List of Columbia College people
The following list contains only notable graduates and former students of Columbia College, the undergraduate liberal arts division of Columbia University, and its predecessor, from 1754 to 1776, King's College. For a full list of individuals associated with the university as a whole, please see the List of Columbia University people.
Notable alumni and former students
An asterisk (*) indicates a former student who did not graduate.
- John Jay (King's 1764), President of the Continental Congress; first Chief Justice of the United States; Federalist Papers contributor; first Secretary of Foreign Affairs under the Articles of Confederation; architect of Jay Treaty with Great Britain
- Robert Livingston (King's 1764), a writer of the Declaration of Independence; second United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs; negotiator of the Louisiana Purchase
- Egbert Benson (King's 1765), delegate to the Continental Congress, U.S. Representatives, first New York State Attorney General, chief justice of the New York Supreme Court
- Gouverneur Morris (King's 1768), represented Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress; authored much of the United States Constitution; United States Ambassador to France
- Alexander Hamilton* (King's 1776), American Revolutionary War officer, aide-de-camp to George Washington; most prolific writer of the Federalist Papers; first United States Secretary of the Treasury, portrayed on the ten-dollar bill
Scholars
- Charles Anthon (1815), classical scholar and translator
- Henry Drisler (1839), classical scholar and acting president of Columbia College
- John Howard Van Amringe (1860), mathematician and Dean of Columbia College
- William Milligan Sloane (1868), historian, president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and organizer of first U.S. Olympic tea
- Brander Matthews (1871), first professor of dramatic literature in the United States
- William Archibald Dunning (1881), founder of the Dunning School of Reconstruction
- Harry Thurston Peck (1881), literary critic and editor of The Bookman
- Joel Elias Spingarn (1895), professor of comparative literature
- Alfred L. Kroeber (1896), pioneering cultural anthropologist
- John Erskine (1900), Great Books pioneer
- Carlton J. H. Hayes (1904), pioneering cultural historian
- Edward Sapir (1904), linguist and co-creator of the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
- Parker Thomas Moon (1913), professor and managing editor of the Political Science Quarterly
- Benjamin Graham (1914), economist who pioneered value investing
- Irwin Edman (1916), philosopher
- Richard McKeon (1920), philosopher
- Mortimer Adler* (1923), philosopher and Great Books pioneer
- Meyer Schapiro (1924), art historian
- Joseph Campbell (1925), mythologist
- Lionel Trilling (1925), literary critic
- Jacques Barzun (1927), cultural historian
- Robert C. Schnitzer (1927), arts teacher and administrator
- Francis Steegmuller (1927), Flaubert scholar
- Carl E. Schorske (1936), cultural historian and winner of the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for History
- Quentin Anderson (1937), cultural historian and literary critic
- Charles Frankel (1937), political philosopher
- Barry Ulanov (1939), English professor and scholar of jazz and religion
- John Mundy (1940), historian
- Ted de Bary (1941), East Asian studies expert and provost of Columbia University
- Donald Keene (1942), scholar of Japanese culture
- Robert Lekachman (1942), economist
- Jack Greenberg (1945), counsel for the NAACP (1949–84), in which capacity he argued Brown v. Board of Education (1954); professor at Columbia Law School (1984–present)
- Richard Heffner (1946), professor and host of The Open Mind
- Fritz Stern (1946), Seth Low Professor of History Emeritus; pre-eminent in German studies
- Steven Marcus (1948), professor of English and Freudian studies
- Immanuel Wallerstein (1951), sociologist who defined world-systems theory
- Stephen Orgel (1954), Shakespeare and Renaissance literature scholar
- Jerry Fodor (1956), philosopher
- Robert Nozick (1959), libertarian philosopher
- Marshall Berman (1961), urbanologist
- Joel Moses (1962), mathematician, Institute Professor at and provost of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Eric Foner (1963), pre-eminent historian of Reconstruction
- Richard Epstein (1964), libertarian law scholar
- John H. Langbein (1964), Sterling Professor at Yale Law School
- Mike Wallace (1964), historian and winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for History for Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898
- Raymond Geuss (1966), specialist in Jürgen Habermas
- Jay Winter (1966), World War I specialist at Yale University
- Paul Gewirtz (1967), constitutional law scholar
