Athletes •
Philip Stanley Abbot (1867-1896), mountaineer •
Jeff Adrien (born 1986),
University of Connecticut Huskies basketball captain and
power forward •
Larry Bird, professional basketball player, lived in Brookline while he played for the
Boston Celtics •
Tom Brady, lived in Brookline while quarterback of the
New England Patriots •
Gene Clapp (born 1949), silver medalist
1972 Summer Olympics •
Adam Edelman (born 1991), American-born four-time Israeli national champion in skeleton event, and Israeli Olympian •
Kenny Florian, professional mixed martial artist •
George O'Day, sailor
Ambassadors •
Larz Anderson, U.S. Ambassador to Japan •
Ray Atherton, first
U.S. Ambassador to Canada, born and raised in Brookline
Academics, scientists, and technologists •
Lily Batchelder (21st century), professor at
New York University and former chief tax counsel to the U.S. Senate Finance Committee •
Zabdiel Boylston (1679–1766), physician who introduced inoculation against smallpox to the North American colonies in 1721 •
Stanley Cavell (1926–2018), professor of philosophy, winner of a
MacArthur Fellowship •
Marvin Minsky (1927–2016),
Artificial Intelligence theorist, inventor, author, professor •
Herman Chernoff (born 1923), statistician •
Harvey Cushing (1869–1939), "father of modern neurosurgery" •
Alice Ettinger (1899–1993), radiologist •
Edward Fredkin (1934–2023), digital physics pioneer, inventor of the
trie data structure, the
Fredkin gate and the
Billiard-Ball Computer Model for
reversible computing •
Fayette F. Forbes (1851–1935), water engineer, plant collector, and botanist with a particular interest in algae and diatoms •
Irwin Freedberg (1933–2005), dermatologist •
Sheldon Glashow (born 1932), Nobel Prize-winning physicist •
Robert R. Glauber (1939–2021), Harvard faculty, former chairman of
NASD •
Robert Goldwyn (1930–2010), editor-in-chief of
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery for 25 years, professor of surgery at
Harvard Medical School, and chief of
Plastic Surgery at
Beth Israel Hospital •
Irene Jakab (1919–2011), psychiatrist,
humanist and longtime Brookline resident who was a member of the faculties of
Harvard University, the
University of Pittsburgh and the
McLean Hospital •
Victor Kac (born 1943), mathematician, MIT faculty, creator of Kac-Moody algebras, creator of Superalgebra •
Jeffrey Karp (born 1975), biomedical researcher •
Ruth Sager (1918–1997), plant geneticist •
Lawrence Summers, former Harvard president, former secretary of the treasury, and nephew of the Nobel Prize laureate
Paul Samuelson Musicians •
Ran Blake, jazz pianist and composer •
Roland Hayes (1887–1977), lyric tenor and composer •
Peter Ivers (1946–1983), musician, singer, songwriter, and television personality •
Louis Krasner (1903–1995), American violinist •
Tony Levin (born 1946), musician, bassist •
James Taylor (born 1948), musician, owns a home in Brookline
Politicians •
Bhumibol Adulyadej, king of Thailand, lived in Brookline during his infancy while his father the prince studied at Harvard Medical School •
Michael Bloomberg, businessman, mayor of New York City 2002–2012, lived in Brookline as a child •
Otis Clapp, politician (Massachusetts state representative and member of the
old Boston City Council), homeopath, pharmacist, publisher, bookseller, and
U.S. Internal Revenue Bureau collector •
Thomas Aspinwall Davis (1798–1845), businessman and mayor of Boston •
Michael Dukakis (born 1933), former
governor of Massachusetts and 1988
Democratic presidential candidate •
Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, LGBTQ activist and first openly transgender White House staffer •
Sybil Holmes (1889–1979), first female member of the
Massachusetts Senate •
John F. Kennedy (1917–1963), 35th president of the United States (1961–63), born and lived first 10 years of his life in Brookline •
Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968),
Attorney General,
US Senator, brother of President
John F. Kennedy, born in Brookline
Writers •
Linda Barnes, novelist •
Saul Bellow, Nobel Prize-winning novelist, lived the last 12 years of his life in Brookline •
