#1Film, TV & Stage
Donald Sutherland
1935–2024Canadian actor
97 Wikipedia and sister-site articlesWikipedia ↗
Famous people · Saint John, New Brunswick
252 famous people were born in Saint John, more of them business people than in most towns
Articles in 97 languages make the Canadian actor Donald Sutherland the best known. 65 of them were born between Confederation and 1913, more than in any other period. No other town in New Brunswick lists as many. Ward Chipman (1787) and Charlie Cavanagh (2000) mark the two ends of the list.
Born here
252
confirmed by Wikipedia
Best known
Donald Sutherland
97 Wikipedia and sister-site articles
First
1787
Ward Chipman
Youngest
2000
Charlie Cavanagh
Most common field
Politics & Law
118 people
★ What stands out · The best known
Born in Saint John
#1
#2Film, TV & Stage
Walter Pidgeon
1897–1984Canadian actor
37 Wikipedia and sister-site articlesWikipedia ↗
#3Science & Medicine
William Diller Matthew
1871–1930American paleontologist
21 Wikipedia and sister-site articlesWikipedia ↗
Known for
What Saint John is known for
Set against the usual town, business people come out 2.5 times as common.
Each field is set against the usual town, its share among everyone listed in Canadian towns. Tap one to see who is in it.
Through the years
When Saint John’s famous people were born
The 1920s top the chart, with 22 births in the decade.
Politics & LawSportsWriting & ArtsBusinessMusicFilm, TV & StageScience & MedicineNotableFaithMilitary
Each dot is a person, stacked by the decade they were born.
Everyone
Everyone else born in Saint John
249 more; the 197 best known are listed here.
William Francis Ganong
1864–1941Canadian botanist, historian and cartographer
Science & MedicineWikipedia ↗
George McCall Theal
1837–1919South African historian, archivist and genealogist
Writing & ArtsWikipedia ↗
Mort Garson
1924–2008Canadian-born composer, arranger, songwriter, and pioneer of electronic music
MusicWikipedia ↗
Laurence Manning
1899–1972American science fiction author, founding member of the American Rocket Society
Writing & ArtsWikipedia ↗
Leverett George DeVeber
1849–1925Canadian politician, active in provincial politics and member of the Canadian Senate
Politics & LawWikipedia ↗
Montague Chamberlain
1844–1924Canadian-American businessman, naturalist, and ethnographer
BusinessWikipedia ↗
Robert Parker
1796–1865Canadian lawyer, judge and political figure in New Brunswick
Politics & LawWikipedia ↗
No one matches both filters.
Next door
Famous people from the towns next door
Towns around it with someone on record: 2.
Questions about famous people from Saint John
Who is the most famous person from Saint John?
Donald Sutherland (Canadian actor) heads the list, ranked by how many Wikipedias cover them. Next come Walter Pidgeon and William Diller Matthew.
How many famous people were born in Saint John?
Wikidata places 345 here in all, and those missing from the list lack a confirming article.
What is Saint John known for?
47% here, set against 22% for Canadian towns.
Who is the earliest-born famous person from Saint John?
The earliest is Ward Chipman, born in 1787, and the latest birth listed is 2000.
Who counts as from Saint John?
Wikidata has to place the birth inside Saint John’s municipal boundary (Statistics Canada’s 2021 census subdivision), counting its hospitals and districts, and an English or French Wikipedia article has to say the same. Adult performers, people known mostly for crimes and anyone who only lived here stay off the list.
Why is someone missing?
Their Wikidata record may stop at the province, point to a rural area we have no page for, or name a different town, and their article may disagree or say nothing. Only a birthplace both sources share is listed; edits to either are picked up at the next refresh.
Birthplaces, descriptions, years, occupations and the count of Wikipedia and sister-site articles come from Wikidata (CC0). Each birthplace is checked against the person’s English Wikipedia article, or the French one where English says nothing or has no article; the articles are linked, never quoted. Wikidata’s Statistics Canada code, the place’s name or its point inside the 2021 census outline puts a birth in a town, and a birth given only as a split city stays on that city’s page. Fields are read from the description and occupations, and the list runs by number of articles. “The usual town” is everyone listed across Canadian towns. Portraits: each person’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Photo credits (61)
- Donald Sutherland: Festival TV Monte-Carlo, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Walter Pidgeon: MGM studio, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- William Diller Matthew: (C) American Museum of Natural History, New York, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- William Francis Ganong: Eric Stahlberg, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- George McCall Theal: London Stereoscopic Company, 54 Cheapside, London E.C., Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Joseph Medill: Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Matt Stairs: Djh57, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Charles Wentworth Upham: Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- George Edwin King: William James Topley, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Mort Garson: United Press International, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Noël Kinsella: US Mission Canada, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Francis Alexander Anglin: Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Stompin' Tom Connors: 6darlinp ( Uploads ), CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Charles Joseph O'Reilly: Foroa (turned & cropped by Rabanus Flavus ), Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Laurence Manning: Writtenword09, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Charles Gorman: Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Clara Arthur: Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Edward Ignatius Devitt: Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Ken Tobias: MGM Records, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Lawrence Stephen McMahon: w:John Gilmary Shea is the author of the book., Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Tom Daly: Bain, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Amos Edwin Botsford: William James Topley, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Angelo Evelyn: Klokhuys, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Augustus W. Peters: Martin B. Brown & Co., New York, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Bill O'Neill: Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Charles Collingwood: Gotfryd, Bernard, photographer, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Charles Nelson Skinner: William Cochrane (1831-1898) and John Castell Hopkins (1864-1923), Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- David Laurence MacLaren: The Maritime Broadcaster, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Eddie Connolly: Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Leverett George DeVeber: William James Topley (1845–1930), Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- May Agnes Fleming: not stated, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Miller Brittain: Climo Studios, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Montague Chamberlain: Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Walter W. White: University of New Brunswick, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Art McGovern: Bain News Service, publisher, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Bev Harrison: NBbaptist at en.wikipedia, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Bill Phillips: Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Chris Collins: National Assembly for Wales from Wales, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Colin H. Livingstone: Harris & Ewing, photographer, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Dorothy Shephard: New Brunswick / Nouveau-Brunswick, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Eric Teed: LTeed, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Ethel Knight Kelly: James Samuel Windeatt, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Herman McInnes: Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Jean-Claude Sawyer: TheAHL, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- John Babington Macaulay Baxter: S. Stacey, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Loretta Leonard Shaw: No photographer credited., Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Robert James Watson: Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Rupert Wilson Wigmore: Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Stanley McInnis: Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- W. Henry Harrison: The Maritime Broadcaster, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- William Henry Thorne: Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Andrew B. Dougherty: Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Cornelius Gallagher: author not listed, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- John Leary (politician): Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Louis Cunningham: Unknown, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Robert M. Allan: Los Angeles Public Library Collection, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Robert McAllister: The Maritime Broadcaster, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Ward Chipman: Lawrence Park, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Warren Franklin Hatheway: Unknown author, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Andrew Case: JFVoll, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Anna Minerva Henderson: Saint John High School, Saint John New Brunswick Canada, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Adapted from Statistics Canada (Census of Population 2021, population estimates 2025, 2021 census boundaries) under the Statistics Canada Open Licence; this does not constitute an endorsement by Statistics Canada. Neighbourhood names in some cities © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).