List of people from Newton, Massachusetts

Newton, Massachusetts has been the home of many notable people.

• Michael Rosbash, geneticist and chronobiologist at Brandeis University, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2017
• Daron Acemoglu, economist and professor of economics at MIT
• Frederick M. Ausubel, molecular biologist, professor at Harvard Medical School
• David Berson, neurobiologist, professor at Brown University
• Jean Briggs, anthropologist and expert on Inuit languages, raised in Newton^[1]
• J. Walter Fewkes, ethnologist and archaeologist
• Stanley Fischer, former governor of the Bank of Israel, former professor at the MIT Department of Economics
• Alexandra I. Forsythe, author of the first computer science textbook; helped found the Stanford University Department of Computer Science
• William Tudor Gardiner, 55th Governor of Maine, January 2, 1929 – January 4, 1933
• Caroline D. Gentile, associate professor emeritus of education, University of Maine at Presque Isle
• Michael Hammer, one of the founders of the management theory of business process reengineering
• H. Robert Horvitz, MIT professor of biology; won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2002 together with Sydney Brenner and John Sulston
• Steven Hyman, neuroscientist and Provost of Harvard University
• Ruth Langer, professor of theology at Boston College; expert on Jewish Liturgy and on Christian-Jewish relations
• Robert C. Lieberman, political scientist and provost of the Johns Hopkins University
• William Stetson Merrill, classifier at Newberry Library; expert on classification of library books, author of A Code for Classifiers
• Arnold A. Offner, historian, author, and former professor
• Rosalind Picard, director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab
• Jeffrey Sachs, Harvard professor, 1980–2002; current director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University
• Ruggero Santilli, Center for Theoretical Physics of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Jonathan Sarna, Joseph H. Braun 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
• Scott Sumner, economist and professor of economics at Bentley University
• Susumu Tonegawa, MIT professor; won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1987
• Edward Wagenknecht, literary critic, prolific writer and Boston University professor, lived on Otis Street in West Newton
• Melvin M. Weiner, electrical engineer, author, inventor, he was the first to reduce pass-bands and stop-bands in photonic crystals to practice
• Victor Weisskopf, theoretical physicist; worked with Heisenberg, Schrödinger and Niels Bohr; group leader of the Theoretical Division of the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos
• Howard Zinn, radical historian and author of A People's History of the United States

• Peggy Bernier, actress and comedienne
• Virginia Bosler, actress
• Louis C.K., born Louis Szekely, stand-up comedian, Louie TV series, actor and writer
• Jessica Chaffin, actress, comedienne, and writer
• Priyanka Chopra, actress^[2]
• Matt Damon, actor, film producer, philanthropist and screenwriter
• Dimitri Diatchenko, actor and musician
• Anne Dudek, actress, played Dr. Amber Volakis in TV series House
• Kathryn Erbe, actress, star of Law & Order: Criminal Intent
• Marin Hinkle, actress, best known for playing Judith Harper on CBS's Two and a Half Men
• Josephine Hull, actress
• Jennifer Dundas, actress
• Alex Karpovsky, actor, best known for playing Ray Ploshansky on HBO's Girls
• Jonathan Katz, actor, best known for his starring role on the animated sitcom Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist
• Karen Kondazian, actress and author
• John Krasinski, actor, best known for playing Jim Halpert on NBC's The Office
• Ben Kurland, actor
• Matt LeBlanc, actor, best known for playing Joey Tribbiani on Friends
• Jack Lemmon, Oscar-winning actor
• Christopher Lloyd, actor, best known for playing Rev. Jim in TV series Taxi and as "Doc" (Emmett Brown) in Back to the Future films
• Robert Morse, actor, star of How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Mad Men
• Olga C. Nardone, actress, best known for playing three parts in The Wizard of Oz
• Hari Nef, actress, model, and writer
• B. J. Novak, comedian, writer, best known for playing Ryan Howard on The Office
• Rebecca Pidgeon, actress, singer and songwriter, wife of playwright David Mamet
• Amy Poehler, actress and comedian, Saturday Night Live and Parks and Recreation
• Robert Preston, actor, "Professor" Harold Hill in The Music Man
• James Remar, actor, known for many films and TV series Dexter
• Joe Rogan, actor and comedian
• Eli Roth, film director, producer, writer and actor
• John Slattery, actor, best known for playing Roger Sterling in Mad Men
• Arnold Stang, comic actor
• Brian J. White, actor, best known for his role in The Shield

