List of people from Newport, Rhode Island

See also: Category:People from Newport, Rhode Island

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

## Notable people born in Newport

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Philosopher Bishop Berkeley resided in Newport

### 18th century

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* Vice-Admiral Sir Jahleel Brenton, Royal Navy
* William Ellery Channing, one of the foremost Unitarian preachers
* Caleb Gardner, captain and consul 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
* Abigail Stoneman, widow and businesswoman[1]

### 19th century

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* D. Putnam Brinley, artist
* Clarence G. Child, scholar
* William Ennis, U.S. Army brigadier general[2]
* 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 Coast Guard buoy tender bears her name
* David Melville, credited with first gas street lighting in the United States
* Matthew C. Perry, Navy Commodore who opened Japan to the West with the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854, under the threat of military force
* Cornelia Bryce Pinchot, native of Newport who became a conservationist, Progressive politician, women’s rights activist, and First Lady of Pennsylvania
* Cynthia Taggart, poet
* Charles C. Van Zandt, 34th Governor of Rhode Island[3]

### 20th century

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* Harry Anderson, actor and comedian (Night Court)
* Margaret Frances Andrews, socialite and show dog breeder
* Lillian Barrett, novelist and playwright (also lived and died in Newport)
* 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

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### 17th century

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* 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

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* 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

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* 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
* Mahlon Van Horne, politician

### The Gilded Age, 1885–1914

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* 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, 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

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* John Jacob Astor VI, socialite, heir to Astor family fortune, summer resident
* Admiral Jeremy Michael Boorda, 25th Chief of Naval Operations
* John Nicholas Brown, socialite, yachtsman and philanthropist
* Doris Duke, tobacco heiress and philanthropist
* Joanna Going, actress, Another World, House of Cards
* Paul Gordon, musician with Goo Goo Dolls, New Radicals, The B-52's
* Kristin Hersh, musician, vocalist for Rhode Island–based band Throwing Muses, 50 Foot Wave; solo artist
* 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[4][5]
* 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)
* Charlie Day, Actor

### 21st century, Since 2001

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* Ken Barlow, TV Meteorologist, Beginning 1987
* Richard Hatch, first winner of the reality television show Survivor
* Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. Senator, Beginning 2007
* Dede Wilsey, San Franciscan socialite, summer resident and philanthropist
* Richard Saul Wurman, architect, graphic designer, founder of the TED Conferences

## References

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1. ^ James, Edward T.; James, Janet Wilson; Boyer, Paul (1971). Notable American women 1607-1959 : a biographical dictionary. Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press. pp. 390–391. ISBN 978-0-674-62734-5.
2. ^ "General William Ennis Dies At His Home here". Newport Mercury. Newport, RI. October 7, 1938. p. 3 - via Newspapers.com.
3. ^ "Rhode Island Governor Charles Collins Van Zandt". National Governors Association. Retrieved October 10, 2012.
4. ^ http://articles.philly.com/1986-08-21/news/26062433_1_bois-dore-costume-jewelry-carolyn-skelly [bare URL]
5. ^ "Archives". Los Angeles Times. 18 August 1986.