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.

Athletics



 * George Arias – professional baseball player
 * Dave Baldwin – major league baseball player, writer, artist
 * Michael Bates – athlete
 * Stanley Berryhill – NFL player
 * Chad Beyer – professional cyclist
 * 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
 * J. J. Hardy – baseball player
 * Ron Hassey – baseball player
 * Gary Hayes – professional football player
 * Alex Kellner – born in Tucson, baseball player
 * Walt Kellner – born in Tucson, baseball player
 * 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
 * Eddie Leon – born in Tucson, baseball player
 * Lafayette Lever – professional basketball player, attended Pueblo High School
 * 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
 * Anthony Shumaker – baseball player
 * Michael Smith – NFL running back
 * Brad Steinke – Emmy award-winning sportscaster
 * 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

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



 * Edward Abbey – author
 * Sue Alexander – children's author
 * 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
 * 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
 * Pat Hughes – baseball announcer
 * Dominic Janes – actor
 * Cord Jefferson - screenwriter, director, journalist
 * Ben Patrick Johnson – journalist, model, voice-over artist
 * Brad Johnson – actor, former Marlboro Man
 * Daniel Kennedy – actor
 * Gavin MacIntosh – child/teen actor, model
 * Taryn Manning – actress
 * George Meyer – Simpsons producer and writer
 * Clare McNulty – actress
 * Bentley Mitchum – actor
 * Noel Neill – actress
 * Sierra Teller Ornelas – filmmaker and screenwriter
 * Larry Pine – actor
 * Timothy Reckart – Oscar-nominated filmmaker
 * Garry Shandling – comedian and actor
 * W. Eugene Smith – photographer
 * Frederick Sommer – photographer
 * Martin Spanjers – actor
 * Sally Todd – model, actress
 * Janet Varney – actress
 * Kate Walsh – actress
 * Lou Waters – newscaster
 * Nick Young – actor
 * Parker Young – model, actor

Music, arts



 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * 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"