List of Famous people born in Pennsylvania, United States of America
Henry Clay Frick
Henry Clay Frick was an American industrialist, financier, union-buster, and art patron. He founded the H. C. Frick & Company coke manufacturing company, was chairman of the Carnegie Steel Company, and played a major role in the formation of the giant U.S. Steel manufacturing concern. He also financed the construction of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Reading Company, and had extensive real estate holdings in Pittsburgh and throughout the state of Pennsylvania. He later built the historic neoclassical Frick Mansion, and upon his death donated his extensive collection of old master paintings and fine furniture to create the celebrated Frick Collection and art museum. However, as a founding member of the South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club, he was also in large part responsible for the alterations to the South Fork Dam that caused its failure, leading to the catastrophic Johnstown Flood. His vehement opposition to unions also caused violent conflict, most notably in the Homestead Strike.
Henry Ossawa Tanner
Henry Ossawa Tanner was an American artist and the first African-American painter to gain international acclaim. Tanner moved to Paris, France, in 1891 to study, and continued to live there after being accepted in French artistic circles. His painting entitled Daniel in the Lions' Den was accepted into the 1896 Salon, the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
Doug Banks
Calvin Douglas Banks Jr. was an American radio personality and host of The Doug Banks Radio Show.
Martie Maguire
Martha Elenor Maguire is an American musician who is a founding member of both the all-female alternative country band The Chicks and country bluegrass duo Court Yard Hounds. She won awards in national fiddle championships while still a teenager. Erwin is accomplished on several other instruments, including the mandolin, viola, double bass and guitar. She has written and co-written a number of the band's songs, some of which have become chart-topping hits. She also contributes her skills in vocal harmony and backing vocals, as well as orchestrating string arrangements for the band.
Joan McCracken
Joan Hume McCracken was an American dancer, actress, and comedian who became famous for her role as Sylvie in the original 1943 production of Oklahoma! She also was noted for her performances in the Broadway shows Bloomer Girl (1944), Billion Dollar Baby (1945) and Dance Me a Song (1950), and the films Hollywood Canteen (1945) and Good News (1947).
Renée Fleming
Renée Lynn Fleming is an American operatic soprano, known for performances in opera, concerts, recordings, theater, film, and at major public occasions. Fleming has a full lyric soprano voice. She has performed coloratura, lyric, and lighter spinto soprano operatic roles in Italian, German, French, Czech, and Russian, aside from her native English. Her signature roles include Countess Almaviva in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, Violetta in Verdi's La traviata, the title role in Dvořák's Rusalka, the title role in Massenet's Manon, the title role in Massenet's Thaïs, Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, the title role in Richard Strauss's Arabella, the Marschallin in Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, the Countess in Strauss's Capriccio, and Blanche DuBois in André Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire.
Nick Yarris
Nicholas James Yarris is an American who spent 22 years on death row after being wrongfully convicted of murder.
Jim Tomsula
James Andrew Tomsula is an American football coach. Serving as a defensive coach throughout his career, Tomsula has also been the head coach for the Rhein Fire of NFL Europe and the San Francisco 49ers of the NFL. Tomsula was born and raised in the Pittsburgh suburb of Homestead. Attending Catawba College, he played defensive end from 1987–1990, after transferring from Middle Tennessee State University after the 1986 season. At Catawba College, Tomsula made 109 tackles in two seasons.
D'Andre Swift
D'Andre Tiyon Swift is an American football running back for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Georgia and was drafted by the Lions with the third pick of the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft.
Oscar Levant
Oscar Levant was an American concert pianist, composer, music conductor, author, radio game show panelist, television talk show host, comedian and actor. Though awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recordings featuring his piano performances, he was as famous for his mordant character and witticisms, on the radio and later in movies and television, as for his music.