# List of people from Ridgefield, Connecticut

This is a list of notable people, past and present who have lived in Ridgefield, Connecticut or are closely associated with the town, listed by area in which they are best known:

## Authors, writers, playwrights, screenwriters

* Silvio A. Bedini (1917–2007), retired Smithsonian Institution curator, author, born and raised in Ridgefield
* Rich Cohen (born 1968), non-fiction writer
* Howard Fast (1914–2003), novelist
* Ira Joe Fisher (born 1947), CBS weatherman and poet (Some Holy Weight in the Village Air)
* Robert Fitzgerald (1910–1985), poet, critic and translator; he and his wife Sally called Ridgefield home and many sources repeat the assertion, though their residence was located in neighboring Redding
* Tom Gilroy, screenwriter, actor and film producer, graduated from Ridgefield High School in 1978
* Max Gunther (1926–1998), journalist and writer
* Tim Herlihy (born 1966), screenwriter, film producer, former head writer of Saturday Night Live
* Roger Kahn (1927–2020), author
* Irene Kampen (1923–1998), novelist and journalist
* Richard Kluger (born 1934), author
* Clare Boothe Luce (1903–1987), playwright, ambassador, politician, and wife of Henry Luce
* Andy Luckey (born 1965), children's book author
* John Ames Mitchell (1844–1918), novelist, founder of Life magazine
* Allan Nevins (1891–1971), only writer to win the Pulitzer prize for historical biography twice (on Grover Cleveland and Hamilton Fish)
* Flannery O'Connor (1925–1964), writer often said to have lived in town when she was a boarder of Robert Fitzgerald's from 1949 to 1951, although Fitzgerald actually lived in neighboring Redding
* Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953), Nobel Prize-winning playwright, owned Brook Farm on North Salem Road from 1922 to 1927
* Brad Parks (born 1974), author
* Cornelius J. Ryan (1920–1974), author
* Mark Salzman (born 1959), author and actor who wrote about the town in his novel Lost in Place: Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia
* Richard Scarry (1919–1994), children's author
* Maurice Sendak (1928–2012), author and artist
* Fred Stahl (born 1944), Professor (Columbia University), author, pioneer computer scientist, computer security and forensics, science historian, inventor, lexicographer, real estate developer (current resident)
* Robert Lewis Taylor (1912–1998), Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist (The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, 1959)
* Alvin Toffler (1928–2016), futurist, author
* Abigail Goodrich Whittlesey (1788–1858), educator, publisher, editor
* Max Wilk (1920–2011), author
* Bari Wood (born 1936), author

## Actors, others in the dramatic arts

* David Cassidy (1950–2017), actor and singer
* Ralph Edwards (1913–2005), producer and host of television show Truth or Consequences
* Chris Elliott (born 1960), actor, comedian, author
* Giancarlo Esposito (born 1958), actor (current resident)
* Harvey Fierstein (born 1954), actor and playwright (current resident)
* Walter Hampden (1879–1955), actor
* Carolyn Kepcher (born 1969), appeared on the NBC show The Apprentice and ran Donald Trump's golf course in Briarcliff, New York (current resident)
* Cyril Ritchard (1897–1977), actor
* Grant Rosenmeyer (born 1991), actor
* Erland Van Lidth de Jeude (1953–1987), actor, wrestler, computer engineer and singer, grew up on Short Lane
* Robert Vaughn (1932–2016), actor
* Mary A. Wray (1804 – 1892), American actress

## Singers, musicians, composers

* Larry Adler (1914–2001), harmonica virtuoso, lived on Pumping Station Road
* Judy Collins (born 1939), Grammy Award-winning folk singer (current resident)
* Aaron Copland (1900–1990), lived on Limestone Road
* Fanny Crosby (1820–1915), wrote more than 8,000 hymns, lived as a child at the corner of Main Street and Branchville Road
* Edwina Eustis Dick (1908–1997), contralto, pioneer in the field of music therapy, lived on Old Branchville Road
* Geraldine Farrar (1882–1967), Metropolitan Opera soprano, lived on West Lane and later New Street, where she died
* Andrew Gold (1951–2011), singer, songwriter, and musician, lived on St. Johns Road
* Stephen Jenks (1772–1856), composer and "teacher of psalmody", lived in Ridgefield
* Ed Kowalczyk (born 1971), singer, songwriter, musician and a founding member of the band Live
* Jim Lowe (1927–2016) singer, disc jockey and radio host
* Václav Nelhýbel (1919–1996), composer
* Alex North (1910–1991), film composer
* Noël Regney (1922–2002), pianist and songwriter
* Stephen Schwartz (born 1948), composer and lyricist (current resident)
* Debbie Shapiro (born 1954), singer (current resident)
* Maxim Shostakovich (born 1938), conductor (past resident)
* Jim Steinman (1947–2021), composer, lyricist, record producer, and playwright

