DETROIT / A living lexicon / ¼
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.
Hungarian ties 22 Detroiters with Hungarian ties →
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Theatre & dance · 1874–1926
Harry Houdiniillusionist, escape artist, stage and film performerBudapest-born escape artist who played Detroit's vaudeville houses for decades, leapt handcuffed off the Belle Isle Bridge in 1906 and died in the city on Halloween 1926.
Film & TV · born 1980Kristen Bellactress, singerStar of Veronica Mars, The Good Place and Disney's Frozen, born in Huntington Woods and raised in Detroit's northern suburbs.
Film & TV · born 1932Ellen BurstynactressOscar-, Tony- and Emmy-winning actress born Edna Rae Gillooly in Detroit, where she went to Cass Tech and modeled for Hudson's before leaving for the stage.
Film & TV · born 1955J. K. SimmonsactorOscar-winning character actor (Whiplash, Spider-Man) who was born in Grosse Pointe, spent his first ten years there and remains a devoted Detroit Tigers fan.Danny Jacobsactor, voice actor, comedianDetroit-born voice of King Julien in The Penguins of Madagascar, who ran the Gem and Century Theatres in downtown Detroit in the early 2000s.
Film & TV · 1927–1999George C. Scottactor, directorOscar-winning star of Patton who grew up in Detroit and graduated from Redford High School before joining the Marines.
Comedy · born 1939Lily Tomlincomedian, actress, writerComedy legend raised in Detroit's Virginia Park area; Cass Tech and Wayne State alumna whose characters grew out of the neighbors on her childhood block.
Theatre & dance · born 1972Dita Von Teeseburlesque dancer, model, businesswomanThe performer credited with bringing burlesque back to the mainstream was born Heather Sweet in Rochester, Michigan, in Oakland County.
Film & TV · 1932–2023Piper LaurieactressThree-time Oscar nominee (The Hustler, Carrie, Children of a Lesser God) who was born Rosetta Jacobs in a one-bedroom walk-up on Detroit's Tyler Street.
Film & TV · 1922–2002Kim Hunterstage, film and television actressDetroit-born actress who created Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway, won an Oscar for the film, and later played Zira in Planet of the Apes.
Theatre & dance · 1925–2013Julie HarrisactressOne of the great actresses of the American stage, winner of five Tony Awards for Best Actress in a Play, born and raised in Grosse Pointe.
Film & TV · 1928–1994George PeppardactorBreakfast at Tiffany's leading man and The A-Team's Hannibal Smith, born in Detroit, raised in Dearborn and buried there beside his parents.
Film & TV · born 1972Elizabeth Berkleyactress, dancerSaved by the Bell's Jessie Spano grew up in Farmington Hills, trained as a dancer in Detroit and first acted on metro Detroit stages.
Comedy · born 1971Keegan-Michael Keyactor, comedian, writer, producerCo-creator of Key & Peele who grew up in Detroit, studied theater at the University of Detroit Mercy and co-founded Hamtramck's Planet Ant Theatre.
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.
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.
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.
Film & TV · 1931–2024Mitzi Gaynoractress, dancer, singerMusical film star of South Pacific, the daughter of a Hungarian-descended musician, who spent part of her childhood in Detroit before her family moved to Hollywood.
Film & TV · born 1950Christine Lahtiactress, directorOscar-winning director and Emmy-winning star of Chicago Hope, born in Birmingham, Michigan, and a graduate of Seaholm High School.
Film & TV · born 1944Jeffrey TamboractorArrested Development and Larry Sanders Show actor who earned his master's degree in theater at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Science & invention · 1923–2015
Carl Djerassichemist, novelist, playwrightChemist known as a father of the birth-control pill, who taught at Wayne State University in Detroit through most of the 1950s and later wrote plays and novels.
Film & TV · born 1975David Burtkaactor, chefBroadway and How I Met Your Mother actor turned professional chef, born in Dearborn and raised in Canton, where he graduated from Salem High School.
Film & TV · born 1960Courtney B. VanceactorTony- and Emmy-winning Detroit native, a Detroit Country Day graduate and Boys & Girls Club alumnus, famed for playing Johnnie Cochran.
Film & TV · 1925–2015Joan Leslieactress, vaudevillianGolden Age star of High Sierra, Sergeant York and Yankee Doodle Dandy who began as the youngest of Detroit's singing Brodel sisters in Depression-era vaudeville.
Theatre & dance · born 1971Renée Elise Goldsberryactress, singerTony- and Grammy-winning Angelica Schuyler of Hamilton, who grew up partly in the Detroit area and graduated from Cranbrook Kingswood School in Bloomfield Hills.
Film & TV · born 1952S. Epatha MerkersonactressLaw & Order's Lt. Anita Van Buren grew up in Detroit, graduated from Cooley High School and earned her theatre degree at Wayne State University.