- Karl Klare (1967), Critical Legal Studies theorist
- Jerry Avorn (1969), professor at the Harvard Medical School
- Michel Rosenfeld (1969), constitutional law scholar
- Charles E. Rounds, Jr. (1969), trusts and property scholar, author, professor at Suffolk Law School
- Paul Starr (1970), sociologist; co-founder of The American Prospect and winner of the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
- Paul Berman (1971), historian and social critic
- Joel Black (1972), literature and film scholar
- Jerome Groopman (1972), Harvard Medical School professor and medical writer for The New Yorker
- Sean Wilentz (1972), historian and winner of the Bancroft Prize; chair of American Studies at Princeton University
- Angelo Falcón (1973), political scientist, President and Founder of the National Institute for Latino Policy (NiLP)
- Saul Levmore (1974), commercial law scholar
- Barry Bergdoll (1977), chief curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art
- James S. Shapiro (1977), Shakespearean authority
- Michael Bérubé (1982), professor of literature and cultural studies
- Thomas Sugrue (1984), historian of the 20th century United States
- Noam Elkies (1985), mathematician, youngest full professor at Harvard
- David Eisenbach (1994), historian
University presidents
- Seth Low (1870), president of Columbia University and mayor of New York City
- Nicholas Murray Butler (1882), president of Columbia University, chairman of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Nobel Peace Prize winner
- Frank D. Fackenthal (1906), acting president of Columbia University
- James C. Fletcher (1940), president of the University of Utah and administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Martin Meyerson (1942), president of the University of Pennsylvania
- Harold Brown (1945), president of the California Institute of Technology
- Mario Laserna Pinzón (1948), Colombian diplomat and educator; founded the Universidad de Los Andes
- Michael I. Sovern (1951), president of Columbia University
- Stephen Joel Trachtenberg (1959), president of the University of Hartford and of George Washington University
Actors
- Ralph Morgan (1904), co-founder of Actors Equity and first president of the Screen Actors Guild
- James Cagney* (1922), winner of the Academy Award for his portrayal of George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy
- Cornel Wilde* (1933), star of The Greatest Show on Earth, Beach Red, and Academy Award nominee for A Song to Remember
- Sorrell Booke (1949), played Boss Hogg in The Dukes of Hazzard
- Stephen Strimpell (1954), star of Mister Terrific
- George Segal (1955), star of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Ship of Fools and Just Shoot Me!
- Brian Dennehy (1960), winner of the Tony Award for Death of a Salesman
- William Finley (1963), film actor
- Ben Stein (1966), host of Win Ben Stein's Money; speechwriter for former US President Richard M. Nixon
- Richard Thomas* (1973), star of The Waltons
- Mario Van Peebles (1978), star of Heartbreak Ridge and Sonny Spoon
- Matt Salinger (1983), son of J.D. Salinger
- Robert Maschio (1988), actor on Scrubs
- Matthew Fox (1989), star of Party of Five and Lost
- Dan Futterman (1989), actor and screenwriter, starred in The Birdcage and wrote Capote
- Gerrit Graham (1970), film actor and songwriter
- Jean Louisa Kelly (1994), star of Mr. Holland's Opus
- Amanda Peet (1994), star of the TV series Jack & Jill and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and the film The Whole Nine Yards
- Cara Buono (1995), star of Third Watch
- Casey Affleck (1998), Golden Globe and Academy Award-nominated actor for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and actor in Good Will Hunting and Ocean's Eleven
- Maggie Gyllenhaal (1999), Golden Globe-nominated actress, Secretary, and star in Stranger than Fiction and The Dark Knight
- Liza Weil (1999), actress, The Gilmore Girls
- Jake Gyllenhaal* (2002), Academy Award-nominated actor for Brokeback Mountain, star of Jarhead and Donnie Darko
- Jenny Slate (2004), cast member, Saturday Night Live
- Anna Paquin* (2004), winner of the Academy Award for The Piano
- Rider Strong (2004), star of Boy Meets World
- Julia Stiles (2005), star of Save the Last Dance and Mona Lisa Smile
- Joseph Gordon-Levitt* (2006), actor in 500 Days of Summer and Ten Things I Hate About You
- Kate McKinnon (2006), actress and comedian
- Jeremy Blackman (2009), appeared in Magnolia
- Max Minghella (2009), appeared in Syriana and Art School Confidential
- Spencer Treat Clark (2010), appeared in Gladiator, Mystic River, and Unbreakable
Artists and architects
- James Renwick, Jr. (1836), Gothic Revival architect who designed St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York and the Smithsonian Institution Building in Washington, D.C.
