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.