25 Famous People You Didn’t Know Were From Troy, New York

Downtown Troy, New York, along the Hudson River in Rensselaer County. Photo: Real Window Creative / Shutterstock

Perched along the eastern bank of the Hudson River near the Erie and Champlain canal systems, Troy, New York, earned worldwide renown in the 19th century as the “Collar City.” Driven by the industrial might of the Burden Iron Works, pioneering foundries, textile mills, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy became one of the wealthiest manufacturing centers in America. But beyond its ironworks and detachable shirt collars, Troy also served as the hometown, staging ground, and creative birthplace for an extraordinary roster of talent.

Spanning Hollywood icons, 19th-century sports pioneers, civil rights trailblazers, writers, engineers, and the Troy meatpacker long associated with America’s national symbol, here are 25 famous people whose roots and legacies connect directly to Troy, New York.

1. Samuel Wilson (“Uncle Sam”)

• Troy Roots: Samuel Wilson relocated to Troy in 1789 with his brother Ebenezer and prospered as a meatpacker, slaughterhouse operator, and brickmaker. Wilson spent most of his adult life in Troy, died in 1854, and is buried in the city’s historic Oakwood Cemetery.
• Claim to Fame: Wilson is widely associated with one of the best-known origin stories behind America’s national symbol, “Uncle Sam.” During the War of 1812, Wilson supplied meat for the U.S. Army, and barrels marked “U.S.” became linked in local lore with “Uncle Sam” Wilson. In 1961, Congress formally recognized Wilson as the progenitor of the Uncle Sam symbol.

2. Maureen Stapleton

• Troy Roots: Born Lois Maureen Stapleton in Troy in 1925, she grew up in the city and attended Catholic Central High School before leaving for Manhattan and eventually joining the Actors Studio.
• Claim to Fame: Stapleton became one of America’s most accomplished stage and screen actresses and achieved the Triple Crown of Acting with Oscar, Tony, and Emmy wins. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for portraying Emma Goldman in Reds (1981), won Tony Awards for The Rose Tattoo and The Gingerbread Lady, and appeared in films including Bye Bye Birdie, Airport, and Cocoon.

3. Johnny Evers

• Troy Roots: Born and raised in Troy, Johnny Evers developed as a ballplayer in the city’s rich early baseball culture before beginning his professional career. He maintained strong ties to Troy throughout his life, died in Albany, and is buried in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Troy.
• Claim to Fame: Evers became a National Baseball Hall of Fame second baseman and the National League’s 1914 Most Valuable Player. He was the celebrated middleman in the Chicago Cubs’ “Tinker to Evers to Chance” double-play combination and played on three World Series championship teams, with the Cubs in 1907 and 1908 and the Boston Braves in 1914.

4. Michael “King” Kelly

• Troy Roots: Michael Joseph “King” Kelly was born in Troy in 1857 to Irish immigrant parents. His family left Troy during his childhood, eventually settling in Paterson, New Jersey, where Kelly spent much of his youth before entering professional baseball.
• Claim to Fame: Kelly became a Baseball Hall of Famer and one of the first true sports celebrities in American popular culture. Famous for daring baserunning, rulebook gamesmanship, and showmanship, he inspired the hit song “Slide, Kelly, Slide.” Kelly won two batting titles and played on eight pennant-winning teams during his 16-season major-league career.

5. Russell Wong

• Troy Roots: Russell Wong was born in Troy in 1963 to a Chinese-American restaurateur father and a Dutch-American artist mother. He spent his early childhood in Troy before moving with his mother to California.
• Claim to Fame: Wong became a prominent film and television actor as well as a trained dancer and martial artist. He starred as Jian-Wa Chang in Vanishing Son and earned widespread recognition through roles in The Joy Luck Club (1993), New Jack City, Romeo Must Die (2000), and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

6. Joe Alaskey

• Troy Roots: Born Joseph Francis Alaskey III in Troy in 1952, he graduated from La Salle Institute and began developing his talents as an impressionist before moving into professional voice work.
• Claim to Fame: Alaskey became an Emmy-winning voice actor and one of the principal performers entrusted with Warner Bros.’ classic Looney Tunes characters after Mel Blanc. His voices included Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety, Sylvester, and Marvin the Martian, and he also voiced Grandpa Lou Pickles on Nickelodeon’s Rugrats.

