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

Downtown Saratoga Springs along Broadway in Saratoga Springs, New York. Photo: Brian Logan Photography / Shutterstock

Famed worldwide for its historic thoroughbred race course, natural mineral springs, Victorian architecture, and the cultural legacy of Yaddo, Saratoga Springs has long been celebrated as the “Queen of the Spas.” For generations, visitors have come to walk Broadway, take the waters, attend the races, and experience a city whose identity reaches far beyond summer tourism. Its history also includes writers, performers, athletes, lawyers, journalists, artists, and civic figures whose lives became part of the larger American story.

Everyone gathered here has a documented connection to Saratoga Springs. Some were born in the city, others grew up or attended school there, and several became closely identified with Saratoga Springs through decades of residence, work, or civic life. Together, they show just how much talent has emerged from this remarkable corner of Saratoga County.

1. David Hyde Pierce

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Born and raised in Saratoga Springs, David Hyde Pierce graduated from Saratoga Springs High School in 1977 before attending Yale University. His interest in music and theater developed while he was still growing up in the city.
• Claim to Fame: Pierce became one of television’s most recognizable comic actors through his portrayal of Dr. Niles Crane on Frasier. He won four Primetime Emmy Awards for the role and later added major Broadway success, including a Tony Award for Curtains.

2. Dottie Pepper

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Born in Saratoga Springs in 1965, Dottie Pepper grew up in the area and graduated from Saratoga Springs High School in 1983. She became an outstanding junior and amateur golfer before attending Furman University.
• Claim to Fame: Pepper won 17 LPGA Tour events, including two major championships, and represented the United States in six Solheim Cups. After retiring from competitive golf, she built a second career in television and became the lead walking reporter for CBS Sports’ golf coverage.

3. Charles Brackett

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Charles William Brackett was born in Saratoga Springs in 1892, the son of prominent Saratoga attorney and state senator Edgar Truman Brackett. He later studied at Williams College and Harvard Law School before moving into writing and film.
• Claim to Fame: Brackett became an Academy Award-winning screenwriter and producer whose long partnership with Billy Wilder produced such films as The Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard, and Ninotchka. He also served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences from 1949 to 1955.

4. Monty Woolley

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Edgar Montillion “Monty” Woolley was born in New York City in 1888, but Saratoga Springs played an important role in his childhood. His father operated the Grand Union Hotel, and the family maintained a home on the hotel grounds. Woolley spent formative years around Saratoga’s hotel and theatrical world and later retired to the city.
• Claim to Fame: Woolley became a celebrated stage and screen actor, best remembered as Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came to Dinner. He received Academy Award nominations for The Pied Piper and Since You Went Away and is buried in Saratoga Springs’ Greenridge Cemetery.

5. Frank Sullivan

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Francis John Sullivan was born in Saratoga Springs in 1892, attended Saratoga Springs High School, and worked for The Saratogian before building a career in New York City. He eventually returned to his hometown and spent his later years there.
• Claim to Fame: Sullivan became one of The New Yorker‘s best-known early humorists. His first piece for the magazine appeared in January 1926, and his recurring character Mr. Arbuthnot, the “Cliché Expert,” became one of his signatures.

6. George Speck (“George Crum”)

• Saratoga Springs Roots: George Speck, better known as George Crum, became one of Saratoga’s best-known 19th-century cooks through his work at Moon’s Lake House on Saratoga Lake. He later operated his own restaurant in the Saratoga area.
• Claim to Fame: Crum stands at the center of the famous Saratoga potato-chip story. The old tale credits him with inventing the potato chip in 1853 after a customer complained about thick fried potatoes. Historians have shown that thin fried potato recipes existed earlier, but Crum clearly helped popularize the crisp potatoes that became known nationally as Saratoga chips.