Marita Bonner (1899–1971), writer, essayist, and playwright •
Richard Burgin, author, editor of
Boulevard magazine •
Michael A. Burstein, science-fiction writer •
Ellen Goodman (born 1941), American journalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist •
Susannah Heath (1795–1878), diarist
Other •
Jacob Bates Abbott, wildlife painter and illustrator, birdwatcher, conservationist •
Eddie Andelman, sports radio host and businessman, moved to Brookline as child, graduated from Brookline High •
Gisele Bündchen, supermodel and former wife of Tom Brady •
Ida Conquest, actress •
Zach Cone, creator and player of
Biker Boy •
Alex Edelman, stand-up comedian •
Ray Ellin, comedian, host, writer, producer, podcaster •
Theo Epstein (born 1973),
Chicago Cubs President of Baseball Operations and former
Boston Red Sox general manager •
Hank Eskin, webmaster of ''
Where's George?'' •
Frederick Perry Fish (1855–1930), pioneering
intellectual property attorney •
Terry Francona, manager of the
Cleveland Guardians •
David Frankel, venture capitalist and entrepreneur •
Claude Fuess, 10th
Headmaster of
Phillips Academy Andover •
Peter Gammons, baseball writer and ESPN commentator •
King Gillette, popularizer of the safety razor •
Minnie Goodnow (1871–1952), WWI nurse and nurse educator •
John Hodgman (born 1971), author and contributor for
This American Life and
The Daily Show •
Levi Yitzchak Horowitz (1921–2009), the Bostoner Rebbe •
Isabella Howland (1895–1974), painter and sculptor •
Daniel Hoffer, an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist •
Richard Jones, US ambassador to Israel, lived in Brookline with his family •
Rosemary Kennedy (1918–2005), sister of President
John F. Kennedy, born in Brookline •
Kathleen Agnes Kennedy (Kathleen Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington) (1920–1948), sister of President
John F. Kennedy, born in Brookline •
Eunice Kennedy Shriver (1921–2009), sister of President
John F. Kennedy, born in Brookline •
Patricia Kennedy Lawford (1924–2006), sister of President
John F. Kennedy, born in Brookline •
Louise Andrews Kent (1886–1969), author •
Robert Kraft (born 1941),
New England Patriots owner •
Jon Krakauer (born 1954, raised in
Corvallis, Oregon), author of
Into the Wild and
Into Thin Air, columnist for
Outside magazine •
Michio, leader of the worldwide macrobiotic movement •
Amos Adams Lawrence (1814–1886), merchant and abolitionist •
Abbott Lawrence Lowell (1856–1943), former president of Harvard University •
Lester Lefton, president of
Kent State University •
Clarence Cook Little (1888–1971), American geneticist, President of the
University of Michigan •
Amy Lowell (1874–1925), poet •
Eddie Lowery (1903–1984), 10-year-old
caddie of
Francis Ouimet during 1913 U.S. Open held in Brookline •
Larry Lucchino (born 1945), co-owner of
Boston Red Sox •
Ananda Mahidol, king of Thailand, lived during age 1–3 years in Brookline while his father the prince studied at Harvard Medical School •
Bob Margolin (born 1949), blues guitarist and former
Muddy Waters sideman •
Albert and David Maysles, documentary filmmakers •
Arthur Chute McGill (1926–1980), theologian, philosopher, author and editor, Harvard professor 1971–1980 •
Joey McIntyre, youngest member of musical group New Kids on the Block, lived in Brookline •
Henry J. Meade, Chief of Chaplains of the
U.S. Air Force •
Jean Baker Miller (1927–2006), psychoanalyst, feminist, author, social activist •
Roger Miller, rock musician •
George Minot (1885–1950), winner of the 1934 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine •
Abelardo Morell (born 1948), photographer, professor at Massachusetts College of Art •
Evelyn Murphy (born 1940), former
lieutenant governor of Massachusetts •
William Murphy (1892–1987), winner of 1934 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine •
Nicholas Nixon, photographer, professor at Massachusetts College of Art •
Joel Mark Noe (1943–1991), pioneering reconstructive
plastic surgeon, longtime resident •
Conan O'Brien (born 1963), television host, comedian, writer, producer, podcaster •
Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903),
landscape architect •
