List of people from Westport, Connecticut
Encyclopedia
In this List of people from Westport, Connecticut are people who have been born in, raised in, lived in or who died in Westport, Connecticut
Westport, Connecticut
-Neighborhoods:* Saugatuck – around the Westport railroad station near the southwestern corner of the town – a built-up area with some restaurants, stores and offices....

, USA. Individuals are listed by area in which they are best known:

Actors, comedians, others in the film, television and industries

  • Mason Adams
    Mason Adams
    Mason Adams was an American character actor and voice-over artist.-Early life:Adams was born in Brooklyn, New York. He earned an MA degree from the University of Michigan in Theatre Arts and Speech and also attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, studying theater arts...

     (1919–2005), character actor, voice of Pepper Young and Smuckers, and a longtime resident of the town
  • Millette Alexander
    Millette Alexander
    Millette Alexander is an American actress and concert pianist, best known for being the third and longest-running actress to portray the role of Dr. Sara McIntyre on the serial The Guiding Light. Alexander played the role from December 1968 until June 1983, playing the adoptive mother of Kevin...

    , actress, musician, current resident
  • Madchen Amick
    Mädchen Amick
    Mädchen Amick is an American actress best known for playing Shelly Johnson on the cult television series Twin Peaks and its 1992 prequel film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.-Early life:...

    , actress
  • Linda Blair
    Linda Blair
    Linda Denise Blair is an American actress. Blair is best known for her role as the possessed child, Regan, in the 1973 film The Exorcist, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes, winning one. She reprised her role in 1977's Exorcist II: The Heretic.-Biography:Blair...

    , child star who appeared in The Exorcist
    The Exorcist (film)
    The Exorcist is a 1973 American horror film directed by William Friedkin, adapted from the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty and based on the exorcism case of Robbie Mannheim, dealing with the demonic possession of a young girl and her mother’s desperate attempts to win back her...

     and a television actor, is a past resident
  • Scott Bryce
    Scott Bryce
    Scott Macalister Bryce , sometimes credited as Scott M. Bryce, is an American film and television actor. Bryce is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Craig Montgomery on As the World Turns....

    , actor, past resident, 1974 graduate of local public high school, Staples High School
  • Marilyn Chambers
    Marilyn Chambers
    Marilyn Chambers was an American pornographic actress, exotic dancer, model, actress and vice-presidential candidate...

     (1952–2009), reformed porn star, born in town, graduate of Staples High School, 1970
  • Imogene Coca
    Imogene Coca
    Imogene Fernandez de Coca was an American comic actress best known for her role opposite Sid Caesar on Your Show of Shows....

     (1908–2001), comedian
  • Kevin Conroy
    Kevin Conroy
    Kevin Conroy is an American stage, screen, and voice actor, best known for his acclaimed voice role as Batman in numerous animated television series, feature films, and video games that make up the DC Animated Universe.-Early life:...

     (b. 1955), actor, spent much of his childhood in town
  • Ray Dalio
    Ray Dalio
    Ray Dalio is an American businessman and founder of Bridgewater Associates.-Early Life and Education:...

    , ceo, money manager at Bridgewater Associates
    Bridgewater Associates
    Bridgewater Associates is an American investment management firm founded by Ray Dalio in 1975 and is reported to be the world's largest hedge fund company with $122 billion in assets under management. The company has 270 clients including pension funds, endowments, foundations, foreign governments...

  • Rodney Dangerfield
    Rodney Dangerfield
    Rodney Dangerfield , was an American comedian, and actor, known for the catchphrases "I don't get no respect!," "No respect, no respect at all... that's the story of my life" or "I get no respect, I tell ya" and his monologues on that theme...

    , comedian, past resident
  • Bette Davis
    Bette Davis
    Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...

    , actress, past resident
  • Sandy Dennis
    Sandy Dennis
    Sandra Dale “Sandy” Dennis was an American theater and film actress. In 1966, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.-Early life:...

     (1937–1992) Academy Award-winning actress, died in town
  • Gerry Mulligan
    Gerry Mulligan
    Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though Mulligan is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophonists in jazz history – playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz – he was also...

     (1927–1996), jazz saxophonist, composer and arranger
  • Michael Douglas
    Michael Douglas
    Michael Kirk Douglas is an American actor and producer, primarily in movies and television. He has won three Golden Globes and two Academy Awards; first as producer of 1975's Best Picture, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as Best Actor in 1987 for his role in Wall Street. Douglas received the...