7. Solomon Northup

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Solomon Northup was born free in Minerva, New York, and later lived in Saratoga Springs with his wife and children for about seven years. He worked in the area and earned money as a skilled violinist before being lured away with the promise of professional work.
• Claim to Fame: In 1841, Northup was kidnapped in Washington, D.C., and sold into slavery in Louisiana. After regaining his freedom in 1853, he published Twelve Years a Slave, one of the most important firsthand accounts of American slavery.

8. Scott Valentine

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Scott Valentine was born and raised in Saratoga Springs. He became interested in acting while growing up in the city before eventually studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York.
• Claim to Fame: Valentine became a familiar face to 1980s television audiences as Nick Moore, Mallory Keaton’s leather-jacketed artist boyfriend on the hit sitcom Family Ties.

9. Moira D’Andrea

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Moira D’Andrea was born in Saratoga Springs in 1968 and competed with the Saratoga Winter Club as she developed into an international speed skater.
• Claim to Fame: D’Andrea represented the United States in speed skating at the 1992 and 1998 Winter Olympics. Her international career stretched across World Cup, World Championship, and Olympic competition, and she later worked as a coach with the Canadian national speed skating team.

10. Matt Riddle

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Matt Riddle moved to Saratoga Springs while growing up and attended Saratoga Springs High School. He became a standout scholastic wrestler and won a New York State high school wrestling championship in 2004.
• Claim to Fame: Riddle moved from amateur wrestling into mixed martial arts, competed in the UFC, and later became a professional wrestling star. During his WWE career, he won the United States Championship and multiple tag team championships.

11. Anthony Weaver

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Anthony Weaver was raised in Saratoga Springs and graduated from Saratoga Springs High School in 1998, where he excelled in football before playing at Notre Dame.
• Claim to Fame: Weaver was selected by the Baltimore Ravens in the second round of the 2002 NFL Draft and played seven seasons in the league. He later built a coaching career in the NFL and returned to Baltimore as the Ravens’ defensive coordinator in 2026.

12. Don Pepper

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Don Pepper was born in Saratoga Springs in 1943 and became a standout athlete in the city before signing with the Detroit Tigers organization.
• Claim to Fame: Pepper reached the major leagues with Detroit in 1966, appearing in four games. He remained highly regarded as a prospect and was featured by Sports Illustrated in 1968 before leaving professional baseball and returning to the Saratoga area. His daughter, Dottie Pepper, went on to become one of the most successful golfers to come from New York State.

13. Kathryn H. Starbuck

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Kathryn H. Starbuck was born in Saratoga Springs in 1887. She attended local schools before graduating from Vassar College and becoming one of the early women graduates of Albany Law School.
• Claim to Fame: Starbuck became an attorney, educator, and leading Saratoga County suffrage organizer. She chaired the Saratoga County organization of the New York State Woman Suffrage Party, later became the first chair of the Saratoga County League of Women Voters, and spent decades as a professor, administrator, and trustee at Skidmore College.

14. Clarence H. Knapp

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Clarence Hollister Knapp was born in Saratoga Springs in 1877, attended local schools, and returned to the city after studying at Cornell University and Albany Law School.
• Claim to Fame: Knapp combined civic life with a career as a humorist. He served as mayor of Saratoga Springs from 1924 through 1927 and became a frequent contributor to The New Yorker, where his comic “Sob Ballads” appeared for years.

15. Helen Badgley

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Helen Badgley was born in Saratoga Springs in 1910 and entered motion pictures when she was still a toddler.
• Claim to Fame: Known as the “Thanhouser Kidlet,” Badgley became one of the best-known child performers of the Thanhouser Film Corporation during the silent era. Her film career began in 1911 and continued through 1917.

16. Carleton J. King

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Carleton James King was born in Saratoga Springs in 1904, attended the city’s public schools, studied law, and practiced in Saratoga Springs.
• Claim to Fame: King served as Saratoga County district attorney from 1950 through 1960 and represented an upstate New York district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1961 until the end of 1974.

17. Kathleen Kauth

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Kathleen Kauth was born in Saratoga Springs in 1979 and grew up in the city’s strong skating and hockey culture before playing college hockey at Brown University.
• Claim to Fame: Kauth became a member of the United States women’s national hockey team, won a world championship gold medal in 2005, and earned an Olympic bronze medal with Team USA at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin.

