List of people from Hartford, Connecticut

The following list includes people who were born in, lived in or are otherwise closely connected with Hartford, Connecticut.

Academia

• August Coppola, academic, film executive and father of Nicolas Cage
• Michael C. FitzGerald (born 1953), art historian and Picasso scholar at Trinity College in Hartford
• Stephen Cole Kleene (1909–1994), mathematician and professor
• Spencer Shaw (1916–2010), librarian and professor at the University of Washington

Art and architecture

• A. Everett "Chick" Austin (1900–1957), arts innovator and director of the Wadsworth Atheneum
• Nadine M. DeLawrence (1953–1992), African-American visual artist; born and raised in Hartford
• Dorothea H. Denslow (1900–1971), sculptor, educator
• George Keller (1842–1935), architect, noted for Hartford's Soldiers' and Sailors' Arch and Hartford Union Station
• Kathleen Kucka (born 1962), abstract painter
• Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903), landscape architect and urban planner, noted for many of the New York City parks and Stanford University's campus

Business

• Samuel Colt (1814–1862), firearm inventor and industrialist
• J. P. Morgan (1837–1913), financier and industrialist
• Albert A. Pope (1843–1909), manufacturer of Pope Manufacturing Company automobiles and bicycles
• Amos Whitney (1832–1920), mechanical engineer, inventor and co-founder of Pratt & Whitney company

Entertainment

Film and television

• Robert Ames (1889–1931), stage and screen actor
• Julie Banderas (born 1973), Emmy Award-winning, television news anchor
• David Alan Basche (born 1968), actor
• Ed Begley (1901–1970), actor
• Amy Brenneman (born 1964), actress, best known for the television series Judging Amy
• Christopher Briney (born 1998), actor, best known for Dalíland and The Summer I Turned Pretty
• Brooke Burke (born 1971), television personality, model and dancer
• Ben Cooper, best known for western films and television appearances in the 1960s and 1970s
• Ann Corio (1914–1999), burlesque star
• Anthony Crane (born 1963), former pornographic actor
• Peter Dante (born 1968), actor
• Jenna Dewan (born 1980), actress
• Linda Evans (born 1942), actress, best known for Dynasty
• Totie Fields (1930–1978), comedian
• Will Friedle (born 1976), actor and voice actor
• Arty Froushan (born 1993), actor
• William Gillette (1853–1937), actor, director, famed for playing Sherlock Holmes on stage
• Tyrone Giordano (born 1976), actor
• Thomas Ian Griffith (born 1962), actor, producer, screenwriter, musician and martial artist; best known for playing Terry Silver in The Karate Kid Part III and Cobra Kai
• Katharine Hepburn (1907–2003), Oscar-winning actress; buried in the Hepburn family plot in Cedar Hill Cemetery
• Elyse Knox (1917–2012), model and actress; wife of Tom Harmon and mother of Mark Harmon
• Eriq La Salle (born 1962), actor known for the television show ER
• Norman Lear (1922–2023), television producer
• Ken Ober, host of Remote Control
• Charles Nelson Reilly (1931–2007), actor, director and TV personality
• Ken Richters (born 1955), stage actor, playwright, and voice actor, known for impersonations of Mark Twain
• Michael Schur (born 1976), producer, actor and director
• Michael Stefano (born 1969), pornographic actor
• Tony Todd, Broadway, film and television actor
• Wavy Gravy, hippie icon, entertainer, and peace activist
• Emily Wright (born 1980), songwriter, producer and engineer
• Kim Zolciak (born 1978), star of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, country music singer

Music

• Igor Buketoff (1915–2001), conductor
• Kurt Carr, gospel music composer and performer
• Fates Warning, progressive metal band formed in 1982
• Charles Flores (1970–2012), jazz bassist and member of the Michel Camilo Trio
• Grayson Hugh, singer-songwriter
• Natália Kelly, singer
• Barbara Kolb (born 1939), composer
• Mark McGrath (born 1968), lead singer of Sugar Ray
• Jackie McLean (1931–2006), jazz alto saxophonist and educator
• Notch, R&B, dancehall and Reggaeton artist
• Gene Pitney (1940–2006), singer
• Jeff Porcaro (1954–1992), of the rock band Toto
• Joe Porcaro, jazz drummer; father of Jeff and Steve Porcaro
• Mike Porcaro (1955–2015), of the rock band Toto
• Steve Porcaro (born 1957), of the rock band Toto
• Doobie Powell, gospel musician and pastor
• Sophie Tucker (1884–1966), "last of the red-hot mamas," singer and comedian

Radio

• Jason Jackson, hosted a local sports radio show on ESPN Radio
• Phil Tonken (1919–2000), announcer at New York station WOR-AM-TV

Law

• Frank A. Hooker, chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court

Literature and journalism

• Steven Anzovin, non-fiction writer best known for his Famous First Facts book series
• Bill Branon, novelist
• Oliver Butterworth (1915–1990), children's author and educator
• Suzanne Collins (born 1962), author of the Hunger Games trilogy
• Lyn Crost (1915–1997), World War II correspondent
• Tom Curry (1900–1976), pulp fiction writer
• Mary Ann Hanmer Dodd (1813–1878), poet
• Dominick Dunne (1925–2009), writer
• John Gregory Dunne (1932–2003), writer
• Austin Gary, novelist
• Stephenie Meyer (born 1973), author of Twilight series novels
• Jim Murray (1919–1998), Pulitzer Prize-winning sports columnist of the Los Angeles Times
• Greensbury Washington Offley (1808–1896), slave narrative author and minister
• Lydia Sigourney (1791-1865), poet
• Wallace Stevens (1879–1955), poet; insurance executive
• Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896), author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, settled in Hartford during the 1870s; her Nook Farm home is open to the public and adjoins Mark Twain's
• Mark Twain (real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens) (1835–1910), author known for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Ocean Vuong (born 1988), poet and novelist, author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

