Looking down Mohawk Street from White Street in Cohoes, one of Albany County’s historic communities. Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).
Albany County is much larger than the city that gives it its name. North of the capital, the old industrial city of Cohoes meets the Mohawk River at the great falls. In Watervliet, the history of the arsenal and the Hudson River runs through generations of working families. To the west are Guilderland and Altamont; to the south, Bethlehem and its communities of Delmar and Selkirk. Colonie and Latham form another extensive part of the county’s suburban landscape. These places have their own histories, schools, neighborhoods, and remarkable former residents.
Several of the people in this article became familiar names on television or in movie theaters. Others played major-league sports, helped lead the country’s news organizations, conducted international orchestras, or served in the military and the federal courts. Their backgrounds do not tell a single story about what it means to grow up in Albany County. Some came from small industrial cities, some from suburban neighborhoods, and some moved here as children before finding their way into fields that took them far from the Capital Region.
Albany County has also been home to people whose childhoods began elsewhere before their families moved into its towns and suburbs. The twenty individuals profiled here were born or substantially raised in communities beyond the City of Albany, from Cohoes and Watervliet to Delmar, Selkirk, Guilderland, and Latham. Their hometown connections are sometimes obscured by later careers in New York City, Hollywood, Washington, and other places far from the Hudson and Mohawk rivers.
1. Eva Marie Saint — Delmar
Before Eva Marie Saint became one of Hollywood’s most recognizable actresses, she was a student at Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar. Born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1924, Saint spent important years of her upbringing in the Albany area and graduated from Bethlehem Central in 1942. The school’s yearbook and photographs preserved in local historical collections document a young woman whose future fame was still entirely ahead of her. Her connection to Delmar is not simply a visit or a later honorary appearance; she lived there and went to school there.
Saint won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Edie Doyle opposite Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront (1954). Five years later, she starred with Cary Grant in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, in which her performance brought wit and ambiguity to one of the director’s most celebrated thrillers. Her work extended across decades of film and television. The small-town yearbook photographs from Delmar make a striking contrast with the Hollywood career that followed.
2. Sam Perkins — Latham and Colonie
Sam Perkins was born in Brooklyn, but his move to Latham as a teenager became an important turning point in his life. He enrolled at Shaker High School in the town of Colonie, where his size, skill, and mobility made him one of the most dominant basketball players in Section II history. During his senior year he lived with a local family who took him in, and his Shaker basketball years became an enduring part of the school’s athletic tradition. The move was more than a brief stop on his way to college.
At the University of North Carolina, Perkins played alongside Michael Jordan and James Worthy on the team that won the 1982 NCAA championship. He later earned an Olympic gold medal with the United States basketball team in 1984 and spent seventeen seasons in the NBA with Dallas, the Los Angeles Lakers, Seattle, and Indiana. Known for a shooting touch that extended well beyond the basket, Perkins helped demonstrate how a big man could play a more versatile offensive game. His national career had a crucial chapter in Latham.
3. George Davis — Cohoes
George Stacey Davis was born in Cohoes in 1870, when the city was an important center of textile manufacturing on the Mohawk River. He became one of the finest all-around players of baseball’s early professional era, moving through several positions before establishing himself as an outstanding shortstop. A switch-hitter with power and speed, Davis began his major-league career with the Cleveland Spiders in 1890. His birthplace is well documented by both baseball researchers and the City of Cohoes itself.
Davis later played for the New York Giants and Chicago White Sox, compiling more than 2,600 hits across a career that lasted twenty seasons. He helped Chicago win the 1906 World Series and was eventually inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1998. For many years he received far less public attention than some of his contemporaries, despite an impressive statistical record. The story of this Hall of Famer begins not in New York City, but in Cohoes.
4. Megyn Kelly — Delmar
Megyn Kelly was born in Illinois and spent part of her childhood near Syracuse before her family moved to Delmar. She attended Bethlehem Central High School, graduated in 1988, and later returned to the school for a Hall of Fame ceremony. Her adolescence in the town of Bethlehem was a substantial part of her upbringing, rather than a connection created after she became a public figure. Kelly went on to study at Syracuse University and Albany Law School, beginning her professional life as an attorney rather than a broadcaster.
She moved into television journalism and became nationally known through her work at Fox News, where she hosted The Kelly File, later moving to NBC. She subsequently developed an independent media presence through podcasts and online programming. Her interviews and commentary have often generated substantial debate, but her national profile is unmistakable. Whatever viewers think of her work, the familiar television personality was once a student in a Delmar high school.
