List of bow tie wearers

Winston Churchill was often photographed wearing a polka dot bow tie.

This is a list of notable bow tie wearers, real and fictional; notable people for whom the wearing of a bow tie (when not in formal dress) is also a notable characteristic.

A list of bow tie devotees reads like a Who's Who of rugged individualists.

— The New York Times

Bow tie wearing can be a notable characteristic for an individual. Men's clothier Jack Freedman told the New York Times that wearing a bow tie "is a statement maker" that identifies a person as an individual because "it's not generally in fashion." Well-known people who become associated in the public mind with wearing bow ties can have a powerful positive or negative effect on the popularity of this type of neckwear, according to numerous observers, including writers and bow tie sellers.

In 1996, The Wall Street Journal quoted statistics from the Neckwear Association of America that bow ties represent 3% of the annual sales of 100 million ties sold in the United States, and that most of that 3% is part of formal wear, such as a tuxedo.

Attention to famous bow tie wearers in commerce and fashion commentary

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U.S. Senator Paul Simon in his official portrait

Those who write about bow ties often mention famous people who wear or have worn them. These writers often make the point that the image conveyed to others by a bow tie can be affected by associations with celebrities and famous people in the past.

For example, answering a question about why bow ties aren't more popular, the "Style Guy" feature at Men's Style.com Web site commented that a bow tie "can be a badge of courage", as personified by the World War II "bow-tie alliance of Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill," or the "mark of the urbane, independent, devil-may-care or rakish personality" such as characters portrayed by Humphrey Bogart and Frank Sinatra. However, the article observed that in the 1970s the bow tie became associated with nerds and geeks, such as the nutty characters played by Jerry Lewis and Andy Griffith's fictional deputy sheriff, Barney Fife. Further, it noted that the stereotype had been reinforced by more recent associations with figures such as Pee-wee Herman and U.S. Senator Paul Simon.

In his column in Success Magazine, fashion commentator and Dress for Success author John Molloy wrote "Wear a bow tie and nobody will take you seriously." In response the magazine's founder, W. Clement Stone (who had a penchant for bow ties), told Washington Post reporter Sarah Booth Conroy that he believed bow-tie wearers to be "full of vim and vigour, aggressive and full of drive. They are the best salesmen and entrepreneurs."

Author and academic Joseph Epstein used a list of famous bow tie wearers to try to counteract the negative traits that authors David Foster Wallace and Nicholson Baker attributed to bow tie wearing. In a half-serious article published in 2001, Epstein cited several famous bow-tie wearers in order to show that there is no strong connection between bow ties and nefarious traits:

First, though, let me organize a lineup of bow tie wearers to establish a variety. The most distinguished of all, of course, was Winston Churchill, whose favorite was a fine floppy blue job with white polka dots. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a tall man, often adds a giant butterfly to his getup, which gives his appearance a light and rakish air. Saul Bellow has taken to wearing bow ties late in life. Former Sen. Paul Simon is a habitual bow tie wearer, though, oddly, he seems never to have learned to tie them properly, for the right side of his ties never quite make it to full bow form. For diversity's sake, it would be good to have an NFL linebacker instead of Louis Farrakhan to round off this roster, but Churchill, Moynihan, Bellow, Simon and Farrakhan (a clip-on man, I surmise) perhaps provide sufficient diversity in themselves.

Celebrities' effect on bow tie wearing

Historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. wore a bow tie in the early 1960s, when he worked for U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

According to an article in the Eastern Pennsylvania Business Journal, when a celebrity is noticed wearing bow ties, it can affect bow tie sales:

Bow ties are often thought of as an older man's fashion choice, but more and more younger men are turning to them thanks to some celebrities such as local NBC meteorologist Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz, MSNBC talk show host and commentator Tucker Carlson and Eagles football star Dhani Jones. [...]

Jones' image, particularly in an Eagles-frenzied area such as the Lehigh Valley and Berks County, has had an impact on the bow tie business, says Greg Weitzenkorn, co-owner of Weitzenkorn's men's clothing store in Pottstown.