7. John Morrissey (“Old Smoke”)

• Troy Roots: Born in Ireland in 1831, John Morrissey immigrated to the United States with his family in 1833, when they settled in South Troy. He attended local public schools before leaving Troy for New York City as a young man.
• Claim to Fame: Morrissey rose from bare-knuckle boxing to politics and horse racing. He was recognized as a heavyweight champion, served two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1867 to 1871, and became a major force in Saratoga racing, purchasing the controlling interest in the Saratoga race course in 1863.

8. Garnet Douglass Baltimore

• Troy Roots: Born in Troy in 1859, Garnet Douglass Baltimore was a native son of the city who earned his civil engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1881.
• Claim to Fame: Baltimore was the first African American graduate of RPI and became a respected civil engineer and landscape designer. His work included bridges, railroads, canals, waterways, and major Troy landscapes, including Prospect Park and portions of Oakwood Cemetery.

9. Robert Fuller

• Troy Roots: Born Leonard Leroy Lee Jr. in Troy in 1933, Robert Fuller spent part of his early childhood in New York before his family relocated and he was raised largely in Florida.
• Claim to Fame: Fuller became a familiar face in Westerns and television drama, starring as Jess Harper in Laramie, Cooper Smith in Wagon Train, and Dr. Kelly Brackett on the medical drama Emergency!.

10. Nick Brignola

• Troy Roots: Nick Brignola was born in Troy in 1936. He studied music at Ithaca College and remained closely connected to the Capital Region, later teaching music and jazz studies at colleges within commuting distance of his home near Troy.
• Claim to Fame: Brignola became an internationally respected jazz baritone saxophonist whose 45-year career included more than 20 albums as a leader and work with many major jazz musicians. He was especially admired for bringing unusual agility and range to the baritone saxophone.

11. Richard Selzer

• Troy Roots: Richard Selzer was born and raised in Troy. His father was a local physician, and his mother was a singer. Selzer attended Union College and Albany Medical College before beginning his own career in medicine.
• Claim to Fame: Selzer became a surgeon, essayist, and one of the most influential literary voices in modern medical humanities. He taught at Yale and wrote acclaimed books including Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery and the Troy-centered memoir Down from Troy: A Doctor Comes of Age.

12. Dave Anderson

• Troy Roots: Dave Anderson was born in Troy in 1929. His family later moved to Brooklyn, and he went on to graduate from the College of the Holy Cross before building his career in sports journalism.
• Claim to Fame: Anderson became a longtime New York Times sports columnist and won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary for his writing on sports. His career stretched across decades of Super Bowls, World Series, boxing events, and other major moments in American sports.

13. George Biddle Kelley

• Troy Roots: George Biddle Kelley was born in Troy in 1884. He attended Troy Military Academy and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute before enrolling at Cornell University, where he earned a civil engineering degree in 1908.
• Claim to Fame: Kelley was one of the seven founders, known as the “Jewels,” of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity at Cornell in 1906, the first intercollegiate African American fraternity. He later became the first African American engineer officially registered in New York State.

14. Art Ginsburg (“Mr. Food”)

• Troy Roots: Arthur Ginsburg was born in Troy in 1931 and grew up in the meat business before operating catering and food businesses in the Capital Region.
• Claim to Fame: Ginsburg became the nationally syndicated television chef known as “Mr. Food.” His short, approachable cooking segments appeared on local television newscasts across the country for more than 30 years, and his enthusiastic “Ooh! It’s so good!” became his signature catchphrase.

15. Guy Hebert

• Troy Roots: Born in Troy, Guy Hebert played youth hockey in the city and attended La Salle Institute before playing college hockey at Hamilton College, where he became a first-team All-American.
• Claim to Fame: Hebert became an NHL All-Star goaltender and the first selection of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in the 1993 NHL Expansion Draft. He spent eight seasons as Anaheim’s starting goaltender, appeared in the 1997 NHL All-Star Game, and also represented the United States internationally.

16. Mary Nash

• Troy Roots: Mary Nash was born in Troy and later built a long career on the New York stage before becoming a familiar character actress in Hollywood.
• Claim to Fame: Nash was a Broadway veteran and Golden Age film actress whose memorable screen roles included Fraulein Rottenmeier in Heidi (1937), Amanda Minchin in The Little Princess (1939), and Margaret Lord in the 1940 film The Philadelphia Story.