    , actor, past resident
  • Linda Fiorentino
    Linda Fiorentino
    Linda Fiorentino is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in the films Dogma, Vision Quest, Men in Black, After Hours and The Last Seduction.-Personal life:...

    , actress
  • Luke Greenfield
    Luke Greenfield
    Luke Greenfield is an American film director. Greenfield was born in Manhasset, New York and was raised in Westport, Connecticut. He is best known for directing The Animal and The Girl Next Door. In July 2007, he appeared as a guest judge on the filmmaking reality show On the Lot...

    , movie director ,grew up in town
  • Matt Harding
    Matt Harding
    Matthew "Matt" Harding , is an American traveler, video game designer, and Internet celebrity known as Dancing Matt for his viral videos that show him dancing in front of landmarks and street scenes in various international locations...

     (b. 1976), Internet celebrity notable for videos showing him dancing in many locations around the world
  • Melissa Joan Hart
    Melissa Joan Hart
    Melissa Joan Catherine Hart is an American actress, writer, television director, television producer, singer and businesswoman...

    , actress, moved to Westport in 2009
  • Mariette Hartley
    Mariette Hartley
    Mary Loretta "Mariette" Hartley is an American character actress.-Personal life:Hartley was born in Weston, Connecticut, the daughter of Mary Ickes “Polly” , a manager and saleswoman, and Paul Hembree Hartley, an account executive. Her maternal grandfather was psychologist John B...

    , actress, 1957 graduate of Staples High School
  • Patricia Kalember
    Patricia Kalember
    Patricia Kathryn Kalember is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Georgiana "Georgie" Reed Whitsig on the NBC drama Sisters , Susannah Hart Shepherd on the popular 1980s television show Thirtysomething and as Judge Karen Taten on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit .- Life and...

     (b. 1957), actress, partly raised in town
  • Kerri Kenney-Silver
    Kerri Kenney-Silver
    Kerri Kenney-Silver is an American actress, comedian, singer and writer best known as a cast member on MTV's The State and for her role as Deputy Trudy Wiegel on the Comedy Central series, Reno 911!.-Early life:...

     (b. 1970), actress, singer, writer and daughter of Larry Kenney
    Larry Kenney
    Larry Kenney is an American radio personality and voice actor.In 1963, Kenney began his radio career at the age of 15 as a disc jockey at WIRL in Peoria. After WIRL, he worked at WOWO, Ft...

    , born in town
  • Paul Lieberstein
    Paul Lieberstein
    Paul Bevan Lieberstein is an American screenwriter, actor and television producer. An Emmy Award winner, he is most widely known as a writer, producer, and as supporting cast member Toby Flenderson on the U.S...

    , writer and co-star of the American version of "The Office"
  • Christopher Lloyd
    Christopher Lloyd
    Christopher Allen Lloyd is an American actor. He is best known for playing Emmett Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, Uncle Fester in The Addams Family and Addams Family Values, and Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He played Reverend Jim Ignatowski in the television series Taxi and more...

    , actor, past resident, graduate of local public high school, Staples High School
    Staples High School
    Staples High School is a public secondary school, that opened on April 26, 1884 located in the town of Westport, Connecticut, USA. Staples High School is named after its founder Horace Staples who founded the school in 1884. The school was first located at Riverside Ave. and moved to its current...

  • Bob Lorenz
    Bob Lorenz
    -YES Network:He hosts the New York Yankees Pre-Game Show and the New York Yankees Post-Game Show for New York Yankees telecasts, as well as the pregame and postgame shows for New Jersey Nets cablecasts. Lorenz also hosts other shows on YES, including Yankees Hot Stove, a show that tracks the...

     (b. 1963), television sports anchor, pregame and postgame host for the Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network (YES Network), current resident
  • George Lowther
    George Lowther (writer)
    George F. Lowther was a writer, producer, director in the earliest days of radio and television. During the 1940s, he was a scriptwriter for the Superman radio programs on the Mutual Radio Network and the author of The Adventures of Superman .Born in New York City, Lowther broke into radio at 13...

     (1913–1975), writer and producer for radio and television programs, including Superman
    Superman
    Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...