Theatre & dance · 1925–2014Elaine Stritchactress, singer, comedianBroadway's tough, funny star of Company and At Liberty was born in Detroit, and after six decades in New York came home to Birmingham, Michigan, to spend her last year.
Film & TV · 1943–2019Max WrightactorALF's harried father Willie Tanner, born in Detroit and raised in Southfield, where he starred in high school musicals; he returned to act at the Jewish Ensemble Theatre in 2007.
Film & TV · born 1956Vondie Curtis-Hallactor, film and television directorDetroit-born actor and director, Dr. Dennis Hancock on Chicago Hope, who wrote and directed the Detroit-set cult film Gridlock'd.
Film & TV · born 1951David Patrick Kellyactor, musician, lyricistDetroit-born character actor, forever Luther of The Warriors, who began writing musicals while studying at the University of Detroit.
Film & TV · born 1978Jaime Ray Newmanactress, producer, singerTelevision actress (Veronica Mars, Eureka, The Punisher) who grew up in Farmington Hills, acted in Detroit-area regional theaters and graduated from Cranbrook in 1996.
Music · born 1981Jimmie Wilsonsinger, musical theatre actorDetroit-born singer and stage actor who represented San Marino at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 in a duet with Valentina Monetta.
Comedy · born 1956David Alan Grieractor, comedianIn Living Color star and Tony-winning stage actor from Detroit, a Cass Tech graduate whose family marched with Martin Luther King Jr. in the city in 1963.
Film & TV · 1902–1992George Murphyactor, dancer, U.S. senatorSong-and-dance star of 1930s–40s Hollywood musicals and U.S. senator from California, who spent part of his boyhood in Detroit.Dana Elcarcharacter actor, television directorFerndale-born character actor best known as Pete Thornton, MacGyver's boss, whose real-life blindness was written into the show.
Theatre & dance · 1893–1974Katharine Cornellstage actress, producerBroadway's 'First Lady of the Theatre', who learned her craft in Jessie Bonstelle's stock company on the stage of Detroit's Garrick Theatre around 1918–1920.
Film & TV · born 1966Anne Fletcherfilm director, choreographer, dancerDirector of Step Up, The Proposal and Hocus Pocus 2, born in Detroit and raised in St. Clair Shores, where she learned to dance and first performed.
Film & TV · born 1941Robert McKeescreenwriting teacher, author, story consultantDetroit-born story guru whose Story Seminar and book Story have trained generations of screenwriters; he started as a young actor on Detroit stages.
Film & TV · 1923–2010Adele Maraactress, dancer, singerHighland Park-born dancer and actress of 1940s westerns and Sands of Iwo Jima, the daughter of Spanish immigrants, who started out in Xavier Cugat's show.
Film & TV · born 1970Matt Letscheractor, playwright, directorGrosse Pointe-born actor (The Mask of Zorro, The Flash's Reverse-Flash) and playwright, discovered at Jeff Daniels' Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea.
Film & TV · born 1985Dan AmboyeractorDetroit-born actor from the Roeper School, known for Younger, Uncoupled and as Prince William in a royal-romance TV movie.
Film & TV · 1934–1973Michael Dunnactor, singerOscar-nominated actor and singer with dwarfism, raised in Dearborn and schooled in Detroit, best remembered as Dr. Loveless in The Wild Wild West.
Film & TV · born 1957Faye GrantactressStar of the 1980s science-fiction saga V and a Theatre World Award winner on Broadway, born in St. Clair Shores and a 1975 Lake Shore High School graduate.
Theatre & dance · born 1963Neil LaButeplaywright, film director, screenwriterPlaywright and director of In the Company of Men and The Shape of Things, born in Detroit to a hospital receptionist and a long-haul trucker and raised in Spokane.
Music · 1932–1986Dorothy Ashbyjazz harpist, pianist, singer, composerDetroit-born pioneer who made the harp a bebop instrument, a product of Paradise Valley, Cass Tech and Wayne State who also ran a Black theater company in the city.
Film & TV · born 1970Jacqueline Kimactress, writer, filmmaker, composerActress of Star Trek Generations and Charlotte Sometimes and co-writer of Advantageous, who grew up in Bloomfield Hills and started acting there at four.
Film & TV · born 1996Sarah PidgeonactressTony- and Emmy-nominated actress (Stereophonic, Love Story) who grew up in Birmingham, acting at the Community House and attending Groves High School.
Theatre & dance · born 1956Ruben Santiago-Hudsonactor, playwright, directorTony-winning actor, playwright of Lackawanna Blues and August Wilson director, who earned his master's degree at Wayne State University, which later gave him an honorary doctorate.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 ↗