Music · 1929–1998Betty Carterjazz singer, bandleader, educatorFlint-born, Detroit-raised jazz singer famed for her daring scat and phrasing, who won a Paradise Theatre talent contest and sat in with Parker and Gillespie before joining Lionel Hampton.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.
- 664 famous people
- 66 Detroit places
- 7 fields
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Clear filtersMusic · 1929–1998Betty Carterjazz singer, bandleader, educatorFlint-born, Detroit-raised jazz singer famed for her daring scat and phrasing, who won a Paradise Theatre talent contest and sat in with Parker and Gillespie before joining Lionel Hampton.
Music · born 1937Ron Carterjazz double bassist, cellist, composerBorn in suburban Ferndale and trained at Detroit's Cass Tech, he became the most-recorded bassist in jazz history and anchored Miles Davis's 1960s quintet.
Politics · 1929–2019John Conyerspolitician, lawyerDetroit's congressman for more than half a century (1965–2017), the longest-serving African American member of Congress and Rosa Parks's longtime employer.
Film & TV · born 1991Garrett Claytonactor, singer, dancerDearborn-born actor and singer who started out in his high school drama club and starred in Disney's Teen Beach Movie and NBC's Hairspray Live!
Music · 1935–1969Paul Chambersjazz double bassistHard-bop bassist raised in Detroit, trained at Cass Tech and by a Detroit Symphony bassist, who anchored Miles Davis's first great quintet.
Business & brands · born 1963Dick Costolotechnology executive, former CEO of TwitterRoyal Oak–born University of Michigan graduate who co-founded FeedBurner and ran Twitter as CEO from 2010 to 2015.
Religion · 1911–2000Albert Cleage Jr.minister, Black nationalist leaderDetroit minister who founded the Shrine of the Black Madonna and the Black Christian Nationalist movement, a leading voice of Detroit's Black Power era.The lexicon keeps growing. Every entry lists its sources at the bottom. Dates were checked against Wikidata and Wikipedia. The texts are our own.