    , Terry and the Pirates
    Terry and the Pirates (radio serial)
    Terry and the Pirates was a radio serial adapted from the comic strip of the same name created in 1934 by Milton Caniff. With storylines of action, high adventure and foreign intrigue, the popular radio series entralled listeners from 1937 through 1948...

    and The Edge of Night
    The Edge of Night
    The Edge of Night is an American television mystery series/soap opera produced by Procter & Gamble. It debuted on CBS on April 2, 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that network until November 28, 1975; the series then moved to ABC, where it aired from December 1, 1975, until December 28, 1984...

  • Pamela Sue Martin
    Pamela Sue Martin
    Pamela Sue Martin is an American actress best known for playing Nancy Drew on The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries TV series and Fallon Carrington Colby on the ABC nighttime soap opera Dynasty.-Biography:...

     (b. 1953), actress, born in town, graduated from Staples High School, 1971
  • Cady McClain
    Cady McClain
    Cady McClain is an American actress, singer, and author.-Early career:McClain's professional acting career began in 1979 at the age of 10, when she was featured in a commercial for Band-Aid bandages....

     (born 1969), soap opera actress, owned a home in town since 1992
  • Steve Miner
    Steve Miner
    Stephen C. "Steve" Miner is an American film and television director who is also a film producer.Miner was born in Westport, Connecticut. Television programs Miner has directed include The Wonder Years, Jake 2.0, Felicity, Dawson's Creek , and Diagnosis: Murder...

     (b. 1951), film and television director, born in town
  • Paul Newman
    Paul Newman
    Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...

     (1925–2008), actor and entrepreneur, lived in town
  • Alisan Porter
    Alisan Porter
    Alisan Porter is an American actress, singer and dancer.-Life and career:Porter was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. Porter is Jewish. Her maternal grandmother, whose father Joseph Klein was a prominent Worcester rabbi, ran the Charlotte Klein Dance Center in Worcester...

     (b. 1981), actress (Curly Sue) and singer, went to high school in town
  • Robert Redford
    Robert Redford
    Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...

     actor, past resident
  • Eric Roberts
    Eric Roberts
    Eric Anthony Roberts is an American actor. His career began with King of the Gypsies , earning a Golden Globe nomination for best actor debut. He starred as the protagonist in the 1980 dramatisation of Willa Cather's 1905 short story, Paul's Case...

     actor, past resident
  • Micah Sloat
    Micah Sloat
    Micah Sloat is an American theatre actor and musician, largely unknown before his leading role as Micah in the 2007 hit horror film, Paranormal Activity. He appeared in the horror prequel in 2010, Paranormal Activity 2.-Life and career:...

    , actor and star of Paranormal Activity
  • Brett Somers
    Brett Somers
    Brett Somers was a American actress, singer, and comedienne who was born in Canada and raised in Maine...

    , actress, game show personality
  • Rod Serling
    Rod Serling
    Rodman Edward "Rod" Serling was an American screenwriter, novelist, television producer, and narrator best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his science fiction anthology TV series, The Twilight Zone. Serling was active in politics, both on and off the screen and helped form...

     (1924–1975), creator of The Twilight Zone
    The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
    The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...

  • Martha Stewart
    Martha Stewart
    Martha Stewart is an American business magnate, author, magazine publisher, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising...

     (b. 1941) past resident, business magnate, author, editor and homemaking advocate
  • Marlo Thomas
    Marlo Thomas
    Margaret Julia “Marlo” Thomas is an American actress, producer, and social activist known for her starring role on the TV series That Girl . She also serves as National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...

     (wife of Phil Donahue
    Phil Donahue
    Phillip John "Phil" Donahue is an American media personality, writer, and film producer best known as the creator and host of The Phil Donahue Show. The television program, also known as Donahue, was the first to use a talk show format. The show had a 26-year run on U.S...

    ), actress, current resident
  • Harvey Weinstein
    Harvey Weinstein
    Harvey Weinstein, CBE is an American film producer and movie studio chairman. He is best known as co-founder of Miramax Films. He and his brother Bob have been co-chairmen of The Weinstein Company, their film production company, since 2005...

    , film producer, current resident
  • Joanne Woodward
    Joanne Woodward
    Joanne Gignilliat Trimmier Woodward is an American actress, television and theatrical producer, and widow of Paul Newman...

    , actress, current resident

Singers, musicians and other entertainers

  • Michael Bolton
    Michael Bolton
    Michael Bolton is an American singer and songwriter. Bolton originally performed in the hard rock and heavy metal genres from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s, both on his early solo albums and those recorded as the frontman of the band Blackjack...