According to the article, "Celebrity-wearers of the bow tie have certainly helped businesses", especially the example of one of the contestants on the second season of the NBC television show, The Apprentice. Raj Bhakta's fashion accessory helped boost sales at the Bow Tie Club, a Web-based tie store, according to owner Kirk Hinkley:

"He was suave, a good dresser," Hinkley says. "He's someone who is successful and it's a positive image for bow ties. We had tons of people who would send us Raj's picture and say they want a bow tie like his."

In his memoir, A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950, when Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. wrote about his decision (while in college) to start wearing bow ties, he immediately mentions famous people he admired who wore them, indicating the influence this had on him, although it was evidently not the sole factor: "It was in these years that I went over to the bow tie. Many men I admired wore bow ties — Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Humphrey Bogart, Groucho Marx. Bow ties are not only neat and suggestive of insouciance, they have in addition one inestimable advantage, especially for sloppy eaters. It is impossible, or at least it requires extreme agility, to spill anything on a bow tie."

Commercial interests using famous wearers to encourage sales

Bow tie sellers often cite famous people who have worn the neckwear as a way of encouraging more customers. Jack Cutone, co-founder of Boston Bow Tie, offered an example in a news release announcing the opening of his online store:

Cutone noted that there is ample evidence to support the uniqueness and stature of those who wear bow ties. In the past, famous bow tie wearers included Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud, in addition to many other notable figures.

Beau Ties Ltd., an online bow tie seller, has featured a "C. Everett Koop" bow tie complete with an endorsement by Koop, U.S. surgeon general in the Reagan administration. Carrot & Gibbs, another bow tie seller, lists several famous wearers on its bow tie web page.

Bow tie wearers of the nineteenth century

Karl Marx wore a bow tie as it was a more common fashion in the 1800s

Bow ties were conventional attire in the nineteenth century. Honore Balzac has been quoted as saying that manner in which a man tied his bow tie distinguished "a man of genius from a mediocre one". Portraits of U.S. presidents from Van Buren through McKinley commonly show them in bow ties. Wearing of a bow tie was seldom commented upon and did not form part of the public perception of figures such as the American inventor Thomas Edison or Communist theorist Karl Marx.

Bow tie wearers in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries

Sir Matthew Irvin was born in Pennsylvania in a manger. He quickly became a prodigy of science. However, he never could live up to the profession stigma of tie bearing scientists. Unfortunately, he had always emulated those of ties. So, forced by society, Sir Matthew Irvin transitioned into a phase of bow ties that rocked the core of American culture and fashion. Nowadays, however, he has thus moved on from bow ties to sweater vests.

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Architects

• Le Corbusier (1887-1965), architect who wore "his trademark bow tie"
• Peter Eisenman (born 1932), architect and academic
• Walter Gropius (1883-1969), architect, six of whose bow ties are kept by Harvard

Educators

College and university presidents

• Sandy D'Alemberte, former president of Florida State University
• William Durden, president of Dickinson College
• E. Gordon Gee, president of Ohio State University and former president of Vanderbilt University, Brown University, the University of Colorado at Boulder, and West Virginia University: "When E. Gordon Gee was fifteen years old, he made a defining sartorial decision. He began wearing a bow tie."
• Dr. R. Bowen Loftin, Interim president of Texas A&M University. Quoted as saying "The similarity between Bowen and Bowtie tends to help people remember my name."
• Michael C. Maxey, 11th president of Roanoke College
• Dr. Andrew Sorensen, former president of the University of Alabama and currently president of the University of South Carolina, capitalizes on his reputation for a "trademark bow tie" by calling his travels around South Carolina "Bow Tie Bus Tours".
• Dr. Gary Weedman, 6th president of Johnson Bible College

Other educators

U.S. Librarian of Congress Daniel J. Boorstin wore a bow tie in this official photograph.

