Reading Famous People From Reading

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List of famous people from Reading, including photos when available. The people below are listed by their popularity, so the most recognizable names are at the top of the list. Some of the people below are celebrities born in Reading, while others are simply notable locals. If you're from Reading you might already know that these prominent figures are also from your hometown, but some of the names below may really surprise you. This list includes people who were born and raised in Reading, as well as those who were born there but moved away at a young age.

Examples of people on this list: David Gill, Alexander Ross Clarke and more.

If you want to answer the questions, "Which famous people are from Reading?" or "Which celebrities were born in Reading?" then this list is a great resource for you.

Taylor Swift is listed (or ranked) 1 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 28 Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. Raised in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 14 to pursue a career in country music. She signed ...more

Kate Winslet is listed (or ranked) 2 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 42 Kate Elizabeth Winslet, CBE, is an English actress and singer. She is the recipient of an Academy Award, an Emmy Award, three Golden Globe Awards and a Grammy Award. She is the youngest person ...more

Natalie Dormer is listed (or ranked) 3 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 36 Natalie Dormer is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Anne Boleyn in the Showtime series The Tudors, Irene Adler in Elementary, and Margaery Tyrell in the HBO series Game of ...more

Sam Mendes is listed (or ranked) 4 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 52 Samuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes, CBE is an English stage and film director. He is best known for directing the comedy-drama film American Beauty, which earned him the Academy Award and ...more

Will Young is listed (or ranked) 5 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 39 William Robert "Will" Young is a British singer-songwriter and actor who came to prominence after winning the 2002 inaugural series of the British music contest Pop Idol, making him ...more

Keith Haring is listed (or ranked) 6 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 32 (1958-1990) Keith Allen Haring was an American artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s by expressing concepts of birth, death, sexuality, and war. ...more

Lucy Benjamin is listed (or ranked) 7 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 47 Lucy Benjamin is an English actress.

Meg Foster is listed (or ranked) 8 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 69 Margaret "Meg" Foster is an American actress best known for her roles in the TV miniseries version of The Scarlet Letter and the films Ticket to Heaven, The Osterman Weekend and They

Michael Constantine is listed (or ranked) 9 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 90 Michael Constantine is an American actor of Greek descent. He is probably now best known for his portrayal of Kostas "Gus" Portokalos, the Windex bottle-toting Greek father of Toula ...more

Doug Williams is listed (or ranked) 10 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 45 Douglas Clayton Durdle is an English professional wrestler, better known by his ring name Doug Williams. He is best known for his work in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling, where he was a one–time ...more

Elizabeth Taylor is listed (or ranked) 11 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 79 (1932-2011) Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-born American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of ...more

Megan Gallagher is listed (or ranked) 12 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 58 Megan Gallagher is an American actress. Her best-known roles are probably as Garry Shandling's wife on the HBO comedy The Larry Sanders Show, and as Catherine Black, wife of Frank Black on the ...more

Wallace Stevens is listed (or ranked) 13 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 76 (1879-1955) Wallace Stevens was an American Modernist poet. He was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, educated at Harvard and then New York Law School, and he spent most of his life working as an executive for ...more

Damien Kane is listed (or ranked) 14 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 57 Damien Kane is an American and retired professional wrestler and manager. He is best known for his appearances with the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based promotion Extreme Championship Wrestling ...more

Jillian Murray is listed (or ranked) 15 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 33 Jillian Leigh Murray is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles as Portlyn on Sonny With a Chance, Olivia on MTV's Awkward, Gwen Adams in American High School, Lex Mitchell ...more

Brian Gibson is listed (or ranked) 16 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 60 (1944-2004) Brian Gibson was an English film director.

John Kendrick is listed (or ranked) 17 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 51 (1573-1624) John Kendrick was a prosperous English cloth merchant and patron of the towns of Reading and Newbury in Berkshire. Kendrick was born in Reading, Berkshire, possibly in Minster Street, in 1573 ...more

Cormac Murphy-O'Connor is listed (or ranked) 18 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 85 Cormac Murphy-O'Connor is a retired bishop and cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster and former President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and ...more

Peter Brocco is listed (or ranked) 19 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 89 (1903-1992) Peter Brocco was an American film and TV character actor for nearly 60 years. He appeared as a criminal type in several episodes of Adventures of Superman. He holds the distinction of having ...more

Ronald Millar is listed (or ranked) 20 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 79 (1919-1998) Ronald Miller is an author.

Richard Vernon is listed (or ranked) 21 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 72 (1925-1997) Richard Vernon was a British actor. He appeared in many feature films and television programmes, often in aristocratic or supercilious roles. Prematurely balding and greying, Vernon settled in ...more

David Gill is listed (or ranked) 22 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 60 David Alan Gill is British football executive, formerly chief executive of Manchester United and a vice-chairman of The Football Association. He served as vice-chairman of the G-14 management ...more

Michael O'Pake is listed (or ranked) 23 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 70 (1940-2010) Michael A. "Mike" O'Pake was a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania State Senate who represented the 11th District since his election in 1972. He had been the Democratic Whip in ...more

Kevin Laffan is listed (or ranked) 24 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 81 (1922-2003) Kevin Barry Laffan was an English playwright, screenwriter, author, actor and stage director. Laffan is best known for creating the ITV soap opera Emmerdale Farm, now titled Emmerdale. Raised in ...more

Walter Francis Willcox is listed (or ranked) 25 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 103 (1861-1964) Walter Francis Willcox, Ph.D., LL.D. was an American statistician. He was born in Reading, Massachusetts, to William Henry Willcox and Anne Holmes Goodenow. He was graduated from Phillips ...more

