Boston
Boston ranks 23rd in number of biographies on Pantheon, behind Copenhagen, Barcelona, and Milan. Memorable people born in Boston include Edgar Allan Poe, Benjamin Franklin, and Louis Sullivan. Memorable people who died in Boston include Shirley Clarke, George Underwood, and Richard Sears. Boston has been the birth place of many actors, and politicians and the death place of many writers, and politicians. Boston is located in United States.
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and financial center of New England, a region of the Northeastern United States. It has an area of 48.4 sq mi (125 km2) and a population of 675,647 as of the 2020 census, making it the third-largest city in the Northeastern United States after New York City and Philadelphia. The larger Greater Boston metropolitan statistical area has a population of 4.9 million as of 2023, making it the largest metropolitan area in New England and the eleventh-largest in the United States. Read more on Wikipedia
People
Between 1649 and 2002, Boston was the birth place of 292 globally memorable people, including Edgar Allan Poe, Benjamin Franklin, and Louis Sullivan. Additionaly, 111 globally memorable people have passed away in Boston including Shirley Clarke, George Underwood, and Richard Sears.
People Born in Boston
Go to all RankingsEdgar Allan Poe
WRITER
1809 - 1849
HPI: 90.35
Rank: 186
Benjamin Franklin
POLITICIAN
1706 - 1790
HPI: 85.90
Rank: 271
Louis Sullivan
ARCHITECT
1856 - 1924
HPI: 78.87
Rank: 210
Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.
POLITICIAN
1888 - 1969
HPI: 78.35
Rank: 208
Emily Greene Balch
SOCIAL ACTIVIST
1867 - 1961
HPI: 77.27
Rank: 2
Ralph Waldo Emerson
WRITER
1803 - 1882
HPI: 76.21
Rank: 285
William F. Sharpe
ECONOMIST
1934 - Present
HPI: 74.32
Rank: 56
Sylvia Plath
WRITER
1932 - 1963
HPI: 74.19
Rank: 177
John McCarthy
COMPUTER SCIENTIST
1927 - 2011
HPI: 72.27
Rank: 165
Leonard Nimoy
ACTOR
1931 - 2015
HPI: 72.09
Rank: 185
Robert Burns Woodward
CHEMIST
1917 - 1979
HPI: 72.08
Rank: 194
Donna Summer
SINGER
1948 - 2012
HPI: 71.92
Rank: 258
People Deceased in Boston
Go to all RankingsShirley Clarke
FILM DIRECTOR
1919 - 1997
HPI: NaN
Rank: 1
George Underwood
ATHLETE
1884 - 1943
HPI: NaN
Rank: 2
Richard Sears
TENNIS PLAYER
1861 - 1943
HPI: 61.56
Rank: 3
Sumner Paine
SOCIAL ACTIVIST
1868 - 1904
HPI: 58.71
Rank: 4
William H. Prescott
HISTORIAN
1796 - 1859
HPI: NaN
Rank: 5
Wallace Clement Sabine
PHYSICIST
1868 - 1919
HPI: NaN
Rank: 6
Ellen Swallow Richards
ECONOMIST
1842 - 1911
HPI: NaN
Rank: 7
An Wang
INVENTOR
1920 - 1990
HPI: NaN
Rank: 8
Buck Jones
ACTOR
1891 - 1942
HPI: NaN
Rank: 9
Drastamat Kanayan
POLITICIAN
1884 - 1956
HPI: NaN
Rank: 10
John Jeffries
PHYSICIAN
1745 - 1819
HPI: 55.43
Rank: 11
Ali-Reza Pahlavi
NOBLEMAN
1966 - 2011
HPI: NaN
Rank: 12
Newly Added People Deceased in Boston
Go to all RankingsShirley Clarke
FILM DIRECTOR
1919 - 1997
HPI: NaN
Rank: 1
George Underwood
ATHLETE
1884 - 1943
HPI: NaN
Rank: 2
William H. Prescott
HISTORIAN
1796 - 1859
HPI: NaN
Rank: 5
Wallace Clement Sabine
PHYSICIST
1868 - 1919
HPI: NaN
Rank: 6
Ellen Swallow Richards
ECONOMIST
1842 - 1911
HPI: NaN
Rank: 7
An Wang
INVENTOR
1920 - 1990
HPI: NaN
Rank: 8
Buck Jones
ACTOR
1891 - 1942
HPI: NaN
Rank: 9
Drastamat Kanayan
POLITICIAN
1884 - 1956
HPI: NaN
Rank: 10
Ali-Reza Pahlavi
NOBLEMAN
1966 - 2011
HPI: NaN
Rank: 12
Robert Cormier
WRITER
1925 - 2000
HPI: NaN
Rank: 14
Lucy Stone
SOCIAL ACTIVIST
1818 - 1893
HPI: NaN
Rank: 15
George Whitefield Chadwick
COMPOSER
1854 - 1931
HPI: NaN
Rank: 16
Occupations
Most individuals born in present day Boston were actors (86), politicians (30), writers (23), athletes (14), and musicians (11), while most who died were writers (18), politicians (14), social activists (6), philosophers (6), and physicists (5).
Occupational Trends
Over the past 100 years, actors have been the top profession of globally memorable people born in Boston, including Leonard Nimoy, Mark Wahlberg, and Edward Norton. Whereas, throughout history, actors have been the profession with the most memorable people born in present day Boston, including Leonard Nimoy, Mark Wahlberg, and Edward Norton.
Places
Overlapping Lives
Below is a visual represetation of the lifespans of the top 25 globally memorable people born in Boston since 1700.