List of people from Newport, Rhode Island

The following list includes notable people who were born or have lived in Newport, Rhode Island.

See also: Category:People from Newport, Rhode Island

Notable people born in Newport

The philosopher Bishop Berkeley resided in Newport

18th century

• Vice-Admiral Sir Jahleel Brenton, Royal Navy
• William Ellery Channing, one of the foremost Unitarian preachers
• Caleb Gardner, captain and counsul of French Empire
• Edward Malbone, artist and miniaturist
• David Olyphant, China merchant and member of American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
• Christopher Raymond Perry, naval officer in American Revolution
• Solomon Southwick, publisher of Newport Mercury and advocate for Patriot cause in American Revolution

19th century

• D. Putnam Brinley, artist
• Clarence G. Child, scholar
• Thomas Harper Ince, actor
• Clarence R. King, geologist, mountaineer, and first director of the U.S. Geological Survey (1879-1881); noted for exploration of Sierra Nevada
• Ida Lewis, lighthouse keeper credited with saving 18 lives in Newport Harbor; received national attention and numerous honors; a U.S. Coast Guard buoy tender bears her name
• David Melville, credited with first gas street lighting in the United States
• Matthew C. Perry, Commodore of U.S. Navy who forced opening of Japan to the West with the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854, under the threat of military force
• Cynthia Taggart, poet
• Charles C. Van Zandt, 34th Governor of Rhode Island

20th century

• Harry Anderson, actor and comedian (Night Court)
• Margaret Frances Andrews, socialite and show dog breeder
• Allen Bestwick, NASCAR and IndyCar Series announcer.
• Nadia Bjorlin, soap opera actress (Days of Our Lives)
• Frank Corridon, pitcher for Chicago Cubs, Philadelphia Phillies, and St. Louis Cardinals; invented now-illegal pitch, the spitball
• Tanya Donelly, musician; vocalist for Rhode Island-based bands Belly and Throwing Muses; guitarist for the band The Breeders
• Charlie Fern, White House speechwriter, journalist
• Van Johnson, actor, known best for "all-American" roles in MGM films during World War II
• Lawson Little, 1940 U.S. Open golf champion
• Mena Suvari, actress, known for role in 1999 film American Beauty
• Leon Wilkeson, bass guitarist

Notable people who lived or worked in Newport

17th century

• Benedict Arnold, Governor of Rhode Island
• John Clarke, Baptist minister and drafter of Royal Charter
• William Coddington, Governor of Rhode Island
• Nicholas Easton, Governor of Rhode Island
• George Gardiner, early settler of Rhode Island, early Newport resident

18th century

• George Berkeley, philosopher
• Louis Alexandre Berthier, French army officer, later Marshal of France and Napoleon's chief of staff
• William Ellery, signer of Declaration of Independence
• Robert Feke, portrait painter
• Peter Harrison, architect
• Samuel Hopkins, Congregational minister, Calvinist theologian, leader for abolition of slave trade
• Aaron Lopez, merchant
• Louis-Marie, vicomte de Noailles, French army officer
• Charles Theodore Pachelbel, first organist of Newport's Trinity Church; son of Johann Pachelbel
• Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, French general
• William Selby, organist at Trinity Church, composer
• John Smybert, artist
• Ezra Stiles, minister, diarist, and President of Yale
• Gilbert Stuart, portrait painter
• Isaac Touro, hazzan at Synagogue
• Judah Touro, merchant and philanthropist

19th century to 1885

• George Bancroft, historian, Secretary of the Navy, diplomat, and summer resident
• August Belmont, financier
• Ambrose Burnside, Army officer stationed at Fort Adams, later Civil War general, governor, senator
• Julia Ward Howe, author and summer resident
• Henry James, author
• William James, philosopher and Harvard professor
• John Kensett, artist
• Clement C. Moore, summer resident and author of "'Twas the Night before Christmas"
• Levi P. Morton, summer resident and donor of Morton Park, later Vice President of the United States
• Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, hero of War of 1812
• William Trost Richards, artist
• Milton H. Sanford, textile magnate and Thoroughbred racehorse owner
• Judah Touro, philanthropist
• Richard Upjohn, architect

