New Jersey Famous People

Famous Americans: History and Biographies

Links to histories and biographies of the famous people of New Jersey. Many famous people of New Jersey have made significant contributions to the history of our nation and the state of New Jersey. These famous Americans, famous entertainers, famous players, famous scientist, famous singers, famous statesmen, famous women, heroes, great explorers, and others New Jersey famous Americans have all made New Jersey their home. This list includes New Jersey historical figures, celebrities and those individuals of New Jersey who have influenced the lives of others.

Famous People from New Jersey

• William (Bud) Abbott (1895 - 1974) Comedian made famous in the popular team Abbott and Costello with routines such as "Who's on First;" born in Asbury Park.
• Charles Addams (1912 - 1988) Cartoonist that created The Addams Family; born in Westfield.
• Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin (1930 - ) First astronaut to leave a spacecraft and walk in space, he later became the second person to walk on the moon; born in Montclair.
• Judy Blume (1938 - ) Fiction writer for youth with well-known books such as Superfudge and Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing; born in Elizabeth.
• Jon Bon Jovi (born John Francis Bongiovi) (1962 - ) Musician, born in Perth Amboy.
• Aaron Burr (1756 - 1836) Vice President of the United States under Thomas Jefferson, born in Newark.
• Joseph Campbell (1817 - 1900) Founder of the Campbell Soup Company; born in Camden County.
• Grover Cleveland (1837 - 1908) The 22^nd and 24^th President of the United States; born in Caldwell.
• James Fenimore Cooper  was the first major American novelist. His best-known tales of frontier adventure include The Last of the Mohicans (1826), an adventure story set in the Lake Champlain. He was born in Burlington, New Jersey in 1789.
• Lou Costello (1906 - 1959) Comedian made famous in the popular team Abbott and Costello with routines such as "Who's on First;" born in Paterson.
• Stephen Crane (1871 - 1900) Author most famous for The Red Badge of Courage; born in Newark.
• Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) Famous Physicist, lived in Princeton.
• Donald Fletcher Holmes was born in Woodbury, NJ in 1910. He invented the process for making polyurethane. Various forms of polyurethane are used in to manufacture upholstery material, heat-insulating material in homes, offices, and refrigerators, life-saving artificial hearts, safety padding in modern automobiles, and carpeting.
• Whitney Houston (1963 - ) Popular singer and actor that was the first to sell 10 million copies of her first two albums; born in Newark.
• Jerry Lewis (1926 - ) Popular comedian during the 1950s and 1960s famous for The Nutty Professor and hosting the Jerry Lewis Telethon for Muscular Dystrophy; born in Newark.
• Jack Nicholson (1937 - ) Actor and Academy Award winner for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest made famous in Chinatown and The Shining; born in Neptune.
• Paul Robeson (1898 - 1976) The first black all-American football player, famous singer and actor; born in Princeton.
• Paul Simon (1941 - ) Popular singer in the 1960s made famous with songs like "Mrs. Robinson;" born in Newark.
• Frank Sinatra (1915 - 1998) Actor and Singer starting in the 1940s; born in Hoboken.
• Bruce Springsteen (1949 - ) Singer made famous with album Born in the USA.; born in Freehold.
• Meryl Streep (born Mary Louise Streep; June 22, 1949) is an American actress of theatre, film and television. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest actresses of all time. Streep made her professional stage debut in The Playboy of Seville (1971), before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season (1977). In that same year, she made her film debut in Julia (1977). Both critical and commercial success came quickly with roles in The Deer Hunter (1978) and Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), the first of which brought her an Academy Award nomination, and the second, her first win, for Best Supporting Actress. She later won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her roles in Sophie's Choice (1982) and The Iron Lady (2011). With 18 Academy Award nominations in 35 years, Streep holds the record as being the most nominated actor (male or female) in history. Streep was born in Summit, New Jersey. Her mother, Mary Wolf (née Wilkinson; 1915-2001), was a commercial artist and an art editor, and her father, Harry William Streep, Jr. (1910-2003), was a pharmaceutical executive. She has two brothers, Dana David and Harry William III
• John Travolta (1954 - ) Actor made famous in Grease and Saturday Night Fever; born in Englewood.
• William Henry Vanderbilt Financier William Henry Vanderbilt was born in New Brunswick, NJ in 1821. He controlled one of America's greatest family fortunes and headed one of the nation's largest corporations - the New York Central Railroad. Vanderbilt managed to double his family's fortune to the present-day equivalent of $3 billion, making him the richest man in the world at the time of his death in 1885.

More Famous People of New Jersey

Find more more New Jersey famous people below. You may not even realize many of these famous people were born in New Jersey or notable associated with New Jersey, including actors, actresses, explorers, historical figures, inventors, musicians, novelists, professional athletes, important politicians, singers, sport stars and more.

• William Count Basie band leader, Red Bank
• Joan Bennett actress, Palisades
• William J. Brennan jurist, Newark
• Lloyd H. Conover inventor, Orange
• David Copperfield magician, Metuchen
• Tom Cruise, actor
• Danny DeVito, actor
• Helen Gahagan Douglas representative, Boonton
• Allen Ginsberg poet, Newark
• Savron Glover choreographer, Newark
• William Frederick Halsey, Jr. admiral, Elizabeth
• Lauryn Hill rapper, South Orange
• Whitney Houston, vocalist
• Ice-T rapper, Newark
• Alfred Joyce Kilmer poet, New Brunswick
• Alfred C. Kinsey zoologist, Hoboken
• Ernie Kovacs comedian, Trenton
• Dorothea Lange photographer, Hoboken
• Queen Latifah, actress
• Jerry Lewis comedian, film director, Newark
• Anne Morrow Lindbergh author, Englewood
• Norman Mailer author, Long Branch
• James W. Marshall discovered gold in California, Hunterdon
• Patricia McBride ballerina, Teanick
• Eger V. Murphree inventor, Bayonne
• Richard Nixon, US president
• Dorothy Parker author, West Bend
• Joe Pesci, actor
• Zebulon Mongomery Pike explorer, soldier, Lamberton
• Joe Piscopo comedian, actor, Passaic
• Edward J. Rosinski inventor, Gloucester County
• Philip Milton Roth author, Newark
• Caesar Romero, actor
• Carl Sagan, writer, astronomer
• Ruth St. Denis dancer, choreographer, Newark
• Susan Sarandon, actress
• Antonin Scalia jurist,Trenton
• Norman Schwarzkopf army general, Trenton
• Kevin Spacey actor, South Orange
• Amos Alonzo Stagg football coach, West Orange
• Alfred Stieglitz photographer, Hoboken
• Albert Payson Terhune journalist, author, Newark
• Dave Thomas restaurateur, Atlantic City
• Sarah Vaughan singer, Newark
• Dionne Warwick actress, singer, East Orange
• William Carlos Williams physician, poet, Rutherford
• Ray Liotta actor, Newark
• Edmund Wilson literary critic, author, Red Bank