10 Famous People from New York

10 Famous People from New York

The big apple is one of the greatest cities in the world, always a whirlwind of activity, with famous people at every turn. New York is famous for its exclusive shops, flashy Broadway performances and “I Love New York” logos, concerts in Madison Square Garden.

New York has helped to shape the careers of thousands of famous people, below is a list of the 10 famous people from New York;

1. Donald Trump

Donald Trump – Unsplash

Donald John Trump is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th President of the United States from 2017 to 2021. He was born June 14, 1946, in Queens, New York City. He is the first US president never to have held elected office or served in the military.

Trump’s presidency was marked by drama and controversy, resulting in him being the first president to be impeached twice. During his roughly three-year presidency, Donald Trump has done profound damage to the country’s international credibility and its capacity for moral suasion.

2. Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis – Wikipedia

Jacqueline Lee “Jackie” Kennedy Onassis was an American socialite, writer, photographer, and book editor who served as first lady of the United States from 1961 to 1963, as the wife of President John F. Kennedy. She was born on July 28, 1929, in Southampton, New York.

During her lifetime, she was known for her highly publicized restoration of the White House and emphasis on arts and culture, as well as for her style. In 1999, she was listed as one of Gallup’s Most-Admired Men and Women of the 20th century. She died in 1994 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery alongside President Kennedy.

3. Jonas Salk

Dr Jones Edward Salk – Wikipedia

 Jonas Edward Salk was an American virologist and medical researcher who developed one of the first successful polio vaccines. He was born on October 28, 1914, in New York City. In 1947, Salk accepted a professorship in the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. It was there that he undertook a project to determine the number of different types of poliovirus, starting in 1948. For the next seven years, Salk devoted himself towards developing a vaccine against polio.

Salk was hailed as a “miracle worker” when the vaccine’s success was first made public in April 1955, and chose to not patent the vaccine or seek any profit from it in order to maximize its global distribution. By 1959, the Salk vaccine had reached about 90 countries. In his late years, he focused his research on the search for a vaccine against HIV. Jonas Salk died from heart failure at the age of 80 on June 23, 1995, in La Jolla.

4. Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington – Flickr

Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, director, and producer. Known for his performances on the screen and stage, he has been described as an actor who reconfigured “the concept of classic movie stardom”. He was born on December 28, 1954, in Mount Vernon, New York.

Denzel has made history by being the second Black performer to be named Best Actor (the first was Poitier for 1963’s Lilies of the Field) and the first Black actor with two competitive Oscars. (In 2018, Mahershala Ali would join him, after winning back two Best Supporting Actor Oscars). 

He has earned various awards, including two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Tony Award. In 2016, he received the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2020, The New York Times ranked him as the greatest actor of the twenty-first century.

5. Bonnie Blair

Bonnie Blair – Wikimedia Commons

Bonnie Kathleen Blair is a retired American speed skater. She is one of the top skaters of her era, and one of the most decorated athletes in Olympic history. Blair competed for the United States in four Olympics, winning five gold medals and one bronze medal. She was born on March 18, 1964, in Cornwall, New York.

Blair made her Olympic debut in Sarajevo in 1984. She has been inducted into the Chicagoland Sports Hall of Fame, the Wisconsin Athletic Hall of Fame, and the United States Olympic Hall of Fame. She was awarded a star (#7) on The Flag for Hope on September 29, 2015, in recognition of her outstanding Speed Skating Career and philanthropic efforts.

6. Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt – Unsplash

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. was an American politician, statesman, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909. He previously served as the 25th vice president under William McKinley from March to September 1901, and as the 33rd governor of New York from 1899 to 1900. Often referred to as Teddy or his initials T. R. he was born on October 27, 1858, at 28 East 20th Street in Manhattan, New York City.

He remains the youngest person to become President of the United States. Roosevelt was a leader of the progressive movement and championed his “Square Deal” domestic policies, promising the average citizen fairness, breaking of trusts, regulation of railroads, and pure food and drugs.

At the age of 60, he died in his sleep at Sagamore Hill after a blood clot had detached from a vein and traveled to his lungs.

7. Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan – Flickr

Michael Jeffrey Jordan is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. He was integral in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s, becoming a global cultural icon in the process and regarded as the greatest basketball player of all time. He was born on February 17, 1963, in Brooklyn, New York.

Jordan played 15 seasons in the NBA, winning six championships with the Chicago Bulls. His leaping ability, demonstrated by performing slam dunks from the free throw line in Slam Dunk Contests, earned him the nicknames “Air Jordan” and “His Airness”. He was inducted twice into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, once in 2009 for his individual career and again in 2010 as part of the 1992 United States men’s Olympic basketball team.  He became a member of the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2015.

8. Tupac Shakur

Tupac Shakur – Flickr

Born Lesane Parish Crooks on June 16, 1971, in the East Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City. At age one, he was renamed Tupac Amaru Shakur. He was named after Túpac Amaru II, the descendant of the last Incan ruler, Túpac Amaru, who was executed in Peru in 1781 after his failed revolt against Spanish rule. He is considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Much of his music has been noted for addressing contemporary social issues that plagued inner cities, and he is considered a symbol of activism against inequality.

 In 2002, Shakur was inducted into the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame. In 2017, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Shakur among the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. On September 7, 1996, Shakur was shot four times by an unidentified assailant in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas; he died six days later.

9. The Notorious B.I.G

The Notorious B.I.G – Flickr

Christopher George Latore Wallace, better known by his stage names the Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or simply Biggie, was an American rapper and songwriter. He is widely considered one of the greatest rappers of all time, known for his distinctive laid-back lyrical delivery. Biggie was born on May 21, 1972, in Brooklyn borough of New York City.

In 2006, MTV ranked him at No. 3 on their list of The Greatest MCs of All Time, calling him possibly “the most skillful ever on the mic”. In 2020, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. On 9^th March 1977 he was shot to death.

10. Barbra Streisand

Barbra Streisand – Wikipedia

Barbara Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, and filmmaker known for creating dozens of gold- and platinum-selling albums and being the top-selling female artist of all time. She was born on April 24, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York City.

Her accolades include two Academy Awards, 10 Grammy Awards including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and the Grammy Legend Award, five Emmy Awards, four Peabody Awards, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and nine Golden Globes.