Famous Canadians from Ontario

Famous Ontarians

Many famous Canadians were born or lived most of their life in the province of Ontario.

Here's a list of some famous Ontarians. The list is not comprehensive but we will try to add more names as we come across them.

Please let us know if you remember famous Ontarians who could be added to this list.

Sports

Ned Hanlan (1855 - 1908)

• World champion Toronto rower
• Between 1876 and 1886, lost only six out of 300 races
• Won the Canadian championship in 1877; the American and British championships in 1879
• World champion in 1880

James Naismith (1861 - 1939)

• Invented the sport of basketball in 1891
• To score goals, 2 peach baskets -- the first nets -- were nailed to the gym balcony
• Physical education teacher
• Born in Almonte, near Ottawa

Tom Longboat (1887 - 1949)

• Marathon runner
• Broke many long-distance records
• Won the Hamilton Around-the-Bay race in 1906 and the Boston Marathon in 1907
• Born on the Six Nations reserve near Brantford

Sam Jacks (1915 - 1975)

• Invented sport of Ringette
• Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of North Bay
• First game played in 1963 in Espanola - now played around the world
• First international championships were held in 1990 in Gloucester, Ontario, where the Ringette Canada is now based.

Barbara Ann Scott (1928 - )

• Figure skater
• Won gold medal at the Olympic games in 1948
• In 1945, 1947 and 1948, Canada's outstanding athlete of the year
• Born in Ottawa

Marilyn Bell (1937 - )

• Long-distance swimmer
• First person to swim Lake Ontario in 1954 at age 16
• Youngest person to swim both the English Channel and the Strait of Juan de Fuca in British Columbia
• Born in Toronto

Wayne Gretzky (1961 - )

• Hockey player
• Nicknamed "The Great One"
• During 1988-89, set a record for most goals in a season
• In 1994, set a new record for the most career goals in the NHL
• Retired from the NHL in 1999
• Born in Brantford

The Arts

Pauline Johnson (1861 - 1913)

• One of Canada's best known poets in the 1890s and early 1900s
• First native poet to have her work published in Canada
• Known as "the Mohawk Princess"
• Born on the Six Nations reserve near Brantford

Joe Shuster (1914 - 1992)

• Toronto cartoonist
• Co-created Superman, the comic book hero, in 1938
• Sold rights to DC Comics in 1940 for next to nothing
• Newspaper boy for the Toronto Star

Glenn Gould (1932 - 1982)

• Internationally-famous concert pianist, recording artist and composer
• Most well-known for recordings of Bach's Goldberg Variations
• Born in Toronto

Karen Kain (1951 - )

• Ballerina
• Acclaimed by critics throughout North America and Europe
• Trained at the National Ballet School in Toronto, joined the National Ballet of Canada in 1969 and retired as principal dancer in 1997
• Born in Hamilton

Dan Aykroyd (1952 - )

• Actor and writer
• Hit movies include Antz, The Blues Brothers, Coneheads and Ghostbusters
• Born in Ottawa

Jim Carrey (1962 - )

• Comedian and film star
• Hit movies -- The Truman Show, Dumb and Dumber, Ace Ventura and The Grinch
• Born in Newmarket

Alanis Morissette (1974 - )

• Singer/songwriter
• Her album Jagged Little Pill, released in 1995, sold more than 30 million copies, outdoing American singers like Whitney Houston, Madonna and Mariah Carey. The album was nominated for six Grammy Awards (she won three)
• Her high school, Glebe High School in Ottawa, played her recording of O Canada every morning when she was a student there
• Born in Ottawa

Inventors

John McIntosh (1777 - 1846)

• Started apple-growing on a large scale
• Cultivated the original McIntosh apple tree. It bore fruit for more than 90 years

Daniel Massey (1798 - 1856)

• In 1849, started a small factory in Newcastle to produce plows and farm tools
• With his son, made his factory the most successful farm machinery company in the British Empire

Alexander Graham Bell (1847 - 1922)

• Invented the telephone between 1874 and 1876
• Born in Scotland
• Came to Brantford in 1870 with his parents
• He and his father worked as speech therapists for the deaf

Sir William Osler (1849 - 1919)

• Called "the most influential physician in history"
• Stressed the importance of a patient's state of mind in achieving health
• Changed how doctors were trained, advocating bedside teaching in hospital wards rather than in lecture halls or labs
• Born in Bond Head and raised in Dundas

Adelaide Hunter Hoodless (1857 - 1910)

• Campaigned for schools to teach motherhood and household management courses
• Founded the first Women's Institute in Stoney Creek in 1897
• Helped found the national YWCA and the Victorian Order of Nurses

Sir Frederick Grant Banting (1891 - 1941)

• Physician, physiologist and Nobel Prize winner
• Co-discovered the hormone insulin used in treating diabetes
• Born in Alliston, educated at the University of Toronto and made a Knight of the British Empire in 1934

Heroes

Étienne Brûlé (1592 - 1633)

• Explorer, interpreter and messenger for explorer Samuel de Champlain
• Arrived in Canada in the early 1600s
• One of the first coureurs de bois

Joseph Brant (1742 - 1807)

• Mohawk chief, scholar, statesman and soldier
• Fostered relationships between the British in America and the Iroquois Confederacy

John Graves Simcoe (1752 - 1806)

• First Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of Upper Canada
• Introduced British institutions such as courts and trial by jury
• Ended slavery, built roads and gave land to American settlers

Sir Isaac Brock (1769 - 1812)

• Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada
• Fought back the invading Americans during the War of 1812
• Died defending Canada at the Battle of Queenston Heights

Laura Secord (1775 - 1868)

• Made a famous 18-hour walk to warn the British of an American attack during the War of 1812
• Because of her warning, the British forces and their native allies surprised the Americans and won the battle of Beaver Dams

Josiah Henson (1789 - 1883)

• Born a slave in Maryland
• Escaped to Upper Canada in 1830
• In 1834, founded the Dawn community near Dresden as a place for American fugitive slaves
• Model for the main character in the book Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Billy Bishop (1894 - 1956)

• First World War flying ace
• Credited with shooting down 72 enemy planes
• Awarded the Victoria Cross for "most conspicuous bravery, determination and skill"
• Born in Owen Sound

Roberta Lynn Bondar (1945 - )

• First Canadian woman in space
• Travelled on the space shuttle Discovery in 1992
• Born in Sault Ste. Marie