Some famous University of Pennsylvania alumni:

• Charles Addams: Creator, The Addams Family; he is said to have modeled the Addams Family mansion on Penn's College Hall
• Sadie Tanner Alexander: First African-American woman to receive a Ph.D in the United States; first African-American woman to graduate from Penn Law; first black woman to be admitted to Pennsylvania Bar; Civil Rights activist; appointed to the Civil Rights Commission by President Harry S. Truman.
• Gloria Allred: Lawyer, Feminist
• Christian B. Anfinsen: Nobel prize winner in Chemistry
• Walter Annenberg: Philantropist, former U.S Ambassador to the United Kingdom
• Nnamdi Azikiwe: First President of Nigeria
• Ernesto P. Balladares: President of Panama, 1994-1999
• Chuck Bednarik: Philadelphia Eagles Linebacker
• Bert Bell: Former National Football League Commissioner from 1946-1959, who took the league to unprecedented heights
• Candice Bergen: Actress, best known as TV's Murphy Brown
• Nicholas Biddle: President of the Second Bank of the United States
• Henry Bloch: Founder, H&R Block
• Richard Bloch: Founder, H&R Block
• Len Bosack: Co-founder, Cisco Systems (Internet routers company)
• William J. Brennan: U.S. Supreme Court Justice
• Michael S. Brown: Nobel prize winner in Chemistry
• Ron Brown: NBC International Affairs correspondent
• Warren Buffett: CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, investor, second richest man in the world (attended but did not graduate)
• Britton Chance: Scientist and Olympic gold medallist who made great contributions to spectrometry and biochemistry/biophysics research
• Noam Chomsky: Linguist and activist.
• Gordon Clark: philosopher and Christian theologian.
• Richard Clarke: Author and National Counter-Terrorism Director under the presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
• Bruce Dern: Actor
• Donny Deutsch: Deustch Inc.
• Ira Einhorn: 1960s Hippie leader and imprisoned murderer of Holly Maddux
• Colin Emerle: 1990s musician, bassist for the Echo Orbiter.
• Chaka Fattah: U.S. Congressman representing Philadelphia.
• William Fawcett: Actor
• Richard Fisher: Fisher Brothers Construction, New York
• Harold E. Ford, Jr.: U.S. Representative from Tennessee, candidate for house minority leader, 2002
• Stephen Glass: Former reporter for The New Republic, author of The Fabulist
• Leonard Goldberg: Former Chairman of 20th Century Fox/TV and Movie Producer
• Oscar Goodman: Mayor of Las Vegas, Nevada and Attorney.
• Hussam Hamadeh: Founder, Vault.com
• William Henry Harrison (flunked out; class of 1791): 9th President of the United States
• Charles Heimbold: U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, former CEO of Bristol Myers Squibb Corporation
• John Heisman: The Heisman Trophy is named after him
• Duncan Kenworthy: Producer, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Notting Hill
• Charles P. Kindleberger: economist, economic historian.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. (1949-1950): The primary figure in the civil rights movement of the 1960s (took graduate courses, no degree).
• Joe Klein: columnist and political analyst for Time Magazina.
• C. Everett Koop: Surgeon General of the United States, 1981-1989
• Alvin Kraenzlein: four-time Olympic champion
• Andrea Kremer: ESPN sports correspondent
• Leonard Lauder: Co-founder of Estée Lauder; billionaire investor
• Douglas Lenat: Founder of artificial intelligence company Cycorp
• Gerald Levin (Penn Law): former CEO AOL Time Warner
• Peter Lynch: Investor, vice-chairman of Fidelity Investments
• James Mason (senator): Influential U.S. Senator from Virginia in the early 19th century.
• Thomas McKean: Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress
• Michael Milken: Trader/financier
• Andrea Mitchell: NBC Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent
• Gouverneur Morris: New York delegate to the Continental Congress, 1778-1779; U.S. Senator from New York, 1800-1803
• Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg: Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, 1789-1791, 1793-1795. Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress, 1779-1780; Pennsylvania representative to the US Congress, 1789-1797
• Kwame Nkrumah: First President of Ghana
• Alassane D. Ouattara: Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire, 1990-1993
• William S. Paley: Founder, CBS Corporation
• Ronald Perelman: Billionaire investor
• Ezra Pound: Famous Poet
• Maury Povich: Talk-show host
• Harold Prince: Famous Broadway Producer with works including West Side Story and Phantom of the Opera
• Stanley Prusiner: 1997 Nobel Prize in Medicine
• Hilary Putnam: Walter Beverly Pearson Professor of Modern Mathematics and Mathematical Logic at Harvard University
• Alan Rachins: L.A. Law and Dharma and Greg actor
• Ed Rendell: Pennsylvania Governor, former Philadelphia Mayor and former Democratic National Committee Chairman
• Melissa Rivers (Birth name: Melissa Rosenberg), Actress and daughter of comedian Joan Rivers
• Owen J. Roberts: U.S. Supreme Court Justice
• Judith Rodin: First woman president of an Ivy League university
• Martin Cruz Smith: Author of Gorky Park
• Arlen Specter: U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, former Philadelphia District Attorney
• Amir Shachmurove: One man band
• John Taylor: First African-American to win an Olympic Gold Medal
• Michael Tiemann: Co-founder of Cygnus Solutions (a GNU software company), now CTO of Red Hat
• Donald Trump: Billionaire investor/financier
• Roy Vagelos: Former CEO of Merck Pharmaceuticals
• Cesar Virata: Prime Minister of the Philippines, 1981-1986
• John Edgar Wideman: Author, Rhodes Scholar
• William Carlos Williams: Poet
• Steve Wynn: Chairman and CEO Wynn Resorts, Limited. Former Chairman and CEO Mirage Resorts, Inc.
• Chip Zien: Actor

There are numerous other past and present U.S. Ambassadors, members of congress, governors, and cabinet members, and corporate leaders.