List of people from Memphis, Tennessee

This is a list of famous people who were born in, residents of, or otherwise closely associated with Memphis, Tennessee, and its surrounding metropolitan statistical area, including Crittenden County, Arkansas, DeSoto County, Mississippi, Marshall County, Mississippi, Tate County, Mississippi, Tunica County, Mississippi, Fayette County, Tennessee, Shelby County, Tennessee, and Tipton County, Tennessee.

This list is in alphabetical order by last name.

A through K

• Johnny Ace — musician
• John Adair, anthropologist, pioneer of Navajo & Zuni cultural studies.^[1]
• Stephen Adams — United States Congressman and United States Senator^[2]
• Traci Adell — Playboy centerfold
• Lily Afshar — classical guitarist, University of Memphis music professor
• Richard "Pistol" Allen — drummer; was one of the Funk Brothers who played on the Motown hits in the 1960s
• Estelle Axton — co-founder of Stax Records
• Archbishop LeRoy Bailey — Senior Pastor of The First Cathedral, A Megachurch in Bloomfield, Connecticut; Clergy
• Lloyd Barbee — Wisconsin legislator and civil rights activist
• The Bar-Kays — musicians
• Kathy Bates — actress
• Kenneth Lawrence Beaudoin — poet
• Big Daddy V — wrestler
• Michael Beck — actor, best known for The Warriors
• Chris Bell — musician
• Bobby "Blue" Bland — musician
• Elizabeth Bolden — oldest person in the world during most of 2006
• Charles Boyce — syndicated cartoonist
• Craig Brewer — film director
• Judge Joe Brown — politician
• Isaac Bruce — NFL player for the San Francisco 49ers
• Tyrone Calico— National Football League] player Tennessee Titans Come From Millington Trojans
• Dixie Carter — actress
• Bob Caruthers — major league baseball player^[3]
• Johnny Cash — musician
• Kellye Cash — Miss America 1987
• Cy Casper — NFL player for the Green Bay Packers, St. Louis Gunners, and the Pittsburgh Pirates
• David Catching — musician
• Egypt Central — musicians
• Alex Chilton — musician
• Robert Reed Church, Sr. — entrepreneur and philanthropist.^[4]
• Philip Claypool — musician
• Lashundra Trenyce Cobbin — American Idol Contestant
• Steve Cohen — politician
• George Coleman — musician
• Barron Collier — businessman
• Hank Crawford — musician
• Steve Cropper — musician
• Edward H. Crump — political boss and U.S. Representative
• Chasity Daniels — musician
• Rick Dees — former disc jockey
• Shannen Doherty — actress
• Peter C. Doherty — Nobel laureate and scientist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
• Michael Douglas — Air Force member
• Donald "Duck" Dunn — musician
• Johnny Dowd — musician
• Johanna Edwards — author
• William Eggleston — photographer
• Eightball & MJG — musicians
• Ben Ferguson — nationally syndicated talk radio host
• Veronica Finn — former pop singer of the now-disbanded group innosense
• Ric Flair — professional wrestler (adopted at six weeks; raised in Minnesota)
• Rey Flemings — music commissioner
• George L. Forbes — Cleveland City Council President, President of the Cleveland NAACP
• Shelby Foote — author
• Harold Ford, Jr. — politician
• Jacob A. T. Ford — NFL player, Tennessee Titans (son of Fred "Sweet Daddy Goodlow" Ford)
• Abe Fortas — politician and U.S. Supreme Court justice
• Aretha Franklin — singer
• Morgan Freeman — actor
• David Gest — event and concert producer
• Ginnifer Goodwin — actress
• Yo Gotti — Rapper
• Aubrey Drake Graham — Rapper
• Al Green — musician
• The Gentrys — 1960s Rock band with Larry Raspberry and Larry Wall
• Larkin Grimm — folk singer
• Gyft — Rapper signed to E1 Music, known for his single They Just Don't Know.
• Richard Halliburton — explorer and author
• Lucy Hale — singer and actress
• George Hamilton — actor
• W.C. Handy — musician
• Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway — professional basketball player
• E. Hunter Harrison — CEO
• Jimmy Hart — singer, pro wrestling personality
• Jon Hassell — musician
• Isaac Hayes — Academy Award-winning musician
• Ingram Hill — band
• John Lee Hooker — blues musician
• John Hulse — Porn Star
• Howlin' Wolf — blues musician
• Al Jackson, Jr. — musician
• Quinton "Rampage" Jackson — Mixed martial arts fighter
• Josh Jasper (born 1987) - All-American college American football placekicker
• Michael Jeter — actor
• Ashley Jones — actress
• Booker T. Jones — musician
• Florence Kahn early Ibsen actress and wife of Max Beerbohm
• George "Machine Gun" Kelly — Great Depression-era bank robber and kidnapper
• Carlton W. Kent — Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps
• B.B. King — musician
• George Klein - Disk Jockey
• John Cooper- musican Skillet

