List of McGill University people

The following is a list of chancellors, principals, and noted alumni and professors of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

List of chancellors

1. Charles Dewey Day (1864–1884)
2. James Ferrier (1884–1888)
3. Sir Donald Alexander Smith, Lord Strathcona (1889–1914)
4. Sir William Christopher Macdonald (1914–1917)
5. Sir Robert Laird Borden (1918–1920)
6. Sir Edward Wentworth Beatty (1921–1942)
7. Morris Watson Wilson (1943–1946)
8. Orville Sievwright Tyndale (1946–1952)
9. Bertie Charles Gardner (1952–1957)
10. Ray Edwin Powell (1957–1964)
11. Howard Irwin Ross (1964–1970)
12. Donald Olding Hebb (1970–1974)
13. Stuart Milner Finlayson (1975)
14. Conrad Fetherstonhaugh Harrington (1976–1984)
15. A. Jean de Grandpré (1984–1991)
16. Gretta Chambers (1991–1999)
17. Richard W. Pound (1999–2009)
18. H. Arnold Steinberg (2009–present)

List of principals

1. George Jehoshaphat Mountain (1824–1835)
2. John Bethune (1835–1846)
3. Edmund Allen Meredith (1846–1853)
4. Sir John William Dawson (1855–1893)
5. Sir William Peterson (1895–1919)
6. Sir Auckland Campbell Geddes (1919–1920)
7. General Sir Arthur Currie (1920–1933)
8. Arthur Eustace Morgan (1935–1937)
9. Lewis Williams Douglas (1938–1939)
10. Frank Cyril James (1939–1962)
11. Harold Rocke Robertson (1962–1970)
12. Robert Edward Bell (1970–1979)
13. David Lloyd Johnston (1979–1994)
14. Bernard Shapiro (1994–2002)
15. Heather Munroe-Blum (2003- )

Noted alumni and professors

Nobel Prize graduates and faculty members

Name	Affiliation at McGill	Nobel Prize	Year
Ralph M. Steinman	Alumnus	Physiology or Medicine	2011
Willard S. Boyle	Alumnus	Physics	2009
Jack Szostak	Alumnus	Physiology or Medicine	2009
Mohan Munasinghe	Alumnus	Peace	2007
Robert Mundell	Former professor	Economics	1998
Rudolph Marcus	Alumnus	Chemistry	1992
David Hunter Hubel	Alumnus	Physiology or Medicine	1981
Val Logsdon Fitch	Alumnus	Physics	1980
Andrew Schally	Alumnus	Physiology or Medicine	1977
Frederick Soddy	Former demonstrator	Chemistry	1921
Ernest Rutherford	Former professor	Chemistry	1908