5. Mike Mazurki — Cohoes
The actor Mike Mazurki was born in what is now Ukraine, but he grew up in Cohoes after his family immigrated to the United States. The young Mazurki became a formidable athlete, attending La Salle Institute in nearby Troy and later Manhattan College. His unusual combination of size, strength, and athletic ability eventually led him into professional wrestling. That profession would open an unexpected door to Hollywood, where casting directors could hardly overlook his imposing appearance.
Mazurki became a memorable screen presence in film noir, westerns, and crime pictures. Among his best-known performances was Moose Malloy in the 1944 detective film Murder, My Sweet; he also appeared in Dick Tracy and numerous later productions. In 2024, the Cohoes Music Hall celebrated his life and career, bringing him back into the local spotlight decades after his Hollywood heyday. His story offers an unusual route from an immigrant childhood in an Albany County mill city to the movies.
6. Matt Quatraro — Selkirk
Matt Quatraro grew up in Selkirk, a hamlet in the town of Bethlehem south of Albany. He graduated from Bethlehem Central High School in 1992, where baseball was one of several sports he played. In the Capital Region, the cold months shaped his early development: teams had to find ways to practice indoors before the spring season arrived. Quatraro’s local coaches later recalled his commitment to team play, an outlook that would become important during his coaching career.
After playing college baseball at Old Dominion University, Quatraro spent several seasons in the minor leagues and then began coaching. His work in player development led to major-league coaching positions with Cleveland and Tampa Bay. In October 2022, the Kansas City Royals hired him as their manager. His rise is particularly notable because it moved through the less visible parts of professional baseball, from minor-league instruction and coaching to the responsibility of leading a major-league club.
7. James Charles — Bethlehem
James Charles Dickinson became nationally known while he was still attending Bethlehem Central High School. Growing up in the town of Bethlehem, he began publishing makeup photographs and videos online and quickly attracted a large audience. One widely circulated story involved his decision to have a senior-year portrait retaken so that his makeup would look the way he wanted. What might once have remained a minor high school incident became a viral online moment during the rise of social-media beauty influencers.
In 2016, CoverGirl announced Charles as its first male brand ambassador, an unusually prominent role for a teenage makeup creator at that time. He went on to build a major digital-media career around cosmetics tutorials, product collaborations, and online video. Public controversies have also followed parts of his career, but they do not change the basic facts of his connection to Albany County. His rise from a Bethlehem classroom to a national beauty platform happened in full view of an online audience.
8. Jeff Hoffman — Latham
Jeff Hoffman was born in Latham in 1993 and developed as a baseball player at Shaker High School. He also played basketball there, giving him a broad athletic background before he concentrated on pitching. His rise from the school’s baseball field to professional baseball has been a source of local pride. Shaker retired his uniform number in a joint recognition with another alumnus who reached the major leagues, Tommy Kahnle.
The Toronto Blue Jays selected Hoffman with the ninth overall pick in the 2014 Major League Baseball draft. He made his major-league debut with Colorado in 2016 and later established himself as a valuable relief pitcher, earning an All-Star selection in 2024 while with Philadelphia. A move back to Toronto in 2025 added another chapter to his career. For Shaker and Latham, his professional accomplishments are a reminder that two pitchers from the same suburban high school can reach baseball’s highest level.
9. Tommy Kahnle — Latham
Like Jeff Hoffman, Tommy Kahnle grew up in Latham and attended Shaker High School. Born in 1989, he participated in multiple sports before specializing in baseball. He continued his pitching career at Lynn University in Florida, helping the school win the NCAA Division II national championship in 2009. The New York Yankees selected him in the fifth round of the 2010 draft, setting him on a professional path that began in the minor leagues.
Kahnle reached the majors in 2014 and became known as a hard-throwing relief pitcher, including during multiple stretches with the Yankees. His career also took him to other major-league clubs, making him one of the better-known contemporary baseball players with a Latham upbringing. In 2017, he and Hoffman returned to Shaker to have their former baseball numbers retired. That ceremony connected two separate professional careers to the same local school.
10. Claire Hutton — Bethlehem
Claire Hutton developed her soccer abilities in the town of Bethlehem, progressing through youth club competition and Bethlehem Central’s school program. She was already playing varsity soccer while still in middle school and became one of the Capital Region’s most celebrated young players. Her performances drew interest from major college programs, but she ultimately took a different path, choosing professional soccer rather than beginning a traditional collegiate playing career.
