List of people from Tucson, Arizona

This is a listing of notable people who were born in, or have lived in, Tucson, Arizona . For people whose only connection with the city is attending the University of Arizona, see: List of University of Arizona people. Coaches of University of Arizona athletic teams should not be included either.

This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Athletics

UFC Fighter Dominick Cruz was born in San Diego but grew up in Tucson and attended high school in the city

MLB player Ian Kinsler was born and raised in Tucson

• George Arias – professional baseball player
• Dave Baldwin – major league baseball player, writer, artist ^[1]
• Michael Bates – athlete
• Stanley Berryhill – NFL player
• Chad Beyer – professional cyclist ^[2]
• Craig Bjornson – baseball coach
• Alex Bowman – NASCAR driver
• Bryce Cotton – professional basketball player
• Dominick Cruz – mixed martial artist
• Lum Davenport - baseball player
• Ike Davis – professional baseball player
• Chris Duncan – baseball player
• Shelley Duncan – baseball player
• Sean Elliott – professional basketball player
• Cole Ford – professional football player
• Jim Grabb – former professional tennis player ranked world # 1 in doubles
• Chelsi Guillen – pairs figure skater ^[3]
• J. J. Hardy – baseball player
• Ron Hassey – baseball player ^[1]
• Gary Hayes – professional football player
• Alex Kellner – born in Tucson, baseball player ^[1]
• Walt Kellner – born in Tucson, baseball player ^[1]
• Mike Kellogg – professional football player
• Ian Kinsler (born 1982), Israeli-American Major League Baseball 4x All Star second baseman
• Chris Knierim – pairs figure skater
• Hank Leiber – professional baseball pitcher ^[4]
• Eddie Leon – born in Tucson, baseball player ^[1]
• Lafayette Lever – professional basketball player, attended Pueblo High School ^[5]
• Caitlin Leverenz – Olympic swimmer, born in Tucson, attended Sahuaro High School
• Pete McCaffrey   – basketball player
• Roger McCluskey – National Sprint Car Hall of Fame racer
• Alice Greenough Orr – rodeo star, originally from Montana
• Tom Pagnozzi – professional baseball pitcher
• Allen Pitts – professional Canadian Football League player
• Bijan Robinson - Running back for the Atlanta Falcons, 8th overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft
• Sam Sacksen – 2008 Beijing Olympic modern pentathlete ^[6]
• Anthony Shumaker – baseball player
• Michael Smith – NFL running back
• Brad Steinke – Emmy award-winning sportscaster ^[7]
• Kerri Strug – Olympic gold-medalist gymnast
• Alex Verdugo — Baseball outfielder for Boston Red Sox, attended Sahuaro High School
• Roman Bravo Young – freestyle and folkstyle wrestler, two-time NCAA champion for Penn State University
• Win Young – Olympic medalist in diving ^[8]

Business

• Leopoldo Carrillo – Mexican-American entrepreneur, early founder of Tucson
• Arturo Moreno – entrepreneur, owner of Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
• Jeff Rein – chairman and chief executive officer of Walgreens
• Margaret Sanger – Planned Parenthood founder
• Robert Sarver – entrepreneur, principal owner of Phoenix Suns
• Robert Stewart – co-founder of GMA Network

Law and order

• Clay Pell – lawyer
• Eugene O'Dunne – jurist on the Supreme Bench of Baltimore

Literature

Ray Bradbury

• Edward Abbey – author
• Sue Alexander – children's author ^[9]
• Jon Anderson – poet
• Byrd Baylor – essayist and children's author
• Michael Blake – author
• Charles Bowden – author
• Ray Bradbury – author
• Erskine Caldwell – playwright
• Max Cannon – author and creator of the comic strip Red Meat
• Mitch Cullin – author
• Charles G. Finney – author
• Frances Gillmor, folklorist, scholar and novelist
• Andrew Greeley   – author, scholar and Roman Catholic priest
• Brenda Hillman - poet, translator
• Barbara Kingsolver – novelist
• Joseph Wood Krutch – author
• Todd Miller – journalist
• Tom Miller – travel writer
• Gary Paul Nabhan — author and ethnobotanist
• Adam Rex – children's writer and illustrator
• Stacey Richter – author
• Richard Shelton – poet, author
• Richard Siken - poet, painter, filmmaker
• Leslie Marmon Silko – author
• Susan Sontag – author, critic and public intellectual ^[10]
• Luci Tapahonso – poet laureate of the Navajo Nation
• David Foster Wallace – author
• Peter Wild – poet, author and professor of English at the University of Arizona
• Ofelia Zepeda – poet laureate of Tucson, author
• Tom Zoellner – nonfiction author