- William Ordway Partridge (1885), sculptor
- Ely Jacques Kahn (1904), commercial architect
- Rockwell Kent* (1907), illustrator
- Isamu Noguchi* (1926), sculptor
- Charles Alston (1929), artist
- Ad Reinhardt (1935), Abstract Expressionist artist and critic
- Charles Saxon (1940), cartoonist
- Edward Koren (1957), cartoonist
- Robert A. M. Stern (1960), traditionalist architect
- Scott Burton (1962), urban sculptor
- Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (1974), photographer
Athletes
- Eddie Collins (1907), baseball player for the Chicago White Sox and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame
- Lou Gehrig* (1925), legendary first baseman for the New York Yankees and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame
- Lou Bender (1932), pioneer player with the Columbia Lions and in early pro basketball, who was later a successful trial attorney.[1]
- Cliff Montgomery (1934), led the Columbia Lions football team to victory in the Rose Bowl
- Sid Luckman (1939), legendary Chicago Bears quarterback
- Paul Governali (1943), football player for the Boston Yanks and New York Giants
- Jack Molinas (1953), NBA player for the Fort Wayne Pistons
- Jim McMillian (1968), NBA player for the Los Angeles Lakers, Buffalo Braves, New York Knicks and Portland Trail Blazers
- George Starke (1971), offensive lineman for the Washington Redskins
- Vitas Gerulaitis* (1975), champion tennis player
- Gene Larkin (1984), member of the Minnesota Twins 1987 and 1991 World Series championship teams
- Marcellus Wiley (1997), football player for the Buffalo Bills, San Diego Chargers and Dallas Cowboys
- Cristina Teuscher (2000), Olympic gold medalist swimmer
- Fernando Perez (2004), Outfielder for the Tampa Bay Rays
Businesspeople
- William Backhouse Astor, Sr. (1811), son of John Jacob Astor
- John Jacob Astor III (1839), son of William Backhouse Astor, Sr.
- William Backhouse Astor, Jr. (1849), son of William Backhouse Astor, Sr. and husband of Caroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor, co-founder of The Four Hundred[disambiguation needed]
- Robert Goelet (1860), real estate developer
- Stuyvesant Fish (1871), president of the Illinois Central Railroad
- Marcellus Hartley Dodge, Sr. (1903), chairman of the Remington Arms Company
- Ward Melville (1909), creator of Thom McAn shoes
- Armand Hammer (1919), chairman of Occidental Petroleum
- Samuel Rosen (1919), chairman of 20th Century Fox
- Lawrence Wien (1925), real estate magnate and philanthropist
- Nathan S. Ancell (1929), co-founder of Ethan Allen
- Ira D. Wallach (1929), head of Central National-Gottesman
- John Kluge (1937), chairman of Metromedia
- Roone Arledge (1952), former president of ABC News and winner of 36 Emmys
- Alfred Lerner (1955), chairman of MBNA Bank and owner of the Cleveland Browns
- Sid Sheinberg (1955), head of Universal Pictures
- Frank Lorenzo (1961), chairman of Eastern Airlines
- William Campbell (1962), chairman of the board of Intuit
- Kenneth Lipper (1962), financier and deputy mayor of New York City
- Jerry Speyer (1962), founding partner of Tishman Speyer
- Robert Kraft (1963), owner of the New England Patriots
- Cesar Alierta (1970), chairman of Telefónica
- Wayne Allyn Root (1983), business mogul, TV personality and producer, author, sports handicapper, and aspiring politician
Journalism and media figures
Arts critics
- Gustav Kobbé (1877), opera scholar and music critic of the New York Herald
- Clifton Fadiman (1925), book critic for The New Yorker and judge for the Book of the Month Club
- Ralph J. Gleason (1938), music critic for the San Francisco Chronicle and co-founder of Rolling Stone
- Allan Temko (1947), architecture critic of The San Francisco Chronicle and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism
- Andrew Sarris (1951), film critic
- Martin Gottfried (1955), critic, author, and biographer
- David Denby (1965), film critic for The New Yorker
- Tim Page (1979), music critic of The Washington Post and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism
- Luc Sante (1976), literary critic
- Neil Strauss (1991), music critic and best-selling author
Broadcasters
- Lee C. Townsend (1955), News Editor, CBS Evening News
- Robert Siegel (1968), host of All Things Considered on National Public Radio
- James Rubin (1982), Sky News anchorman; State Department official under the administration of US President Bill Clinton; spokesman for the presidential campaigns of Wesley Clark and John Kerry
- George Stephanopoulos (1982), ABC News personality; senior advisor to U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration
- Claire Shipman (1986), ABC News correspondent
- Alexandra Wallace (1988), executive producer of NBC Nightly News
- Soterios Johnson (1990), host of Morning Edition on National Public Radio
- Alexis Glick (1994), anchorwoman for the Fox Business Network
- Gideon Yago (2000), MTV News correspondent
Editors
- John L. O'Sullivan (1831), journalist who coined the term "Manifest Destiny"
- Francis Pharcellus Church (1859), editorial writer for the New York Sun and author of Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus
- Simeon Strunsky (1900), literary editor of the New York Evening Post and editorial writer for The New York Times
- Theodore M. Bernstein (1924), assistant managing editor of The New York Times
- Groff Conklin (1927), science fiction anthologist
- James Wechsler (1935), editorial page editor of The New York Post
- Lucien Carr (1946), editor for United Press International
- Charles Peters (1949), founder and former editor-in-chief of The Washington Monthly
- Robert Gottlieb (1952), editor of The New Yorker
- Max Frankel (1952), Pulitzer Prize winning executive editor of the New York Times
- Clark Hoyt (1964), public editor of the New York Times
- Leon Wieseltier (1974), literary editor, The New Republic
- Dean Baquet (1978), Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington bureau chief of The New York Times
- Marcus Brauchli (1983), managing editor, The Wall Street Journal
- Charles Ardai (1991), founder of Juno and Hard Case Crime
- Janice Min (1991), former editor, Us Weekly
- Franklin Foer (1996), editor, The New Republic
- Marco Roth (1996), one of the editors of n+1
- Matthew Continetti (2003), associate editor and writer, The Weekly Standard
Journalists
- Henry Demarest Lloyd (1867), muckraking journalist, "father of investigative journalism"
- Herbert Matthews (1922), New York Times foreign correspondent who first reported Fidel Castro alive in the Sierra Maestra
