List of Famous people born in Panama

Robert Blalack is a mass-media visual artist and producer. One of the founders of Industrial Light & Magic, he received the Visual Effects Academy Award for his work on the original Star Wars. He also received the Visual Effects Emmy for his work on the television motion picture The Day After. He produces and directs USA and international mixed-media TV commercials, location-based theme park rides, and his independent, experimental feature films.

Arnulfo Arias Madrid was a Panamanian politician, doctor, and writer who served as the President of Panama from 1940 to 1941, again from 1949 to 1951, and finally for 11 days in October 1968. Throughout his adult life he had warned about the increasing influence of the military in Panamanian politics. He vowed to reduce its influence. In turn he was denied his presidential electoral success in 1948 by the military. He was removed from his duly elected presidency three times by military coups.

Luis Russell was a pioneering Panamanian jazz pianist, orchestra leader, composer, and arranger.

Uriah Adolphus Ashley Maclean was a Panamanian Roman Catholic bishop.

Diego de Almagro II called El Mozo, was the son of Spanish conquistador Diego de Almagro and Ana Martínez, a native Panamanian Indian woman.

Dudley Joseph Thompson, OJ, QC was a Jamaican Pan-Africanist, politician and diplomat, who made a contribution to jurisprudence and politics in the Caribbean, Africa and elsewhere internationally.

Irving Jahir Saladino Aranda is a Panamanian former long jumper. He was Olympic champion, having won at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and is Panama's first and only Olympic gold medalist. He was world champion in the long jump in 2007. He represented his country at three straight Olympics, from 2004 to 2012, and competed at four World Championships in Athletics from 2005 to 2011.

Jerónimo de la Ossa was a Panamanian poet, lyricist, and diplomat. He wrote the national anthem of Panama Himno Istmeño.