People from Newton, Massachusetts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Newton, Massachusetts has been the home of many notable people.
[edit] Academics
- David Berson neurobiologist, professor at Brown University
- Noam Chomsky, professor of linguistics at MIT, creator of the theory of generative grammar, considered to be one of the most significant contributions to the field of linguistics made in the 20th century
- J. Walter Fewkes, ethnologist and archaeologist
- Stanley Fischer, governor of the Bank of Israel and former professor at the MIT Department of Economics
- 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
- Ruth Langer, Professor of theology at Boston College, and a noted expert on Jewish Liturgy and on Christian Jewish Relations
- Matthew Levitt
- Rosalind Picard is director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab
- Jeffrey Sachs, Harvard professor during 1980-2002, before moving to his current position of a director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University
- Jonathan Sarna, Joseph H. 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
- Susumu Tonegawa, MIT professor who won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1987
- Howard Zinn, radical historian and author of A People's History of the United States
[edit] Actors and Actresses
- Priyanka Chopra, Indian actress and Miss World 2000
- Matt Damon, actor, Oscar-winning screenwriter (with Ben Affleck) for Good Will Hunting
- Bette Davis, twice Oscar-winning actress
- Anne Dudek, actress
- Kathryn Erbe, actress
- 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, most known for role on sitcom Friends
- Jack Lemmon, Oscar-winning actor
- Robert Morse, actor, star of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying and Tru
- B.J. Novak, stand-up comedian, The Office actor, writer
- Rebecca Pidgeon, actress, singer and songwriter, and the wife of playwright David Mamet
- Robert Preston, actor, "Professor" Harold Hill in The Music Man
[edit] Artists
- Arthur Polonsky draughtsman, painter and academic
- Sidewalk Sam (Robert Guillemin), folk artist
- Nancy Schön, sculptor, most famously of the Make Way for Ducklings statues on Boston Common; also did statues of Winnie-the-Pooh and Eeyore at the Newton Free Library
[edit] Authors, writers, journalists, poets, etc.
- Binyamin Appelbaum, journalist
- Tom Ashbrook
- 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 non-fiction books
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist, poet, lecturer, philosopher
- Ellen Goodman, Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist
- Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of novels The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance
- Don Lessem, author
- Elizabeth McCracken , author
- David Mamet, playwright, screenwriter and film director
- Tova Mirvis, novelist
- Diana Muir, writer and historian
- Michael Novak, author
- William Novak, author
- Robert Pinsky, former Poet Laureate of the United States
- Anne Sexton, poet, writer
- Samuel Shem, playwright
- Andrew Szanton collaborative memoirist
- Ben Ames Williams, novelist
- Jonathan Wilson, novelist and critic
[edit] Business and industry
- Roger Berkowitz, owner of Legal Sea Foods
- Richard B. Carter head of Carter's Ink Company from 1905-1949
- Jim Davis, CEO of New Balance Athletic Shoe
- Louis K. Liggett, drug store magnate
- Sumner Redstone, Global media businessman
[edit] 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
[edit] Environmentalists
- Francis P. Farquhar, president of the Sierra Club, pioneering mountain climber
[edit] 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. [1]
- Andrew Sabot, the male ingenue in Cole Porter's 1928 play Paris is a Mayflower descendant form Newton Center whose mother comes to Paris to prevent his marriage to a French actress.
[edit] Government, education and politics
- Benigno Aquino, Jr. and Corazon Aquino, Filipino public intellectual and political figure
- Joseph Healy, United States Representative from New Hampshire
- Horace Mann, public educator, college president (Antioch College) and United States Representative from Massachusetts
- Cyrus Peirce, public educator, college president (Framingham State College), which was once located in West Newton). The Peirce School in West Newton is named for him.
- 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
- Nguyen Van Thieu, exiled President of South Vietnam [2]
[edit] Music
- Ralph Burns, songwriter, bandleader, composer, conductor, arranger and bebop pianist.
- Osvaldo Golijov, Grammy award-winning composer of classical music
- Vaughn Monroe, singer, trumpeter and big band leader
- Seiji Ozawa, Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Director Laureate
- Fritz Richmond, jug and washtub bass player
- Mark Sandman, lead singer of the alternative rock band Morphine
- Anal Cunt, a popular noisecore/grindcore band
[edit] Philosophy, religion and spirituality
- Ram Dass (Dr. Richard Alpert), author, philosophic and religious "guru"
- Mary Baker Eddy founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. See 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
[edit] Physicians
- Atul Gawande general and endocrine surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital
[edit] Political Activists
- Charles Jacobs (political activist) 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
[edit] Producers and Directors
- Eli Roth, film director, producer, actor
- Julie Taymor, director of Broadway theatre and film.
[edit] Psychologists and Psychiatrists
- Julian Jaynes, psychologist
- Kenneth Levin, psychiatrist and historian
- Kurt Lewin, "the father of social psychology"
[edit] Radio, television and motion pictures
- Maria Lopez, former judge, TV court show host
- Paula S. Apsell, television producer
[edit] Science, medicine and technology
- Reginald Fessenden(1866-1932) inventor and radio pioneer, his house at 45 Waban Hill Road is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
- Charles Stark Draper, inventor of the aircraft internal guidance system, and founder of MIT's Draper Labs
- Atul Gawande, surgeon, writer for The New Yorker
- Jonathan Mann, head of the World Health Organization's global AIDS project
- Frank E. Winsor, civil engineer and chief engineer of the Quabbin Reservoir project
- Francis Edgar Stanley and Freelan O. Stanley, twin brothers, who invented the famous steam-powered automobile known as the Stanley Steamer
[edit] 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."
[edit] Sports
[edit] Baseball
- The following current and former players of the Boston Red Sox:
- Matt Clement (former)
- Jim Corsi (former player of the Boston Red Sox, Florida Marlins, Oakland Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, and Houston Astros)
- JD Drew (current)
- Mark Loretta (former)
- Doug Mirabelli (former)
- Trot Nixon (former)
- David Ortiz (current)
- Wily Mo Pena (former)
- Jimmy Piersall (former)
- Jason Varitek (current)
- Ted Williams (former)
[edit] Basketball
- Larry Bird, former Boston Celtics basketball player
- Jack Long Boston Celtics*
[edit] Soccer
- Taylor Twellman current New England Revolution player