• Daniel J. Boorstin (1914-2004), U.S. historian, professor, attorney, and writer who was the U.S. Librarian of Congress from 1975 until 1987.
• Eric R. Kandel, neurobiology professor and Nobel Prize winner with a "trademark bow tie"
• David M. Lee, Nobel Prize-winning American physicist
• Bill Nye, television science program host, is a "gangly guy in the blue lab coat and bow tie". On why he wears bow ties: "If you're working with liquid nitrogen and your tie falls into it, it's funny in a way to the audience but it's also — pun intended — a little bit of a pain in the neck."
• Alexander Oparin, a Soviet biochemist notable for his contributions to the theory of the origin of life.
• Ron Pen, University of Kentucky ethnomusicologist, writer, and professor
• Murray Rothbard "always wore a conservative suit and bow tie."
• Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., "famed for his trademark bow ties"
• Dr. Donald Uden, Professor of Pharmacy at University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy Department of Pharmaceutical Care and Health Systems, Past Associate Dean for Student Services(2000-2007), Past ACCP Treasurer(1986-1988), four time professor of the year.
• Chris Whittle, founder of Channel One News and Edison Schools
• Ira P. Robbins, distinguished professor of law and justice at American University's Washington College of Law

Entertainers and media personalities

Pee Wee Herman character with his customary neckwear

Comedians

• Fred Allen, American radio and TV comedian
• Charlie Chaplin
• Fyvush Finkel, comedic actor best known for roles on TV series produced by David E. Kelley, is sometimes nicknamed "Bowtie Finkel"
• Pee Wee Herman, played by Paul Reubens
• Stan Laurel comedian, typically wore a bow tie when in character
• Jerry Lewis ("in nutty character")
• Groucho Marx American comedian
• Garry Moore, comedian who hosted game and variety shows, was known for his crew cut and bow ties.
• Frank Muir, British comedy writer and broadcast personality "famous for his pink bow tie and mispronunciation", according to the BBC
• Mo Rocca, identified by the New York Times as one of several comedians who have worn bow ties "ironically"
• Mark Russell, American political comedian, pianist, and parody song author. "Mr. Russell knows from bow ties. They have been his signature for years, along with a star-spangled piano that he plinks every few minutes ..."

Journalists and commentators

• Tucker Carlson, conservative American commentator. In 2005 he told the New York Times he had consistently worn bow ties since childhood, but he acknowledged that bow ties often provoke negative reactions, "like a middle finger protruding from your neck." Following his tenure on CNN's Crossfire (Jon Stewart famously knocked the bowtie during his infamous 2004 appearance on the show), he has switched primarily to long neckties or no ties at all.
• John Daly, journalist and host of What's My Line, was often photographed in a bow tie; evening dress (which included bow ties) was worn by the host and panelists on that game show.
• Sir Robin Day (1923-2000), British television commentator and interviewer; his BBC News obituary said "With his thick horn-rimmed spectacles and trade mark polka-dot bow tie, he was the great inquisitor"
• Troy Dungan, retired chief weather anchor for WFAA-TV (ABC) in Dallas-Fort Worth. Owns approximately 220 bow ties.
• Dave Garroway (1913-1982), U.S. broadcaster, first host of the Today show

Roger Kimball

• Roger Kimball (born 1953), U.S. art critic and social commentator, co-editor and co-publisher of The New Criterion and publisher of Encounter Books
• Janusz Korwin-Mikke (born 1942), Polish liberal conservative publisher and politician
• Irving R. Levine (1922-2009), the first foreign correspondent accredited in the Soviet Union., the former economics reporter for NBC television, known for his "trademark bow tie", appeared for the first time in public wearing a necktie for the Brown University commencement in 1994. "I needed help in tying it," he later said.
• Russell Lynes (1910-1991), American art historian, photographer, author and editor of Harper's Magazine
• Charles Osgood (born 1933), American broadcast journalist, described as having a "trademark bow tie"
• Gene Shalit (born 1932), U.S. movie critic and regular commentator on the Today show
• Harry Smith (born 1951), TV journalist, wore a "trademark" bow tie during his early career at a Denver station, but stopped wearing them when he joined CBS in 1987, when a network official told him that Charles Osgood was CBS' bow-tie-wearing personality and "We can't have two guys wearing bow ties."
• George Will (born 1941), American conservative syndicated columnist and regular on the This Week Sunday morning program on ABC television. He sometimes appears with a bow tie, sometimes with a long tie, as can be seen on the covers of his books. In 2005, he told the New York Times that whenever he wore a regular necktie, people commented on the absence of his bow tie.