Movies, television, and media

• Tommy Shannon – Musician Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
• Rex Allen – actor, musician
• Hailey Baldwin – model
• Mika Boorem – actress
• Lynn Borden – actress and 1957 Miss Arizona
• Roy Brown – actor
• Brooke Burke – model, TV host
• Aaron Chang – photographer
• Kaylee DeFer – actress
• Barbara Eden – actress
• Pablo Francisco – stand-up comedian
• Savannah Guthrie – television personality
• Dan Hicks – sportscaster
• Michael Horse – actor, jeweler, painter ^[10]
• Pat Hughes – baseball announcer
• Dominic Janes – actor ^[10]
• Cord Jefferson - screenwriter, director, journalist
• Ben Patrick Johnson – journalist, model, voice-over artist
• Brad Johnson – actor, former Marlboro Man ^[11]
• Daniel Kennedy – actor
• Gavin MacIntosh – child/teen actor, model
• Taryn Manning – actress ^[11]
• George Meyer – Simpsons producer and writer
• Clare McNulty – actress
• Bentley Mitchum – actor
• Noel Neill – actress
• Sierra Teller Ornelas – filmmaker and screenwriter
• Larry Pine – actor ^[11]
• Timothy Reckart – Oscar-nominated filmmaker
• Garry Shandling – comedian and actor ^[10]
• W. Eugene Smith – photographer
• Frederick Sommer – photographer ^[10]
• Martin Spanjers – actor
• Sally Todd – model, actress
• Janet Varney – actress
• Kate Walsh – actress ^[10]
• Lou Waters – newscaster
• Nick Young – actor ^[12]
• Parker Young – model, actor

Music, arts

Joseph Byrd

Arizona Muse

• Panteha Abareshi – multidisciplinary visual artist
• Madeline Heineman Berger – music and arts promoter
• Duane Bryers – painter, illustrator and sculptor
• Joey Burns – musician
• Joseph Byrd – musician
• Luis Coronel – singer, musician
• John Convertino – musician
• James Pringle Cook – Western landscape painter
• Jason DeCorse – musician, member of Greyhound Soul ^[13]
• Ted DeGrazia – artist
• John Denver – singer, musician
• Daniel Martin Diaz – artist and musician
• Maynard Dixon – artist
• Duane Eddy – musician, member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
• Howe Gelb – musician
• Greg Ginn – musician, founder of Black Flag and SST Records
• Lalo Guerrero – father of Chicano music
• Cord Jefferson - writer and film director
• Ulysses Kay – composer
• Katie Lee – folk singer, writer, photographer
• Dan Levenson – old-time musician ^[14]
• Bob Log III – musician
• Linda McCartney - photographer, musician
• Arizona Muse – model
• Dennis F. Parker – musician, recording engineer
• Raymond Pettibon – artist
• Signe Pierce (born 1988) – multidisciplinary artist
• Rainer Ptacek   – composer, musician
• Linda Ronstadt – singer, member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
• Ivan and Jane Rosenquist - art gallerists
• Barry Sadler – singer-songwriter
• Pat The Bunny Schneeweis – folk-punk artist
• Mark Wystrach – musician

