List of people from Newport, Rhode Island explained
The following list includes notable people who were born or have lived in Newport, Rhode Island.
Notable people born in Newport
18th century
19th century
- D. Putnam Brinley, artist
- Clarence G. Child, scholar
- William Ennis, U.S. Army brigadier general[2]
- Thomas Harper Ince, actor
- Clarence R. King, geologist, mountaineer, and first director of the U.S. Geological Survey (1879–1881); noted for exploration of Sierra Nevada
- Ida Lewis, lighthouse keeper credited with saving 18 lives in Newport Harbor; received national attention and numerous honors; a Coast Guard buoy tender bears her name
- David Melville, credited with first gas street lighting in the United States
- Matthew C. Perry, Navy Commodore who opened Japan to the West with the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854, under the threat of military force
- Cornelia Bryce Pinchot, native of Newport who became a conservationist, Progressive politician, women’s rights activist, and First Lady of Pennsylvania
- Cynthia Taggart, poet
- Charles C. Van Zandt, 34th Governor of Rhode Island[3]
20th century
- Harry Anderson, actor and comedian (Night Court)
- Margaret Frances Andrews, socialite and show dog breeder
- Lillian Barrett, novelist and playwright (also lived and died in Newport)
- Allen Bestwick, NASCAR and IndyCar Series announcer
- Nadia Bjorlin, soap opera actress (Days of Our Lives)
- Frank Corridon, pitcher for Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, and St. Louis Cardinals; invented now-illegal pitch, the spitball
- Tanya Donelly, musician; vocalist for Rhode Island–based bands Belly and Throwing Muses; guitarist for the band The Breeders
- Charlie Fern, White House speechwriter, journalist
- Van Johnson, actor, known best for "all-American" roles in MGM films during World War II
- Lawson Little, 1940 U.S. Open golf champion
- Mena Suvari, actress, known for role in 1999 film American Beauty
- Leon Wilkeson, bass guitarist
Notable people who lived or worked in Newport
17th century
18th century
- George Berkeley, philosopher
- Louis Alexandre Berthier, French army officer, later Marshal of France and Napoleon's chief of staff
- William Ellery, signer of Declaration of Independence
- Robert Feke, portrait painter
- Peter Harrison, architect
- Samuel Hopkins, Congregational minister, Calvinist theologian, leader for abolition of slave trade
- Aaron Lopez, merchant
- Louis-Marie, vicomte de Noailles, French army officer
- Charles Theodore Pachelbel, first organist of Newport's Trinity Church; son of Johann Pachelbel
- Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, French general
- William Selby, organist at Trinity Church, composer
- John Smybert, artist
- Ezra Stiles, minister, diarist, and President of Yale
- Gilbert Stuart, portrait painter
- Isaac Touro, hazzan at Synagogue
- Judah Touro, merchant and philanthropist
19th century to 1885
- George Bancroft, historian, Secretary of the Navy, diplomat, and summer resident
- August Belmont, financier
- Ambrose Burnside, Army officer stationed at Fort Adams, later Civil War general, governor, senator
- Julia Ward Howe, author and summer resident
- Henry James, author
- William James, philosopher and Harvard professor
- John Kensett, artist
- Clement C. Moore, summer resident and author of "'Twas the Night before Christmas"
- Levi P. Morton, summer resident and donor of Morton Park, later Vice President of the United States
- Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, hero of War of 1812
- William Trost Richards, artist
- Milton H. Sanford, textile magnate and thoroughbred racehorse owner
- Judah Touro, philanthropist
- Richard Upjohn, architect
- Mahlon Van Horne, politician
The Gilded Age, 1885–1914
- Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor, socialite
- Charles D. Barney, socialite, banker, founder of Smith Barney Brokerage
- Alva Belmont, socialite and leader of women's rights movement
- August Belmont, financier
- Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, socialite, builder of Belcourt Castle
- James Gordon Bennett, Jr., newspaper publisher and yachtsman