Dorothy Christy is listed (or ranked) 26 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 71 (1906-1977) Dorothy Christy was an American actress. She acted with Will Rogers, Buster Keaton and the Marx Brothers and with Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in the film Sons of the Desert, in the role of Mrs ...more

Russell Weigley is listed (or ranked) 27 on the list Famous People From Reading
Russell Weigley Dec. at 74 (1930-2004) Russell Frank Weigley, PhD, was the Distinguished University Professor of History at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and a noted military historian. His research and teaching ...more

John Elliott is listed (or ranked) 28 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 87 Sir John Huxtable Elliott, FBA, who normally publishes as J. H. Elliott, is an English historian, Regius Professor Emeritus at Oxford University and Honorary Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford and ...more

Aaron Bancroft is listed (or ranked) 29 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 84 (1755-1839) Aaron Bancroft was an American clergyman. He was born in Reading, Massachusetts to Samuel Bancroft and Lydia Parker.

Eliza Bennett is listed (or ranked) 30 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 26 Eliza Hope Bennett is an English actress and singer. Her most notable roles have been those of Meggie Folchart in the film Inkheart, Tora in the film Nanny McPhee, Susan in From Time to Time and ...more

Cris Freddi is listed (or ranked) 31 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 63 Cris Freddi is a British author. Freddi was born in Reading, England. He was educated at Reading School and then Oxford University, where he was lead singer in the Les Milkins Band. Since then, ...more

Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg is listed (or ranked) 32 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 93 (1887-1980) Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg II, FAIA was a leading architect, an American military and political leader who served one term as a US Congressman from Pennsylvania, and a member of the ...more

Arthur Negus is listed (or ranked) 33 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 82 (1903-1985) Arthur George Negus, OBE was born in Reading, Berkshire, England. He was a broadcaster and antiques expert.

John Soane is listed (or ranked) 34 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 84 (1753-1837) Sir John Soane RA was an English architect who specialised in the Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professor of architecture at the ...more

Jim Steranko is listed (or ranked) 35 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 79 James F. "Jim" Steranko is an American graphic artist, comic book writer/artist, historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator. His most famous comic book work was ...more

John R. Klauder is listed (or ranked) 36 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 86 John R. Klauder is an American professor of physics and mathematics and author of over 250 published articles on physics. He graduated from University of California, Berkeley in 1953 with a ...more

A. E. Wilder-Smith is listed (or ranked) 37 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 80 (1915-1995) Arthur Ernest Wilder-Smith, FRSC, more commonly known as A. E. Wilder-Smith, was a British organic chemist and young Earth creationist.

Charles Simeon is listed (or ranked) 38 on the list Famous People From Reading
Charles Simeon Dec. at 77 (1759-1836) Charles Simeon, was an English evangelical clergyman.

Robert Bridges is listed (or ranked) 39 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 50 (1938-1988) Robert Bridges was an actor and the uncle of English actress Kate Winslet.

Adam Blake is listed (or ranked) 40 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 42 Adam Blake is an English musician and songwriter, best known as founder member, producer and drummer of the electronic music band Zoot Woman. He produces remixes under the aliases Paper Faces, ...more

Gus Yatron is listed (or ranked) 41 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 76 (1927-2003) Constantine "Gus" Yatron was an American politician who was a member of the United States House of Representatives. A member of the Democratic Party, Yatron represented the 6th ...more

Martin Cruz Smith is listed (or ranked) 42 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 75 Martin Cruz Smith is an American mystery novelist.

Didz Hammond is listed (or ranked) 43 on the list Famous People From Reading
Didz Hammond age 36 David Jonathan Hammond, better known as Didz Hammond, is an English bassist. He was the bassist and backing vocalist in The Cooper Temple Clause, and in Carl Barât's Dirty Pretty Things. ...more

Bob Price is listed (or ranked) 44 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 77 (1927-2004) Robert Dale Price, known as Bob Price, was a Republican U.S. representative from Pampa, Texas, who served from 1967 to 1975. He was subsequently from 1978 to 1981 a member of the Texas State ...more

John Altman is listed (or ranked) 45 on the list Famous People From Reading
age 66 John Altman is an English actor and singer, perhaps best known for playing "Nasty" Nick Cotton in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders. He was among the show's original cast members ...more

James Hinton is listed (or ranked) 46 on the list Famous People From Reading
James Hinton Dec. at 53 (1822-1875) James Hinton was an English surgeon and author. He is the father of mathematician Charles Howard Hinton.

Edwin G. Booz is listed (or ranked) 47 on the list Famous People From Reading
Edwin G. Booz Dec. at 64 (1887-1951) Edwin G. Booz founded the consulting firm Booz Allen & Hamilton, the predecessor of both Booz Allen Hamilton - which focuses on government contracting - and the former Booz & Company, ...more

Denys Coop is listed (or ranked) 48 on the list Famous People From Reading
Dec. at 61 (1920-1981) Denys Coop BSC was a British cinematographer. He is sometimes credited as Denys N. Coop. Denys was a past president of the British Society of Cinematographers.

Katie Skelton is listed (or ranked) 49 on the list Famous People From Reading
Katie Skelton age 30 Katie Skelton is an athlete.

Richard Howitt is listed (or ranked) 50 on the list Famous People From Reading
Richard Howitt age 56 Richard Stuart Howitt is a Member of the European Parliament for the Labour Party for the East of England. He has been a member of the European Parliament since 1994.