Erasmus Hall High School - Notable Alumni - 20th Century

20th Century

  • Mary Anderson, silent film actress
  • Herbert Aptheker, historian
  • Bob Arum, boxing promoter.
  • Joseph Barbera (1928); artist; cartoonist; co-founder of Hanna-Barbera.
  • Jeff Barry (Joel Adelberg) (1955); songwriter/producer; Songwriters Hall of Fame member
  • Karen Bernod, singer
  • Carol Bruce, actress and singer
  • Phillip Brutus, Florida politician
  • Jeff Chandler (Ira Grossel) (1935); actor
  • Andrew Cheshire (1981); artist/musician
  • Al Cohn, tenor saxophonist
  • Betty Comden, (1933); playwright; Broadway musical songwriter with Adolph Green.
  • Jane Cowl (1902); actress, playwright (original name Grace Bailey).
  • Billy Cunningham (1961); player and coach, Philadelphia '76ers basketball team.
  • Jon Cypher (1949); actor (Hill Street Blues)
  • Al Davis (c.1947); Oakland Raiders owner, Pro Football Hall of Fame member.
  • Clive Davis; Grammy Award winning record producer; Chairman & CEO BMG North America; founder of Arista Records
  • Elaine de Kooning; painter
  • Neil Diamond, attended Erasmus from 1954–56; singer/songwriter.
  • Will Downing (1981); singer
  • Norm Drucker, professional basketball official.
  • Bobby Fischer (dropped out in 1960); chess champion.
  • Jim Florio (1964); former Governor of New Jersey.
  • Jonah Goldman, major league baseball player
  • Deborah Grabien (c. 1971); novelist/essayist.
  • Earl G. Graves (1952); publisher of Black Enterprise magazine
  • Arno Gruen, psychoanalyst, psychologist and writer
  • Susan Hayward (Edythe Marrenner), (1935); Oscar-winning actress
  • Eleanor Holm (1932); Olympic swimmer
  • Moe Howard (Moses Harry Horwitz), (dropped out after two months, 1915) member of the Three Stooges comedy team
  • Waite Hoyt, Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher for the New York Yankees and long-time broadcaster for the Cincinnati Reds.
  • Stanley Edgar Hyman (c. 1933); literary critic; husband of Shirley Jackson.
  • Marty Ingels, comedian; husband of Shirley Jones.
  • Ned Irish (1924); Organizer of First Madison Square Garden Basketball Tournament (1934); Founder of the New York Knicks, President, Madison Square Garden; member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
  • Eric Kandel (1944); winner of Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology, 2000.
  • Lainie Kazan (Lainie Levine), (1956); actress and singer
  • Roger Kahn (1945); sportswriter, author of several books including The Boys of Summer.
  • Tom Kahn (1956); leader of the civil-rights, social-democratic, and labor movements.
  • Dorothy Kilgallen (1932); journalist and TV celebrity.
  • Bernie Kopell (1953); actor
  • Samuel LeFrak (1936); real estate developer.
  • Larry Levan
  • Sid Luckman (1935); football champion with the Chicago Bears; NFL quarterback and Pro Football Hall of Fame.
  • Bernard Malamud (1932); author and educator; Pulitzer Prize for The Fixer, 1967, The Magic Barrel, 1958.
  • Daniel Mann, attended in 1920s, transferred before graduating; film and television director.
  • Kedar Massenburg (1981); former CEO/President of Motown Records
  • Barbara McClintock (1919); winner of Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, 1983.
  • Aline MacMahon, actress
  • Don McMahon, major league baseball player
  • James Meissner (1914); World War I Flying Ace
  • Stephanie Mills, (1975); actress/singer.
  • Don Most (1970); actor
  • Gilbert Price (1960); singer/actor. Protege of Langston Hughes.
  • Marky Ramone (Marc Steven Bell), drummer of seminal New York punk band The Ramones.
  • Michael Rapaport, TV actor, attended Erasmus in the 1980s
  • Lynn Pressman Raymond (c. 1912–2009), toy and game innovator who was president of the Pressman Toy Corporation
  • Jerry Reinsdorf (1953); part-owner of the Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox.
  • Mike Rosen (1960) Denver radio talk show host
  • Robert Rosen (1970); author of the best-selling biography Nowhere Man: The Final Days of John Lennon.
  • Sam Rutigliano, former NFL head coach.
  • Arthur M. Sackler, MD (1931); art historian and collector; Collection of African and Ancient Art is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution.
  • Brigadier General Guy Sands-Pingot, (1974); U.S. Army Officer
  • Sheldan Segal (c. 1943), contraceptive developer.
  • Alan Shulman (attended between 1928–1929); composer and cellist
  • Beverly Sills (Belle Miriam Silverman), coloratura opera singer, attended Erasmus in the mid-1940s and transferred before graduating.
  • Robert Silverberg (1952); novelist.
  • Special Ed (Edward Archer), rapper who mentions Erasmus Hall on his album Youngest in Charge.
  • Melodee M. Spevack (1970); actress, writer, anime voice performer
  • Mickey Spillane (Morrison Spillane) (1936); author of detective and mystery fiction.
  • Bern Nadette Stanis (Bernadette Stanislaus) (1972); actress
  • Barbara Stanwyck (c. 1922); stage and screen actress, dancer.
  • Barbra Streisand (Barbara Joan Streisand) (1959); actress, singer, director, producer.
  • Norma Talmadge (1911); silent film actress.
  • Cheryl Toussaint (1970); athlete; Olympic gold medalist, 1972.
  • Kenny Vance, musician, who calls out Erasmus Hall in the first line of "Looking for an Echo"
  • Eli Wallach, (1932); actor.
  • Stanley Weiss, (1958); Founder, Woodland Hills Jaycees; Former State Senator, California Jaycees. Pen salesman, father of Alan R. Weiss
  • Mae West (Mary Jane West) (1911); actress, comedienne, playwright.
  • D. Train, (James Williams) (1980); singer/songwriter
  • Marian Winters (c. 1942), actress.

Read more about this topic:  Erasmus Hall High School, Notable Alumni