Academics and scholars

• Raoul Bott— Wolf Prize in Mathematics, 2000
• Selim Akl — noted unconventional computer scientist
• Antony Alcock — involved in the negotiations leading up to the Belfast Agreement
• Brian Alters — evolution and education
• Frederick Andermann -- neuroscientist
• Athanasios Asimakopulos — prominent economist in the Post Keynesian tradition.
• Eric Berne (psychiatry) — originator of the psychoanalytic theory of transactional analysis
• Ayşe Buğra — economist.
• Arthur Lindo Patterson — physicist.
• Sir David Baulcombe, FRS — British plant scientist and geneticist. Was a post-doctoral fellow at McGill 1977-1978, now Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge.
• Francis B. Brevart — renowned German medievalist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
• Gerald Bull — former professor of mechanical engineering, expert on projectiles, designer of the Iraqi Project Babylon
• Mario Bunge — philosopher
• Anne Carson — thinker, writer, translator, and University of Michigan classics professor
• Margaret Ridley Charlton (medical library) — one of the founders of the Medical Library Association (professional associations)
• Thomas Chang — developed world's first artificial cell.
• Thomas H. Clark (earth sciences) — mineral Thomasclarkite was named after him
• R. F. Patrick Cronin — cardiologist, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at McGill (1972–1977), and healthcare consultant
• Roger Daley — meteorologist.
• Carrie Derick — first woman to become a professor in Canada (in botany at McGill)
• Charles R. Drew — physician and professor
• Leon Edel — Pulitzer Prize-winning literary critic and biographer, the foremost 20th-century authority on the life and works of Henry James.
• Hamid Etemad — professor of international business and renowned business guru and researcher
• Ismail al-Faruqi (philosophy and religion) — renowned Muslim philosopher and comparative religion scholar
• Ariel Fenster (Chemistry) — Chemistry professor who has appeared on the Discovery Channel TV show "What's that all about?"
• Donald Olding Hebb (psychology) — father of cognitive psychobiology, pioneer in artificial intelligence, developed concept of Hebbian learning
• James E. Gill (BSc 1921) — Geology professor who introduced the Master's of Applied Science in Mineral Exploration program and established an analytical laboratory for the application of geochemistry to mineral exploration
• John Harnad — physicist; CAP/CRM Prize in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics
• Stevan Harnad — Canada Research Chair, Cognitive Sciences; open access activist
• S. I. Hayakawa — linguist, U.S. senator, former president of San Francisco State University
• Herbert Jasper -- neuroscientist
• Julian Jaynes — psychologist, author of The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
• George Karpati -- neuroscientist
• Roger Keesing — celebrated anthropologist
• Raymond Klibansky — philosopher
• Harold Laski -- political theorist
• Daniel Levitin -- cognitive psychologist
• Colin MacLeod — Canadian-American geneticist discovered DNA breakthroughs
• Joseph Boyd Martin — former Dean of the Harvard Medical School and former Dean and Chancellor at the University of California, San Francisco, former chair of neurology and neurosurgery at the Montreal Neurological Institute