The Gilded Age, 1885–1914

• Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor, socialite
• Charles D. Barney, socialite, banker, founder of Smith Barney Brokerage
• Alva Belmont, socialite and leader of women's rights movement
• August Belmont, financier
• Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, socialite, builder of Belcourt Castle
• James Gordon Bennett, Jr., newspaper publisher and yachtsman
• Ogden Codman, designer
• Richard Morris Hunt, architect
• William Morris Hunt, artist
• John LaFarge, artist
• Pierre Lorillard, tobacco manufacturer
• Rear Admiral Stephen B. Luce, founder of Naval War College
• Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan, naval historian and strategist
• Ward McAllister, flamboyant raconteur of high society, coined the term 'the 400' for the New York social elite
• Charles McKim, architect
• Edith B. Price, writer and illustrator
• H.H. Richardson, architect
• Horace Trumbauer, architect
• James J. Van Alen, summer resident and Ambassador to Italy
• Alva Vanderbilt, wife of William K. Vanderbilt; early feminist, active in women's suffrage movement
• Consuelo Vanderbilt, daughter of W.K. and Alva Vanderbilt; Duchess of Marlborough
• Cornelius Vanderbilt II, heir to Vanderbilt fortune, Chairman of New York Central Railroad
• Frederick Vanderbilt, heir to Vanderbilt fortune, philanthropist
• William Kissam Vanderbilt, heir to Vanderbilt fortune, yachtsman
• Edith Wharton, author
• Stanford White, architect
• Thornton Wilder, author and playwright; his 1973 novel Theophilus North is set in Newport; served briefly in Army's Coast Artillery Corps at Fort Adams in World War I

20th century, 1914–2000

• John Jacob Astor VI, socialite, heir to Astor family fortune, summer resident
• Laura Jane Barney, socialite, philanthropist, Smith Barney Brokerage heiress (Champ Soleil Mansion on Bellevue Ave)
• Admiral Jeremy Michael Boorda, 25th Chief of Naval Operations
• John Nicholas Brown, socialite, yachtsman and philanthropist
• The Cowsills, popular 1960s pop and "flower power" band that had a #2 hit with "The Rain, The Park, And Other Things" in 1967
• Doris Duke, tobacco heiress and philanthropist
• President Dwight D. Eisenhower, located his summer White House at Newport
• Joanna Going, actress, Another World, House of Cards
• Paul Gordon, musician with Goo Goo Dolls, New Radicals, The B-52's
• Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr.
• Kristin Hersh, musician, vocalist for Rhode Island-based band Throwing Muses, 50 Foot Wave; solo artist
• Fleet Admiral Ernest King, Chief of Naval Operations, 1941-1945
• Antony Kloman, painter
• Jane Pickens Langley, singer, entertainer and philanthropist
• Elaine Lorillard, summer resident, founder of Newport Jazz Festival
• Perle Mesta, socialite, political hostess and U.S. Ambassador to Luxembourg
• MacGillivray Milne, 27th Governor of American Samoa, 1936-1938
• Diane Nelson, president of DC Entertainment
• Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, 1942-1945; Chief of Naval Operations
• Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, First Lady of the United States, summer resident
• Claiborne Pell, socialite and U.S. Senator 1961-1997
• Alfredo Sciarrotta, silversmith and undersea weapons expert
• Admiral William Sims, commander of U.S. Naval Forces in Europe, 1917-1919
• Carolyn Mary Skelly; owned Bois Dore Mansion; eccentric daughter of William Grove Skelly; oil heiress, dubbed the "most robbed woman in the US" by the Boston Globe; socialite; hosted fundraisers for President George H.W. Bush, & Texas Governor John Connally
• Admiral Raymond Spruance, the victor of Midway; President, Naval War College
• Jimmy Van Alen, summer resident and founder of International Tennis Hall of Fame
• Margaret Van Alen Bruguiere, socialite, art collector; niece of Frederick Vanderbilt
• Harold Vanderbilt, yachtsman, bridge player, inventor of contract bridge
• Martha Sharp Crawford (Sunny) von Bülow, socialite, heiress (resided with husband Claus von Bülow at Clarendon Court on Bellevue Avenue)

21st century, 2001–present

• Richard Hatch, first winner of the reality television show Survivor
• Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. Senator, 2007-present
• Dede Wilsey, San Franciscan socialite, summer resident and philanthropist
• Richard Saul Wurman, architect, graphic designer, founder of the TED Conferences