# List of people from Newcastle upon Tyne

This is a list of notable people born in, or associated with, Newcastle upon Tyne in England.

## Born in Newcastle

* Rudolf Abel – Soviet spy
* David Martin Abrahams – entrepreneur and philanthropist
* Thomas Addison – physician and scientist who first diagnosed Addison's disease
* Mark Akenside – poet and physician
* Ant & Dec – light entertainers (Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly)
* Lord Armstrong – engineer and industrialist
* Ove Arup – architect and civil engineer
* Mary Astell – writer ("the first English feminist")
* Robert Barker – painter and inventor of the panorama
* Phyllida Barlow – artist
* Michelle Bass – model and television pornography presenter
* Joey Batey - actor and singer
* Anna Fisher Beiler – missionary and newspaper editor
* Isaac Lowthian Bell – ironmaster and politician
* Mary Bell – murderer
* Thomas Binney, "Archbishop of Nonconformity"
* David Bradley – science journalist and author
* Israel Brodie – Chief Rabbi of Great Britain
* Basil Bunting – English modernist poet
* Eric Burdon – singer (The Animals)
* John Hodgson Campbell - portrait artist
* Horatio Caro – chess player
* Peter Cadogan – social activist
* Chas Chandler – bass guitarist with The Animals, manager of Jimi Hendrix and Slade
* Cheryl – singer (Girls Aloud)
* Edward Clark – conductor and BBC music producer
* Freddie Clayton – cricketer
* William Clayton – cricketer
* Lord Collingwood – Nelson's second-in-command at Trafalgar
* Jack Common – writer and friend of George Orwell
* David Scott Cowper – yachtsman and multiple circumnavigator by sailing boat and powerboat
* Andrew Cushin – singer and songwriter
* Leif Davis - professional footballer
* Raffaello de Banfield – composer
* John Dewhirst – only Briton to die in the Killing Fields of Cambodia
* Chris Donald – founder of Viz
* Jack Douglas – actor in the Carry On film series
* Lesley Douglas – former controller of BBC Radio 2 and BBC 6 Music
* Jeffrey Dunn - better known as Mantas, musician and former guitarist for the metal band Venom
* Lord Eldon – Lord Chancellor of England
* Anne Elliot – novelist
* Elizabeth Elstob – Anglo-Saxon scholar
* Sarah Lindsay Evans – temperance movement
* Harry Falconer - former professional footballer
* Mary J. Farnham – missionary and temperance advocate
* John Forster – friend and biographer of Charles Dickens
* Huck Gee – contemporary artist
* John and Benjamin Green – father and son architects
* Colin Gregson – keen footballer, 1976 FA Youth Cup winning team
* Julia Griffiths – abolitionist who edited and published the works of Frederick Douglass
* William Hails – writer
* Lee Hall – playwright and screenwriter (Billy Elliot)
* William Hardcastle – first presenter of The World at One
* John Harle - saxophonist and composer
* Tim Healy - actor
* Peter Higgs – theoretical physicist (Higgs' boson)
* Ian Hogg, Actor
* Alan Hull – musician (Lindisfarne)
* Basil Hume – cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church
* Charlie Hunnam – actor (Sons of Anarchy, Queer as Folk, Byker Grove)
* Charles Hutton – mathematician
* John Irvin – film director
* Wilfred Josephs – composer
* Martin Kenneavy – piper
