List of people from Portland, Maine
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The following list includes notable people who were born or have lived in Portland, Maine.
Authors and academics
- John Howard Appleton, chemist
- Owen Davis, dramatist
- Robert F. Griffin, essayist
- Dorothy M. Healy, Professor at Westbrook College and Curator of the Maine Women Writers Collection
- Stephen King, author
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet
- John Neal, author and critic
- Alan Taylor, historian
Business
- Cyrus Curtis, publisher and philanthropist
- John A. Poor, railroad pioneer
- Donald Valle, founder and owner of the Valle's Steak House restaurant chain
Explorers and settlers
- George Baker Leavitt, Sr., whaling captain, arctic explorer
- Capt. Christopher Levett, English explorer of Casco Bay, founded first settlement
- Francis Pettygrove, one of Portland Oregon's founders
Media and arts
- Hiram Abrams, motion picture mogul
- Bebe Buell, model, musician, and mother of Liv Tyler[citation needed]
- Howie Carr, radio personality
- John Greenleaf Cloudman, artist, portrait painter and cabinet maker
- Charles Codman, painter
- Kevin Eastman, co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles[citation needed].
- Greg Finley II, actor
- Frank Fixaris, sportscaster
- Francis Ford, actor
- John Ford, director
- Adam Gardner, musician
- Peter Garland, composer
- Jeremiah Hacker, journalist and reformer
- Will Holt, songwriter
- Anna Kendrick, actress
- Charles F. Kimball, artist
- Linda Lavin, actress
- Tawny Little, television newscaster and Miss America (1976)
- Bob Ludwig, Grammy Award-winning audio mastering engineer
- Bob Marley, comedian
- Andrea Martin, actress
- Judd Nelson, actor
- Lincoln Peirce, comic strip creator, Big Nate
- Ryan Peters, aka Spose, rapper
- Victoria Rowell, actress
- Stuart Saunders Smith, composer and percussionist
- Brett Somers, actress
- Phyllis Thaxter, actress
- Liv Tyler, actress
- Kim Warnick, punk rock musician[citation needed]
- Jonathan M. Woodward, actor[citation needed]
Military
- James Alden, Jr., rear admiral in the United States Navy
- John H. Hall, inventor of the first United States Army breech-loading rifle
- Charles J. Loring, Jr., Medal of Honor recipient
- Holman S. Melcher, mayor, Civil War veteran
- Edward Preble, naval officer
- Herbert E. Schonland, Medal of Honor recipient
- Ronald Speirs, army officer with the Easy Company, 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment
- Peleg Wadsworth, Revolutionary War general
Politics
- Justin Alfond, President of the Maine Senate
- James Appleton, state legislator and activist
- Joseph E. Brennan, 70th governor of Maine
- Michael F. Brennan, Mayor and state legislator
- Joshua Chamberlain, civil war veteran, governor, served as Surveyor of the Portland Port
- Winfred Thaxter Denison, United States Assistant Attorney General and Secretary of the Interior for the Philippines; born in Portland
- Santo DiPietro, Maine state legislator and businessman; born in Portland
- Neal Dow, mayor of Portland; Civil War general; temperance movement leader
- John Eder, state legislator and Maine Green Independent Party organizer
- William P. Fessenden, US senator
- Fletcher Hale, US congressman from New Hampshire
- Charles Harlow, mayor of Portland; state legislator
- Anne Haskell, state legislator
- Jon Hinck, state legislator and attorney
- Chris Korzen, progressive political activist and author
- John Lynch, US congressman
- George Mitchell, US Senate Majority Leader (1989 to 1995); chairman of Walt Disney; US special envoy to the Middle East
- William Pitt Preble, Justice of the Maine Supreme Court; U.S. Minister to the Netherlands; President of the St. Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad
- Anne Rand, state legislator
- Thomas Brackett Reed, US congressman; Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
- Charles W. Walton, US Congressman
- Herman W. Waterman, politician from Wisconsin
Professionals
- Edville Gerhardt Abbott (1871–1938), surgeon
- Oscar Cox, lawyer
- Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow, Jr., architect
- Robert E. McAfee, physician
- Alexander Parris, architect
Sports
- Mike Brown, mixed martial arts fighter
- Nik Caner-Medley, forward with five Euroleague basketball teams
- Dick Capp, tight end and linebacker with the Super Bowl II champion Green Bay Packers
- Ian Crocker, Olympic swimmer
- Rob Elowitch, wrestler
- Ryan Flaherty, second baseman for the Baltimore Orioles
- Charlie Furbush, pitcher with the Seattle Mariners
- Rip Jordan, baseball player
- Pete Ladd, pitcher with the Houston Astros, Milwaukee Brewers, and Seattle Mariners
- Gary McAdam, forward with seven NHL teams
- Quinton Porter, quarterback with the Houston Texans, Carolina Panthers, and Hamilton Tiger-Cats
- Joan Benoit Samuelson, Olympic marathon gold medalist and two-time Boston Marathon champion
- Bob Stanley, pitcher with the Boston Red Sox
Other
- Nathaniel Gordon, the only American slave trader to be tried, convicted, and executed under the Piracy Law of 1820 "for being engaged in the Slave Trade."
- Ellen Martin Henrotin, social reformer, born in Portland, Maine
- Lois Galgay Reckitt (born 1944), executive director of Family Crisis Services, Portland, Maine
