List of Famous people born in Massachusetts, United States of America
Angelina Weld Grimké
Angelina Weld Grimké was an American journalist, teacher, playwright, and poet who came to prominence during the Harlem Renaissance. "Race" was a major issue in her life; although she was 75% white — a white mother and a half-white father — she was still a "woman of color". She was one of the first American women of color to have a play publicly performed.
Lillian Asplund
Lillian Gertrud Asplund was a Swedish-American woman who was one of the last three living survivors of the sinking of RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912, and the last survivor with actual memories of the disaster.
Laura Poitras
Laura Poitras is an American director and producer of documentary films.
Anita Shreve
Anita Hale Shreve was an American writer, chiefly known for her novels. One of her first published stories, Past the Island, Drifting, was awarded an O. Henry Prize in 1976.
Peyton List
Peyton List is an American actress and professional model, known for roles on Mad Men, FlashForward, The Tomorrow People and Frequency. She began her career on daytime television, playing Lucy Montgomery on the CBS soap opera As the World Turns from 2001 to 2005, before she went to primetime with regular roles on the short-lived dramas Windfall (2006) and Big Shots (2007).
Ruth Bancroft Law
Ruth Law Oliver was a pioneer American aviator during the 1910s.
Gardner Dozois
Gardner Raymond Dozois was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the founding editor of The Year's Best Science Fiction anthologies (1984–2018) and was editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine (1984–2004), garnering multiple Hugo and Locus Awards for those works almost every year. He also won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story twice. He was inducted to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame on June 25, 2011.
Harvey Ball
Harvey Ross Ball was an American commercial artist. He is recognized as the designer of a popular smiley graphic picture, which became an enduring and notable international icon. He never applied for a trademark for the iconic smiley image and only earned $45 for his efforts. Ball later founded the World Smile Foundation in 1999, a non-profit charitable trust that supports children’s causes.
Melissa Satta
Melissa Satta is an Italian television presenter. She was a showgirl in the Italian satirical series Striscia la notizia. Satta has appeared in Maxim magazine and was featured in the 2010 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Satta lives and works in Italy.
Benjamin Thompson
Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, FRS was an American-born British physicist and inventor whose challenges to established physical theory were part of the 19th-century revolution in thermodynamics. He served as lieutenant-colonel of the King's American Dragoons, part of the British Loyalist forces, during the American Revolutionary War. After the end of the war he moved to London, where his administrative talents were recognized when he was appointed a full colonel, and in 1784 he received a knighthood from King George III. A prolific designer, Thompson also drew designs for warships. He later moved to Bavaria and entered government service there, being appointed Bavarian Army Minister and re-organizing the army, and, in 1791, was made a Count of the Holy Roman Empire.