Military

• William Bryden (1880–1972), U.S. Army major general
• John H. Griebel (1901–1969), Marine Corps general
• Joseph B. Murdock (1851–1931), US Navy rear admiral
• Colonel Sherwood C. Spring (born 1944), United States Army colonel, test pilot and astronaut
• Griffin Alexander Stedman (1838–1864), Union Army colonel
• Alfred Terry (1827–1890), Union army general
• Robert O. Tyler (1831–1874), Union army general
• Donald M. Weller (1908–1985), Marine Corps general and pioneer in Naval gunfire support

Politics

• Parmenio Adams (1776–1832), United States congressman; born in Hartford
• James J. Barbour (1869–1946), Illinois lawyer and state legislator; born in Hartford
• L. Paul Bremer (born 1941), ex-administrator of US-occupied Iraq and foreign service officer
• Harold V. Camp (1935–2022), Connecticut lawyer, state legislator, and businessman
• Charles R. Chapman, mayor of Hartford, served in both houses of Connecticut legislature
• Ezra Clark Jr. (1813–1896), US representative
• Horace S. Cooley, Illinois secretary of state
• William A. DiBella, majority leader of the Connecticut State Senate
• George A. French, Minnesota state legislator and lawyer
• Elizabeth Bartlett Grannis (1840–1926), suffragist, social reformer, editor
• Thomas Hooker, founder of Connecticut
• Bruce Hyer, Green Party of Canada Member of Parliament
• Wilfred X. Johnson (1920–1972), first African American elected to the Connecticut General Assembly
• John B. Larson (born 1948), U.S. representative for Connecticut
• A. Lucille Matarese, Connecticut state legislator and Roman Catholic Benedictine nun
• Edward Ralph May (1819–1852), only delegate to the Indiana Constitutional Convention of 1850 to vote in favor of African American suffrage
• Elizabeth May, former Sierra Club of Canada president and former leader of the Green Party of Canada
• Alice Merritt (1876–1950), first woman to serve in the Connecticut State Senate (1925–1929); represented Hartford
• Rachel Taylor Milton, community activist and Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame inductee
• Chris Murphy (born 1973), U.S. senator, U.S. congressman
• Lewis Rome (1933–2015), Connecticut State Senate leader and Republican Party nominee in the 1982 Connecticut gubernatorial election
• Maria W. Stewart, abolitionist
• Thomas A. Sullivan, Wisconsin state assemblyman
• Elmer Watson, US Army officer and Connecticut State Senate majority leader

Religion

• Horace Bushnell (1802–1876), Congregational minister and theologian
• Mary E. Van Lennep (1821–1844), missionary, school founder, memoirist

Science and medicine

• Barbara McClintock (1902–1992), cytogeneticist, awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• Frederick E. Olmsted (1872–1925), forester and one of the founders of American forestry
• Alexander Rich (1925–2015), biologist and biophysicist
• Paul Schimmel (b. 1940), biophysical chemist and translational medicine pioneer
• Theodore Wirth (1863–1949), horticulturalist and park planner

Sports

• Michael Adams (born 1963), NBA player
• Steve Berthiaume, ESPN anchor
• Nick Bonino (born 1988), NHL player
• Marcus Camby (born 1974), NBA player
• John Carney (born 1964), NFL placekicker
• Jacob Conde (born 1992), soccer player who represented the Puerto Rico national team
• Mike Crispino, sportscaster for WVIT and WRCH, and ESPN
• Andre Drummond (born 1993), NBA player for the Los Angeles Lakers
• Jayson Durocher (born 1974), MLB player for the Milwaukee Brewers
• Johnny Egan (1939–2022), NBA player
• Dwight Freeney (born 1980), NFL player
• Craig Janney (born 1968), NHL player
• Tyrique Jones (born 1997), basketball player for Hapoel Tel Aviv in the Israeli Basketball Premier League
• Rick Mahorn (born 1958), NBA player
• Eric Mangini (born 1971), head coach of Cleveland Browns and New York Jets
• Mike McGuirl (born 1998), basketball player for Hapoel Haifa in the Israeli Basketball Premier League
• Stephanie McMahon, businesswoman, professional wrestling personality
• Alex Mighten (born 2002), footballer
• Cliff Olander (born 1955), player of gridiron football
• Steve Potts (born 1967), former West Ham United footballer, current U21 coach
• Ryan Preece (born 1990), NASCAR driver
• Eugene Robinson (born 1963), NFL player
• Will Solomon (born 1978), basketball player
• Charley Steiner, Los Angeles Dodgers sportscaster
• John Sullivan (born 1961), NFL player
• Roderick G. (Rod) Taylor (1943–2014), Olympic skier
• Tony Younger (born 1980), American-Israeli basketball player in the Israeli National League

Other

• Nathaniel Bar-Jonah (1957–2008), convicted child molester and a suspected serial killer and cannibal
• Howard Long (1905–1939), convicted murderer and child molester
• Martha Bulloch Roosevelt (1835–1884), mother of president Theodore Roosevelt and grandmother of Eleanor Roosevelt

See also

• List of people from Connecticut
• List of people from Bridgeport, Connecticut
• List of people from Brookfield, Connecticut
• List of people from Darien, Connecticut
• List of people from Greenwich, Connecticut
• List of people from New Canaan, Connecticut
• List of people from New Haven, Connecticut
• List of people from Norwalk, Connecticut
• List of people from Redding, Connecticut
• List of people from Ridgefield, Connecticut
• List of people from Stamford, Connecticut
• List of people from Westport, Connecticut

Notes