- Ernest Cuneo (1927), president, North American Newspaper Alliance
- Lars-Erik Nelson (1962), New York Daily News columnist
- Juan Gonzalez (1969), New York Daily News columnist
- James Simon Kunen (1970), author of articles for Newsday, People, The New York Times Magazine and the novel The Strawberry Statement
- Michael Wolff (1975), media columnist for New York Magazine and Vanity Fair
- Michael Musto (1978), gossip columnist for The Village Voice
- Tim Weiner (1979), Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times specializing in national security matters
- Kevin Baker (1980), freelance journalist and novelist
- N.J. Burkett (1984), award-winning correspondent for WABC-TV
- Matthew Cooper (1984), Time magazine White House correspondent and defendant in the Valerie Plame investigation
- Naftali Bendavid (1986), Congress correspondent for The Wall Street Journal
- Anne Kornblut (1994), correspondent for The Washington Post
- Jodi Kantor (1996), writer and former editor on culture and politics for the New York Times
- Nicholas Kulish (1997), Berlin bureau chief for the New York Times and novelist
- Christopher Beam (2006), political blogger for Slate
Pundits
- Arnold Beichman (1934), conservative critic
- Ralph de Toledano (1938), conservative commentator
- Joseph Kraft (1947), political columnist
- Norman Podhoretz (1950), a "father of neoconservatism", editor of Commentary Magazine and author of Making It
- Jules Witcover (1951), columnist, The Baltimore Sun
- David Horowitz (1959), conservative commentator and activist; author of the Academic Bill of Rights
Sports journalists
- Roone Arledge (1952), sportscaster, creator of Monday Night Football and head of ABC News
- Paul Zimmerman (1955), football writer for Sports Illustrated known as "Dr. Z"
- Robert Lipsyte (1957), sports writer for New York Times, correspondent for ABC News and host of The Eleventh Hour
- Gilbert Rogin (1957), managing editor of Sports Illustrated
- Chet Forte (1957), first director of Monday Night Football
- Gary Cohen (1981), television play-by-play announcer for the New York Mets
Legal and judicial figures
- Egbert Benson (1765), Chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, First Attorney General of the State of New York and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New York
- Ogden Hoffman (1812), New York State Attorney General (1854–55), U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (1841–45), U.S. congressman from New York (1837–41)
- Samuel Blatchford (1837), associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, Chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
- Willard Bartlett (1869), Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals;
- Benjamin Cardozo (1889), associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
- Arthur Garfield Hays (1902), counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union and lawyer in the Scopes Trial
- Benjamin Buttenwieser (1919), parter of Kuhn, Loeb, president of the United Jewish Appeal
- Louis Nizer (1922), legendary trial lawyer
- Joseph Carmine Zavatt (1922), judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
- Frank Hogan (1924), District Attorney of New York City
- Murray Gurfein (1926), federal judge in the Pentagon Papers case
- Arthur Krim (1930), partner in Phillips Nizer Benjamin Krim & Ballon and co-chairman of United Artists
- Lawrence E. Walsh (1932), independent counsel in the Iran-Contra affair
- Wilfred Feinberg (1940), judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- Jack Greenberg (1945), civil rights lawyer who argued the Brown v. Board of Education case before the United States Supreme Court
- Roy Cohn (1946), attorney and counsel to Sen. Joseph McCarthy
- Bernard Nussbaum (1958), White House counsel under Bill Clinton
- Robert Abrams (1960), Bronx Borough President and New York State Attorney General
- José A. Cabranes (1961), judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals; first Puerto Rican to sit in a U.S. District Court; current Trustee of Columbia University
- Michael B. Mukasey (1963), Attorney General of the United States; Chief judge (2000–06), judge (1987–2006) of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
- Joel Klein (1967), assistant Attorney General of the United States; Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education
- Nicholas G. Garaufis (1969), judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York and former chief counsel of the Federal Aviation Administration
- William Barr (1971), Attorney General of the United States
- Gerard E. Lynch (1972), judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
- Robert Katzmann (1973), judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- Eric Holder (1973), United States Attorney General under Barack Obama, Deputy Attorney General under Bill Clinton, United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia
- Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr. (1978), federal judge of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey
- Miguel Estrada (1983), controversial nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
- Neil Gorsuch (1988), judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
Military leaders
- Stephen Kearny (1812), Conqueror of California in the Mexican-American War
- Charles Wilkes (1818), leader of the United States Exploring Expedition to survey the Pacific Ocean; instigator of the Trent Affair during the American Civil War
- Alfred Thayer Mahan* (1858), president, U.S. Naval War College and author of The Influence of Sea Power Upon History
- Hamilton Fish II (Rough Rider) (1895), first American killed in the Spanish-American War
Musicians, composers, and lyricists
- Roy Webb (1910), composer for Notorious and Abe Lincoln in Illinois
- Oscar Hammerstein II (1916), lyricist for Show Boat, Oklahoma! and The King and I, among other Broadway musical hits
- Howard Dietz (1917), director of publicity for MGM and lyricist for "Dancing in the Dark"
- Lorenz Hart (1918), lyricist for Pal Joey and other Broadway musical hits
- Richard Rodgers* (1923), composer and collaborator with Lorenz Hart and Oscar Hammerstein II; wrote music for Carousel, The Sound of Music, and Victory at Sea, among many others
- Elie Siegmeister (1927), composer, music teacher, writer on music
- Eddie Sauter (1936), jazz musician
- John La Touche* (1937), lyricist for Cabin in the Sky and The Golden Apple
- Orrin Keepnews (1943), jazz record producer and winner of the 1988 Grammy Award for Best Album Notes and Best Historical Album.
