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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
366 Detroit places
17 fields

Hungarian ties 22 Detroiters with Hungarian ties →

5 people

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Film & TV · born 1985Dan AmboyeractorDetroit-born actor from the Roeper School, known for Younger, Uncoupled and as Prince William in a royal-romance TV movie.Born hereGrew up here

Music · 1932–1986Dorothy Ashbyjazz harpist, pianist, singer, composerDetroit-born pioneer who made the harp a bebop instrument, a product of Paradise Valley, Cass Tech and Wayne State who also ran a Black theater company in the city.Born hereGrew up here

Theatre & dancePrecious Adamsballet dancerBallet dancer from Canton, Michigan, trained in Wixom and at the Bolshoi, who danced with English National Ballet and was named to the BBC 100 Women list in 2019.Born hereGrew up here

Theatre & dance · 1913–2003Cholly Atkinsdancer, choreographerTap dancer turned Motown house choreographer who created the stage moves of the Temptations, Supremes and Four Tops.Detroit career

Theatre & danceGary Andersontheater director, producerWayne State-trained director who co-founded Plowshares Theatre Company in 1989 and built it into Michigan's professional African American theater company.Detroit careerStudied here

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 ↗

Famous Detroiters

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