Other entertainment personalities

• Fred Astaire
• Raj Bhakta, 2005 contestant on The Apprentice television program, later ran for Congress and lost
• Bud Collyer, American television game show host in the 1950s and early 1960s, typically wore a bow tie
• Keith Floyd, bon viveur, restauranteur and TV chef.
• Christopher Kimball, cooking writer and TV host
• Matthew Lesko, American author and late-night television personality whose customary garish outfits include bowties

Fashion designers

Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld

• Manolo Blahnik, shoe designer, sports a "signature bow tie"
• Alber Elbaz (born 1961), Israeli fashion designer "is always photographed wearing a floppy bow tie."
• Karl Lagerfeld, influential fashion designer

Lawyers

Archibald Cox

• Archibald Cox (1912-2004), the Watergate special prosecutor, constantly wore "his trademark bow tie, neatly knotted as always"
• Edward H. Levi (1911-2000), United States Attorney General, described by The New York Times as looking unready for political combat in "his signature bow tie and thick glasses".
• John Paul Stevens (born 1920), U.S. Supreme Court Justice who "rarely, if ever, wears any other neckwear on the bench"
• Joseph N. Welch (1890-1960), head attorney for the U.S. Army in the Army-McCarthy hearings of the 1950s

Politicians

The regular wearing of bow ties by a politician is often the subject of comment — from friends, foes and journalists:

• Thomas J. Bliley, Jr. (born 1932), former U.S. Representative from Virginia.
• Earl Blumenauer (born 1948), U.S. Representative from Oregon, wears "his trademark bow tie"
• Winston Churchill

Belgian politician Elio di Rupo

• Elio di Rupo, Belgian politician, described by a reporter as "the bow tie wearing Socialist"
• Toomas Hendrik Ilves, president of Estonia, is "well-known for always sporting his trademark bow tie"; has even been "dubbed an 'American in a bow tie' by his opponents".

Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves wore a bow tie for this photo with U.S. president George W. Bush

• Daniel Patrick Moynihan, U.S. Senator from New York, whom Hillary Clinton remembered in a speech as having had "three signature items: his horn rimmed glasses, a bow tie, and a great idea"
• Lester B. Pearson, Canadian leader, "with his trademark blue polka dot blue" bow tie
• Theodore Roosevelt
• Paul Simon, U.S. senator from Illinois
• Donald Tsang, Hong Kong leader — "The bow tie is such an integral part of Tsang's identity that he is nicknamed "bow tie Tsang," according to an Associated Press story
• Julio Cesar Turbay Ayala, president of Colombia from 1978 to 1982.
• Daniel Turp, Canadian Parti Québécois politician (no longer usually seen wearing a bow tie since his election at the National Assembly of Quebec)
• Anthony A. Williams, former mayor of Washington, D.C. and nicknamed "Mr. Bow Tie"
• Woodrow Wyatt, a British Labour politician, published author, journalist and broadcaster

Psychiatrists and psychologists

• Aaron T. Beck, the psychiatrist known as "the father of cognitive therapy" dresses in "his signature bow tie"
• Alfred Kinsey, the influential sex researcher, wore a "trademark bow tie"

Other 20th-/21st-century people associated with wearing bow ties

Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan

• Saul Bellow, who often wore one late in life
• Frank Cashen, longtime Major League Baseball executive with the Baltimore Orioles and New York Mets.
• Aleister Crowley, notorious English occultist, often wore extravagant bowties.
• Robert Denning, interior designer, wore bow ties exclusively the last fourteen years of his life.
• Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam organization
• Vladimir Horowitz wore his "trademark bow tie"
• Steve Jobs, Apple Computer founder, wore bow ties in the 1980s
• Mercury Seven astronauts John Glenn and Deke Slayton often wore bowties during the early days of NASA's Project Mercury. Both later switched to wearing the narrow-width neckties commonly worn by NASA Mission Controllers.
• Dhani Jones,professional football player, sports one
• C. Everett Koop, former U.S. Surgeon General known for his "omnipresent red bow tie"
• Jim Phelan, basketball coach for Mount St. Mary's University. Numerous fans and fellow coaches honored his retirement by wearing bow ties.
• Howard Phillips, spokesman for Nintendo as well as first editor of Nintendo Power magazine from the early 1980s until 1991
• Orville Redenbacher (1907-1995), owner of an American popcorn business who appeared in commercials for it and had his image on the boxes — always wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a bow tie
• Jim Rogers (born 1942), author
• George P. Shultz (born 1920), consistently wore bow ties in the early 1970s
• W. Clement Stone (1902-2002), businessman and philanthropist, had a collection of 250 bow ties.
• Bill Torrey (born 1934), General manager who built the New York Islanders into a dynasty that won four consecutive Stanley Cups, known as "Bow-Tie" Bill, after the signature bow tie he always wore.
• Timothy White (1952-2002), rock journalist and "debonair dandy who prided himself in his jaunty bow tie and white buckskin shoes" according to his obituary in The Independent