    , singer, current resident
  • Phil Donahue
    Phil Donahue
    Phillip John "Phil" Donahue is an American media personality, writer, and film producer best known as the creator and host of The Phil Donahue Show. The television program, also known as Donahue, was the first to use a talk show format. The show had a 26-year run on U.S...

    , (husband of Marlo Thomas
    Marlo Thomas
    Margaret Julia “Marlo” Thomas is an American actress, producer, and social activist known for her starring role on the TV series That Girl . She also serves as National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...

    ) talk show host, current resident
  • Matt Gallant
    Matt Gallant
    Matt Gallant is an American television host. He is well-known as the former host of the Emmy Award-winning The Planet's Funniest Animals on Animal Planet. He has also served as a guest judge on various other television shows featuring animals and pets...

     (b. 1964), a television host, raised in town
  • Don Imus
    Don Imus
    John Donald "Don" Imus, Jr. is an American radio host, humorist, philanthropist and writer. His nationally-syndicated talk show, Imus in the Morning, is broadcast throughout the United States by Citadel Media and relayed on television by the Fox Business Network.-Personal life:Imus was born in...

    , radio personality, current resident
  • Larry Kenney
    Larry Kenney
    Larry Kenney is an American radio personality and voice actor.In 1963, Kenney began his radio career at the age of 15 as a disc jockey at WIRL in Peoria. After WIRL, he worked at WOWO, Ft...

    , radio personality on the Don Imus
    Don Imus
    John Donald "Don" Imus, Jr. is an American radio host, humorist, philanthropist and writer. His nationally-syndicated talk show, Imus in the Morning, is broadcast throughout the United States by Citadel Media and relayed on television by the Fox Business Network.-Personal life:Imus was born in...

     show, actor, and father of Kerri Kenney-Silver
    Kerri Kenney-Silver
    Kerri Kenney-Silver is an American actress, comedian, singer and writer best known as a cast member on MTV's The State and for her role as Deputy Trudy Wiegel on the Comedy Central series, Reno 911!.-Early life:...

    , lives in town.
  • Nile Rodgers
    Nile Rodgers
    Nile Gregory Rodgers is an American musician, producer, composer, arranger, and guitarist.-Biography:...

    , musician and music producer
  • Martha Stewart
    Martha Stewart
    Martha Stewart is an American business magnate, author, magazine publisher, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising...

    , entrepreneur, past resident, also had a studio in town
  • Eric Von Schmidt
    Eric Von Schmidt
    Eric "Rick" Von Schmidt was an American singer-songwriter and Grammy Award recipient. He was associated with the folk/blues revival of the 1960s and a key part of the East Coast folk music scene that included Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.-Background and associations with Dylan:Von Schmidt's father,...

     (1931–2007), a folk and blues singer-songwriter of the folk/blues revival of the 1960s, is a town resident.
  • Hy Zaret
    Hy Zaret
    Hy Zaret was an American Tin Pan Alley lyricist and composer best known as the co-author of the 1955 hit "Unchained Melody", one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century.-Biography:...

     (d. 2007), lyricist, lived in Westport, where he died.
  • Mike Greenberg ESPN Personality, host of Mike and Mike current resident.
  • Meat Loaf
    Meat Loaf
    Michael Lee Aday , better known by his stage name, Meat Loaf, is an American hard rock musician and actor...

     (Michael Lee Aday), Rock singer and songwriter, moved to town from Stamford with his wife and stepdaughter Pearl Aday
    Pearl Aday
    Pearl Aday is an American female singer and adopted daughter of Meat Loaf and his wife Leslie Aday. Pearl, whose biological father was the drummer for Janis Joplin’s band, Full Tilt Boogie, was adopted by Meat Loaf after he married her mother....

     shortly after the 1981 birth of another daughter, Amanda Aday
    Amanda Aday
    Amanda Lee Aday is an American actress. Born in New York City, Aday is best known for her recurring role as Dora Mae Dreifuss on the first season of the 2003-2005 HBO series Carnivàle....

    ; coached girls softmall in town; later moved to Redding, Connecticut
    Redding, Connecticut
    Mark Twain, a resident of the town in his old age, contributed the first books for a public library which was eventually named after him.-Government:...

    .
  • Gerry Mulligan
    Gerry Mulligan
    Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and arranger. Though Mulligan is primarily known as one of the leading baritone saxophonists in jazz history – playing the instrument with a light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz – he was also...

