List of Famous people born in New York, United States of America

Robert Alan Frosch FREng, was an American scientist who was the fifth administrator of NASA from 1977 to 1981 during the Carter administration.

Jeff Bleckner is an American theatre and television director.

Hamilton Othanel Smith is an American microbiologist and Nobel laureate.

James Lawrence Brooks is an American director, producer and screenwriter. His television and film work includes The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, The Simpsons, Broadcast News, As Good as It Gets, and Terms of Endearment.

Peter Arthur Diamond is an American economist known for his analysis of U.S. Social Security policy and his work as an advisor to the Advisory Council on Social Security in the late 1980s and 1990s. He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 2010, along with Dale T. Mortensen and Christopher A. Pissarides. He is an Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. On June 6, 2011, he withdrew his nomination to serve on the Federal Reserve's board of governors, citing intractable Republican opposition for 14 months.

Bob Rafelson is an American film director, writer and producer. He is regarded as one of the key figures in the founding of the New Hollywood movement in the 1970s. Among his best-known films as a director include those made as part of the company he cofounded, Raybert/BBS Productions, Five Easy Pieces (1970) and The King of Marvin Gardens (1972), as well as acclaimed later films, The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) and Mountains of the Moon (1990). Other films he produced as part of BBS include two of the most significant films of the era, Easy Rider (1969) and The Last Picture Show (1971). He was also one of the creators of the pop group and TV series The Monkees with BBS partner Bert Schneider. His first wife was the production designer Toby Carr Rafelson. His eldest son is songwriter Peter Rafelson, who co-wrote the hit song "Open Your Heart" for Madonna.

Joan Pringle is an American former actress. Pringle is perhaps known for her roles on General Hospital (1963), The White Shadow (1978), and Original Sin (2001). One of Pringle's best known roles was portraying vice principal Sybil Buchanan in the TV series The White Shadow. During the third and final season her character was promoted to principal.

Claudia Goldin is the Henry Lee Professor of Economics at Harvard University and director of the Development of the American Economy program at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Goldin was the president of the American Economic Association in the 2013–14 academic year. In 1990, she became the first woman to be tenured at the Harvard economics department. Her research includes topics such as female labor force, income inequality, education, and the economic gender gap. She is a member of the American Philosophical Society and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Clifford Leopold Alexander Jr. is an American lawyer, businessman and public servant from New York City. He was the first African-American Secretary of the Army.

John Francis Mauceri is an American conductor, producer, educator and writer. Since making his professional conducting debut almost half a century ago, Mauceri has appeared with most of the world's great orchestras, guest conducted at the premiere opera houses, produced and musically supervised Tony and Olivier Award-winning Broadway musicals, and served as university faculty and administrator. Through his varied career, he has taken the lead in the preservation and performance of many genres of music and has supervised/conducted important premieres by composers as diverse as Debussy, Stockhausen, Korngold, Hindemith, Bernstein, Sibelius, Ives, Elfman, and Shore. He is also a leading performer of music banned by the Third Reich and especially music of Hollywood's émigré composers.