- Dick Hyman (1948), musical director for Arthur Godfrey; composer or arranger for Hannah and Her Sisters and The Purple Rose of Cairo; Emmy Award winner
- John Corigliano (1959), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music and Academy Award for Best Original Score
- Edward Kleban (1959), lyricist for A Chorus Line
- Charles Wuorinen (1961), serialist composer and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Music for Time's Encomium
- Joel Krosnick (1963), chamber musician and member of the Juilliard String Quartet
- Art Garfunkel (1965), singer of Simon and Garfunkel
- Jon Bauman (1969), "Bowzer" of Sha Na Na
- Cameron Brown (1969), jazz bassist
- Emanuel Ax (1970), concert pianist
- Armen Donelian (1972), jazz pianist
- Jocko Marcellino (1972), member of Sha Na Na
- Phil Schaap (1972), Charlie Parker authority and multiple Grammy Award winner for engineering, production, and album notes
- Gil Shaham (1993), violinist
- R. Luke DuBois (1997), composer and artist
- Lauryn Hill* (1997), Grammy Award-winning R&B singer and songwriter, and member of The Fugees
- Sean Lennon* (1997), singer and songwriter, and son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono
- Orli Shaham (1997), pianist
- Utada Hikaru* (2000), Japanese pop star
- Alicia Keys* (2001), Grammy Award-winning R&B singer and songwriter
- Rostam Batmanglij (2006), member of alt-rock band, Vampire Weekend
- Ezra Koenig (2006), member of alt-rock band, Vampire Weekend
- Chris Tomson (2006), member of alt-rock band, Vampire Weekend
- Chris Baio (2007), member of alt-rock band, Vampire Weekend
Playwrights, screenwriters, and directors
- William C. DeMille (1900), screenwriter, director, playwright, President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
- George Middleton (1902), playwright and president of the Dramatists Guild of America
- Herman Mankiewicz (1917), drama critic for The New Yorker and co-winner of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Citizen Kane
- Morrie Ryskind* (1917), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with George S. Kaufman for Of Thee I Sing and co-writer of The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, and A Night at the Opera
- Sidney Buchman (1923), screenwriter for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and winner of the Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for Here Comes Mr. Jordan
- Alvah Bessie (1924), screenwriter for Objective, Burma! and one of the Hollywood Ten
- Ferrin Fraser (1927), radio scriptwriter for Little Orphan Annie and Frank Buck
- Joseph Mankiewicz (1928), Academy Award-winning writer and director of All About Eve and A Letter to Three Wives
- Frank S. Nugent (1929), screenwriter for Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and The Quiet Man
- Ben Maddow (1930), screenwriter for The Asphalt Jungle
- Albert Maltz (1930), screenwriter for Destination Tokyo and one of the Hollywood Ten
- Martin Manulis (1935), television producer and creator of Playhouse 90
- I.A.L. Diamond (1941), screenwriting partner of Billy Wilder; co-author of Some Like It Hot; co-winner of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Apartment
- Don M. Mankiewicz (1942), television and film writer
- Steve Krantz (1943), screenwriter and film producer
- Ernest Kinoy (1947), television writer of Murrow, Roots, and Victory at Entebbe
- Terrence McNally (1960), Tony Award-winning playwright; author of Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime (musical)
- Brian De Palma (1962), director of Scarface, The Untouchables and Carrie
- Art Eisenson (1963), television writer
- Jim Jarmusch (1975), writer/director of the Coffee and Cigarettes series
- Bill Condon (1976), winner of the Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay for Gods and Monsters, director of Kinsey and Dreamgirls
- Ric Burns (1978), documentary filmmaker
- Tony Kushner (1978), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Angels in America
- Michael Lehmann (1978), director of Heathers, 40 Days and 40 Nights, The Truth About Cats and Dogs and Hudson Hawk
- Dan Futterman (1989), writer of Capote
- Jessica Bendinger (1988), writer of Bring it On and for Sex and the City
- Naomi Uman (1993), experimental filmmaker
- Ramin Bahrani (199-?), writer-director of Man Push Cart and Chop Shop
Political and diplomatic figures
United States political and diplomatic figures
- Richard Varick (King's 1776), Mayor of New York City and American Revolutionary War figure; aide-de-camp of Benedict Arnold and private secretary of George Washington
- DeWitt Clinton (1786), Governor of New York who initiated the construction of the Erie Canal
- John Peter Van Ness (1789), United States Congressman from New York and mayor of Washington, D.C.