- Ogden Codman, designer
- Richard Morris Hunt, architect
- William Morris Hunt, artist
- John LaFarge, artist
- Pierre Lorillard, tobacco manufacturer
- Rear Admiral Stephen B. Luce, founder of Naval War College
- Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, naval historian and strategist
- Ward McAllister, flamboyant raconteur of high society, coined the term 'the 400' for the New York social elite
- Charles McKim, architect
- Edith B. Price, writer and illustrator
- H.H. Richardson, architect
- Horace Trumbauer, architect
- James J. Van Alen, summer resident and Ambassador to Italy
- Alva Vanderbilt, wife of William K. Vanderbilt; early feminist, active in women's suffrage movement
- Consuelo Vanderbilt, daughter of W.K. and Alva Vanderbilt; Duchess of Marlborough
- Cornelius Vanderbilt II, heir to Vanderbilt fortune, Chairman of New York Central Railroad
- Frederick Vanderbilt, heir to Vanderbilt fortune, philanthropist
- William Kissam Vanderbilt, heir to Vanderbilt fortune, yachtsman
- Edith Wharton, author
- Stanford White, architect
- Thornton Wilder, author, playwright; his 1973 novel Theophilus North is set in Newport; served briefly in Army's Coast Artillery Corps at Fort Adams in World War I
20th century, 1914–2000
- John Jacob Astor VI, socialite, heir to Astor family fortune, summer resident
- Admiral Jeremy Michael Boorda, 25th Chief of Naval Operations
- John Nicholas Brown, socialite, yachtsman and philanthropist
- Doris Duke, tobacco heiress and philanthropist
- Joanna Going, actress, Another World, House of Cards
- Paul Gordon, musician with Goo Goo Dolls, New Radicals, The B-52's
- Kristin Hersh, musician, vocalist for Rhode Island–based band Throwing Muses, 50 Foot Wave; solo artist
- Antony Kloman, painter
- Jane Pickens Langley, singer, entertainer and philanthropist
- Elaine Lorillard, summer resident, founder of Newport Jazz Festival
- Perle Mesta, socialite, political hostess and U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg
- MacGillivray Milne, 27th Governor of American Samoa, 1936–1938
- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, First Lady of the United States, summer resident
- Claiborne Pell, socialite and U.S. Senator 1961–1997
- Alfredo Sciarrotta, silversmith and undersea weapons expert
- Admiral William Sims, commander of U.S. Naval Forces in Europe, 1917–1919
- Carolyn Mary Skelly; owned Bois Dore Mansion; eccentric daughter of William Grove Skelly; oil heiress, dubbed the "most robbed woman in the US" by the Boston Globe; socialite; hosted fundraisers for President George H.W. Bush, & Texas Governor John Connally[4] [5]
- Admiral Raymond Spruance, the victor of Midway; President, Naval War College
- Jimmy Van Alen, summer resident and founder of International Tennis Hall of Fame
- Margaret Van Alen Bruguiere, socialite, art collector; niece of Frederick Vanderbilt
- Harold Vanderbilt, yachtsman, bridge player, inventor of contract bridge
- Martha Sharp Crawford (Sunny) von Bülow, socialite, heiress (resided with husband Claus von Bülow at Clarendon Court on Bellevue Avenue)
- Charlie Day, Actor
21st century, Since 2001
- Ken Barlow, TV Meteorologist, Beginning 1987
- Richard Hatch, first winner of the reality television show Survivor
- Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. Senator, Beginning 2007
- Dede Wilsey, San Franciscan socialite, summer resident and philanthropist
- Richard Saul Wurman, architect, graphic designer, founder of the TED Conferences
Notes and References
- Book: James, Edward T. . . Notable American women 1607-1959 : a biographical dictionary . James . Janet Wilson . Boyer . Paul . 1971 . Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press . 978-0-674-62734-5 . 390–391.
- News: October 7, 1938 . General William Ennis Dies At His Home here . . Newport, RI . 3 . Newspapers.com.
- Web site: Rhode Island Governor Charles Collins Van Zandt. National Governors Association . October 10, 2012.
- http://articles.philly.com/1986-08-21/news/26062433_1_bois-dore-costume-jewelry-carolyn-skelly
- Web site: Archives. Los Angeles Times. 18 August 1986 .
