City history · 1902–1974Charles Lindberghaviator, military officer, authorThe pilot of the first solo nonstop New York–Paris flight (1927) was born in his grandfather's house on West Forest Avenue; his mother was a Detroit chemistry teacher.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.
- 1,743 famous people
- 96 Detroit places
- 21 fields
Hungarian ties 21 Detroiters with Hungarian ties →
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82 people · 1/2 page
Clear filtersCity history · 1902–1974Charles Lindberghaviator, military officer, authorThe pilot of the first solo nonstop New York–Paris flight (1927) was born in his grandfather's house on West Forest Avenue; his mother was a Detroit chemistry teacher.
Sports · 1914–1981Joe Louisboxer, world heavyweight championHeavyweight champion from 1937 to 1949 who grew up in Detroit's Black Bottom and learned to box at the Brewster Recreation Center; the city's best-loved sports hero.
Film & TV · 1932–2023Piper LaurieactressThree-time Oscar nominee (The Hustler, Carrie, Children of a Lesser God) who was born Rosetta Jacobs in a one-bedroom walk-up on Detroit's Tyler Street.
Sports · born 1982Tara Lipinskifigure skater, sports commentator1998 Olympic champion, the youngest in figure skating history, who trained at the Detroit Skating Club in Bloomfield Hills during her rise.
Music · born 1988Lizzosinger, rapper, flutist, actressGrammy-winning singer and rapper of “Truth Hurts” and “About Damn Time,” born in Detroit in 1988 and raised there until age ten.
Literature · 1925–2013Elmore Leonardnovelist, screenwriterCrime novelist nicknamed 'the Dickens of Detroit', raised and educated in the city, who set many of his hard-boiled stories on its streets.
Film & TV · born 1950Christine Lahtiactress, directorOscar-winning director and Emmy-winning star of Chicago Hope, born in Birmingham, Michigan, and a graduate of Seaholm High School.
Politics · 1934–2021Carl Levinpolitician, lawyerDetroit-born Democrat who sat on the city council in the 1970s and then served Michigan in the U.S. Senate for 36 years, longest in the state's history.
Sports · born 1970Alexi Lalassoccer player and executive, broadcasterMetro Detroit-born soccer star of the 1994 World Cup and MLS era, raised in Birmingham and schooled at Cranbrook, now a leading American soccer broadcaster.
Film & TV · 1925–2015Joan Leslieactress, vaudevillianGolden Age star of High Sierra, Sergeant York and Yankee Doodle Dandy who began as the youngest of Detroit's singing Brodel sisters in Depression-era vaudeville.
Music · 1920–2013Yusef Lateefjazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator, authorJazz saxophonist and flutist who grew up in Detroit, studied at Wayne State and blended jazz with Eastern sounds long before "world music" had a name.
Literature · 1928–2015Philip Levinepoet, essayist, professorU.S. Poet Laureate (2011–2012) and Pulitzer winner whose poems about Detroit's factories and working people made him the city's great industrial poet.
Sports · born 1970Nicklas Lidströmice hockey defenseman, executiveSwedish Hall of Fame defenseman who played all twenty NHL seasons with the Detroit Red Wings, won four Stanley Cups, and became the first European-born captain to lead a team to the championship.
Sports · born 1957Bill Laimbeerbasketball player and coachCenter of the Pistons' rough-and-tumble "Bad Boys" teams who won back-to-back NBA titles in 1989 and 1990, then coached the Detroit Shock to three WNBA championships.
Film & TV · 1926–2020James Liptontelevision host, writer, actor, educatorHost of Inside the Actors Studio who grew up in Detroit, worked as a Detroit Times copy boy, acted on local stages and radio, and studied at Central High and Wayne State.
Literature · born 1955Geoffrey A. LandisNASA scientist, science-fiction writer, poetDetroit-born NASA engineer and Hugo and Nebula–winning hard science-fiction author who works on Mars rovers and solar power.
Film & TV · born 1970Matt Letscheractor, playwright, directorGrosse Pointe-born actor (The Mask of Zorro, The Flash's Reverse-Flash) and playwright, discovered at Jeff Daniels' Purple Rose Theatre in Chelsea.
Theatre & dance · born 1963Neil LaButeplaywright, film director, screenwriterPlaywright and director of In the Company of Men and The Shape of Things, born in Detroit to a hospital receptionist and a long-haul trucker and raised in Spokane.
Military · 1908–1987Edward LansdaleU.S. Air Force general, CIA officerDetroit-born Air Force officer and CIA operative who pioneered psychological warfare in the Philippines and South Vietnam in the 1950s.
Auto industry · 1843–1932Henry M. Lelandmachinist, engineer, automakerPrecision machinist who founded both Cadillac and Lincoln in Detroit, pushed through the electric self-starter, and was a leading voice of Progressive-era reform in the city.
