PROMINENT COLUMBIANS
COLUMBIA'S PROMINENT ALUMNI
This list is only a snapshot of prominent Columbia University alumni. For a complete listing, click this link. Also, the University celebrated its 250th year anniversary in 2004 and listed 250 of its graduates "ahead of their time," at this link and top-30 attendees at this link.
Key: CC-Columbia College, BC-Barnard College, SEAS-School of Engineering and Applied Science, GS-School of General Studies
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Brian DePalma, CC 1962—Filmmaker, "Mission: Impossible," "Scarface," "Femme Fatale"
Brian Dennehy, CC 1960—Actor, Tony award-winner, "Death of a Salesman"
Matthew Fox, CC 1989—Actor, "Party of Five," "Lost," "We Are Marshall"
Art Garfunkel, CC 1965—Musician, Grammy award-winner
Ira Gershwin, Pre-Med 1918—Composer "Funny Face," "An American in Paris," "Porgy and Bess"
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 2000—Actor "Third Rock from the Sun," "Inception"
Jake Gyllenhall Actor, 1998—"October Sky," "Donnie Darko," "Brokeback Mountain"
Maggie Gyllenhaal, CC 1999—Actress, "Secretary," "Adaptation," "Mona Lisa Smile"
Oscar Hammerstein II, CC 1916—Lyricist and librettist
Alicia Keys, 1998—Recording artist "If I Ain't Got You," "Fallin," "Empire State of Mind," 15-time Grammy Award winner
Tony Kushner, CC 1978—Playwright, "Angels in America," Pulitzer and Tony award-winner
Herman Mankiewicz, CC 1917—Screenwriter, "Citizen Kane," Academy award-winner
Kate McKinnon, CC 2006—Actress and comedien "Saturday Night Live," "Ghostbusters," "TheBig Gay Sketch Show"
Cynthia Nixon, BC 1988—Actress, "Sex and the City"
Anna Paquin, CC 2004—Actress, "True Blood"
Joan Rivers, BC 1954—Emmy Award winning comedienne
Richard Rogers, CC 1923—Composer
Ben Stein, CC 1966—Actor, lawyer, commentator
Julia Stiles, CC 2005—Actress, "Save the Last Dance," "Mona Lisa Smile"
Suzanne Vega, BC 1981—Singer/songwriter
Kristi Zea, GS 1974—Producer, "As Good As It Gets," "Silence of the Lambs," Academy award-winner
BUSINESS
Warren Buffett, BUS 1951—CEO of Berkshire Hathaway
Ursula Burns, SEAS 1981—First female African American of a Fortune 500 company, Xerox
William V. Campbell, CC 1962—Chairman, Intuit, Inc.
Eileen Ford, BC 1943—Co-founder Ford Modeling Agency
Arthur Hauspurg, SEAS 1945—Former chairman and CEO of Con Edison
Helene Kaplan, BC 1953—Director, Exxon Mobil, JP Morgan Chase
John Kluge, CC 1937—Entrepreneur, founder of Metromedia, Inc.
Sallie Krawcheck, BUS 1992—CEO, Citi Golbal Wealth, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Ellevate
Alfred Lerner, CC 1955—CEO and chairman of the MBNA, owner, Cleveland Browns
Philip L. Milstein, CC 1971—Principal, Ogden CAP Properties
Pete Slosberg, SEAS 1972—Founder of Pete's Brewing Company (Pete's Wicked Ale)
Mark H. Willes, CC 1962—Chairman, President and CEO, Times Mirror Company, former publisher of the Los Angeles Times
EDUCATION AND HUMANITIES
Jacques Barzun, CC 1927—Presidential Medal of Honor awardee
Ellen Futter, BC 1971—Barnard College President Emerita
Joel Klein, CC 1967—Former Chancellor of the New York City school system
Michael Sovern, CC 1953—Chancellor Kent Professor of Law, Columbia University, Columbia University President Emeritus
Robert A.M. Stern, CC 1960—Dean, Yale School of Architecture
Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, CC 1959—President, George Washington University
GOVERNMENT
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, LLB 1959—Supreme Court Justice
Samuel Blatchford, CC 1837—Former Supreme Court Justice
Nicholas Murray Butler, CC 1882—Advisor to seven U.S. Presidents, Nobel Peace Prize-winner, Columbia University President Emeritus
DeWitt Clinton, CC 1786—Former New York state senator and governor, former New York City mayor
Judd Gregg, CC 1969—U.S. Senator, New Hampshire
Alexander Hamilton, King's College, 1774-76—Secretary of the Treasury
John Jay, King's College, 1764—Judge, statesman, abolitionist
Judith Kaye, BC 1958—Chief Judge, New York State Court of Appeals
Jeane Kirkpatrick, BC 1948—First woman to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations
Robert Livingston, King's College, 1765—First U.S. Secretary of State