    , Gerald Joseph "Gerry" Mulligan (b. April 6, 1927 – d. January 20, 1996), was an American jazz saxophonist, composer and arranger.
  • Dan Hartman
    Dan Hartman
    Daniel Earl "Dan" Hartman was an American singer, songwriter and record producer, best known for such songs as: "Free Ride", "I Can Dream About You", "Instant Replay", "Love Sensation", and "Relight My Fire", all of which had world-wide success.-Career:Born in Pennsylvania's capital, Harrisburg,...

     (1950–1994) a singer, songwriter and record producer, died in town.
  • Neal Smith, drummer for Alice Cooper and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee briefly lived in Westport. He now sells real estate in the area.

Artists, illustrators, cartoonists, designers

  • William Glackens
    William Glackens
    William James Glackens was an American realist painter.Glackens studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and later moved to New York City, where he co-founded what came to be called the Ashcan School art movement...

     (1870–1938), a realist painter, died in town.
  • Hilla von Rebay
    Hilla von Rebay
    Hildegard Anna Augusta Elizabeth Freiin Rebay von Ehrenwiesen, Baroness Hilla von Rebay, or simply Hilla Rebay , was a notable woman abstract painter in the early 20th century. After immigrating to the United States in 1927, she may be best known for helping Solomon R...

     (1890–1967), painter and founding curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
    Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
    The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is a well-known museum located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. It is the permanent home to a renowned collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern, and contemporary art and also features special exhibitions...

    , spent the last years of her life in Greens Farms and died there in 1967.
  • Stevan Dohanos
    Stevan Dohanos
    Stevan Dohanos was an artist and illustrator of the social realism school, best known for his Saturday Evening Post covers, and responsible for several of the Don't Talk set of World War II propaganda posters. He named Grant Wood and Edward Hopper as the greatest influences on his painting.Dohanos...

     (1907–1994) an artist and illustrator known for his Saturday Evening Post covers, lived in town.
  • Annie Leibovitz
    Annie Leibovitz
    Anna-Lou "Annie" Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer.-Early life and education:Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Leibovitz is the third of six children. She is a third-generation American whose great-grandparents were Jewish immigrants, from Central and Eastern Europe. Her father's...

     (b. 1949), portrait photographer, was born in town.
  • Joe McNally
    Joe McNally
    Joe McNally is an American photographer who has been shooting for the National Geographic Society since 1987.McNally was born in Montclair, New Jersey. He received his bachelor's and graduate degrees from the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University...

    , photographer, former resident
  • Mel Casson
    Mel Casson
    Mel Casson was an American cartoonist with a 50-year career. He is primarily remembered for his work on the daily comic strips Sparky, Angel, Mixed Singles/Boomer and Redeye, plus numerous magazine cartoons....

    , cartoonist lived and died in Westport.
  • Gerry Turner
    Gerry Turner
    Gerry Turner was an American children's fiction writer. He published 7 books, including one fairy tale, Magic Night for Lillibet, and one science fiction novel, Stranger from the Depths,also Creative Crafts for Everyone and The Teen Model Book between 1959 and 1968.He was born in 1921, and died in...

     (1921–1992) photographer.
  • George Hand Wright
    George Hand Wright
    George Hand Wright was an American painter, illustrator and printmaker.Born in the Fox Chase section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of a blacksmith, he attended the Spring Garden Institute, a local technical school, and was apprenticed to a lithographer...

     (1872–1951), painter and illustrator.

Authors, writers, journalists

  • Lincoln Child
    Lincoln Child
    Lincoln Child is an author of seventeen techno-thriller and horror novels. He often writes with Douglas Preston. Many of their novels have become bestsellers, and one, Relic, was adapted into a feature film...

     (b. 1957), author of techno-thriller and horror novels, was born in town.
  • Frank Deford
    Frank Deford
    Benjamin "Frank" Deford, III is a senior contributing writer for Sports Illustrated, author, and commentator for National Public Radio and correspondent for Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO....

    , journalist, writer and commentator, current resident
  • Peter De Vries
    Peter De Vries
    Peter De Vries was an American editor and novelist known for his satiric wit. He has been described by the philosopher Daniel Dennett as "probably the funniest writer on religion ever"-Biography:...

