Famous people who grew up or lived in and around San Francisco Bay Area

Bill Russell1943–1952

📍 West Oakland, Oakland, California, USA

I was born in Monroe, Louisiana, where segregation and racist humiliation were part of daily life. My father, Charlie, refused to bow to it, and my parents decided they would not raise…

Clint Eastwood1930–1954

📍 San Francisco, CA 94102

Clinton Eastwood Jr. was born in San Francisco in May 1930, during the Depression, the elder child of Clinton Eastwood Sr., a steelworker and later a businessman, and Margaret Ruth Runner…

Etta James1950–1954

📍 Fillmore District, San Francisco, CA, USA

I was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles in January 1938. My mother, Dorothy, was fourteen when she had me and was often away, so I was raised by foster parents, Mama Lu and Sarge, and…

Harvey Milk1973–1978

📍 575 Castro Street, San Francisco, CA 94114, USA

I grew up in Woodmere, on Long Island, in a Jewish family that ran a department store, and I kept my sexuality hidden for most of my early life — in the Navy, on Wall Street, in jobs and…

Kirk Hammett1970–1983

📍 El Sobrante, CA, USA

Kirk Lee Hammett was born in San Francisco in November 1962, to a father of Irish descent who was a merchant marine and a Filipino mother, and he grew up in El Sobrante, a working-class…

Robin Williams1968–1969

📍 Tiburon, California, USA

I spent most of my childhood in a huge house in Bloomfield Hills, outside Detroit, where my father was an executive with Ford. He was often away, and my mother was busy with her social…

Tom Brady1977–1995

📍 317 Portola Drive, San Mateo, CA 94403, USA

Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. was born in San Mateo, California, in August 1977, the youngest child and only son of Tom Brady Sr and Galynn Johnson, and grew up in a sports-mad household…

Tom Hanks1966–1974

📍 Oakland, California, USA

Tom Hanks was born in Concord, California, in July 1956, and after his parents divorced when he was five, he moved constantly with his father, Amos, an itinerant cook, and his siblings…

Zendaya1996–2010

📍 Oakland, California, USA

Zendaya Maree Stoermer Coleman was born in Oakland, California, in September 1996. Both her parents were teachers: her mother, Claire Stoermer, taught in Oakland's public schools, and her…