* Paul Kennedy – historian, author and professor of history at Yale
* Lionel Kopelowitz – Jewish community leader
* Iain Laidlaw – former professional footballer
* Graham Laidler – cartoonist (Punch), also known under the pseudonym Pont
* Lady Lucinda Lambton – writer, photographer, television presenter and producer
* Herbert Laming, Baron Laming – life peer
* Stephanie Lawrence – actress and singer
* Charles Henry Laws – Methodist minister and administrator
* Carla Lynch – comedian and TV presenter
* Carole Malone – columnist and TV presenter
* Neil Marshall – director
* Hank Marvin – guitarist, singer, and songwriter
* Esther McCracken – playwright
* John Anthony McGuckin – theologian, Orthodox arch-priest, Professor of History at Columbia University, NY
* Janet McTeer – Oscar nominated actress
* Jacob Meltzer – New Zealand lawyer, unionist, coroner and community leader
* Charles Merz – electrical engineer noted for creating the electrical grid
* Marion Mingins – Anglican priest
* Jimmy Mullen – England football international
* Matthew Murray – machine-tool manufacturer who designed and built first commercially viable steam locomotive
* Jimmy Nail – actor, singer and writer
* Lesslie Newbigin – bishop and theologian, one of the first bishops of the Church of South India
* Ross Noble – stand-up comic
* Daniel Oliver – botanist and keeper at Kew Gardens
* Fred Olsen – inventor of the ball propellant manufacturing process
* Pac – professional wrestler
* Brian Redhead – author, journalist and broadcaster
* Thomas Wemyss Reid – journalist and biographer
* Lewis Fry Richardson – meteorologist
* Matt Ridley – science writer
* Alan Robson – radio DJ and broadcaster
* George Robson – racing driver, winner of the Indianapolis 500 in 1946
* Sue Rolph – swimmer
* LJ Ross – author writing locally-set crime thrillers
* Ralph Rumney – artist and co-founder with Guy Debord of the Situationist International
* Sakima – singer
* Hugh Stowell Scott – novelist writing as Henry Seton Merriman
* James Scott – actor
* Lord Stowell – legal authority
* Anna Howard Shaw – leader of the women's suffrage movement in the United States
* Alan Shearer – international footballer, England captain
* Tod Slaughter – actor and film star
* Nancy Spain – author, journalist and TV personality
* Thomas Spence – Utopian writer
* Sting – musician
* Miriam Stoppard – doctor and agony aunt (Daily Mirror)
* Peter Taylor, Baron Taylor of Gosforth – Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
* George Temperley – landowner and founder of the Argentine city Temperley
* Peter Terson – playwright
* Dave Thomas – golfer, twice runner-up in The Open Championship
* Samuel Tolansky – scientist
* Abigail Thorn - actress and creator of the Philosophy Tube YouTube channel
* Elsie Tu – social activist
* Colin Veitch – Newcastle League and Cup winner, England international footballer, union negotiator, and playwright
* Abhisit Vejjajiva – Thailand's prime minister from 2008
* Bill Ward – actor
* Greg Wise – actor, married to Emma Thompson since 2003
* Lord Woolf – Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
* Adam Wakenshaw – recipient of the Victoria Cross
* William G. Whittaker – composer, conductor and teacher
* Daniel Young – cricketer