## Artists, architects, designers, cartoonists

* Peggy Bacon (1895–1987), author and artist with works in the National Gallery of Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art
* Wayne Boring (1915–1982), an artist of Superman comic strips, lived on Lincoln Lane
* Sarah Bostwick (born 1979), visual artist
* Orlando Busino (born 1926), cartoonist and author (current resident)
* Roz Chast (born 1954), New Yorker cartoonist and book author (current resident)
* Niels Diffrient (1928–2013), industrial designer
* Cass Gilbert (1859–1934), architect
* Alexander Isley (born 1961), designer and educator (current resident)
* Alexander Julian (born 1948), designer (current resident)
* Nicholas Krushenick (1929–1999), abstract artist, a dozen of whose works are in the National Gallery of Art
* Erik Nitsche (1908–1998), graphic designer
* Frederic Remington (1861–1909), painter, illustrator, and sculptor; died in Ridgefield in 1909, less than six months after moving to the town
* Julian Alden Weir (1852–1919), impressionist painter, bought Nod Hill Farm in 1882, now a National Historic Site
* Mahonri Young (1877–1957), grandson of Brigham Young; artist and sculptor

## Businessmen

* Lawrence Bossidy (born 1935), retired CEO of AlliedSignal and General Electric (current resident)
* E.P. Dutton (1831–1923), publisher
* Joseph M. Juran (1904–1908), founder of the Juran Institute, lived on Old Branchville Road
* Hans Peter Kraus (1907–1988), rare book dealer, author of A Rare Book Saga
* Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM (current resident)
* John R. Patrick (born 1945), former IBM vice-president and innovative leader in the information technology industry, author of Net Attitude
* Jay S. Walker (born 1955), Priceline.com founder (current resident)
* Stephen Ward Jr., retired CEO of Lenovo (current resident)

## Journalists

* Todd Brewster, author, documentary film producer, former Senior Editorial Producer, ABC News (current resident)
* Morton Dean (born 1935), television journalist (current resident)
* Henry Luce (1898–1967), founder of Time magazine, husband of Clare Boothe Luce
* David Manning, fictitious film reviewer said to be with the Ridgefield Press but created in a deceptive advertising campaign
* Westbrook Pegler (1894–1969), columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner (resident, 1941–1948)

## Government

* Joel Abbot (1776–1826), United States Congressman
* Jeremiah Donovan (1857–1935), United States Representative from Connecticut
* John H. Frey (born 1963), Minority Whip, Connecticut House of Representatives; Connecticut National Committeeman, Republican National Committee
* George E. Lounsbury (1838–1904), former Connecticut governor
* Phineas C. Lounsbury (1841–1925), former Connecticut governor
* Clare Boothe Luce (1903–1987), playwright, ambassador, politician, wife of Henry Luce
* Theodore Sorensen (1928–2010), JFK advisor
* Norman Thomas (1884–1968), six-time Socialist candidate for president, spent summers in Ridgefield until the early 1920s
* Kurt Waldheim (1918–2007), U.N. secretary-general (1972–1981), frequently stayed at the estate of a friend in town

## Other

* Anthony Alfredo (born 1999), NASCAR driver
* Blackleach Burritt (1744–1794), noted clergyman in the American Revolution
* Jolie Gabor (1896–1997), jewelry store-owing mother of the famous Gabor sisters—Eva, Magda, and Zsa Zsa—had a home on Oscaleta Road from 1966 to 1970
* Samuel Keeler (1656–1713), founding settler of Ridgefield
* Jeff Landau (born 1974), professional tennis player
* "Typhoid Mary" Mallon (1869–1938), who became famous for infecting people with typhoid, spent some time as a cook in town, where she infected some (according to brief front-page story in the July 22, 1909 Ridgefield Press)
* Matt Merullo (born 1965), former baseball player and scout for Arizona Diamondbacks
* Elmer Q. Oliphant (1892–1975), played with NFL's Buffalo All-Americans (1920s)
* Alice Paul, author of the proposed Equal Rights Amendment, author and suffragist, part-time resident (1885–1977)
* George Scalise, owned a mansion on Lake Mamanasco, president of the Building Service Employees International Union
* Kieran Smith, competitive swimmer, Olympian
* Tucker West (born 1995), Olympic luger
* Sarah Bishop (died 1810), pirate and later hermit
* Phoebe Schecter, NFL Analyst, football player and coach