     (1910–1993) an editor and novelist, died in Norwalk.
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald
    F. Scott Fitzgerald
    Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...

    , past resident, author of The Great Gatsby
    The Great Gatsby
    The Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published in1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City from spring to autumn of 1922....

  • Hardie Gramatky
    Hardie Gramatky
    Bernhard August "Hardie" Gramatky, Jr. was an American painter, author, and illustrator. In a 2006 article in Watercolor Magazine, Andrew Wyeth named him as one of America's 20 greatest watercolorists...

     (1907–1979), author, artist, illustrator, resident later in life, died and buried in town.
  • Jane Green
    Jane Green (author)
    Jane Green , is the pen name of Jane Green Warburg, an English author of women's novels. Together with Helen Fielding she is considered a founder of the genre known as chick lit....

    , also known as Jane Green Warburg, author and current resident.
  • A.E. Hotchner, author and cofounder with Paul Newman
    Paul Newman
    Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...

     of Newman's Own
    Newman's Own
    Newman's Own is a food company and for-profit corporation founded by actor Paul Newman and author A. E. Hotchner in 1982. Newman received all of the profits from product sales and donated 100% of the proceeds, after taxes, to various educational and charitable organizations of his own selection...

  • Shirley Jackson
    Shirley Jackson
    Shirley Jackson was an American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years...

     (1916–1965), author of many novels including the short story The Lottery, lived in town from 1949–51
  • Melissa Kirsch
    Melissa Kirsch
    Melissa Kirsch an American author who writes predominantly about media, politics, and women’s issues. Her most recent book, The Girl’s Guide to Absolutely Everything, provides advice to women on topics ranging from financial issues to dating...

     (b. 1974), author of The Girl's Guide to Absolutely Everything, lived in town, graduated from Staples High School.
  • Hilton Kramer
    Hilton Kramer
    Hilton Kramer is a U.S. art critic and cultural commentator.Kramer was educated at Syracuse University, Columbia University, Harvard University, Indiana University and the New School for Social Research. He worked as the editor of Arts Magazine, art critic for The Nation, and from 1965 to 1982,...

    , editor and art critic, current resident
  • Ruth Krauss
    Ruth Krauss
    Ruth Krauss was an author of children's books, one of the most well known being The Carrot Seed, and an author of theatrical poems for an adult audience. Many of her books are still in print....

     (1901–1993), author of children's books, including The Carrot Seed, died in town.
  • Nora Benjamin Kubie
    Nora Benjamin Kubie
    Nora Benjamin Kubie was an American writer, artist and amateur archaeologist.Born Eleanor Gottheil, she was the daughter of Muriel H. and Paul Gotteil, an executive with the Cunard Line in New York. She graduated from the Calhoun School in New York, delivering the valedictory speech in 1916...

     (1899–1988) author and illustrator of children's books
  • Robert Lawson
    Robert Lawson (author)
    Robert Lawson was an American author and illustrator of children's books. During World War I, he also served as a camouflage artist.-Background:Born in New York City, Lawson spent his early life in Montclair, New Jersey...

     (1892–1957), an author and artist whose children's books made him the first person to receive both the Newbery Medal (Rabbit Hill, 1945) and Caldecott Medal (They Were Strong and Good, 1940), died in town.
  • Sheila Lukins
    Sheila Lukins
    Sheila Lukins , was an American cook and food writer. She was most famous as the co-author, with Julee Rosso, of the The Silver Palate series of cookbooks, and The New Basics Cookbook, a very popular set of food guides which introduced many Americans to French, Southern and Eastern European cooking...

     (1942–2009), cook and food writer
    Food writing
    Food writing is writing that focuses on the topic of food, both widely and narrowly defined.-Definition:Food writer Mark Kurlansky gives the scope of food writing when he observes: “Food is about agriculture, about ecology, about man’s relationship with nature, about the climate, about...

     who co-authored the The Silver Palate series of cookbooks and The New Basics Cookbook.
  • Jim Nantz
    Jim Nantz
    James William Nantz, III is an American sportscaster, known primarily for his work with CBS Sports television.-Early life:...

    , CBS Sports, current resident.
  • David Pogue
    David Pogue
    David Welch Pogue is an American technology writer, technology columnist and commentator. He is a personal technology columnist for the New York Times, an Emmy-winning tech correspondent for CBS News Sunday Morning, weekly tech correspondent for CNBC, and a columnist for Scientific American...