• David Bowes, painter
• Mickie Caspi, artist, calligrapher
• Tama Hochbaum, artist and photographer
• Plane Jane (Andrew Dunayevsky), drag performer and competitor on season 16 of RuPaul's Drag Race
• Roger Kellaway, Oscar-nominated and Grammy-winning composer, arranger, and pianist
• Bow Sim Mark, wushu practitioner; mother of actor Donnie Yen
• Florence Maynard, photographer
• Arthur Polonsky, draughtsman, painter and academic
• Nancy Schön, sculptor of the Make Way for Ducklings statues on Boston Common; also did statues of Winnie-the-Pooh and Eeyore at the Newton Free Library
• Sidewalk Sam (Robert Guillemin), folk artist
• Edwin Lord Weeks, painter
• Morgan Bassichis, American comedic performer, writer, and artist

• Binyamin Appelbaum, journalist
• Tom Ashbrook, journalist and radio broadcaster
• 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
• Russell Gordon Carter, writer
• Anita Diamant, author of fiction and nonfiction books
• Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist, poet, lecturer, philosopher
• Bill Everett, comic book writer, artist (creator of Sub-Mariner, co-creator of Daredevil)
• Isabella Gardner, poet
• Ellen Goodman, Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist
• Ann Warren Griffith, writer
• Dan Harris, correspondent for ABC News; anchor for Nightline; co-anchor for the weekend edition of Good Morning America
• Nate Kenyon, author
• Dan Katz, Barstool Sports contributor
• Raymond Kurzweil, writer, futurist, inventor
• Don Lessem, author
• Barry Levy, screenwriter, best known for the 2008 film Vantage Point
• Bill Lichtenstein, Peabody Award-winning journalist and filmmaker
• Melissa Lozada-Oliva, poet and spoken word artist
• David Mamet, playwright, screenwriter and film director
• Adam Mansbach, novelist
• Elizabeth McCracken, author
• Tova Mirvis, novelist
• Diana Muir, writer and historian
• Charles J.V. Murphy, journalist and author
• Michael Novak, author
• William Novak, author
• Robert Pinsky, former Poet Laureate of the United States
• Caroline Mehitable Fisher Sawyer, writer, editor
• Anne Sexton, poet, writer
• Edward Sheehan, journalist and author
• Samuel Shem, playwright
• Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin
• Andrew Szanton, collaborative memoirist
• Celia Thaxter, poet and writer
• Ben Ames Williams, novelist
• Jonathan Wilson, novelist and critic

• Roger Berkowitz, owner of Legal Sea Foods
• Charles Bilezikian, co-founder of Christmas Tree Shops^[3]
• Elizabeth Boit, textile manufacturer
• Richard B. Carter, head of Carter's Ink Company 1905–1949
• Jim Davis, CEO of New Balance
• Semyon Dukach, professional gambler, entrepreneur, writer
• Leo Kahn, co-founder of Staples
• Jim Koch, co-founder and chairman of the Boston Beer Company
• Louis K. Liggett, drug store magnate
• Eddie Lowery, golf caddy, auto dealer
• John Palmer Parker, early Hawaiian rancher, married into Hawaiian royal family
• Sumner Redstone, global media businessman
• Francis Edgar Stanley (1849–1918), co-inventor of the Stanley Steamer
• Freelan Oscar Stanley (1849–1940), co-inventor of the Stanley Steamer and builder of the Stanley Hotel
• Donald Valle, founder and owner of Valle's Steak House
• Richard Valle, restaurateur; son of Donald Valle; owner of Valle's Steak House
• Peter Lynch, mutual fund manager and philanthropist^[4]

• 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
• Thomas Wiswall (1601–1683), prominent early citizen of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Cambridge Village, Massachusetts