Seth Low, CC 1870—Former mayor of Brooklyn and New York City, former president of Columbia University
Governeur Morris, King's College 1768—Credited with writing the final edition of the U.S. Constitution and the preamble
Barack Obama, CC 1983—44th President of the United States
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Law school 1904-07—32nd President of the United States
Theodore Roosevelt, Law School, 1880-81—26th President of the United States
George Stephanopoulos, CC 1982—Anchor of ABC's "This Week," former presidential advisor
Daniel Tompkins, CC 1795—Former U.S. Vice President and Governor of New York
LITERATURE
Isaac Asimov, CC 1939—Author, I, Robot
Donald Clifford Brace, CC 1904—Co-founder Harcourt Brace & Company
Allen Ginsberg, CC 1948—Author, Howl and Other Poems
Mary Gordon, BC 1971—Author, Men and Angels, Joan of Arc
Patricia Highsmith, BC 1942—Author, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Strangers on a Train
Langston Hughes, School of Mines 1921-22—Poet
Zora Neale Hurston, BC 1928—Author, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Jack Kerouac, CC 1940-42—Author, On the Road
J.D. Salinger, 1939—Author, Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey
MEDIA
Roone Arledge, CC 1952—Former President, ABC News & Sports
Katherine Boo, BC 1988—Reporter, The Washington Post, Pulitzer Prize winner
Gary Cohen, CC 1983—TV play-by-play announcer, New York Mets
Chet Forte, CC 1957—Director, ABC Sports, creator of "Monday Night Football"
Max Kellerman, CC 1998—"ESPN First Take," "HBO Boxing After Dark"
Leonard Koppett, CC 1944—Sportswriter, inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame
Janice Min, CC 1990—Chief Creative Officer, The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard, Editor-in-Chief, US Magazine
Martha Nelson, BC 1976—Managing Editor, People magazine, founder InStyle magazine
Joyce Purnick, BC 1967—Metropolitan writer, The New York Times
Attoosa Rubenstein, BC 1993—Editor-in-Chief and creator of Cosmo-GIRL!
Claire Shipman, CC 1986—Senior national correspondent, ABC News' "Good Morning America," Former White House Press Secretary under Barack Obama
Suzy Shuster, CC 1994—Sideline reporter, ABC Sports College Football
Susan Stamburg, BC 1959—First woman to anchor a nightly news program
Arthur Hays Sulzberger, CC 1913—Former publisher and president, The New York Times Company
Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, CC 1951—Former publisher, The New York Times
SCIENCE, MEDICINE AND HEALTH
David Altchek, CC 1978—Renowned orthopedic surgeon
Edwin Armstrong, School of Mines 1913—Inventor of FM Radio
Amelia Earhart, GS 1919-1920—Aviator
Herman Hollerith, School of Mines 1879—Invented the precursor to modern-day calculators and computers
Joshua Lederberg, CC 1944—Nobel Prize winner, medicine
Michael J. Massimino, SEAS 1984—U.S. Astronaut, NASA
Margaret Mead, BC 1923—Anthropologist
Norman Ramsey, CC 1935—Nobel Prize winner, physic, worked on the Manhattan Project
Helen Ranney, BC 1941—First female chair of a university department of medicine
John Cox-Stevens, King's College 1768—Invented the world's first steamboat oceanliner
SPORTS
Caitlin "Katy" Bilodeau, CC 1987—Four-time All-American fencer at Columbia, two-time Olympian, NCAA female athlete of the decade
Eddie Collins, CC 1907—Baseball Hall of Fame inductee
Lou Gehrig, CC 1923-25—Baseball Hall of Fame inductee
Sandy Koufax, 1955—Hall of Fame baseball player
Robert Kraft, CC 1963—Owner, New England Patriots
Gene Larkin, CC 1983—Former Major League Baseball player, drove in game-winning run for the Minnesota Twins in game seven of the 1991 World Series
Sid Luckman, CC 1939—Football Hall of Fame inductee
Jim McMillian, CC 1970—Starter for the 1972 NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers
Katie Meilli, CC 2013—Two-time Olympic medalist
Cliff Montgomery, CC 1934—Football Hall of Fame inductee, quarterback and captain of the 1934 Rose Bowl Championship team
Frank Seminara, CC 1989—Former Major League Baseball player
David Stern, LLB 1966—Former Commissioner of the National Basketball Association
Cristina Teuscher, CC 2000—Olympic gold medalist in swimming, named the nation's best female collegiate athlete, 1999-2000
Marcellus Wiley, CC 1997—Former All-Pro football player