• James Mallory — for many years Canada's leading constitutional scholar
• Ronald Melzack (medicine) — developed the McGill Pain Questionnaire
• Armand de Mestral — professor of international law
• Brenda Milner — provided the first clear demonstration of the existence of multiple memory systems in the brain with patient H.M.
• Henry Mintzberg — internationally renowned business guru
• Albert Moll (Canadian psychiatrist) — professor of psychiatry, pioneer of psychiatric day treatment
• E.R. Ward Neale, geologist, professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland
• Percy Erskine Nobbs — former professor of architecture and designer of many buildings in Montreal, especially at McGill, and in Alberta, British Columbia, and South Africa
• James Olds— neuroscientist and psychologist, co-discovered the reward center of the brain, considered one of the founders of modern neuroscience
• Santa J. Ono — immunologist, Vice-Provost Academic and Deputy Provost Emory University
• William Osler (medicine) — graduate in medicine (1872) and then McGill professor, he was a medical pioneer, developed the modern form of a doctor's bedside manner. Later one of the four founders of the Johns Hopkins Medical School at Johns Hopkins University
• Bhikhu Parekh, Baron Parekh — celebrated political philosopher, currently at the London School of Economics
• Wilder Penfield (neurosurgery) — neurosurgery pioneer, first director of the renowned Montreal Neurological Institute and Montreal Neurological Hospital, which are affiliated with McGill University
• Steven Pinker (cognitive psychology) — author of "The Blank Slate", "How the Mind Works".
• Susan Pinker (psychologist) — author of "The Sexual Paradox"
• Judah Hirsch Quastel (biochemistry) — pioneer in neurochemistry and soil metabolism; Director of the McGill University-Montreal General Hospital Research Institute
• Fazlur Rahman (Islamic studies)
• Richard Birdsall Rogers — civil engineer and designer of the Peterborough Lift Lock
• Witold Rybczynski — Scottish-born McGill-trained architect and internationally known writer and critic
• Philip Carl Salzman, anthropologist
• Joseph A. Schwarcz — chemist, science popularizer, science journalist
• Harold Shapiro, former president of Princeton University and former president of the University of Michigan
• Bernard Shapiro (education) — Ethics Commissioner of Canada, former Principal of McGill and Deputy Education Minister of Ontario. Twin brother of Harold.
• Stephen Alexander Smith, legal scholar and writer
• Charles Taylor (philosophy) — renowned writer, versatile philosopher, and political theorist, 2007 winner of the Templeton Prize
• Marc Tessier-Lavigne, current president of Rockefeller University, Rhodes scholar.
• Dale C. Thomson -- Vice-Principal (1973–1976) and Professor of Political Science (1973–1994)
• Lionel Tiger — best-selling author and Darwin Prof of Anthropology at Rutgers University
• Bruce Trigger -- Anthropologist
• Immanuel Wallerstein - former professor of Sociology (1971–1976) and renowned political scientist, known for the World Systems Theory
• Lydia White — Linguist
• Reuven Brenner -- Renowned economist and current faculty member
• Tom Velk -- monetary economics and public policy professor
• Jacob Viner -- influential professor and early leader of the Chicago school of economics

