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178 notable alumni U.S. News #16

Notable Alumni of Washington University in St Louis

Notable alumni of Washington University in St Louis include Tennessee Williams (Playwright and screenwriter), Vincent Price (Actor best known for horror film villains) and William E. Moerner (Stanford chemist and Nobel Prize winner).

College data and admissions

Alumni list

Politics and law

Business

Science and academia

Arts and media

  • Tennessee Williams 1911–1983

    Playwright and screenwriter

    Also attended: University of Iowa, University of Missouri-Columbia, The New School

  • Vincent Price 1911–1993

    Actor best known for horror film villains

    Also attended: Yale University

    Child: Victoria Price (Williams College, University of New Mexico-Main Campus)

    Child: Vincent Barrett Price (University of New Mexico-Main Campus)

  • Harold Ramis 1944–2014

    Actor, comedian and filmmaker; Ghostbusters co-writer

  • Betty Grable 1916–1973

    Actress and pin-up girl

  • Dan Simmons 1948–2026

    Science fiction and horror author of Hyperion Cantos

    Master of Education · Class of 1971

    Also attended: Wabash College

  • Sara Teasdale 1884–1933

    American lyric poet

  • Peter Sarsgaard 1971–

    Actor in film and television

    Also attended: Bard College

    Spouse: Maggie Gyllenhaal (Columbia University in the City of New York)

  • Shulamith Firestone 1945–2012

    Radical feminist writer and activist

    Also attended: School of the Art Institute of Chicago

  • Robert Guillaume 1927–2017

    Actor known for Soap and Benson

    Theatre, Singing

    Also attended: Saint Louis University

  • Marilyn vos Savant 1946–

    Columnist who writes Parade's Ask Marilyn

    Spouse: Robert Jarvik (New York University, Syracuse University)

  • Richard Ford 1944–

    Novelist, author of the Frank Bascombe novels

    Also attended: University of California-Irvine, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Michigan State University

  • Sterling K. Brown 1976–

    Actor with three Primetime Emmy Awards

    Also attended: New York University, Stanford University

    Spouse: Ryan Michelle Bathe (New York University, Stanford University)

  • Robert Culp 1930–2010

    Actor known for I Spy

    Also attended: University of the Pacific, University of Washington-Seattle Campus

  • Ann Leckie 1966–

    Science fiction author, won Hugo Award for Ancillary Justice

  • Jim Lee 1964–

    Comic artist, president and publisher of DC Comics

    Also attended: Princeton University

  • John Gardner 1933–1982

    Novelist and critic, author of Grendel

    Also attended: DePauw University, University of Iowa, University of Detroit Mercy

    Spouse: Liz Rosenberg (Binghamton University, Bennington College)

