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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.

1,743 famous people
96 Detroit places
8 fields

Hungarian ties 21 Detroiters with Hungarian ties →

4 people

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Film & TV · 1927–2005Dana Elcarcharacter actor, television directorFerndale-born character actor best known as Pete Thornton, MacGyver's boss, whose real-life blindness was written into the show.Born hereGrew up here

Literature · 1921–2019Carol Emshwillershort-story writer, novelistNebula-winning avant-garde science-fiction writer, praised by Ursula K. Le Guin, who was born, studied and married in Ann Arbor on the edge of the Detroit region.Born hereStudied here

Business & brands · 1920–2011Esther Gordy EdwardsMotown executive, founder of the Motown MuseumBerry Gordy's eldest sister, a Motown executive who organized the Motortown Revue and in 1985 turned Hitsville U.S.A. into the Motown Museum.Grew up hereDetroit career

Press & broadcasting · 1920–2012Sonny EliotTV weatherman, comedian, broadcasterDetroit's joking TV weatherman for more than six decades, on WWJ-TV/WDIV from 1947 to 1980 and host of the long-running children's show At the Zoo.Detroit careerStudied here

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 Detroiters

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