Famous New Mexicans
These are just a few of the famous people who were either born in New Mexico or spent some important time in New Mexico.
Ben Abruzzo, balloonist
Ansel Adams, photographer
Larry Ahrens, radio talk show host
Paul Allen, founder of Microsoft
Clay Allison, outlaw
Rudolfo Anaya, author
Dianne Anderson, radio talk show host
Lynn Anderson, country singer
Maxie Anderson, balloonist
Johnson Antonio, woodcarver
Manuel Armijo, New Mexico governor
Elfego Baca, lawman
Jimmy Santiago Baca, author
Kathy Baker, actress
Josef Bakos, painter
Patrocinio Barela, woodcarver
David Barsky, storyteller and author
Maria Benetiz, flamenco dancer
Charles Bent, New Mexico governor
Bryan Berg, world record-breaking card
stacker
Oscar Berninghaus, artist
Hans Bethe, physicist
Jeff Bingaman, U.S. senator
Sarah Bird, novelist
Michael Blake, novelist
Ernest Blumenschein, artist
William Bonney (aka Henry McCarty, Henry
Antrim, and Billy the Kid), outlaw
Kent Bostick, Olympic cyclist
Richard Bradford, novelist
Nacio Herb Brown, songwriter
J. B. Bryan, publisher, La Alameda Books
Alice Bullock, folklorist
Ralph Bunche, Nobel Peace Prize winner
Bruce Cabot, actor
Glen Campbell, singer
T. C. Canon, artist
Cathy Carr, Olympic swimmer
Lena Carr and A. A. Carr, filmmakers
Kit Carson, explorer and lawman
Willa Cather, novelist and short story writer
Dennis Chavez, U.S. senator
Fray Angelico Chavez, author
Maurus Chino, founder of the Southwest Indigenous Alliance
Jan Clayton, actress
Cochise, Apache chief
Buffalo Bill Cody, wild west showman
Henry Connelly, New Mexico governor
E. Irving Couse, artist
Bob Crosby, rodeo cowboy
Francisco Cuervo y Valdes, provisional
Spanish governor
Ram Dass (Richard Alpert), psychologist
and spiritual leader
Juan Bautista de Anza, New Mexico governor
Clarita Garcia de Aranda, flamenco dancer
Ezequiel de Baca, first Hispanic governor in U.S.
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, explorer
John Denver, singer
Antonio de Ortermin, New Mexico governor
Don Pedro de Peralta, New Mexico governor
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, explorer
Diego de Vargas, New Mexico governor
David DeWitt, novelist
Bo Diddley, singer
Trent Dimas, Olympic gymnast
Mabel Dodge, heiress, author, and literary philanthropist
Pete Domenici, U.S. senator
Long John Dunn, entrepreneur
W. Herbert “Buck” Dunton, artist
Fremont Ellis, painter
Joaquin Encinias, director
Marisol Encinias, flamenco dancer
Jim Everett, football player
Albert Fall, U.S. senator and secretary
of the interior
Richard Farnsworth, actor
Nicolai Fechin, artist
Enrico Fermi, physicist
Bobby Foster, boxer
Clifford Fragua, artist
Drew Gaffney, astronaut
Jose Manuel Gallegos, U.S. representative
Miguel Gandert, photographer
Pat Garrett, sheriff
Greer Garson, actress
Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft
Murray Gell-Mann, Nobel prize-winning physicist
Geronimo, Apache chief
Robert H. Goddard, developed world's first liquid-fuel rocket
Glenna Goodacre, sculptress
Edward Gonzales, artist
R. C. Gorman, artist
Sidney Gutierrez, astronaut
Gene Hackman, actor
Donald Hamilton, mystery writer
William Hanna, cartoonist
Ed Harris, actor
Neil Patrick Harris, actor
Elizabeth Case-Harwood and Burt Harwood,
art patrons
Edward Hatch, general
Tony Hillerman, novelist
Conrad Hilton, founder of Hilton hotels
Buddy Holly, singer
Dennis Hopper, actor
Paul Horgan, historian
Allan Houser, sculptor
Peter Hurd, painter
Aldous Huxley, novelist and essayist
Don Imus, radio show host
Burl Ives, musician
Will James, Western legend
Janis Joplin, singer
Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butt-head
Stephen Watts Kearny, general
Charles Kennedy, Western legend
Jan Kerouac, author
Black Jack Ketchum, train robber
Val Kilmer, actor
Ralph Kiner, baseball player
J. Z. Knight, channeler of Ramtha
John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, Celebrate Today, and The Biology of Business; founder and member of the Self-Publishing Hall of Fame; maintainer of this web site; self-promoter
Oliver LaFarge, novelist
