Politics · born 1947
Mitt Romneypolitician, businessmanDetroit-born son of automaker and governor George Romney; grew up in Bloomfield Hills, attended Cranbrook, later governed Massachusetts and ran for president in 2012.DETROIT / A living lexicon / ¼
Famous Detroiters
People who were born here, moved here or built their careers in Detroit: musicians, carmakers, athletes, writers, inventors, civil-rights leaders and a few notorious names. With their dates, their Detroit story and the places where they lived, worked and played, closed ones included.
- 1,940 famous people
- 515 Detroit places
- 21 fields
Hungarian ties 22 Detroiters with Hungarian ties →
Origin and citizenship
Field
Connection
Born in
A–Z (family name)
93 people · 1/2 page
Clear filtersPolitics · born 1947Mitt Romneypolitician, businessmanDetroit-born son of automaker and governor George Romney; grew up in Bloomfield Hills, attended Cranbrook, later governed Massachusetts and ran for president in 2012.
Architecture & design · 1886–1969
Ludwig Mies van der RohearchitectGerman-American modernist master whose Lafayette Park near downtown Detroit is the largest collection of his buildings anywhere.
Music · born 1944Diana Rosssinger, actressDetroit-born lead singer of the Supremes, Motown's biggest 1960s act, who grew up in the North End and the Brewster-Douglass projects before a long solo and film career.
Film & TV · born 1959Sam Raimifilm director, producer, screenwriterRoyal Oak-born director who launched The Evil Dead from metro Detroit, premiered it at the Redford Theatre and later shot Crimewave on Detroit streets.
Sports · born 1961Dennis Rodmanbasketball player, forwardBad Boys-era Pistons forward and defensive specialist who won back-to-back NBA titles with Detroit in 1989 and 1990 and became one of the greatest rebounders in league history.
Sports · born 1988Derrick Rosebasketball playerFormer NBA Most Valuable Player who, after years of injury setbacks, found a late-career revival with the Pistons as a prolific sixth man.
Sports · 1921–1989Sugar Ray Robinsonboxer, world welterweight and middleweight championOften ranked the best pound-for-pound boxer ever, he spent his early childhood in Detroit, a block from Joe Louis, before moving to Harlem.
Music · born 1940Smokey Robinsonsinger, songwriter, record producer, record executiveNorth End native who founded the Miracles, gave Motown its first million-seller and wrote many of the label's defining hits while serving as its vice president.
Film & TV · born 1975Elizabeth ReaseractressTwilight and Grey's Anatomy actress who was born in Bloomfield Hills and finished high school in Auburn Hills before training at Juilliard.
Film & TV · born 1971Mary Lynn Rajskubactress, comedianDetroit-born, Downriver-raised comedian and actress, known as Chloe O'Brian on 24, who studied art in Detroit before turning to comedy.
Music · born 1971Kid Rocksinger, rapper, songwriterMacomb County-born rap-rocker who came up in the 1980s Detroit hip-hop scene and made his breakthrough album Devil Without a Cause at a downtown Detroit studio.
Film & TV · born 1985Crystal ReedactressDetroit-raised actress, Allison Argent on Teen Wolf, who graduated from Roseville High School and studied acting at Wayne State.
Music · 1942–2023Sixto Rodriguezsinger-songwriter, guitaristDetroit's “Sugar Man”: a working-class songwriter who spent his whole life in the city, unaware for decades that he was a star in South Africa.
Comedy · 1946–1989Gilda Radnercomedian, actressOriginal Saturday Night Live star who grew up in Detroit, where her father's Seville Hotel housed touring performers and her nanny inspired Emily Litella.
Film & TV · born 1971David Ramseyactor, television directorArrow's John Diggle, a Detroit native who went to Mumford High School and earned a BFA at Wayne State University.
Science & invention · 1934–2015Marshall Rosenbergpsychologist, mediatorPsychologist who created Nonviolent Communication; the Detroit race riot of 1943, which broke out a week after his family moved to the city, shaped his life's work.
Music · born 1956Dianne Reevesjazz singerFive-time Grammy-winning jazz singer born in Detroit into a musical family and raised in Denver.
Film & TV · born 1965Ted Raimiactor, director, writerDetroit-born character actor of the Evil Dead films and Xena, younger brother of director Sam Raimi, who started out in Detroit industrial films.
Film & TV · born 1977Michael Raymond-JamesactorDetroit-born actor of True Blood, Terriers and Once Upon a Time, a 1996 graduate of Clarkston High School.
Music · 1931–2017Della Reesesinger, actress, television host, ministerBlack Bottom-born singer who went from Detroit gospel choirs and the Flame Show Bar to pop hits, her own talk show and Touched by an Angel.
Politics · 1907–1995George W. Romneyautomobile executive, governor of MichiganDetroit auto-industry spokesman and American Motors chief who became Michigan's governor (1963–1969) and later U.S. housing secretary.
Sports · born 1975Rhynoprofessional wrestlerDetroit-born professional wrestler known as Rhyno, a former ECW, WWE and TNA champion who was raised in Dearborn Heights.
Labor · 1907–1970Walter Reutherpresident of the United Auto Workers (1946–1970)Tool-and-die maker who became the UAW's longest-serving president, building one of America's most powerful and progressive unions from Detroit.