L through Z

• Brian Lawler — professional wrestler
• Jerry Lawler — professional wrestler
• Jerry Lee Lewis — musician
• Alan Lightman — novelist and physicist
• Booker Little — musician
• Charles Lloyd — musician
• Jim Mabry — Arkansas Razorbacks football All-American
• Terry Manning — music producer
• The Mar-Keys — musicians
• Wink Martindale — disc jockey and television personality
• Tim McCarver — professional baseball player and broadcaster
• Hilton McConnico — designer & artist
• Kenneth D. McKellar — long-serving U.S. Senator
• The Memphis Horns — an American horn section
• Shaun Micheel — professional golfer
• Memphis Slim — musician
• Dr. Cary Middlecoff — professional golfer
• Lola Mitchell — musician
• Willie Mitchell — musician
• Allen B. Morgan, Jr. — businessman, founded Morgan Keegan
• Chips Moman — music producer
• Sputnik Monroe — professional wrestler
• Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, fka Carlos Leon Bledsoe—charged in the 2009 jihadi Little Rock military recruiting office shooting.^[5][6]
• David W. Mullins, Jr. — former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve
• Charlie Musselwhite — blues musician
• Zach Myers — lead guitarist for rock band Shinedown
• Elise Neal — actress
• Pat and Gina Neely — celebrity chefs on Food Network
• Hailey Anne Nelson — actress
• Phineas Newborn, Jr. — jazz musician
• Nights Like These — Victory Records metalcore band
• Michael Oher — NFL player, Baltimore Ravens
• Woody Paige— sports writer and guest on ESPN's Around the Horn
• Project Pat — Rapper
• Cindy Parlow — athlete
• Chris Parnell — actor
• Gilbert E. Patterson — bishop of the Church of God in Christ
• Luther Perkins — musician
• Elliot Perry — professional basketball player
• Dewey Phillips — early rock 'n' roll disc jockey
• Sam Phillips — founder of Sun Records
• David Porter — musician
• Elvis Presley — musician and actor
• Project Pat — gangsta rapper
• Margaret Polk - "The Memphis Belle"
• Tommy Prothro — former football coach at UCLA
• Missi Pyle — actress
• Lisa Quinn — actress, author, designer
• Michael Ramirez — Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist
• Jay Reatard — musician
• Otis Redding — musician
• Charlie Rich — musician
• Loren Roberts — professional golfer
• Russell Roberts (economist) — economist
• Adrian Rogers — former pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church and president of the Southern Baptist Convention
• Steve Ross — actor
• Joe Russell - former world backgammon champion
• Lance Russell — pro wrestling announcer
• Saliva — musical group
• Sam and Dave — Sam Moore and David Prater, musicians
• Sam the Sham — musician, leader of Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs
• William Sanderson — actor
• J. Peter Sartain — Archbishop of Seattle
• Clarence Saunders — inventor and businessman, founder of the world's first self-service supermarket, Piggly Wiggly
• Josey Scott — musician
• Dan Schneider — actor
• Will Shade — musician
• Paul Shanklin — voiceover artist and creator of song parodies heard on the Rush Limbaugh radio program
• Cybill Shepherd — actress & model
• George Sherrill — MLB player
• Lee Shippey — journalist
• McKinley Singleton - NBA player, New York Knicks
• Fred Smith — Founder and Chairman FedEx
• Lane Smith — actor
• Andrew Stevens — actor
• Stella Stevens — actress
• Jim Stewart — record producer and co-founder of Stax Records
• Bobby Sowell — musician
• Cliff Taylor - NFL player for the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers
• Carla Thomas — musician and daughter of Rufus Thomas
• Danny Thomas — entertainer and founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
• Rufus Thomas — musician
• Fred D. Thompson — actor and former U.S. Senator (alumnus of the University of Memphis)
• Justin Timberlake — musician and actor
• Drumma Boy — hip hop music producer
• Ike Turner — musician
• Andrew VanWyngarden — musician lead singer and songwriter of Brooklyn-based psychedelic rock group MGMT
• Anita Ward — Disco/Dance singer and school teacher; 1979 number one Billboard Hot 100 single "Ring My Bell."
• Thomas Waterson — Memphis police officer who captured Machine Gun Kelly in Memphis raid in 1933
• Ida B. Wells — civil rights advocate and women's rights advocate
• Junior Wells — musician
• David West — former baseball player
• Red West — actor
• Kirk Whalum — musician
• Reggie White — NFL player; began his career with the Memphis Showboats of the USFL
• Maurice White — musician
• Bobby Whitlock — musician, keyboardist in Derek and the Dominoes
• John Shelton Wilder — Tennessee politician
• Tennessee Williams — playwright
• Kemmons Wilson — businessman, founder of Holiday Inn
• Roy Yeager — musician
• Shawn Lane — musician
• Three 6 Mafia — Academy Award-winning rap musicians
• Garrett Wang — actor
• Louis Williams — NBA player, Philadelphia 76ers
• Mike Wilson, NBA player
• Francis Winkler — NFL player, Green Bay Packers
• Lil Wyte — Rapper

References

1. ^ Pace, Eric (December 29, 1997). "John Adair, 84, Anthropologist Who Studied Navajo Culture" (in English). New York Times (New York City, New York: New York Times). http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D07E6DF1431F93AA15751C1A961958260. Retrieved 2009—09-17. 
2. ^ Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607-1896. Marquis Who's Who. 1967. 
3. ^ Reichler, Joseph L., ed (1979) [1969]. The Baseball Encyclopedia (4th edition ed.). New York: Macmillan Publishing. ISBN 0-02-578970-8. 
4. ^ [1]
5. ^ Dao, James (February 17, 2010). "A Muslim Son, a Murder Trial and Many Questions". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/us/17convert.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2. 
6. ^ Kristina Goetz (November 13, 2010). "Muslim who shot soldier in Arkansas says he wanted to cause more death". The Knoxville News Sentinel. http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/nov/13/muslim-who-shot-solider-arkansas-says-he-wanted-ca/. Retrieved November 15, 2010.