Business and media

• Vinod Agarwal — Founder and former chairman of LogicVision ($100 million NASDAQ traded company: LGVN)
• Conrad Black — imprisoned press baron and media tycoon in the Anglo-Canadian tradition of Lord Beaverbrook and Lord Thomson of Fleet, owner of 650 dailies/weeklies around the world
• Cale Brillinger — staff writer for Sankei Shimbun daily newspaper based out of Tokyo.
• Edgar Bronfman, Sr. — former CEO of Seagram Distillers.
• Charles Bronfman — Order of Canada recipient, Philanthropist, former Co-Chairman of Seagram Distillers.
• John F. Burns — current Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist, formerly of The Globe and Mail
• Marc Chouinard — president and chief operation officer of The Bay
• John Cleghorn — former chairman of the Royal Bank of Canada, the largest bank in Canada. Currently chairman of SNC-Lavalin group.
• Paul Desmarais, Jr. — Chairman of Power Corp.
• Darren Entwistle — president and chief executive officer of Telus
• Adam Gopnik — staff writer for The New Yorker magazine
• Donna Hayes — first female CEO of Harlequin Publishing who is pushing Harlequin to publish the world's best women's fiction
• Benjamin Joffe-Walt — writer, CNN Africa Print Journalist of the Year
• Charles Krauthammer — Pulitzer Prize-winning political columnist, The Washington Post and Time Magazine.
• Parker Mason — Communications Coordinator | CNW GROUP.
• Mark Phillips — CBS News London bureau correspondent since 1982, formerly CBC News London correspondent
• Matthew Rosenberg — foreign correspondent at The New York Times, formerly of The Wall Street Journal.
• Allan Scott — writer-producer of more than 20 feature films, including "Don't Look Now," recently voted the best British film of all time, he also wrote "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," the smash hit in Australia, London's West End, and now New York's Broadway; as chairman of Macallan-Glenlivet, he turned Macallan into a world-leading malt whisky
• Seymour Schulich (investments) — benefactor to the Schulich School of Music at McGill and Schulich School of Business, York University
• Savik Shuster —TV journalist working for Ukrainian television
• Helga Stephenson, interim CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television
• James C. Thackray — former president and CEO of Bell Canada
• Lorne Trottier — founder of Matrox Electronic Systems
• Les Vadasz — founding member of Intel Corporation
• John Roth — former CEO of Nortel Networks
• Jade Raymond — videogame producer at Ubisoft and co-host of G4TV's Electronic Playground
• Dick Irvin, Jr. — Canadian sports broadcaster and author; second longest serving member of CBC's Hockey Night in Canada (after Bob Cole).
• Zain Verjee — co-anchor of CNN International's European morning program World Report (CNN).
• Breckon Young [1] billionaire, CEO Wal-Mart Canada
• Moses Znaimer — co-founder and former President and Executive Producer of CityTV and Chairman/Executive Producer of the Access Media Group
• Mort Zuckerman — CEO of Atlantic Monthly Corporation and publisher of U.S. News & World Report
• Jean Coutu Canadian businessman and billionaire, founder and CEO of Jean Coutu Group

Politics and government

Canadian politicians and civil servants

McGill Alumni have held and continue to hold many positions at the Federal and Provincial levels in Canadian politics:

Governor-General of Canada

• David Lloyd Johnston former McGill principal, former head of the Board of Overseers at Harvard University, former head of the University of Waterloo, 2010-

Prime Ministers and Cabinet Ministers

• Sir John Abbott (BCL 1854) — Third Prime Minister of Canada and first to be born in Canada.
• Sir Wilfrid Laurier (BCL 1864) — Seventh Prime Minister of Canada
• Warren Allmand (BCL 1952) — served variously as Solicitor General, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, and Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs between 1972 and 1979.
• Irwin Cotler (BA 1961) — Justice Minister of Canada from 2003 to 2006.