Sports · born 1978Michael Russelltennis player, coachDetroit-born professional tennis player who reached a career-high world No. 60 and set the all-time record for USTA Pro Circuit singles titles.Jalen Rosebasketball player, sports analyst, authorDetroit-born guard who starred at Southwestern High School and with Michigan's 'Fab Five' before a long NBA career and a second career as a national broadcaster and Detroit philanthropist.
Music · 1941–1991David RuffinsingerThe raspy lead voice of the Temptations' “My Girl,” who helped build Hitsville U.S.A. as a teenager and is buried at Detroit's Woodlawn Cemetery.
Sports · born 1973Theo Ratliffbasketball playerShot-blocking center whom the Pistons drafted in 1995 and briefly brought back in 2008, part of a 16-season NBA career.
Sports · born 1983Brandi Rhodesprofessional wrestler, ring announcer, executiveDetroit-suburb-born wrestling personality who rose through WWE and became a founding executive and performer at All Elite Wrestling.
Sports · born 1973Brian Rafalskiice hockey defensemanDearborn-born defenseman, an undrafted free agent who signed with his hometown Red Wings in 2007 and won the Stanley Cup with them in 2008.
Music · born 1941Martha Reevessinger, former Detroit City Council memberLead singer of Martha and the Vandellas, who went from Motown secretary to star with “Heat Wave” and “Dancing in the Street”, and later served on the Detroit City Council.
Comedy · born 1984Sam Richardsonactor, comedian, writer, producerVeep and Ted Lasso actor who grew up in Boston-Edison, trained at Planet Ant and Second City Detroit and co-created Detroiters, a comedy shot on Detroit streets.Ruth Rileybasketball player, centerNotre Dame national champion who became the first person to win Most Outstanding Player honors in both the NCAA and WNBA championships, leading the Detroit Shock to its first WNBA title in 2003.Rockwellsinger, songwriterSon of Motown founder Berry Gordy, born and raised in Detroit, who scored a 1984 hit with "Somebody's Watching Me" featuring Michael Jackson.
Music · 1936–2014Jimmy Ruffinsoul singerMotown singer of “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted”, older brother of Temptations lead David Ruffin, who built his career at Hitsville in Detroit.Clifford Robinsonbasketball playerSixth Man of the Year and former All-Star forward who played two seasons for the Pistons in the early 2000s, part of an eighteen-year NBA career.
Sports · born 1971Iván Rodríguezbaseball player, catcherHall of Fame catcher who signed with Detroit in 2004 and helped rebuild the Tigers into a 2006 American League pennant winner.
Sports · 1989–2020
Chris Reedice dancerAmerican-born ice dancer who skated for Japan at three Olympics, trained in Canton in metro Detroit from 2015 and died in Detroit in 2020, aged 30.
Politics · born 1949Ann Romneyauthor, philanthropist, former First Lady of MassachusettsDetroit-born, Bloomfield Hills-raised Kingswood graduate who married Mitt Romney and became First Lady of Massachusetts and an advocate for multiple sclerosis research.
Sports · born 1992Bryan Rustice hockey right wingerPontiac-born winger who grew up idolizing the Red Wings and went on to win back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Sports · born 1960Mike Ramseyice hockey defenseman1980 "Miracle on Ice" Olympic champion who closed out his long NHL career with a few seasons on the Red Wings' blue line.
Film & TV · 1924–2024Joyce Randolphstage and television actressDetroit-born Trixie Norton of The Honeymooners, a Finnish-American store clerk who joined a touring play in Detroit and became the show's last surviving star.
Military · 1912–1987Della H. Raneymilitary nursePioneering Army nurse, the first African American nurse to report for duty in World War II and the first appointed chief nurse, who died in Detroit in 1987.Don Redmanarranger, composer, saxophonist, bandleaderPioneering swing arranger who left Fletcher Henderson in 1927 to lead McKinney's Cotton Pickers in Detroit, turning the Graystone house band into a national star.
Science & invention · 1942–2011David Rumelhartcognitive psychologistCognitive scientist whose work on parallel distributed processing and backpropagation laid foundations for modern neural networks; he spent his last years in the Ann Arbor area.
Music · born 1945Mitch Ryderrock and soul singer, songwriterHamtramck-born singer whose Detroit Wheels fused rock and roll with Detroit soul on 1960s hits such as "Devil with a Blue Dress On & Good Golly Miss Molly."Laurence Rosenthalcomposer, arranger, conductorDetroit-born composer and arranger for Broadway, film and television, whose scores include The Miracle Worker, Becket and Clash of the Titans and who won seven Emmy Awards.Bruce Joel Rubinscreenwriter, meditation teacher, photographerOscar-winning screenwriter of Ghost and Jacob's Ladder, raised in Detroit, a Mumford High School graduate who discovered film at the city's Krim Theater and studied at Wayne State.
Science & invention · 1919–2011Mildred Rebstockpharmaceutical chemistParke-Davis research chemist in Detroit who led the first complete synthesis of an antibiotic, chloramphenicol (Chloromycetin), in 1947.The lexicon keeps growing. Every entry lists its sources at the bottom. Dates were checked against Wikidata and Wikipedia. The texts are our own. Famous people's places among the sights ↗