Norwegian American - Notable Norwegian Americans

Notable Norwegian Americans

In entertainment, Sigrid Gurie, an actress discovered by Samuel Goldwyn and billed as "the siren of the fjords," starred in numerous motion pictures in the 1930s and 1940s. Other Hollywood actors and personalities with one Norwegian parent or grandparent include James Arness, Paris Hilton, James Cagney, Peter Graves, Tippi Hedren, Lance Henriksen, Celeste Holm, Kristanna Loken, Robert Mitchum, Piper Perabo, Priscilla Presley, Michelle Williams and Renée Zellweger (her Norwegian-born mother is also Sami in origin). Seminal protopunk musicians Iggy Pop of The Stooges and David Johansen of the New York Dolls and Don Dokken of the heavy metal band Dokken have Norwegian ancestry.

In the military, Knut Haukelid, Gurie's twin brother, became a Norwegian resistance fighter during World War II, and had a significant role in the Norwegian heavy water sabotage.

In journalism, Eric Sevareid, a CBS reporter and one of a group of elite war correspondents known as the "Murrow's Boys" - named so because they were hired by Edward R. Murrow - covered the Second World War in France and the Blitz of London.

In literature, Ole Edvart Rølvaag wrote about the immigrant experience, especially the Norwegian-American experience in The Dakotas. Rølvaag's former home is a National Historic Landmark.

In labor unions, Andrew Furuseth was largely responsible for the passage of four reforms that changed the lives of American mariners. Two of them, the Maguire Act of 1895 and the White Act of 1898, ended corporal punishment and abolished imprisonment for deserting a vessel. The Seamen's Act of 1915 included all these and was his main project.

In public service, Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale served as the 38th and 42nd Vice Presidents of the United States, respectively, and were Democratic Party nominees for President of the United States in 1968 and 1984, respectively; both also served as United States Senators from Minnesota. Earl Warren was the 14th Chief Justice of the United States, previously serving as Governor of California and Republican Party nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1948.

In science, Ernest Lawrence won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939 for his invention of the cyclotron. Lars Onsager, a physical chemist and theoretical physicist, was the winner of the 1968 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Norman Borlaug, father of the Green Revolution, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. Borlaug's humanitarian work is often said to have changed the world of agronomics. Christian B. Anfinsen won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1972. He postulated Anfinsen's dogma. Ivar Giaever won the Nobel Prize in Physics 1973. Particle physicist Dick Hagen is most noted for his contributions to the Standard Model and Symmetry breaking as well as the co-discovery of the Higgs mechanism and Higgs boson ("God Particle"). In 2010, Dr. Hagen was awarded The American Physical Society's J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics for the "elucidation of the properties of spontaneous symmetry breaking in four-dimensional relativistic gauge theory and of the mechanism for the consistent generation of vector boson masses".

In engineering, Ole Singstad was a pioneer of underwater tunnels. Ole Evinrude invented the first outboard motor with practical commercial application, recognizable today on modern motorboats.

In religion, Olaf M. Norlie created the Simplified New Testament. Herman Amberg Preus was a key leader in the development of the Synod of the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Bernt Julius Muus was the principal founder and Thorbjorn N. Mohn was the first president of St. Olaf College. Peter Laurentius Larsen and Ulrik Vilhelm Koren both helped found Luther College (Iowa)

In business, Ole Bardahl founded the Bardahl company, Conrad Nicholson Hilton was the founder of the Hilton Hotels chain, Kenneth Harry Olsen co-founded Digital Equipment Corporation, James Trane and Reuben Trane founded Trane Inc., N. O. Nelson was the founder of the N. O. Nelson Manufacturing Co. and Alfred M. Moen founded Moen, Inc.

In sports, Knute Rockne became one of the greatest coaches in college football history, while Babe Zaharias was named by the Guinness Book of Records as the most versatile female athlete of all time. Zaharias achieved outstanding success in golf, basketball and track and field athletics.

In medicine, Earl Bakken developed the first wearable transistorized pacemaker and founded the Fortune 500 medical technology company Medtronic as well as the Bakken Museum. John H. Lawrence, is known as the father of nuclear medicine. As many historians claim, the genesis of this medical specialty in the United States took place in 1936, when John Lawrence took a leave of absence from his faculty position at Yale Medical School, to visit his brother Ernest Lawrence at his new radiation laboratory (now known as the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) in Berkeley, California.

In humanitarian work, Greg Mortenson, born in Minnesota, whose ancestors came from Tromsø in 1876, has worked since 1993 to build over 150 schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He is the author of best-seller Three Cups of Tea, which has sold over 4 million copies in 49 countries, including Norway, and twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009 and 2010.