17. Jay S. Hammond

• Troy Roots: Jay S. Hammond was born in Troy in 1922 and attended high school in Scotia, New York, before serving as a U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot during World War II.
• Claim to Fame: Hammond served as governor of Alaska from 1974 to 1982. During his administration, Alaska voters approved creation of the Alaska Permanent Fund in 1976, and Hammond later became one of the strongest advocates for distributing a share of investment earnings to eligible Alaska residents through the Permanent Fund Dividend program.

18. Lewis Ashfield Kimberly

• Troy Roots: Lewis Ashfield Kimberly was born in Troy in 1830 and entered the United States Navy as a midshipman in 1846.
• Claim to Fame: Kimberly rose to the rank of rear admiral. During the Civil War, he served aboard the USS Hartford and was executive officer during the Battle of Mobile Bay. He later commanded American naval forces in the Pacific during the 1889 Samoan crisis and cyclone.

19. Tom Evers

• Troy Roots: Thomas Francis Evers was born in Troy in 1852, during the city’s important early era of organized baseball.
• Claim to Fame: Evers played two seasons in the major leagues, appearing for the Baltimore Orioles of the American Association in 1882 and the Washington Nationals of the Union Association in 1884. He was the uncle of Hall of Fame second baseman Johnny Evers.

20. Vincent Zandri

• Troy Roots: Vincent Zandri was born in Troy and raised in nearby Latham before eventually earning an MFA in writing from Vermont College.
• Claim to Fame: Zandri became a bestselling thriller and mystery novelist whose work has reached readers internationally. His novel Moonlight Weeps won both the 2015 International Thriller Writers Thriller Award and the Private Eye Writers of America Shamus Award for Best Original Paperback Novel.

21. Anne Darling

• Troy Roots: Anne Lansing Darling was born in Troy in 1913 before beginning a brief Hollywood career during the 1930s.
• Claim to Fame: Darling is best remembered by classic horror fans for playing the young shepherdess encountered by Boris Karloff’s monster in Universal’s Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

22. Jack Doscher

• Troy Roots: Jack Doscher was born in Troy in 1880 and went on to pitch professionally during the early years of 20th-century major-league baseball.
• Claim to Fame: Doscher pitched for the Chicago Cubs, Brooklyn Superbas, and Cincinnati Reds between 1903 and 1908. He made baseball history in 1903 by becoming the first son of a former major-league player to reach the major leagues; his father, Herm Doscher, had played during the 19th century.

23. Echo Heron

• Troy Roots: Echo Heron was born in Troy before building a professional life that combined nursing and writing.
• Claim to Fame: Heron became a New York Times bestselling author with her medical memoir Intensive Care: The Story of a Nurse, first published in 1987. She went on to write additional medical nonfiction as well as mystery and historical fiction.

24. Rudy Meoli

• Troy Roots: Rudy Meoli was born in Troy in 1951. He later attended Royal Oak High School in Covina, California, and was selected by the California Angels in the fourth round of the 1969 amateur draft.
• Claim to Fame: Meoli played six major-league seasons between 1971 and 1979 as a shortstop and utility infielder with the California Angels, Chicago Cubs, and Philadelphia Phillies.

25. William Fletcher Burden

• Troy Roots: William Fletcher Burden was born in Troy in 1830, the son of industrialist Henry Burden. He was educated in Troy and attended the Troy Polytechnic Institute, the institution that became Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, before entering the family iron business.
• Claim to Fame: Burden became a 19th-century industrialist and one of the principal managers of the family iron enterprise. During his years in management, the works expanded into one of the largest ironmaking establishments in the United States, and the Burden operation became especially famous for its enormous production of horseshoes during the Civil War.

Quick Reference: 25 Famous Figures From Troy, New York

Readers interested in more notable New Yorkers can continue with our features on 25 Famous People You Didn’t Know Were From Albany, New York, 25 Famous People You Didn’t Know Were From Schenectady, New York, 25 Famous People You Didn’t Know Were From Upstate New York, and 25 Famous People You Didn’t Know Went to College in Upstate New York.