East High School (Denver) - Notable Alumni

Notable Alumni

Among the many notable individuals who have attended East High School are:

• Jerome Biffle, track and field gold medalist in 1952 Olympics
• Ward Bond, American film actor
• Herrick Chapman, associate professor of History and French Studies, New York University (1992–present)
• Joe Barry Carroll, NBA All-star
• Neal Cassady (attended for a short time), Beat icon, served as model for character Dean Moriarty in Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road
• Don Cheadle, actor
• Dan Cohn-Sherbok Professor Emeritus of Judaism, University of Wales
• Judy Collins, folk and standards singer and songwriter
• Harlan L. Dalton, professor of law, Yale Law School
• Three members of Earth, Wind & Fire who were East Alumni were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

• Philip Bailey
• Andrew Woolfolk
• Larry Dunn

• Bruce Egloff, Former MLB player (Cleveland Indians)
• Mamie Eisenhower, wife of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and First Lady of the United States from 1953 to 1961.
• Douglas Fairbanks, was expelled from East High School, went on to become one of the most famous silent movie stars of all time.
• Bryan Fogel, playwright and author
• Bill Frisell, jazz guitarist
• Pam Grier, actress
• General Robert T. Herres, first Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
• Daniel Walker Howe, Pulitzer Prize for History; Rhodes Professor of American History Emeritus at Oxford University in England and Professor of History Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles
• Cobe Jones, Former MLB player (Pittsburgh Pirates)
• Jamie Laurie (aka Jonny 5), Singer/Song writer for The Flobots
• Harold Lloyd, silent film actor
• Hattie McDaniel, actress (the first African American to win an Academy Award for her performance in Gone with the Wind)
• Stephen L.R. McNichols, Colorado governor (1957–1963)
• Ron Miles, Jazz trumpeter, cornetist and composer.
• T. J. Miller, co-star of the 2008 movie Cloverfield
• David Oliver, a professional track athlete
• Antoinette Perry, stage actress (the namesake of the Tony Awards)
• Dianne Reeves, jazz vocalist (graduated from George Washington HS in Denver)
• Reese Roper, singer/song writer for Five Iron Frenzy
• Brandon Shaffer, President, Colorado Senate
• Peter Groff, first African-american President Pro Tem of the Colorado Senate
• Sidney Sheldon, writer
• Jack Swigert, NASA astronaut and member of the Apollo 13 Mission
• Donnette Thayer, songwriter, singer
• Edward D. White, Jr., architect based in Denver, whose forty-year practice (1955–1995) focused on contemporary architecture and historic preservation
• Paul Whiteman, a jazz composer and bandleader
• Stan Williams, Former MLB player (Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians, Minnesota Twins, St. Louis Cardinals, Boston Red Sox)