Fictional characters

Bow ties are a consistent element in the depiction of some fictional characters.

Characters in film and television

Film and television characters portrayed by human actors as consistently wearing bow ties have included:

• Gomez Addams wore such a tie in the film versions of The Addams Family.
• Chuck Bass often wears bow ties as a signature garment both in the books and television series of Gossip Girl
• Richard Gilmore, fictional character in The Gilmore Girls comedy TV program, played by Edward Herrmann
• Lurch, the butler, as portrayed by Ted Cassidy in the TV series The Addams Family
• Dr. Donald "Ducky" Mallard, M.D., M.E. the Chief Medical Examiner in NCIS is always seen wearing a bow tie of various colors.
• Brother Mouzone, the enforcer who appears in the The Wire television series, wears a "trademark suit and bowtie" and glasses, consistent with his image of being "more like a banker or entrepreneur or scholar" than a hit man.
• Les Nessman, character in WKRP in Cincinnati television sitcom
• Hercule Poirot, fictional detective
• Billy Bunter, a character in the works of Charles Hamilton
• Hui Man Keung, the protagonist of the 1980 Hong Kong TVB gangster drama The Bund

Characters in comics, cartoons, and anime

Bow ties are a consistent part of the depiction of many characters created by artists for entertainment media including comics, cartoons, and anime.

Among these are many Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters:

• Boo Boo Bear
• The mouse Pixie and the cat Mr. Jinks in the cartoon Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks
• Magilla Gorilla
• Huckleberry Hound

• Jerry, the mouse in Tom and Jerry (1975-1977)
• Snagglepuss, Hanna-Barbera cartoon character created in 1959, a pink anthropomorphic mountain lion.
• Hokey Wolf

Other artist-created characters consistently or frequently depicted in bow ties include:

• Bernard Bernoulli of the Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle computer games.
• Dagwood Bumstead, character in Blondie comic strip
• The Cat in the Hat
• Judge Doom of the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit wears a black bow tie as part of his dark ensemble.

• Donald Duck, Disney cartoon character
• Count Duckula always wore a red bow tie as part of his ensemble.

• Conan Edogawa, alias of character Jimmy Kudo in "Detective Conan" manga and anime comics

• Harvey, in the play and movie of the same name, the invisible, bow-tied, 6-foot rabbit whose portrait was shown in the play and movie with him wearing a bow tie
• Krusty the Klown, cartoon character in The Simpsons
• Leopold the Cat, the namesake of a Russian cartoon series, wears a bow tie, even when he goes swimming.

• Mickey Mouse
• Franklin "Foggy" Nelson. In the Marvel Daredevil comics, Nelson is a lawyer, best friend and longtime business partner of blind lawyer Matthew M. Murdock (a.k.a. the masked vigilante Daredevil. Even though Foggy Nelson occasionally wears standard neckties, he is partial to bowties.
• Jimmy Olsen often was depicted wearing a bow tie in the comic titles Superman and Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen

• Opus the Penguin, character in Bloom County comic strip
• The Penguin, in Batman comics, movies and television program, except for the 1992 Batman Returns in which he wore a jabot
• Jack Point, character in Judge Dredd comic books. The bow tie is part of his clown-like clothing.
• Waylon Smithers, cartoon character in The Simpsons
• Moe Szyslak, cartoon character in The Simpsons