- Daniel D. Tompkins (1795), Vice President of the United States; Governor of New York
- Peter Dumont Vroom (1808), U.S. Minister to Prussia and Governor of New Jersey
- John Slidell (1810), Confederate minister to France and a central figure of the Trent Affair during the American Civil War
- Charles G. Ferris (1811), United States Congressman from New York
- William Beach Lawrence (1818), U.S. chargé d'affaires for Great Britain and acting governor of Rhode Island
- William F. Havemeyer (1823), three-time Mayor of New York City
- John McKeon (1825): U.S. Attorney, Southern District of New York; United States Congressman from New York
- Hamilton Fish (1827), US Secretary of State; Governor of New York; United States Senator from New York
- Daniel T. Jewett (1830), United States Senator from Missouri
- John Richardson Thurman (1835), United States Congressman from New York
- Abram Stevens Hewitt (1842), Mayor of New York City and father of the New York City Subway system
- Stewart L. Woodford (1854), Lieutenant Governor of New York and U.S. Minister to Spain
- Jacob Augustus Geissenhainer (1858), United States Congressman from New Jersey
- George Lockhart Rives (1868), United States Assistant Secretary of State and chairman of the Columbia trustees
- Hamilton Fish II, * Speaker of the New York State Assembly and U.S. Congressman
- Seth Low (1870), Mayor of New York City and president of Columbia University
- Oscar Solomon Straus (1871), first Jewish U.S. Cabinet secretary
- Robert Anderson Van Wyck (1871), first Mayor of New York City to preside over all five boroughs
- William Sulzer (1884), Governor of New York
- J. Mayhew Wainwright (1884), U.S. Congressman and Assistant Secretary of War
- James W. Gerard (1890), United States Ambassador to Germany
- John Purroy Mitchel (1899), Mayor of New York City
- William Langer (1910), United States Senator and Governor of North Dakota
- Arthur F. Burns (1925), Chairman of the Federal Reserve and U.S. Ambassador to West Germany
- Harold Brown (1945), U.S. Secretary of Defense and president of the California Institute of Technology
- Morton Halperin (1958), Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Director of Policy Planning for the U.S. State Department, and member of Richard Nixon's Enemies List
- Dick Morris (1967), political strategist and advisor to President Bill Clinton and Mexican President Felipe Calderón
- Judd Gregg (1969), United States Senator from New Hampshire; Governor of New Hampshire; United States Congressman
- Jerrold Nadler (1969), United States Congressman from New York
- Dov Zakheim (1970), advisor to the US Presidential administrations of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush
- Howard W. Gutman (1977), United States Ambassador to Belgium
- David Paterson (1977), first African American Governor of New York and current Governor of New York
- Karl Dean (1978), mayor of Nashville
- Christopher Dell (1978), career diplomat; former US ambassador to Zimbabwe
- Jim McGreevey (1978), Governor of New Jersey
- Charles J. O'Byrne (1981), Secretary to the Governor of New York
- James Rubin (1982), State Department official under the administration of US President Bill Clinton; spokesman for the presidential campaigns of Wesley Clark and John Kerry; Sky News anchorman
- George Stephanopoulos (1982), senior advisor to U.S. President Bill Clinton's administration and ABC News personality
- Barack Obama (1983), President of the United States and former Senator from Illinois
- Steven Waldman (1984), senior advisor to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission and founder of Beliefnet
- Julius Genachowski (1985) Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission
- Matt Gonzalez (1987), Green Party San Francisco mayoral candidate and independent 2008 candidate for vice president running with Ralph Nader
- Michael Leiter (1991), Principal Deputy Director of the National Counterterrorism Center and former Deputy Chief of Staff for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
- Eric Garcetti (1992), member of the Los Angeles City Council
- David Segal (2001), member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives
Foreign political and diplomatic figures
- Pixley ka Isaka Seme (1906), founder and president of the African National Congress
- Wellington Koo (1909), President of the Republic of China and China's ambassador to the United States
- Mario Laserna Pinzón (1948), Colombian diplomat and educator; founded the Universidad de Los Andes
- Johan Jorgen Holst (1960), Norwegian Minister of Defence and Foreign Affairs; heavily involved with the Oslo Accords
- Dore Gold (1975), Israeli political advisor and diplomat
- Toomas Hendrik Ilves (1975), President of Estonia
Publishers
- Alfred Harcourt (1904) and Donald Brace (1904), founders of Harcourt Brace
- Alfred A. Knopf (1912), founder and chairman of Alfred A. Knopf