• Francis P. Farquhar (1887–1974), former president of the Sierra Club

• Benigno Aquino Jr. and Corazon Aquino, Filipino public intellectual and political figures; lived with their five children in Newton, 1980–1983; Corazon eventually became the first female president of the Philippines (1986–1992); their third child and only son, Benigno III or "Noynoy", was elected president in 2010
• Benigno Aquino III, 15th president of the Philippines (assumed office June 2010; term ended June 2016), lived in Newton 1980–1983
• Jake Auchincloss, member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Massachusetts's 4th congressional district
• Thomas Cardozo, first African American State Superintendent of Education in Mississippi (1874–1876)
• Evan Falchuk, founder of the United Independent Party and candidate for governor of Massachusetts in 2014
• Barney Frank, former U.S. Representative for Massachusetts's 4th congressional district
• Joseph Healy, U.S. Representative from New Hampshire
• Joseph Kennedy III, son of Joseph P. Kennedy II and former U.S. Representative for Massachusetts's 4th congressional district
• Richard Lakin, Freedom Rider, school principal, terrorism victim
• Horace Mann, public educator, college president (Antioch College) and U.S. Representative from Massachusetts
• Lisa Monaco, United States Deputy Attorney General and former Homeland Security Advisor
• Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran; exiled after Ayatollah Khomeini took power; lived for a short time in Newton
• Cyrus Peirce, public educator, college president of Framingham State College (once located in West Newton); namesake of the Peirce School in West Newton
• John Pigeon, representative of Newton to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and served as Massachusetts Commissary General while a resident
• Roger Sherman, 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; born and spent his first two years in Newton
• Henry Lawrence Southwick, author, actor and 3rd President of Emerson College (1908–1932)
• Nguyen Van Thieu, exiled President of South Vietnam
• Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• John W. Weeks, mayor of Newton; U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator from Massachusetts; U.S. Secretary of War under Harding
• Sinclair Weeks, son of John W. Weeks; born in West Newton; like his father, served as mayor of Newton and U.S. Senator; U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President Dwight Eisenhower
• Harry F. Stimpson Jr., lawyer who was the United States Ambassador to Paraguay

• James S. Gracey, Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard

• Leonard Bernstein, composer, conductor, pedagogue, pianist.
• Robert Beaser, composer, professor, The Juilliard School
• Dai Buell, pianist, performed the first piano recital on radio in 1921, lived at the Aloha Bungalow
• Ralph Burns, songwriter, bandleader, composer, conductor, arranger and bebop pianist
• Rob Chiarelli, multiple Grammy Award winner
• Catie Curtis, folk/pop singer
• Stephen Custer, cellist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, grew up in Newton
• Fat Mike, lead singer and bassist of punk rock band NOFX
• Alfred Genovese, principal oboist of Metropolitan Opera and Boston Symphony Orchestra
• Osvaldo Golijov, Grammy award-winning composer of classical music
• Avi Jacob, singer-songwriter
• Mike Mangini, drummer for Dream Theater
• Vaughn Monroe, singer, trumpeter and big band leader
• Jane Morgan, popular singer, specializing in traditional pop music
• Jesse Novak, composer
• Aoife O'Donovan, singer-songwriter, lead singer of band Crooked Still
• Bijan Olia, film composer and songwriter
• Seiji Ozawa, Boston Symphony Orchestra Music Director Laureate
• Horatio Parker, composer, first Dean of Yale School of Music, born in Auburndale (a village of Newton)
• Rachel Platten, singer and songwriter
• Seth Putnam, singer and leader of grindcore band Anal Cunt
• Fritz Richmond, jug and washtub bass player
• Mark Sandman, lead singer of the alternative rock band Morphine
• Jason Solowsky, composer

• Ram Dass (Dr. Richard Alpert), author, philosophic and religious guru
• Mary Baker Eddy, founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist; her last home has been preserved as the 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

• Donald Berwick, former Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; candidate for Massachusetts Governor in 2014
• Atul Gawande, general and endocrine surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital
• Kurt Julius Isselbacher, M.D., American physician and the former Mallinckrodt Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director Emeritus of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center
• Sara Murray Jordan, gastroenterologist

• Charles Jacobs, 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
• Leonard Zakim, prominent New England religious and civil rights leader

• Brad Falchuk, writer, director, and producer of Nip/Tuck and Glee
• Andrew Bujalski, film director, screenwriter, and actor
• Lyn Greene, writer, director and producer of Nip/Tuck, Boss and Masters of Sex
• Eli Roth, film director, producer, actor
• Bruce Sinofsky, director of documentary films, Brothers Keeper, The Paradise Lost Trilogy, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (TV series), Iconoclasts
• Julie Taymor, director of Broadway theatre and film