Supreme Court Justices

• Charles Gonthier (BCL 1951) — Served on the Supreme Court from 1989 to 2003.
• Ian Binnie (BA 1960) — Appointed to the Supreme Court in 1998, formerly Associate Deputy Minister of Justice.
• Marie Deschamps (LLM 1983) — Appointed to the Court in 2002, previously a Judge on the Quebec Court of Appeal.
• Morris Fish (BA 1959, BCL 1962) — Appointed to the Court in 2003, previously a Judge on the Quebec Court of Appeal.
• Gerald Le Dain (BCL 1949) — Appointed to the Court in 1984, previously a Judge on the Federal Court of Appeal.[2]
• Louis-Philippe de Grandpré (BCL 1938) — Appointed to the Court in 1974, formerly president of the Canadian Bar Association.[3]
• Douglas Abbott (BCL 1918) — Appointed to the Court in 1954, previously Minister of National Defence and Minister of Finance.[4]
• Thibaudeau Rinfret (BCL 1900) — Appointed to the Court in 1924, previously a Judge on the Superior Court of Quebec.[5]
• Pierre-Basile Mignault (BCL 1878) — Appointed to the Court in 1918, previously President of the Bar of Montréal.[6]
• Désiré Girouard (BCL 1860) Appointed to the Court in 1895, previously member of Parliament.[7]

Senators

• Vivienne Poy (BA 1962) — appointed to the Senate in 1998.
• Sheila Finestone (BSc 1947) — appointed to the Senate of Canada in 1999.
• Joan Fraser (BA 1965) — was appointed to the Canadian Senate in 1998.

Auditors General

• Sheila Fraser — first female Auditor General of Canada.
• Denis Desautels (BCom 1964) — Auditor General from 1991 to 2001.

Others

• L. Michael Berry (BA 1961) Canada's High Commissioner to Australia
• Ian Brodie (BA) — Chief of Staff in the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper from 2006 to 2008.
• May Cutler (BA, MA) — first woman to serve as Mayor of Westmount, Quebec (1987-1991); founder of Tundra Books and first female Canadian publisher of children's books.
• Jack Layton (BA 1969) — former leader of the New Democratic Party and Leader of the Opposition
• David Lewis (BA and LLD) — Rhodes Scholar and former leader of the New Democratic Party (1971–75)
• John McCallum (PhD) —former Dean of the Faculty of Arts; current Liberal Finance Critic in the Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet.
• Thomas d'Arcy McGee (BCL 1861) — a Father of the Canadian Confederation
• Alexander Cameron Rutherford (BA, LLB 1881) —first Premier of Alberta, founder of the University of Alberta
• Marie-Claire Kirkland Strover — first woman elected to the Quebec National Assembly, serving between 1966 and 1973.
• Bernard Shapiro (BA 1956) — Federal Ethics Commissioner between 2004 and 2007.
• Justin Trudeau (BA 1994) — son of former Prime-Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau and the current Member of Parliament for the riding of Papineau.
• The "McGill 5", five then-current McGill students who were elected as NDP MPs in 2011:
  • Charmaine Borg — Current MP for Terrebonne—Blainville
  • Matthew Dubé — Current MP for Chambly—Borduas
  • Mylène Freeman (BA 2011) — Current MP for Argenteuil—Papineau—Mirabel
  • Laurin Liu — Current MP for Rivière-des-Mille-Îles
• Don Johnston — Current Secretary General of the ** OECD