- George T. Delacorte Jr. (1913), founder of Dell Publishing
- Arthur Hays Sulzberger (1913), publisher of The New York Times
- Bennett Cerf (1920), founder of Random House
- Richard L. Simon (1920) co-founder of Simon and Schuster
- M. Lincoln Schuster (1921), co-founder of Simon and Schuster
- Robert Giroux (1936), chairman of Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Ian Ballantine (1938), founder of Ballantine Books
- Jason Epstein (1949), editorial director of Random House and co-founder of the New York Review of Books
- Peter Mayer (1956), publisher of Overlook Press
- Arthur Ochs Sulzberger (1951), publisher of The New York Times
- Louis Rossetto (1971), founder and publisher of Wired magazine
- John R. MacArthur (1978), president and publisher of Harper's magazine
Religious figures
- Benjamin Moore (King's 1768), second bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York and president of Columbia College
- Jackson Kemper (1809), first missionary bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America
- Benjamin Treadwell Onderdonk (1809), fourth bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York
- George Washington Bethune* (1823), theologian and preacher
- James DeKoven (1851), leader of the Anglo-Catholic movement in the Episcopal Church
- Stephen Samuel Wise (1892), rabbi and Zionist leader
- Thomas Merton (1938), Trappist monk, writer, humanist; author of The Seven Storey Mountain
- Harold Kushner (1955), rabbi and writer
- Michael Lerner (1964), liberal rabbi and editor of Tikkun magazine
Scientists and inventors
- John Stevens (King's 1768), builder of the first oceangoing steamboat in the United States
- Horatio Allen (1823), imported the Stourbridge Lion, first successful steam locomotive to run in the United States
- Oliver Wolcott Gibbs (1841), chemist
- William Barclay Parsons (1879), chief engineer of the New York City Subway system
- Michael I. Pupin (1879), physicist
- Michael Heidelberger (1909), immunologist
- Hermann Joseph Muller (1910), geneticist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- Konrad Lorenz* (1926), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- Norman Foster Ramsey, Jr. (1935), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
- Robert Marshak (1936), president of the American Physical Society and president of the City College of New York
- Julian Schwinger (1936), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics; posited the Schwinger effect
- Barry Commoner (1937), environmentalist
- Robert Jastrow (1944), astronomer
- Joshua Lederberg (1944), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- Robert Neil Butler (1949), president of the International Longevity Center and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction
- Leon Cooper (1951), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
- Gerald Feinberg (1953), physicist who coined the term "tachyon"
- Melvin Schwartz (1953), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
- Alvin F. Poussaint (1956), professor of psychiatry and dean of freshmen at the Harvard Medical School
- Roald Hoffman (1958), winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
- Robert Pollack (1961), biologist
- Niles Eldredge (1965), collaborator of Stephen Jay Gould and curator of the Department of Invertebrates at the American Museum of Natural History
- Allen Steere (1965), rheumatologist and pioneering investigator of Lyme Disease
- Richard Axel (1967), winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for studying the operations of the olfactory system
Spies
- William Joseph Donovan (1905), head of the Office of Strategic Services, predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency
- Whittaker Chambers* (1924), Soviet spy and accuser of Alger Hiss
- Nathaniel Weyl (1931), operative in the Ware group of Soviet spies in the United States
- Victor Perlo (1933), leader of the Perlo group of Soviet spies in the United States
- Frank Snepp (1965), former CIA station chief for Saigon during the Vietnam War
Writers
- Clement Clarke Moore (1798), purported author of A Visit From St. Nicholas
- Charles Fenno Hoffman (1825), poet, translator, and editor
- Evert Augustus Duyckinck (1835), literary biographer
- George Templeton Strong (1838), noted diarist
- Edgar Fawcett (1867), novelist
- John Kendrick Bangs (1883), author, satirist, editor of Puck magazine
- Melville Henry Cane (1900), poet
- Joyce Kilmer (1908), poet and author of Trees
- Randolph Bourne (1912), essayist and public intellectual
- Paul Gallico* (1919), author of The Poseidon Adventure
- Louis Zukofsky (1922), co-founder and leading theorist of the Objectivist poets
- James Warner Bellah (1923), Western and pulp writer whose stories formed the basis of such John Ford classics as Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and Rio Grande.
