2016-07-27). "Charles Bilezikian, 79; created the Christmas Tree Shops empire". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2016-08-24.
- ↑ James J. Walworth Papers - Massachusetts Historical Society
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