Politics

• Alma Hernandez - Member of the Arizona House of Representatives
• Dean Burch – Republican National Committee chairman, 1964–1965; chairman, FCC ^[15]
• J. W. Buchanan - Arizona state senator, member of the Arizona House of Representatives
• James B. Burkholder – peace activist and retired U.S. Army officer
• Richard Carmona – U.S. Surgeon General
• Tony Carrillo – Arizona state legislator
• James N. Corbett – former Mayor of Tucson
• Dennis DeConcini – U.S. Senator
• Gabby Giffords – former U.S. Representative
• Raul Grijalva – U.S. Representative
• Don Hummel – politician, former Tucson mayor, businessman
• Mark Kelly – U.S. Senator, former astronaut
• Kyrsten Sinema – U.S. Senator
• Robert C. Strong – U.S. diplomat
• Mark Udall – U.S. Senator from Colorado, former member of the House
• Mo Udall – Congressman
• Stewart Udall – politician, U.S. Secretary of Interior
• Tom Udall – U.S. Senator from New Mexico

Science and medicine

• David Arnett – astronomer
• Bart Bok – astronomer
• Frank Borman – astronaut, orbited the Moon on Apollo 8
• A. E. Douglass – astronomer, dendrochronologist
• Tom Gehrels – planetary scientist
• Emil Haury – archaeologist
• Rashad Khalifa – biochemist and founder of United Submitters International
• Gerard Kuiper – planetary scientist
• William Rathje – archaeologist, Garbage Project director
• Peter M. Rhee – physician
• Elizabeth Roemer – astronomer
• Peter Smith – scientist, principal investigator of Phoenix Project
• Andrew Weil – doctor who promotes integrative medicine
• Wieslaw Z. Wisniewski – astronomer

Military

• Thad Allen – U.S. Coast Guard admiral
• Frank L. Culin Jr. – United States Army major general
• José de Urrea – Mexican general

Crime

• Robert John Bardo – convicted murderer and stalker of actress and model, Rebecca Schaeffer
• Terri Cruz (1927-2017), American community organizer
• Jared Lee Loughner – convicted mass murderer who perpetrated the 2011 Tucson shooting
• Joseph Bonanno – mobster
• Stephen Paddock – mass shooter who perpetrated the 2017 Las Vegas shooting
• Charles Schmid – killer

Religion

• William M. Branham – minister
• Eusebio Kino – pioneer missionary and explorer

Miscellaneous

• María Urquides – educator, "Mother of Bilingual Education"

References

1. Reichler, Joseph L., ed. (1979) [1969]. The Baseball Encyclopedia (4th ed.). New York: Macmillan Publishing. ISBN   0-02-578970-8.
2. "Chad Beyer Bio". Chad Beyer. Archived from the original on March 2, 2014. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
3. "Pairs: Chelsea Guillen, Danny Curzon". International Skating Union. Archived from the original on February 9, 2014. Retrieved September 5, 2014.
4. "Hank Leiber". Baseball-Reference.com. Archived from the original on July 5, 2014. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
5. "basketball-reference.com". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
6. "Sam Sacksen". April 25, 2012. Archived from the original on April 25, 2012. Retrieved January 20, 2024.
7. "Alumnus, a Booth, & 8 Emmys" (PDF). Southern Utah University. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 12, 2013. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
8. "Win Young". Sports-Reference.com. Archived from the original on February 2, 2014. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
9. Frischer, Rita Berman (March 1, 2009). "Sue Alexander". Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Jewish Women's Archive . Retrieved July 3, 2017.
10. "List of Famous People from Arizona". The Free Resource. Archived from the original on June 5, 2012. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
11. "Famous People from Arizona". ThingsToDo.com. Archived from the original on July 2, 2014. Retrieved December 12, 2016.
12. "San Diego's Spielberg? Q&A With Director Brian Butler Near Sci-Fi Film Premiere". Times of San Diego. Archived from the original on August 10, 2020. Retrieved July 24, 2020.
13. Ventre, Sarah (September 27, 2007). "Greyhound Soul". Phoenix New Times. Archived from the original on October 20, 2012. Retrieved September 15, 2014.
14. Steinberg, David (January 2, 2009) "Old-time Musician Keeps Flame Burning: Levenson is Part Performer, Part Teacher and Part Historian", ProQuest   324446439 Albuquerque Journal . Retrieved April 18, 2024. (subscription required)
15. Pace, Eric (August 5, 1991). "Dean Burch, Presidential Adviser And F.C.C. Chairman, Dies at 63". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 26, 2013. Retrieved September 6, 2014.