Foreign politicians and civil servants

Heads of State

• Ahmed Nazif (PhD 1983) — former Prime Minister of Egypt
• Daniel Oduber Quirós (MA 1945) — former President of Costa Rica
• Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga (PhD 1965) — Former president of Latvia

Others

• Zbigniew Brzezinski — former National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter
• Gilbert Cooper — former mayor of Hamilton, Bermuda and member of the House of Assembly of Bermuda
• David Hackett — boarding school friend of Robert F. Kennedy & organizational father of Lyndon B. Johnson's 1964 Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), the domestic US Peace Corps program; inspiration for Phineas in John Knowles's 1959 novel A Separate Peace; McGill hockey player and selected for the US Olympic Hockey Team (1952)
• Joni Madraiwiwi (DipA&SL 1988, LLM 1989) — Vice-President of Fiji from 2004 to 2006.
• Ilya Sheyman (BA 2006) — Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2012 election.

Art, music, and film

• Patrick Allen — English actor and businessman, most famous for narrating the controversial Protect and Survive public information films for the British government as well as several Shakespearian roles
• Yanic Bercier — drummer for Canadian death metal band Quo Vadis
• Michael Andre — poet and editor
• Burt Bacharach — Academy Award-winning musician
• Hadji Bakara — "Sound manipulator" and secondary keyboardist for Wolf Parade
• Samantha Bee — correspondent, The Daily Show
• Win Butler — musician, co-founder of Arcade Fire
• Peter Butterfield — concert tenor and conductor
• Anne Carson — poet and professor of classics
• Regine Chassagne — musician, co-founder of Arcade Fire
• Leonard Cohen — poet, author, songwriter, singer, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee
• Chuck Comeau — drummer and songwriter for Canadian band Simple Plan
• Robert Cooper — president of TriStar Films
• Hume Cronyn — actor, The Seventh Cross, Cocoon. Studied theatre, left for Broadway without completing his degree.
• Hubert Davis — BA '00 and Oscar nominee for best documentary short subject
• William Henry Drummond — Irish-born Canadian poet
• Louis Dudek — poet
• Jake Eberts — producer of Gandhi, Chariots of Fire, Chicken Run"
• Arthur Erickson — architect (Robson Square, Vancouver; Canadian Chancery, Washington DC; Roy Thomson Hall; Museum of Anthropology, UBC; Simon Fraser University; Museum of Glass, Tacoma; California Plaza, San Diego Convention Center)
• Mary Fahl — singer and actress
• Colin Ferguson — actor, Eureka
• Fredrik Garvik — screenwriter
• Jessalyn Gilsig — actress, Boston Public, NYPD Blue, Nip/Tuck, Glee
• Evan Goldberg — co-writer of Superbad, Pineapple Express
• Jonathan Goldstein — author and radio producer, host of Wiretap on CBC Radio One
• Chilly Gonzales — Grammy-nominated musician
• Linda Griffiths — playwright, actress
• Aaron Harris — Percussionist/Drummer, of Islands (band), Montreal-based indie rock group
• Gavin Heffernan — director (Expiration)
• Jennifer Irwin — actress, Still Standing
• Heather Juergensen — actress, co-screenwriter Kissing Jessica Stein
• George Karpati
• Mia Kirshner — actress, The L Word
• Veronika Krausas— composer
• Christian Lander — author of the Stuff White People Like blog
• Irving Layton— Canadian poet
• Robert Lantos— Film producer
• Daniel Levitin— Writer ("This Is Your Brain On Music"); Musician
• Stephen Leacock — humorist and economist
• Rachelle Lefevre — actress, Big Wolf on Campus, Twilight
• John McCrae — surgeon, poet, author of famous Canadian poem "In Flanders' Fields"
• Kate and Anna McGarrigle — musicians and folk-singers
• Hugh MacLennan — Canadian writer (Two Solitudes, Barometer Rising)
• Miles Mander — early film actor, director and novelist.
• Cameron Mathison — actor, All My Children
• Marc Mayer — art curator and director of the National Gallery of Canada
• Casey McKinnon — actress
• Raymond Moriyama — architect (Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto; Canadian Embassy, Tokyo; Ontario Science Centre; Toronto Reference Library; Canadian War Museum; Saudi Arabian National Museum, Riyadh)
• Suniti Namjoshi, writer.
• Donald Patriquin, composer and organist
• Mauro Pezzente — bassist and co-founder of Godspeed You! Black Emperor
• Christopher Plummer — film and stage actor
• John Rogers — writer/producer, Leverage
• Sam Roberts — musician
• Rebecca Rosenblum — writer, Winner of the 2007 Metcalf-Rooke Award
• Dean Rosenthal — composer
• Moshe Safdie — architect (National Gallery of Canada, Vancouver Library, Salt Lake City Public Library, Musee de la Civilisation, Habitat '67)
• Kid Koala real name Eric San, turntablist and musician.
• Robert Edison Sandiford — short story writer and essayist
• John Ralston Saul — Governor-General's-Award-winning philosophical author
• Mark Shainblum — Author and comic book creator
• William Shatner — lead actor in Star Trek and Boston Legal, played Captain James T. Kirk
• Jaspreet Singh — author, Seventeen Tomatoes
• Sonja Skarstedt — poet and illustrator
• Evan Solomon -- Journalist and co-host of CBC News
• Ruth Taylor — poet
• J. Torres — comic book writer
• Jessica Trisko; — 2007 Miss Earth titleholder
• Ken Vandermark — Jazz saxophonist and MacArthur Foundation Genius Award winner.
• Rufus Wainwright — (briefly attended — dropped out upon record deal) Canadian recording artist, musician.
• William Weintraub — Author, journalist and filmmaker (Why Rock the Boat?)
• Robert Stanley Weir — author (in 1908) of the English words to "O, Canada"
• John Weldon — Academy Award winner and National Film Board animator
• Matthew White (countertenor)
• Jan Wong — Globe and Mail columnist ("Lunch with Jan Wong" series), and author of several notable books, including award-winning Red China Blues and Jan Wong's China.
• Royal Wood — singer/songwriter

