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List of bow tie wearers

This is a list of notable bow tie wearers, real and fictional; notable people for whom the wearing of a bow tie (when not in formal dress) is also a notable characteristic.

Bow tie wearing can be a notable characteristic for an individual. Men's clothier Jack Freedman told The New York Times that wearing a bow tie "is a statement maker" that identifies a person as an individual because "it's not generally in fashion". Numerous writers and bow tie sellers have observed that the popularity of this type of neckwear can rise and fall with the fortunes of the well-known people who wear them.

Until the 20th century, the bow tie was the general rule for neckties. Starting in early 20th century, the bow tie started to become more rare.

In 1996, The Wall Street Journal quoted statistics from the Neckwear Association of America showing that bow ties represent three percent of the 100 million ties sold each year in the United States, most of them part of formal wear, such as for white tie and black tie.

Attention to famous bow tie wearers in commerce and fashion commentary

Those who write about bow ties often mention famous people who wear or have worn them. These writers often make the point that the image conveyed to others by a bow tie can be affected by associations with celebrities and famous people in the past.

A common fashion accessory in the 19th century, the bow tie had positive associations by mid-20th century, bolstered by real-world personalities, including President Franklin Roosevelt and Sir Winston Churchill, as well as "devil-may-care" characters portrayed in films by actors, including Humphrey Bogart and Frank Sinatra. By the 1970s, however, the bow tie became associated with nerds and geeks, such as the slapstick characters played by Jerry Lewis, and Mayberry's fictional deputy sheriff, Barney Fife. This perception was reinforced by the bow tie's association with Pee-wee Herman and U.S. Senator Paul Simon.

The perceptions associated with bow ties started to take another turn in the 1980s, when Success Magazine founder, W. Clement Stone, spoke out in support of the neck wear after the publication by fashion author John Molloy which observed, "Wear a bow tie and nobody will take you seriously." Stone associated bow-tie wearing with virility, aggressiveness, and salesmanship. In further defense of the bow tie, its use by figures such as Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Saul Bellow has been cited.

Celebrities' effect on bow-tie wearing

When a celebrity is noticed wearing a bow tie, it can affect bow tie sales; sales see an improvement when the accessory is associated with younger celebrities such as Tucker Carlson. When Raj Bhakta wore one during his stint on The Apprentice, haberdashers reported customers asking for a bow tie which looked like his. Similarly, after Matt Smith made his debut as the bow tie-wearing Eleventh Doctor in Doctor Who, Topman reported a significant increase in demand for bow ties (from 3% of all tie sales to 14%).

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. wrote about his decision as a college student to start wearing bow ties in his memoir A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917–1950. Schlesinger remarked that he made his decision in part because a number of famous men he admired had a penchant for the neck wear. In addition, he noted that they prevent dinner mishaps, saying, "It is impossible, or at least it requires extreme agility, to spill anything on a bow tie."

Commercial interests using famous wearers to encourage sales

Bow tie sellers often cite famous people who have worn the neckwear as a way of encouraging more customers. Jack Cutone, co-founder of Boston Bow Tie, noted that there is ample evidence to support the uniqueness and stature of those who wear bow ties, including Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud. Beau Ties Ltd., an online bow tie seller, has featured a "C. Everett Koop bow tie," complete with an endorsement by Koop, who was Surgeon General of the United States during the Reagan administration. Carrot & Gibbs, another bow tie seller, lists several famous wearers on its bow tie web page.

Bow tie wearers of the nineteenth century

Bow ties were conventional attire in the nineteenth century. Portraits of U.S. presidents from Van Buren through McKinley commonly show them in bow ties. Wearing of a bow tie was seldom commented upon and did not form part of the public perception of figures such as American inventor Thomas Edison.