- Corey Ford* (1923), humorist
- Henry Morton Robinson (1923), author of The Cardinal
- Cornell Woolrich (1923), mystery writer and author of Rear Window
- Herman Wouk (1934), author of War and Remembrance and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Caine Mutiny
- John Berryman (1936), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
- Robert Paul Smith (1936), author of Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing.
- Robert Lax (1938), minimalist poet
- Walter Farley (1941), author of The Black Stallion and its many sequels
- Gerald Green (1942), wrote Holocaust and The Last Angry Man
- Jack Kerouac* (1944), Beat generation author of On the Road
- Leonard Koppett (1944), sportswriter
- Walter Wager (1944), mystery writer
- Herbert Gold (1946), novelist
- Allen Ginsberg (1948), Beat generation poet; author of Howl
- John Hollander (1950), poet, MacArthur Fellow and winner of the Bollingen Prize
- Richard Howard (1951), translator and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
- Anthony Robinson (1953), English professor and novelist
- Ralph Schoenstein (1953), humorist
- Robert Silverberg (1956), science fiction writer
- Jerome Charyn (1959), novelist
- Phillip Lopate (1964), essayist and fiction writer
- Steven Millhauser (1965), novelist and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer
- Eric Van Lustbader (1967), espionage and thriller novelist
- Thomas Hauser (1968), author of nonfiction and biographer
- David Shapiro (1968), poet
- Paul Auster (1970), postmodern writer; author of The New York Trilogy, Moon Palace, and the Brooklyn Follies
- David Lehman (1970), poet
- Kevin Baker (1980), novelist and freelance journalist
- Lou Antonelli (1981), science fiction writer
- David Rakoff (1986), comedic essayist
- John Reed (1990), novelist; author of Snowball's Chance
- Maxine Swann (1994), fiction writer
- Megan McCafferty (1995), chick lit writer, plagiarized by Kaavya Viswanathan
- Aravind Adiga (1997), Man Booker Prize-winning novelist
- Daniel Alarcón (1999), novelist
Miscellaneous
- Samuel L. Gouverneur (1817), postmaster of New York City and son-in-law of President James Monroe
- James Lenox (1818), bibliophile, founder of the Lenox Library, later incorporated into the New York Public Library
- John Lloyd Stephens (1822), explorer, archaeologist, Special Ambassador to Central America, and president of the Panama Railroad
- Samuel Cutler Ward (1831), lobbyist
- William R. Travers (1838), founder of the Travers Stakes
- Elbridge Thomas Gerry (1857), lawyer and social reformer
- Arthur B. Spingarn (1897), president of the NAACP
- Reed Harris (1932), former State Department official and victim of McCarthyism
- Robert David Lion Gardiner (1934), owner of Gardiners Island
- John K. Lattimer (1935), urologist, ballistics expert, and inveterate collector
- Vincent Sardi, Jr. (1937), proprietor of Sardi's
- Arnold Friedman, subject of the documentary Capturing the Friedmans
- Carl Hovde (1950), professor and Dean during the Columbia University protests of 1968.[2]
- Richard Ravitch (1955), chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Bowery Savings Bank
- John Giorno (1958), subject of Andy Warhol's first movie, Sleep
- Arthur MacArthur IV (1960), son of Gen. Douglas MacArthur
- David Gilbert (1966), leader of Students for a Democratic Society and participant in Brink's armored car attack with Kathy Boudin
- Edwin Schlossberg (1967), husband of Caroline Kennedy
- Ted Gold* (1968), student activist, leader of the Students for a Democratic Society and member of the Weatherman group
- John Jacobs* (1969), student activist, member of Students for a Democratic Society and the Weather Underground
- Mark Rudd* (1969), president of Students for a Democratic Society and member of the Weather Underground
- David Kaczynski (1970), brother of Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski
- Ashrita Furman (1976), holder of the most Guinness Book of World Records records
- Christopher Radko (1981), leading manufacturer of glass Christmas ornaments
- Douglas Sadownick (1981), writer and psychologist
- Peter Bacanovic (1984), Martha Stewart's stockbroker involved in the ImClone scandal.
- Julius Genachowski (1985), chairman of the Federal Communications Commission
- Annie Duke (1987), professional poker player
- Greg Giraldo (1987), stand-up comedian
- Anna Ivey (1994), admissions counsellor
- Benjamin Jealous (1994), president of the NAACP
- Meghan McCain (2007), blogger and daughter of Arizona senator John McCain
References
- ^ Mallozzii, Vincent M. "Lou Bender, Columbia Star Who Helped Popularize Basketball in New York, Dies at 99", The New York Times, September 12, 2009. Accessed September 13, 2009.
- ^ Hevesi, Dennis. "Carl F. Hovde, Former Columbia Dean, Dies at 82", The New York Times, September 10, 2009. Accessed September 11, 2009.