# List of people from Danville, Kentucky

These noted people were born, raised or lived for a significant period of time in the city of Danville, Kentucky.
| Name | | Noted for |
| Michael F. Adams | b. 1948 | President of the University of Georgia |
| Mary Hunt Affleck | 1847–1932 | American agrarian poet from Texas and a Confederate advocate |
| Sophia Alcorn | 1883–1967 | Educator; invented the Tadoma method of communication with people who are deaf and blind |
| William Anderson | 1826–1861 | U.S. Representative from Kentucky |
| Joshua Fry Bell | 1811–1870 | U.S. Representative, Kentucky Secretary of State; namesake of Bell County, Kentucky |
| James G. Birney | 1792–1857 | Abolitionist, politician and jurist |
| James M. Birney | 1817–1888 | Publisher and U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands |
| William Birney | 1819–1907 | Professor, Union Army general during the American Civil War, attorney and author |
| Jeremiah Boyle | 1818–1871 | Lawyer, abolitionist, and brigadier general during the American Civil War |
| John Boyle | 1774–1834 | U.S. federal judge and U.S. Representative; namesake of Boyle County, Kentucky |
| John C. Breckinridge | 1821–1875 | U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from Kentucky, Vice President of the United States, U.S. presidential candidate, Confederate States Secretary of War |
| Robert Breckinridge | 1800–1871 | Kentucky politician and Presbyterian minister |
| Neal Brown | b. 1980 | College football coach and former player |
| Samuel D. Burchard | 1812–1891 | Clergyman |
| Michael Burns | b. 1947 | Historian and actor |
| Jewel Carmen | 1897–1984 | Silent film actress |
| William Chrisman | 1822–1897 | Businessman and banker |
| James Clemens, Jr. | 1791–1878 | Businessman and banker |
| George B. Crittenden | 1812–1880 | Career Army officer who served in the Black Hawk War, the Army of the Republic of Texas, the Mexican–American War, and the Confederate States Army in the American Civil War |
| Joseph Daveiss | 1774–1811 | Lawyer and soldier |
| Todd Duncan | 1903–1998 | Baritone opera singer and actor |
| Milton J. Durham | 1824–1911 | Representative from Kentucky |
| Monroe Edwards | 1808–1847 | Slave trader, forger, swindler |
| John Fetterman | 1920–1975 | Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter |
| John Baptiste Ford | 1811–1903 | Industrialist and founder of the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company |
| Harry Frankel | 1888–1948 | Minstrel performer and vaudevillian, "Singin' Sam, the Barbasol Man" |
| Helen Fisher Frye | 1918–2014 | Educator and civil rights activist |
| Speed S. Fry | 1817–1892 | Lawyer, judge, and U.S. Army officer during the Mexican–American War and American Civil War |
| William Arthur Ganfield | 1873–1940 | Educator |
| Alfred Goodrich Garr | 1875–1944 | Pentecostal Evangelist |
| Jordan Gay | b. 1990 | American football player |
| Hart Goodloe | 1875–1954 | Surgeon in the First World War |
| Ashley Gorley | b. 1969 | Songwriter and producer |
| Lewis W. Green | 1806–1863 | Presbyterian minister and educator |
| Willis Green | 1818–1893 | U.s. Representative |
| Christopher Greenup | 1750–1818 | U.S. Representative and Governor of Kentucky |
| Viola Rowe Gross | 1921–2012 | Teacher, businesswoman, clubwoman, and author |
| Aaron Harding | 1805–1875 | U.S. Representative from Kentucky |
| John Marshall Harlan | 1833–1911 | U.S. Supreme Court Justice, "The Great Dissenter" |
| Larnelle Harris | b. 1947 | Gospel singer, songwriter and recording artist |
| Harvey Helm | 1865–1919 | U.S. Representative from Kentucky |
| Robby Henson | b. 1958 | Film director and screenwriter |
| William R. Higgins | 1945–1990 | U.S. Marine Corps colonel captured and killed in 1988 while on a UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. |
| Edward W. Hoch | 1849–1925 | Governor of Kansas |
| Jesse Lynch Holman | 1784–1842 | Indiana lawyer, politician, jurist, novelist, poet, city planner, and preacher |