Lawrence Lessig (born 1961), Director of
Harvard University's
Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Ethics law school and founder of
Creative Commons •
Francis Ouimet (1893–1967), amateur golfer who won the
U.S. Open in 1913 •
Miguel de Icaza (born 1972), •
Edith Pearlman (1936–2023), short story writer •
Paul Pender (1930–2003), boxer, middleweight champion •
Esther Petrack, contestant on ''
America's Next Top Model, Cycle 15'' •
Henry Varnum Poor, creator of the
Standard & Poor's Index •
Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, M.D., neurosurgeon and author •
Norman Ramsey (1915–2011), winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics •
Rishi Reddi, short story writer •
Elliot Richardson, lieutenant governor and attorney general of Massachusetts, cabinet official in the Nixon and Ford administrations, ambassador and lawyer •
Florida Ruffin Ridley (1861–1943), civil rights activist, suffragist, teacher, writer, and editor •
Steve Rochinski (born 1954), jazz guitarist, recording artist, composer, arranger, author, jazz educator •
John Rock (1890–1984), pioneer in the development of in vitro fertilization and the birth control pill •
Neil Rolde (born 1932), writer and Maine politician •
David L. Rose (born 1967), tech entrepreneur and scientist at the MIT Media Lab •
Lev S. Weglein (born 2009), professional highschooler •
Dan Rosenthal (born 1966),
Assistant to the President in White House under
Bill Clinton •
Larry Ruttman (born 1931), attorney and author •
Ruth Sager (1918–1997), US geneticist, died in Brookline •
Ignatius Sargent, (1800-1884), merchant, member of the
Boston Associates, horticulturalist, early benefactor of the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society •
Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951), composer, lived at 1280 Beacon Street during the 1930s •
Allison Sekuler, American neuroscientist •
Samuel Sewall (1652–1730), judge in the Salem witch trials •
Charles Sprague Sargent (1841–1927), first director of Harvard University's
Arnold Arboretum •
Conrad Salinger (1901–1962), longtime
orchestrator for
MGM musicals •
Sarah Schechter (born 1976), film and television producer •
John H. Sherburne (1877–1959), U.S. Army brigadier general •
Bill Simmons, podcaster and sportswriter •
Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903–1993), Jewish scholar •
Sarah Smith (born 1947), novelist •
Lawrence Summers, economist, president of Harvard University 2001–2006 •
Cindy Stumpo, entrepreneur and residential contractor featured in numerous national publications •
David Susskind, (1920-1987), producer of TV, movies, and stage plays; TV talk show host. •
Paul Szep (born 1941), two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist •
Karen Tarlow (born 1947), composer •
Michelle Thomas (1968–1998), actress who played Justine Phillips on
The Cosby Show and
Myra Monkhouse on
Family Matters •
Mike Wallace (1918–2012), TV journalist, best known for
60 Minutes •
Stephen Walt, professor of international relations,
Harvard University •
Barbara Walters (1929–2022), television commentator and journalist •
Robert Weinberg, cancer researcher known for discovering a gene that causes normal cells to form tumors, and the first tumor suppressor gene •
David Weinberger, blogger, internet expert, and political consultant •
William A. Wellman (born 1896 in Brookline), director of
Wings (1927) •
Mikey Welsh, former bassist for rock band
Weezer, moved to Brookline in his youth •
Henry Melville Whitney (1839–1923), businessman and developer of the Beacon Street boulevard •
James Scollay Whitney (1811–1878), businessman and politician •
John Woodrow Wilson (1922–2015), lithographer, sculptor, painter, muralist, and art teacher •
Bob Woolf (1929-1993), Sports agent who represented athletes including
Larry Bird,
Carl Yastrzemski,
John Havlicek and others •
Gary K. Wolf, author, creator of
Roger Rabbit •
Danny Yamashiro, chaplain at
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, researcher on
American presidents and
childhood trauma, and media host •
Moshe Yanai, electrical engineer and entrepreneur ==In popular culture==