Film & TV · 1946–2013Richard LeParmentieractor, screenwriterStar Wars' Admiral Motti, the officer Darth Vader chokes with the Force, who trained in drama at Wayne State University before moving to Britain.
Science & invention · born 1955Jerry M. Linengerastronaut, Navy physicianNavy flight surgeon and NASA astronaut from East Detroit who spent almost five months aboard the Russian space station Mir in 1997, surviving a fire on board; a Wayne State medical graduate.
Sports · born 1965Pat LaFontaineice hockey centerHall of Fame center who grew up in Waterford, Oakland County, after 1972 and became one of the highest-scoring American-born players in NHL history.
Music · born 1946Bettye LaVettesingerDetroit-raised soul singer who cut her first hit at 16 for local producer Johnnie Mae Matthews and found late-career acclaim in the 2000s.
Music · born 1949Lene Lovichsinger, songwriterDetroit-born new-wave singer of “Lucky Number” who spent her childhood in the city before moving to England at 13.
Auto industry · born 1932Bob Lutzautomotive executive at Ford, Chrysler and GMSwiss-born 'car guy' who held top jobs at all three Detroit automakers, from the Dodge Viper at Chrysler to GM's product revival.
Science & invention · 1919–1997Robert B. Leightonexperimental physicist, astronomerCaltech physicist who co-edited The Feynman Lectures on Physics, discovered the Sun's five-minute oscillations and helped take the first close-up pictures of Mars; born in Detroit.
Science & invention · 1868–1953Armin Otto Leuschnerastronomer, educatorFounder of astronomy teaching and research at the University of California, Berkeley, born in Detroit and educated at the University of Michigan.
Politics · born 1931Sander Levinpolitician, lawyerDetroit-born Democrat who represented northwestern Detroit and its northern suburbs in Congress for 36 years (1983–2019) and chaired the Ways and Means Committee.
Fashion · 1945–1979Donyale Lunamodel, actressDetroit-born model widely regarded as the first Black supermodel, the first Black model on the cover of British Vogue (1966).
Film & TV · 1896–1975Cullen Landissilent-film actor, director of industrial filmsSilent-film leading man who starred in the first all-talking feature (1928), then moved to Detroit in 1930 to direct industrial films, joining the Jam Handy studio in 1937.
Politics · born 1954Brenda Lawrencepostal worker, mayor of Southfield, congresswomanNortheast Detroit native and 30-year postal worker who became Southfield's first Black and first woman mayor and then represented eastern Detroit and Oakland County in Congress (2015–2023).
Science & invention · 1927–2005Emmett Leithelectrical engineer, physicistDetroit-born co-inventor of three-dimensional laser holography, who studied at Wayne State and did his pioneering work at the University of Michigan's Willow Run Laboratories.
Politics · born 1960Andy Levinunion organizer, lawyer, congressmanSon of Sander Levin and nephew of Carl Levin, raised in suburban Berkley, a labor organizer who ran Michigan's 'No Worker Left Behind' retraining program and served in Congress (2019–2023).
Music · born 1991Dej Loafrapper, singer, songwriterEast-side Detroit rapper and singer whose soft-spoken 2014 hit “Try Me” made her one of the first Detroit women in hip-hop to break nationally in the streaming era.
Music · 1930–2009Eddie Lockejazz drummerDetroit-born drummer of the Bop & Locke act who became Coleman Hawkins's and Roy Eldridge's drummer and appears in the photograph A Great Day in Harlem.
Sports · 1928–2002Dick "Night Train" LaneAmerican football cornerback, youth-sports directorHall of Fame cornerback, one of the fiercest tacklers in NFL history, who played for the Lions and then ran Detroit's Police Athletic League for 17 years.
Visual art · born 1947Suzy Lakephotographer, performance and video artistDetroit-born, Toronto-based photographer and performance artist, a pioneer of feminist art whose early work was shaped by 1960s Detroit.
Music · 1937–2005Ruth Laredoclassical pianistDetroit-born pianist, 'America's First Lady of the Piano', who made the first complete recording of Scriabin's ten sonatas after hearing Horowitz play Scriabin in Detroit as a child.
Comedy · born 1971Loni Lovecomedian, television host, actress, authorDetroit comedian raised in the Brewster-Douglass projects, a Cass Tech graduate and former electrical engineer who became a Daytime Emmy-winning co-host of The Real.
Sports · 1926–1986Bobby LayneAmerican football quarterbackHard-living Texas quarterback who led the Lions to NFL championships in 1952 and 1953; his No. 22 is retired.
Civil rights & activism · 1947–2014Chokwe Lumumbahuman rights lawyer, Black nationalist activist, mayor of Jackson, MississippiDetroit-born lawyer and Republic of New Afrika leader who practiced civil rights law in Detroit before moving to Mississippi, where he became mayor of Jackson.The lexicon keeps growing. Every entry lists its sources at the bottom. Dates were checked against Wikidata and Wikipedia. The texts are our own.