| Dennis Johnson | b. 1979 | Football player |
| Elizabeth Topham Kennan | b. 1938 | Academic, president of Mount Holyoke College |
| James Kerr | 1790–1850 | Politician in Missouri and Texas who was active in establishing the Republic of Texas |
| John Kincaid | 1791–1873 | U.S. Representative from Kentucky |
| J. Proctor Knott | 1830–1911 | U.S. Representative from Kentucky and Governor of Kentucky |
| Travis Leffew | b. 1983 | Football player |
| Robert P. Letcher | 1788–1861 | U.S. Representative, diplomat, and Governor of Kentucky |
| Pierce Lively | 1921–2016 | U.S. federal judge |
| James Logan | 1791–1859 | Arkansas pioneer |
| Susan Shelby Magoffin | 1827–1855 | Diarist |
| Sara W. Mahan | 1870–1966 | Progressive era social reformer, early Democratic Party member |
| Maurice Manning | b. 1966 | Poet |
| Jim Marshall | b. 1937 | Football player |
| Claude Matthews | 1845–1898 | Governor of Indiana |
| Charles McDowell, Jr. | 1926–2010 | Political writer and television panelist |
| Ephraim McDowell | 1771–1830 | Physician, first to successfully remove an ovarian tumor |
| Samuel McDowell | 1735–1817 | Soldier and early political leader in Kentucky |
| John Gaines Miller | 1812–1856 | U.S. Representative from Missouri |
| E. Belle Mitchell | 1848–1942 | Educator and abolitionist |
| Eddie Montgomery | b. 1963 | Country music artist |
| John Michael Montgomery | b. 1965 | Country music artist |
| Lottie Moon | 1840–1912 | Missionary to China |
| John Norvell | 1789–1850 | Newspaper editor and U.S. Senator from Michigan |
| Theodore O'Hara | 1820–1867 | Poet and soldier |
| William Owsley | 1782–1862 | Associate justice of the Kentucky Court of Appeals; Governor of Kentucky |
| Don Phelps | 1924–1982 | Professional American football player |
| Stephen Rolfe Powell | 1951–2019 | Glass artist |
| Scott Pruitt | b. 1968 | Oklahoma Attorney General |
| James E. Rogers Jr. | 1947–2018 | President and CEO of Duke Energy |
| Joe Rue | 1898–1984 | Major League Baseball umpire |
| Willis Russell | 1803–1852 | Emancipated slave of Revolutionary War veteran Robert Craddock, founder of first school in Danville for African-American children |
| Alfred Ryors | 1812–1858 | President of Indiana University, Ohio University; professor at Centre College |
| Hugh L. Scott | 1853–1934 | Superintendent of West Point, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army in World War I |
| Julia Green Scott | 1839–1923 | philanthropist, socialite, and businesswoman who served as President-General of the Daughters of the American Revolution |
| Isaac Shelby | 1750–1826 | First and fifth Governor of Kentucky |
| Jonathan Shell | b. 1987 | Kentucky politician |
| Thomas A. Spragens | 1917–2006 | Educator, president of Centre College |
| King Swope | 1893–1961 | U.S. Representative from Kentucky |
| Albert G. Talbott | 1808–1887 | Kentucky politician |
| John G. Talbot | 1844–1870 | U.S. Navy officer |
| Albert G. Talbott | 1808–1887 | U.S. Representative from Kentucky |
| Jacob Tamme | b. 1985 | Football player |
| Josh Teater | b. 1979 | Professional golfer |
| Charles Stewart Todd | 1791–1871 | U.S. Army officer and U.S. Ambassador to Russia |
| Thomas Todd | 1765–1826 | U.S. Supreme Court Justice |
| Trey D. | | Songwriter and composer, born Keith McGuffey |
| Frank X Walker | b. 1961 | Kentucky's first African-American Poet Laureate |
| Margaret Anderson Watts | 1832–1905 | first Kentucky woman who wrote and advocated the equal rights of woman before the law |
| DeWitt Weaver | 1939–2021 | Professional golfer |
| Reed N. Weisiger | 1838–1908 | Texas State Senator, Confederate cavalry officer |
| Fess Williams | 1894–1975 | Jazz musician |
| Frances Harriet Williams | 1898–1992 | author, presidential advisor, activist, organizer for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the YWCA |
| Phil Woolpert | 1915–1987 | College basketball coach |
| Craig Yeast | b. 1976 | American and Canadian football player |
| John C. Young | 1803–1857 | Fourth president of Centre College |