Bow tie wearers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries

Architects

Educators

College and university professors

Other educators

Entertainers and media personalities

Comedians

  • Fred Allen, American radio and TV comedian
  • Charlie Chaplin, renowned comic actor of the silent film era
  • Raymond Devos, French humorist
  • Fyvush Finkel, comedic actor best known for roles on TV series produced by David E. Kelley, sometimes nicknamed "Bowtie Finkel"
  • Pee-wee Herman, played by Paul Reubens
  • Marc Evan Jackson, American comedian and actor, who "has played Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars wearing a bow tie invariably during every performance" as well as wearing them when he is out of character
  • Stan Laurel, comedian, typically wore a bow tie when in character
  • Jerry Lewis ("in nutty character")
  • Groucho Marx, American comedian
  • David Mitchell, actor, comedian, and raconteur of Mitchell and Webb fame. David's bow ties were known as a source of amusement during his early career.
  • Garry Moore, comedian who hosted game and variety shows, was known for his crew cut and bow ties
  • Frank Muir, British comedy writer and broadcast personality "famous for his pink bow tie and mispronunciation", according to the BBC
  • Mo Rocca, identified by the New York Times as one of several comedians who have worn bow ties "ironically"
  • Mark Russell, American political comedian, pianist, and parody song author. "Mr. Russell knows from bow ties. They have been his signature for years, along with a star-spangled piano that he plinks every few minutes ..."
  • Paul F. Tompkins, American comedian known for his dapper appearance on stage including a penchant for bow ties

Journalists and commentators

  • Tucker Carlson, conservative American commentator In 2005 he told the New York Times he had consistently worn bow ties since childhood, but he acknowledged that bow ties often provoke negative reactions, "like a middle finger protruding from your neck." Following his tenure on CNN's Crossfire (Jon Stewart famously knocked the bow tie during his infamous 2004 appearance on the show), he has switched primarily to long neckties or no ties at all.
  • John Daly, journalist and host of What's My Line?, was often photographed in a bow tie; evening dress (which included bow ties) was worn by the host and panelists on that game show
  • Sir Robin Day (1923–2000), British television commentator and interviewer; his BBC News obituary said "With his thick horn-rimmed spectacles and trade mark polka-dot bow tie, he was the great inquisitor"
  • Troy Dungan, retired chief weather anchor for WFAA-TV (ABC) in Dallas-Fort Worth, owns approximately 220 bow ties
  • Dave Garroway (1913–1982), American broadcaster, first host of the Today show
  • Tom Keene, host of Bloomberg Surveillance on Bloomberg TV and Bloomberg Radio.
  • Roger Kimball (born 1953), no longer a bow-tie wearer, U.S. art critic and social commentator, co-editor and co-publisher of The New Criterion and publisher of Encounter Books
  • Irving R. Levine (1922–2009), the first foreign correspondent accredited in the Soviet Union., the former economics reporter for NBC television, known for his "trademark bow tie", appeared for the first time in public wearing a necktie for the Brown University commencement in 1994. "I needed help in tying it," he later said.
  • Russell Lynes (1910–1991), American art historian, photographer, author and editor of Harper's Magazine
  • Tom Oliphant, writer for the Boston Globe
  • Charles Osgood (1933–2024), American broadcast journalist, described as having a "trademark bow tie"
  • Gene Shalit (born 1926), U.S. film critic and regular commentator on the Today show
  • Harry Smith (born 1951), TV journalist, wore a "trademark" bow tie during his early career at a Denver station, but stopped wearing them when he joined CBS in 1987, when a network official told him that Charles Osgood was CBS' bow-tie-wearing personality and "We can't have two guys wearing bow ties."
  • Jeffrey Tucker, editorial director of the American Institute for Economic Research
  • Timothy White (1952–2002), rock journalist and "debonair dandy who "always wore his bow tie in public" and prided himself in his jaunty bow tie and white buckskin shoes.".
  • Tim Wonnacott, English antiques expert and television presenter best known for presenting Bargain Hunt.
  • George Will (born 1941), American conservative syndicated columnist and regular on the This Week Sunday morning program on ABC television. He sometimes appears with a bow tie, sometimes with a long tie, as can be seen on the covers of his books. In 2005, he told the New York Times that whenever he wore a regular necktie, people commented on the absence of his bow tie.
  • Matthew Winkler, editor-in-chef emeritus of Bloomberg News.

Other entertainment personalities

Fashion designers

Lawyers

Politicians and political activists

The regular wearing of bow ties by a politician is often the subject of comment — from friends, foes and journalists:

Psychiatrists and psychologists

Athletes

Other 20th-/21st-century people associated with wearing bow ties

Fictional characters

Bow ties are a consistent element in the depiction of some fictional characters.

Characters in film and television

Film and television characters portrayed by human actors as consistently wearing bow ties have included:

Characters in comics and cartoons

Bow ties are a consistent part of the depiction of many characters created by artists for entertainment media including comics, cartoons, and anime.

Among these are many Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters:

Other artist-created characters consistently or frequently depicted in bow ties include:

See also

Notes