  • Kristin Bauer van Straten 1966–

    Actress known for True Blood

    Also attended: Saint Louis University

  • Mary Wickes 1910–1995

    Character actress in film and television

  • Oliver Nelson 1932–1975

    Jazz saxophonist, composer and arranger

  • Charles Eames 1907–1978

    Designer, architect and filmmaker

  • Winston Churchill 1871–1947

    American best-selling novelist, not the British statesman

    Also attended: United States Naval Academy

  • Sam McMurray 1952–

    Actor in The King of Queens

  • Jeff Tremaine 1966–

    Director and co-creator of Jackass

  • V. E. Schwab 1987–

    Writer of Vicious and Shades of Magic series

  • Josephine Johnson 1910–1990

    Novelist, 1935 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner

  • Qiu Xiaolong 1953–

    Chinese-American crime novelist, poet and translator

  • Morris Carnovsky 1897–1992

    Actor, co-founder of the Group Theatre

  • Richa Gangopadhyay 1986–

    Actress in Telugu films

    Also attended: Michigan State University

  • Jordan Nagai 2000–

    Child voice actor who voiced Russell in Up

  • Steve Carver 1945–2021

    Film director and producer

    Also attended: Cornell University

  • Zachary Abel 1980–

    Actor in Make It or Break It

  • Max Lerner 1902–1992

    Russia-born journalist, educator and columnist

  • John Hartford 1937–2001

    Folk and bluegrass musician, wrote Gentle on My Mind

  • Devon Windsor 1994–

    Fashion model known for Victoria's Secret

  • Richard Edward Miller 1875–1943

    American Impressionist painter of the Giverny Colony

  • Anita Diamant 1951–

    Writer, author of The Boston Girl

    Also attended: Binghamton University

  • Dave Garroway 1913–1982

    Founding host of NBC's Today

  • Marvin Miller 1913–1985

    Actor known for his deep baritone voice

  • Fannie Hurst 1889–1968

    Novelist and short-story writer

  • John Monk Saunders 1897–1940

    Novelist, screenwriter, and film director

    Also attended: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

  • Robert Quine 1942–2004

    Guitarist and session musician

    Also attended: Earlham College

  • Johnny Kastl

    Lawyer and former actor

    Also attended: University of Iowa

  • Eulabee Dix 1878–1961

    Portrait miniature painter

  • Rachel Hartman 1972–

    Young adult fantasy author of Seraphina

  • Dan Piraro 1958–

    Cartoonist known for the Bizarro panel

  • Joe Buck 1969–

    Sportscaster, lead announcer for Monday Night Football

    Also attended: Indiana University-Bloomington

    Father: Jack Buck (Ohio State University-Main Campus)

  • Gyo Obata 1923–2022

    Architect and co-founder of HOK

    Also attended: University of California-Berkeley

  • Sally Benson 1897–1972

    Short story writer and screenwriter

  • 3LAU 1991–

    DJ and electronic music producer

  • Richard Eastham 1916–2005

    Stage, film and television actor and baritone

  • Laylah Ali 1968–

    Contemporary visual artist and painter

    Also attended: Williams College

  • Michael Shamberg 1945–

    American film producer

  • Hugh Ferriss 1889–1962

    Architect, illustrator and poet

  • Mike Peters 1943–

    Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist

  • Guthrie McClintic 1892–1961

    Theatre and film director and producer

    Also attended: American Academy of Dramatic Arts-New York

  • David Bauer 1917–1973

    Film, television and stage actor based mainly in Britain

  • Ping Wu 1956–

    Television and film actor

    Attended until 1975

    Father: Nelson Ikon Wu (Yale University, The New School)

    Sibling: Ting Wu (Harvard University, Washington University in St Louis)

  • Wu Weishan 1962–

    Sculptor, curator of National Art Museum of China

  • Jiang Nan 1977–

    Fantasy novelist Jiang Nan, real name Yang Zhi

  • C. P. Wang 1947–

    Taiwanese architect

  • Sarah Kendzior 1978–

    Journalist and author of The View from Flyover Country

    Doctor of Philosophy · Anthropology · Class of 2012

    Also attended: Indiana University-Bloomington, Sarah Lawrence College

  • Dan O'Bannon 1946–2009

    Screenwriter of Alien and film director

    Also attended: University of Southern California

  • Kay Thompson 1909–1998

    Author of Eloise books, singer and actress

  • Joe Madison 1949–2024

    Talk radio host and activist

  • Susannah Cahalan 1985–

    Journalist and author of Brain on Fire

  • Pooja Kumar 1977–

    Actress of Indian descent, Miss India USA 1995

  • Lyle Waggoner 1935–2020

    Actor on The Carol Burnett Show and Wonder Woman

Sports

  • Dwight Filley Davis Sr. 1879–1945

    Tennis player and politician

    Also attended: Harvard University

  • Morris Kirksey 1895–1981

    Two-time gold medalist at the 1920 Olympics

    Also attended: Stanford University

  • Bill Orthwein 1881–1955

    1904 Olympic bronze medalist in swimming and water polo

    Also attended: Yale University

  • Madonna Buder 1930–

    Triathlete and nun known as the Iron Nun

  • Masoud Boroumand 1928–2011

    Iranian footballer and national team captain

  • Kendall Gretsch 1992–

    Para triathlete, biathlete and cross-country skier

Other fields

  • Steve Fossett 1944–2007

    Businessman, aviator and adventurer; first solo nonstop round-the-world flyer

    Also attended: Stanford University

  • Hadley Richardson 1891–1979

    First wife of Ernest Hemingway

    Also attended: Bryn Mawr College

    Spouse: Paul Scott Mowrer (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor)

  • Timothy Lin 1911–2009

    Pastor and Old Testament scholar

From Wikidata “educated at” records (including people who attended without graduating), ordered by the number of Wikipedia language editions. Degrees and years follow Wikidata and are left out where it has none.

Alumni network

Colleges that share the most alumni with Washington University in St Louis (people who attended both).