18. Hiram Charles Todd

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Hiram Charles Todd was born in Saratoga Springs in 1876, attended Saratoga Springs High School, and returned to practice law in the city after graduating from Union College.
• Claim to Fame: Todd became a prominent attorney who served as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York in the early 1920s. His long legal career also included work on major state and federal investigations and service as one of the counsel involved in the 1913 impeachment proceedings against New York Governor William Sulzer.

19. Jane Roberts

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Jane Roberts grew up in Saratoga Springs and attended Skidmore College. She began as a poet and fiction writer before becoming widely known for a very different body of work.
• Claim to Fame: Roberts became one of the most influential writers associated with the modern New Age movement through the books known collectively as the Seth Material. Beginning in the 1960s, Roberts said she received material from a nonphysical personality she called Seth, while her husband, Robert F. Butts, recorded the sessions.

20. Ashley Bathgate

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Cellist Ashley Bathgate is from Saratoga Springs and began studying the cello there. Her early musical education included work at Skidmore College before she continued her studies at Bard College and Yale University.
• Claim to Fame: Bathgate became a prominent performer of contemporary classical and avant-garde music. She spent ten years as a member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars and has built an international career as a soloist, chamber musician, and recording artist.

21. Joseph Bruchac

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Joseph Bruchac was born in Saratoga Springs and graduated from Saratoga Springs High School in 1960. He later returned to the region while building a career centered on writing, storytelling, teaching, and publishing.
• Claim to Fame: Bruchac has written more than 180 books for children and adults, including Code Talker and Rez Dogs. The writer, musician, and traditional storyteller was appointed Saratoga Springs’ first poet laureate in 2023.

22. Michael Rowland

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Michael Rowland was born in Saratoga Springs in 1963 and grew up around horse racing. His father was a harness trainer, giving Rowland an early introduction to the sport.
• Claim to Fame: Rowland became a highly successful professional jockey and finished his career just short of 4,000 victories. He won 29 meet titles at Thistledown and was inducted posthumously into the Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame in 2006.

23. James A. Murphy III

• Saratoga Springs Roots: James A. Murphy III graduated from Saratoga Springs High School in 1979 and built much of his legal career in Saratoga County.
• Claim to Fame: Murphy served for many years as Saratoga County district attorney before being elected Saratoga County Court judge in 2014. He also served as an acting justice of the New York State Supreme Court and retired from the bench at the end of 2024.

24. Edgar Truman Brackett

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Edgar Truman Brackett was born in nearby Wilton in 1853 and returned to Saratoga Springs after college, establishing a law practice and becoming deeply involved in the city’s business and civic life. He founded the Adirondack Trust Company and served as its first president.
• Claim to Fame: Brackett served in the New York State Senate and became a major advocate for protecting Saratoga’s mineral springs from commercial over-pumping. His campaign helped establish the State Reservation in 1909, an important predecessor of Saratoga Spa State Park.

25. Katrina Trask

• Saratoga Springs Roots: Katrina Trask was born in Brooklyn, but Saratoga Springs became one of the defining places of her life. She and her husband, Spencer Trask, acquired the Saratoga estate that became Yaddo in 1881 and developed it as their home and creative refuge.
• Claim to Fame: Trask was an author, philanthropist, and co-founder of Yaddo. She and Spencer envisioned their Saratoga estate as a permanent retreat for artists, writers, and composers. The first Yaddo guests arrived in 1926, and nearly 7,000 artists have since worked there.

Quick Reference: 25 Famous Figures From Saratoga Springs, New York

Readers interested in more Saratoga and upstate New York history can continue with our History of Saratoga Racetrack, 25 Famous People You Didn’t Know Were From Upstate New York, 25 Famous People You Didn’t Know Were From Albany, New York, and 25 Famous People You Didn’t Know Were From Schenectady, New York.