Hutton signed with the Kansas City Current of the National Women’s Soccer League and became a prominent young midfielder. She later joined Bay FC, and by 2026 she had earned appearances with the senior United States women’s national team. Her route from Bethlehem fields to the international level offers a more recent example of the county’s sporting talent. Unlike many historical names on this list, her professional story is still unfolding.
11. Lidiya Yankovskaya — Guilderland
Lidiya Yankovskaya was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and came to the United States with her family as a child in 1995. They settled in the Albany area, where she continued the intensive music studies she had begun in Russia. At Guilderland High School, a remarkable range of bands, orchestras, and choirs gave her opportunities to perform on piano and violin while studying music theory. She has spoken about how strongly the school’s program and the encouragement of teacher Jeffrey Herchenroder influenced her direction.
At seventeen, Yankovskaya conducted a movement of Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony with her school orchestra, an early experience that helped reveal her interest in leading performances. She went on to study at Vassar and Boston University and established an international conducting career, including leadership of Chicago Opera Theater and the founding of the Refugee Orchestra Project. Her journey from a Guilderland music classroom to opera houses abroad is a particularly meaningful example of how the county’s schools nurtured artistic talent.
12. Butch Byrd — Watervliet
George ‘Butch’ Byrd Jr. was born in Watervliet in 1941 and later attended La Salle Institute in Troy. His athletic career eventually took him to Boston University, where he developed the skills that helped him become an outstanding defensive back. Watervliet’s connection to professional football is sometimes overlooked beside the area’s better-known baseball and basketball stories, but Byrd has a substantial claim to recognition in the county’s sporting history.
Byrd played for the Buffalo Bills during the American Football League years and became one of the team’s standout defensive players. He was part of Buffalo’s AFL championship teams in 1964 and 1965, earned repeated all-star honors, and intercepted forty passes during his professional career. For older Bills fans, his name recalls the era before the AFL merged into the NFL. For Albany County, he represents a direct link between Watervliet and one of the most important periods in the history of Buffalo professional football.
13. Peter J. Dalessandro — Watervliet
Peter Joseph Dalessandro was born in Watervliet in 1921. He joined the United States Army and served in World War II, eventually fighting with the 9th Infantry Division in Europe. His most extraordinary act occurred on December 22, 1944, near Kalterherberg, Germany, when his position came under sustained attack. At considerable personal risk, he moved among fellow soldiers, directed mortar fire, and continued resisting as the situation became increasingly desperate.
Dalessandro received the Medal of Honor for his conduct during that battle. The official citation describes his efforts to protect wounded men and cover the withdrawal of his platoon. He survived the war and later returned to Watervliet, where he died in 1997. His story is different from the entertainment and sports careers elsewhere on this list, but it belongs here because a man born in this Albany County community received the nation’s highest award for military valor.
14. Neal Shapiro — Delmar
Neal Shapiro graduated from Bethlehem Central High School in Delmar in 1976, years before he became a nationally influential television-news executive. He edited the school’s newspaper, an early connection to journalism that preceded his work at the highest levels of American broadcasting. His school later recognized him in its alumni Hall of Fame, emphasizing how a student interest could develop into a professional career of major significance.
Shapiro served as executive producer of Dateline NBC and later president of NBC News. He subsequently took leadership roles in public television, including at WNET in New York. His work placed him behind the scenes of the programs seen by millions of viewers, shaping decisions about reporting, programming, and how news was presented. The student editor from Delmar eventually became a person responsible for some of the country’s most important news organizations.
15. Ed O’Keefe — Delmar
Journalist Ed O’Keefe grew up in Delmar and graduated from Bethlehem Central High School in 2001. His interest in reporting led him to American University in Washington, D.C., and then to political journalism. What makes his Albany County connection particularly clear is that local reporting has identified him as a Delmar native rather than merely a former student at a regional institution. His journey from a suburban New York high school to the nation’s capital followed an interest in the workings of government.
O’Keefe covered national politics for The Washington Post and later became a familiar correspondent on CBS News. His reporting has involved Congress, presidential campaigns, and major events in Washington. The work often requires explaining complicated political developments to audiences outside the capital. In that respect, a reporter who once lived just outside New York’s own state capital went on to spend his career examining the business of the federal government.