    , New York Times technology columnist, current resident.
  • Harry Reasoner
    Harry Reasoner
    Harry Truman Reasoner was an American journalist for ABC and CBS News, known for his inventive use of language as a television commentator, and as a founder of the 60 Minutes program.-Biography:...

    , late news anchor, lived in town
  • Ronald B. Scott
    Ronald B. Scott
    Ronald Bruce Scott is an American journalist and author of a biography of Republican presidential candidate Willard Mitt Romney --Mitt Romney: An inside look at the man and his politics-- published in October 2011 by Globe Pequot Press....

    , former resident, journalist, biographer of presidential candidate W. Mitt Romney, and author of the novel "Closing Circles: Trapped in the Everlasting Mormon Moment" that was set in Westport.
  • Jack Tippit
    Jack Tippit
    Jack Tippit is an American cartoonist whose work includes the comic strip Amy, which he produced from 1964 through 1991. He received the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Panel Cartoon Award for the strip for 1970. He also received their Gag Cartoon Award for 1963 and 1966...

    , late cartoonist, "Amy", lived in town
  • Max Wilk
    Max Wilk
    Max Wilk was an American playwright, screenwriter and author of fiction and nonfiction book.Formerly a resident of Ridgefield, Connecticut, he moved to Westport, Connecticut, where lived until his death February 19, 2011, at age 90...

    , author and current resident
  • Jane Yolen
    Jane Yolen
    Jane Hyatt Yolen is an American author and editor of almost 300 books. These include folklore, fantasy, science fiction, and children's books...

    , author and past resident
  • Robert Ludlum
    Robert Ludlum
    Robert Ludlum was an American author of 23 thriller novels. The number of his books in print is estimated between 290–500 million copies. They have been published in 33 languages and 40 countries. Ludlum also published books under the pseudonyms Jonathan Ryder and Michael Shepherd.-Life and...

    , late author and past resident lived on Sasco Creek where he and Dangerfield frequently visited.
  • Ramin Ganeshram
    Ramin Ganeshram
    Ramin Ganeshram is an American journalist, chef and cookbook author who writes about American and Caribbean foodways and culinary culture. She is known for her specialized knowledge of Trinidad & Tobago cuisine....

     (b. 1968), journalist, chef, author, current resident

Government and politics, office holders and activists

  • Wilbur Lucius Cross
    Wilbur Lucius Cross
    Wilbur Lucius Cross, Ph. D. was an American educator and political figure who was the 71st Governor of Connecticut for eight years.-Biography:Born in 1862 in Mansfield, Connecticut, Cross graduated from Yale University Wilbur Lucius Cross, Ph. D. (April 10, 1862 – October 5, 1948) was an American...

     (1862–1948), a governor of the state and namesake of the Wilbur Cross Parkway, was principal of Staples High School
    Staples High School
    Staples High School is a public secondary school, that opened on April 26, 1884 located in the town of Westport, Connecticut, USA. Staples High School is named after its founder Horace Staples who founded the school in 1884. The school was first located at Riverside Ave. and moved to its current...

     in his early 20s.
  • Henry M. Judah
    Henry M. Judah
    Henry Moses Judah was a career officer in the United States Army, serving during the Mexican-American War and American Civil War...

    , a Civil War
    American Civil War
    The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

     brigadier general, is entombed at Kings Highway Cemetery in town.
  • Hellen Keller (1880–1968), American author, political activist, lecturor, died in her sleep on June 1, 1968 in her home in Westport.
  • John Davis Lodge
    John Davis Lodge
    John Davis Lodge , was an American politician, and 79th Governor of Connecticut from 1951 to 1955. He was also an actor and U.S. Ambassador to Spain, Argentina and Switzerland.-Early life:Lodge was born in Washington, D.C....

     (1903–1985), Connecticut governor and congressman, the Gov. John Davis Lodge Turnpike (Interstate 95 in Connecticut
    Interstate 95 in Connecticut
    Interstate 95, the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, runs in a general east–west compass direction for 111.57 miles in Connecticut from the Rhode Island state line to the New York State line. I-95 Southbound from East Lyme to the New York State...

    ) is named after him.
  • Anne Wexler
    Anne Wexler
    Anne L. Wexler was an American influential Democratic political consultant, public policy advisor and later, the first woman to head a leading lobbying firm in Washington.-Early life and education:...

     (1930–2009), political advisor and lobbyist.

See also

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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