Inventors

• Bernard Belleau — inventor of Lamivudine, a drug used in the treatment of HIV and Hepatitis B infection
• Willard Boyle, inventor of the Charge-coupled device (CCD)
• William Chalmers — first in the Western Hemisphere to investigate methacrylate plastics
• Thomas Chang — creator of first artificial cell
• James Creighton — Law, 1880, generally considered to be the originator of North American ice hockey rules
• Charles R. Drew — MDCM '33, black American medical pioneer, track star who led McGill to five intercollegiate titles, and, as medical advisor for the Blood for Britain program of World War II, the father of blood banks
• Alan Emtage — inventor of Archie, the grandfather of search engines
• Colonel Dr. Cluny MacPherson — MD 1901, inventor of the MacPherson respirator gas mask during World War I.
• James Naismith — BA 1887, inventor of basketball
• Paul Moller — inventor of the Moller Skycar, a VTOL aircraft

Sports

• Mike Babcock — head coach of the Detroit Red Wings, 2008 Stanley Cup champions
• Russ Blinco — Montreal Maroons centre who was voted NHL Rookie-of-the-Year in 1935
• Guy Boucher — head coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning
• Jack Gelineau — Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks goaltender who won Calder Trophy as NHL Rookie-of-the-Year in 1950
• Betty Archdale — former captain (1934/5) English women's cricket team
• George Burnett — former head coach for the Edmonton Oilers
• Doug Carpenter — former head coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs and New Jersey Devils
• Ken Dryden — LLB '74; a Canadian politician, lawyer, businessman, author and retired National Hockey League goaltender from the Montreal Canadiens. Also served as President of the Toronto Maple Leafs
• Phil Edwards — MD '36, one of Canada's most decorated Olympians with 5 bronze medals
• Jennifer Heil — 2006 Olympic gold medalist in freestyle skiing. (BComm)
• George Hodgson — BEng, 1916, Canadian Olympic men's swim team (1912 and 1920), McGill's first athlete to win an Olympic gold medal and the first Canadian to win two Olympic gold medals (Stockholm, 1916)
• Jackrabbit Johannsen; legendary Norwegian-Canadian who is credited with introducing cross-country skiing to North America and in retirement lived at McGill's Mont St-Hilaire Nature Preserve
• Charline Labonté — 2006 Olympic gold medalist in Women's Ice Hockey (BEd - Physical Education)
• Kevin O'Neill, former head coach of the Toronto Raptors, current head coach of the USC Trojans
• George Jost — member of the Red Birds Ski Club, North America's oldest downhill ski club, founded in 1928 at McGill, and first non-European to win the International University Ski Championship (in 1933)
• Frank Patrick — BA 1908, wrote much of the NHL rule book
• Hon. Sydney David Pierce — BA '22, BCL '25, LLD '56, 1924 Olympic swimmer and former Canadian ambassador to many countries
• Richard "Dick" Pound — former Olympic swimmer, former IOC vice president, chancellor of McGill, current chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA),
• Kim St-Pierre — BEd, 2005, Canadian Olympic women's hockey team (2002 and 2006), McGill's first female athlete to become an Olympic gold medallist (Salt Lake City, 2002)
• Frank "Shag" Shaughnessy — first professional football coach hired by a Canadian university, he revolutionized Canadian college football by introducing the forward pass in 1921 in a game against Syracuse University and lobbied for a decade until the forward pass was adopted by the Canadian Rugby Football Union in 1931
• Jack Wright — MDCM '28, eleven-year veteran of Canadian Davis Cup team in 1920s and 1930s
• David Zilberman (born 1982), Canadian Olympic heavyweight wrestler

Fictional characters

• Dr. James Wilson — oncologist at Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in Fox Network TV drama House.
• Dr. Walter Langkowski, a fictional researcher from the Marvel Comics Canadian superhero series Alpha Flight. Langkowski was portrayed as McGill-based biophysicist researching the gamma radiation accident which created the Hulk. His discoveries transformed him into the superhero known as Sasquatch.
• Major Donald Craig, a Canadian commando serving with British special forces during World War II, portrayed by Rock Hudson in the 1967 war movie Tobruk. Though the film was loosely based on real events, it's not clear whether or not Hudson's character was based on a real person. Most likely he was a pastiche character, given a Canadian background as cover for Hudson's inability to emulate a British accent.
• Lieutenant Alan McGregor, played by Gary Cooper, Lives Of the Bengal Lancers (1935)

Others

• Annie MacDonald Langstaff — in 1914 became McGill's and Quebec's first female law graduate but was not admitted to the Quebec bar until 2006 (posthumously); the Quebec bar did not admit women until 1941, at which time Langstaff felt she was too old to join
• Elizabeth C. Monk — BA'19, BCL'23, LLD'75, first woman admitted to the Quebec bar in 1942
• Norman Bethune — as "Bai Qiu'en", subject of essay In Memory of Norman Bethune (Jinian Bai Qiu'en) by Mao Zedong; medical professor. He became the Red Army’s Medical Chief and trained thousands of Chinese as medics and doctors, he died in 1939 (from blood poisoning) during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
• Lawrence Moore Cosgrave — Canadian signer of the Japanese Instrument of Surrender
• Thomas Neill Cream — Glasgow-born serial killer of the 1800s, thought by some to have been Jack the Ripper
• John Peters Humphrey — co-writer of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Nancy Morris — First Female Rabbi in Scotland
• Julie Payette — astronaut
• Xavier Martin — socialite
• Robert Rabinovitch — President and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
• Francis Scrimger. Victoria Cross winner, (1915). BA (1901), MDCM (1905). Later Professor of Surgery and Chief of Surgery at the Children's Memorial Hospital.
• Harmeet Singh Sooden — Peace activist once held captive in Iraq
• Robert Thirsk — astronaut
• Dafydd Williams — astronaut
• Charles Goren — world champion bridge player and bestselling author
• Autumn Phillips — wife of Peter Phillips, who is 11th in line for the British throne
• André Robert — father of the Canadian numerical weather prediction models