Bishop Lamy, Catholic bishop
Octaviano Larrazolo, U.S. senator and first naturalized American
and Hispanic to serve as a senator
D. H. Lawrence, novelist
Timothy Leary, psychologist and drug experimenter
John Lewis, founder of Modern Jazz Quartet
Samuel Lewis, Sufi teacher
Ottmar Liebert, composer and guitarist
Milton Livingston, builder of Cyclotron
Gregory Lomayesva, artist
Nancy Lopez, golfer
Mabel Dodge Lujan, author
Manuel Lujan Jr., U.S. secretary of interior
Douglas MacArthur, general
Tommy MacDonald, football player
Shirley MacLaine, actress
Marisa Maez, TV news anchor
Mangas, Apache chief
Agnes Martin, artist
George R.R. Martin, science fiction and
fantasy novelist
Maria and Julian Martinez, potters
Padre Martinez, social reformer who also brought
the first printing press to New Mexico
Bill Mauldin, political cartoonist
George McJunkin, discoverer of Folsom Man
Mark Medoff, novelist
Don Meredith, football player
Roger Miller, singer and songwriter
Edgar D. Mitchell, astronaut
Flores Mogollon, Spanish governor
Scott Momaday, novelist
Tamara Monosoff, inventor and author,
The Mom Inventor's Handbook
Demi Moore, actress
Jim Morrison, singer, The Doors
Walter Mruk, painter
Michael Martin Murphy, country singer
Ty Murray, rodeo champion
Roy Nakayama, chile developer
Nana, Apache chief
Willard Nash, painter
Bruce Nauman, artist
Ralph Neely, football player
Francine Neff, U.S. secretary of the treasury
John Nichols, novelist
Jack Nicholson, actor
Georgia O'Keeffe, painter
Juan de Oñate, explorer
Steve Ontiveros, baseball player
J. Robert Oppenheimer, head of Manhattan Project which developed atomic bomb
Katherine Ortega, U.S. treasurer
Simon Ortiz, poet
Virgil Ortiz, artist
Louis Owens, novelist
Sheldon Parsons, painter
Albino Perez, New Mexico governor
Don Perkins, football player
John (Blackjack) Pershing, general
Bert Phillips, artist
Waite Phillips, oilman
Slim Pickens, actor
Jim Plunkett, football player
Frederick Pohl, science fiction novelist
Po'pay, led the 1680 Pueblo Revolt
Eliot Porter, nature photographer
Bart Prince, architect
LeBaron Bradford Prince, New Mexico governor
Ernie Pyle, World War II correspondent
Godfrey Reggio, director
Eugene Manlove Rhodes, author
Bill Richardson, New Mexico governor
Holly Roberts, photographer
John Maddox Roberts, novelist
Julia Roberts, actress
Charmayne James Rodman, barrel racer
Millicent Rogers, designer and art patron
Susan Rothenberg, artist
Fred Saberhagen, science fiction novelist
Eva Encinias Sandoval, dancer and
founder, National Institute of Flamenco
Peter & Paul Sarkisian, artists
Jack Schaefer, novelist
Harrison J. Schmitt, astronaut and U.S. senator
Ernest Thompson Seton, author, naturalist, artist, and co-founder of the Boy Scouts
Joseph Sharp, artist
Connie Shelton, novelist
Will Shuster, painter
Hampton Sides, novelist
Leslie Marmon Silko, novelist
Marc Simmons, historian
Mike Smith, jockey
Teresa Kalab Smith, children's book author and illustrator
Smokey the Bear
Erick Southwick, rodeo champion
Roger Staubach, football player
Alfred Stieglitz, photographer
Slim Summerville, Keystone cop
Leo Szilard, physicist
Luci Tapahonso, poet
Edward Teller, physicist
Clyde Tombaugh, astronomer and discover of Pluto
Miguel Trujillo, Isleta Pueblo activist
Tom Udall, U.S. representative
Stanislaw Ulam, mathematician
Al Unser, race car driver
Al Unser Jr., race car driver
Bobby Unser, race car driver
Vivian Vance, actress
Judith Van Gieson, mystery novelist
Woody and Steina Vasulka, artists
Pablita Velarde, painter
Cuerno Verde, Comanche chief
Victorio, Apache chief
Lew Wallace, novelist, general, and
territorial governor
Alton Walpole, filmmaker
Erika Wanenmaker, artist
Duane Ward, baseball player
Frank Waters, author
Bill Watterson, cartoonist
Richard Wetherill, leader of first expedition party to excavate Chaco Canyon
Eugene Wigner, mathematician
Jack Williamson, science fiction novelist
Heather Wilson, U.S. representative
Joe Wilson, ambassador
Valerie Plame Wilson, CIA analyst
Scott Wiseman, animator
Ellen Wood, author
Summer Woods, novelist
Henrietta Wyeth, painter