• Julian Jaynes, psychologist
• Kenneth Levin, psychiatrist and historian
• Kurt Lewin, "the father of social psychology"

• Paula S. Apsell, television producer
• Tom Ashbrook, host of the NPR radio show On Point
• Andy Katz, Big Ten Network and former ESPN College Basketball reporter
• Dan "Big Cat" Katz, Host of Pardon_My_Take and Barstool Sports Personality.
• Maria Lopez, former judge, TV personality
• Jade McCarthy, ESPN sportscaster
• Suzyn Waldman, color commentator for New York Yankees

• Michael Rosbash, geneticist and chronobiologist at Brandeis University, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2017
• Dan Bricklin, with Bob Frankston, co-creator of VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet
• Charles Stark Draper, inventor of the aircraft inertial guidance system; founder of MIT's Draper Labs
• Wes Hildreth, a USGS geologist born in Newton.
• Reginald Fessenden (1866–1932), inventor and radio pioneer; his house at 45 Waban Hill Road is listed in the National Register of Historic Places
• Bob Frankston, with Dan Bricklin, co-creator of VisiCalc, the first spreadsheet
• Atul Gawande, surgeon, writer for The New Yorker
• Ashish Jha, Dean of Brown University School of Public Health and White House COVID-19 pandemic Response Coordinator
• Jonathan Mann, head of the World Health Organization's global AIDS project
• Charles Johnson Maynard, naturalist and ornithologist; lived in the Charles Maynard House
• Thomas C. Peebles, physician, responsible for first isolating the measles virus, setting the stage for the development of a vaccine
• Judy Smith, nurse who disappeared from Philadelphia in 1997; found murdered in North Carolina five months later
• Rochelle Walensky,

Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital

• Frank E. Winsor, civil engineer and chief engineer of the Quabbin Reservoir project

How do you not have Rainer Weiss of Newton, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017 (?) for the detection of Gravitational waves, on this list?

• 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"

• Pete Hamilton, NASCAR racer, winner of the 1970 Daytona 500

• The following are current and former players of the Boston Red Sox:
  • Matt Clement (former)
  • Jim Corsi (former) (born in Newton)
  • John Curtis (former) (born in Newton)
  • Hal Deviney (former) (born in Newton)
  • JD Drew (former)
  • Bob Gallagher (former) (born in Newton)
  • Gabe Kapler (former)
  • Mark Loretta (former)
  • Doug Mirabelli (former)
  • Trot Nixon (former)
  • David Ortiz (former)
  • Wily Mo Peña (former)
  • Jimmy Piersall (former)
  • Jason Varitek (former)
  • Ted Williams (former)

• The following also played Major League Baseball:
  • Bob Barr (born in Newton)
  • Sean DePaula (born in Newton)
  • Bob Dresser (born in Newton)
  • Jake Fishman (born in Newton)

• The following play for a national team:
  • Jake Fishman, American-Israeli (born in Newton; plays for Team Israel)
  • Ben Wanger, American-Israeli baseball pitcher (born in Newton; plays for Team Israel)

• Geoffrey Gray (born 1997), American player in the Israeli Basketball Premier League
• Tom Heinsohn (1934–2020), NBA player
• Jayson Tatum, NBA player

• Joe DeNucci, middleweight boxer and MA State Auditor

• Paul Friedberg, Olympic fencer

• Tenley Albright (born 1935 in Newton Centre), first American female skater to win an Olympic gold medal; other titles included 1952 Olympic silver medal, 1953 and 1955 World Champion, 1953 and 1955 North American champion, and 1952–1956 U.S. national champion
• Gracie Gold, 2014 and 2016 U.S. champion, Olympic team bronze medalist, born in Newton
• Jennifer Kirk, 2000 World Junior champion, born in Newton
• John Summers, 1978–80 national champion in ice dancing

• Kiko Alonso, (former) linebacker for the Miami Dolphins
• Patrick Sullivan, (former) general manager, New England Patriots
• Will Levis, (current) quarterback for the Tennessee Titans

• Ben Brewster, forward and coach^[5]
• Sam Brill, defender^[6]

• Andy MacDonald, eight-time X Games gold medalist and eight-time World Cup Skateboarding champion