## Residents (past and present)

* Laurence Acton, died 1386/87 – bailiff and MP
* Laurence Acton, died 1410 – bailiff, mayor, and MP; son of the previous Laurence Acton
* William Acton – 14th-century bailiff and MP
* William Acton – 14th-century bailiff and mayor; son of the previous William Acton
* David Almond, born 1951 – prize-winning author (Skellig)
* Gem Archer, born 1966 – guitarist, member of Oasis
* Charles Avison, 1709–1770 – composer and impresario
* William Beilby, 1840–1919 – glass enameller
* Nick Bell, born 1983 – entrepreneur
* Thomas Bewick, 1753–1828 – engraver and ornithologist
* Chaz Brenchley, born 1959 – writer
* Constance Briscoe, born 1957 – judge and bestselling author
* Flavio de Carvalho, 1899–1973 – Brazilian artist and architect
* Sid Chaplin, 1916–1986 – writer
* Charles I, 1600–1649 – prisoner in Newcastle 1646–47
* Catherine Cookson, 1906–1998 – bestselling author
* Joseph Conrad, 1857–1924 – writer, served on Tyne colliers in 1878
* Lucio Costa, 1902–1998 – Brazilian architect, designed masterplan of Brasília, grew up in Newcastle
* Joseph Cowen, 1829–1900 – radical MP and newspaper owner
* John Cunningham, 1729–1773 – pastoral poet, dramatist and stage actor
* Richard Dawes, 1708–1776 – classical scholar
* Robert Burns Dick, 1858–1954 – architect
* John Dobson, 1787–1865 – architect
* Jonathan Edwards, born 1966 – Olympic champion
* J. Meade Falkner, 1858–1932 – head of Armstrongs and novelist (Moonfleet)
* Terry Farrell, born 1938 – modern architect
* Bryan Ferry, born 1945 – lead singer of Roxy Music, attended Newcastle University.
* João Cândido Felisberto, 1880–1969 – Brazilian sailor, leader of the 1910 Chibata Revolt
* Mike Figgis, born 1948 – film-maker, in Newcastle from the age of eight
* Beryl Fowler, 1881–1963 – English painter
* James Louis Garvin, 1868–1947 – newspaper editor
* Paul Gascoigne, born 1967 – footballer
* Mrs Gaskell, 1810–1865 – novelist
* Tina Gharavi, living – film-maker
* Roger de Grey, 1918–1995 – artist
* Spencer de Grey, born 1944 – architect, head of design at Foster & Partners
* Ingeborg Refling Hagen, 1895–1989 – Norwegian writer
* Tony Harrison, born 1937 – poet
* Oliver Heaviside, 1850–1925 – engineer, mathematician and physicist
* Ralph Hedley, 1848–1913 – Realist painter
* Arthur Henderson, 1863–1935 – politician, founder of modern Labour Party
* Beda Higgins, living – poet and writer
* Rob Hubbard, born 1955 – video game musician
* Alan Hull, 1945–1995 – Lindisfarne lead singer
* Eva Ibbotson, 1925–2010 – children's writer (Which Witch?)
* Harold Jeffreys, 1891–1989 – geologist, mathematician and astronomer
* W. E. Johns, 1893–1968 – adventure story writer (Biggles)
* Brian Johnson, born 1947 – third lead singer of AC/DC
* David Knopfler, born 1952 – Dire Straits rhythm guitarist
* Mark Knopfler, born 1949 – Dire Straits lead guitarist and singer
* John Knox, c. 1514–1572 – Scottish religious reformer
* Gibson Kyle, 1820–1903 - architect resident in Gateshead, but his practice was in Newcastle
* Conrad Lant, born 1963 - better known by stage name Cronos, musician with metal band Venom
* John Lilburne, 1614–1667 – radical, born in County Durham, grew up in Newcastle
* Ken Major, 1928–2009 – architect, author and molinologist, attended King's College, Newcastle upon Tyne
* Jean-Paul Marat, 1843–1893 – French revolutionary
* Arthur Hardwick Marsh, 1842–1909 – painter
* John Martin, 1789–1854 – painter
* Harriet Martineau, 1802–1876 – writer and journalist
* Mary Midgley, 1919–2018 – philosopher
* Charles Mitchell, 1820–1895 – shipbuilder
* Elizabeth Montagu, 1718–1800 – coal owner and bluestocking
* Alexei Mordashov, born 1965 – Russian billionaire
* Robert Morrison, 1882–1934 – Protestant missionary in China
* Mo Mowlam, 1949–2005 – Labour politician
* Sir Andrew Noble, 1831–1915 – arms manufacturer and scientist
* Paul Noble, born 1963 – artist
* Keith O'Brien, 1938–2018 – cardinal accused of predatory sexual activity
* Sean O'Brien, born 1952 – poet and critic
* Nikolay Ogarev, 1813–1877 – Russian poet and political activist
* Chi Onwurah, born 1965 – Labour politician
* Lembit Öpik, born 1965 – Liberal Democratic MP and local councillor
* Charles Parsons, 1854–1931 – engineer and inventor
* José Maria de Eça de Queiroz, 1845–1900 – diplomat and novelist ("the Portuguese Dickens")
* Michael Roberts, 1902–1948 – poet and critic
* Diana Ross, 1910–2000 – children's author (The Little Red Engine)
* Erik Routley, 1917–1982 – hymn writer
* William Bell Scott, 1811–1890 – poet and Pre-Raphaelite painter
* Freddy Shepherd, 1941–2017 – businessman and football club chairman
* Varada Sethu, born 1992 - actor
* Jon Silkin, 1930–1997 – poet
* Peter Smithson, 1928–1993 – Stockton-born Modernist architect
* John Snow, 1813–1858 – anaesthetist and founder of epidemiology
* James Calvert Spence, 1892–1954 – paediatrician
* W. T. Stead, 1849–1912 – journalist
* Algernon Charles Swinburne, 1837–1909 – poet
* Cecil Philip Taylor, 1929–1981 – playwright
* Gerald Vann, 1906–1963 – Roman Catholic theologian and philosopher
* Don Warrington, born 1951 – actor
* Bruce Welch, born 1941 – guitarist and singer
* Denise Welch, born 1958 – actress
* John Wesley, 1703–1791 – founder of Methodism
* Kevin Whately, born 1951 – actor
* Ludwig Wittgenstein, 1889–1951 – philosopher
* Yevgeny Zamyatin, 1884–1937 – Russian novelist, (We)