16. Loretta Preska — Delmar
Federal judge Loretta Preska was born in the City of Albany but grew up in Delmar, where her father worked as an engineer at the Watervliet Arsenal. She graduated from Bethlehem Central High School in 1966, participated in Girl Scouts, and later recalled the influence of her teachers and community experiences. Her upbringing was in the town of Bethlehem, not the City of Albany, which is why she belongs in this county-focused article rather than being listed here merely for her birthplace.
Preska earned a chemistry degree from the College of Saint Rose before deciding to pursue law. After Fordham Law School and private practice, she was appointed a federal judge for the Southern District of New York in 1992. She served as chief judge from 2009 to 2016 and later took senior status. Her professional career unfolded largely in New York City, but interviews and local records make clear that Delmar was the community where much of her childhood and early education took place.
17. Harold J. Greene — Guilderland
Harold J. Greene was born in Boston, but his family moved to Guilderland in 1970 when he was a child. He attended local schools beginning in sixth grade and graduated from Guilderland High School in 1977. Friends and family recalled a young man who delivered newspapers, enjoyed sports, and approached schoolwork seriously. Those details establish a genuine Albany County upbringing rather than a passing professional connection to the region.
Greene graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and became a career Army officer whose specialties included engineering, acquisition, and military technology. In August 2014, while serving in Afghanistan, he was killed during an attack at a military training facility near Kabul. He was the highest-ranking American officer killed in a combat zone since the Vietnam War. An Army innovation award later carried his name. His connection to Guilderland remains an important part of how the Capital Region remembers him.
18. Joseph Finder — Latham
Thriller novelist Joseph Finder was born in Chicago and spent parts of his childhood in other countries and American communities before his family settled in the Albany area. He attended Shaker High School in Latham, establishing a meaningful connection to the town of Colonie during his teenage years. His later academic work centered on Russian studies at Yale and Harvard, interests that helped shape the international and corporate intrigue of his fiction.
Finder became a bestselling writer of suspense novels, including High Crimes, Paranoia, and the Nick Heller series. Both High Crimes and Paranoia were adapted for the screen. His books frequently explore secrecy, power, and the consequences of decisions made inside large institutions. Readers familiar with the novels may not associate their author with a Latham high school, making him an appropriate entry in a county list that looks beyond the capital city.
19. Carmen Mastren — Cohoes
Carmen Mastren was born in Cohoes in 1913, under the family name Mastrandrea. He learned several instruments, including violin and banjo, before concentrating on guitar. By the 1930s, he was working professionally in jazz, moving from local musical surroundings to the demanding world of major swing orchestras. His technical control and understated rhythm playing made him valuable to bandleaders even when his name was not prominent on theater marquees.
Mastren became a guitarist and occasional arranger with Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra, recorded with important jazz musicians, and served in the Glenn Miller Army Air Forces band during World War II. He later worked in radio and television studio music. Musicians and historians of swing still recognize his contribution to the ensemble sound of the era. For readers interested in New York’s musical history, he is an especially strong example of the talent that emerged from the smaller cities of Albany County.
20. Emily Axford — Bethlehem
Emily Axford grew up in the Albany suburbs and attended Bethlehem Central High School, graduating in the early 2000s. She later studied at George Washington University and developed her comedy skills through improvisation. Her childhood in the town of Bethlehem preceded a career shaped by digital sketch comedy, television writing, and performances that combine humor with collaborative storytelling.
Axford worked with CollegeHumor, appeared on Adam Ruins Everything, and created the comedy series Hot Date with Brian Murphy. She also became a central performer in the tabletop role-playing series Dimension 20 and the podcast Not Another D&D Podcast, for which she also contributes music. These projects have built large audiences through internet-first entertainment rather than conventional broadcast television. Her success adds a distinct contemporary creative voice to the county’s list of notable former residents.
Albany County Beyond the Capital
Taken together, these careers show why Albany County’s story cannot be told solely through the history of the state capital. Cohoes produced a Hall of Fame baseball player, a film character actor, and a swing-era musician. Watervliet has connections to a Buffalo Bills champion and a Medal of Honor recipient. Guilderland helped nurture an internationally known conductor, while Delmar, Selkirk, and Latham supplied their own future leaders in sports, journalism, the judiciary, and entertainment.
For more New York lives and local connections, read our separate article on 25 famous people born in the City of Albany and our statewide look at famous people from Upstate New York. The city and county stories complement one another, but they are not the same story.
