# 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
* Austin Cornelius Dunham, businessman who was chief executive officer of Hartford Electric Light Company
* 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
* 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
* Jenna Dewan (born 1980), actress
* Linda Evans (born 1942), actress, best known for Dynasty
* Totie Fields (1930–1978), comedian
* William Gillette (1853–1937), actor, director, famed for playing Sherlock Holmes on stage
* 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
* 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 sing

### Music

* Igor Buketoff (1915–2001), conductor
* Kurt Carr, gospel music composer and performer
* Fates Warning, a 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), Mike Porcaro (1955–2015) and Steve Porcaro (born 1957), of the rock band Toto
* Joe Porcaro, jazz drummer; father of Jeff and Steve Porcaro
* 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
* Frank Fasi, mayor of Honolulu, Hawaii
* 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
* 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), the 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
* 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