To be included in this list, the person must have a Wikipedia article showing they are Finnish American or must have references showing they are Finnish American and are notable.
List
See also the categories American people of Finnish descent and Finnish expatriates in the United States
Academics, inventors, scientists
Lars Ahlfors (1907–1996), mathematician, one of the first two people to be awarded the Fields Medal; Wolf Prize winner; William Caspar Graustein Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University
Alfred Aho (born 1941), computer scientist best known for his work on programming languages, compilers, and related algorithms, and his textbooks on the art and science of computer programming, as of 2011 he holds the Lawrence Gussman Chair of Computer Science at Columbia University. He served as chair of the department from 1995 to 1997, and again in the spring of 2003[citation needed]
Vaino Jack Vehko (1918–1999), automotive engineer; NASA rocket scientist; in 1960 became Director of Engineering on the Saturn S1 and S1B booster rocket program at Chrysler Space Division's Michoud operation in New Orleans, Louisiana; the Saturn boosters successfully launched all the NASA Apollo and Moon missions
Max Dimont (1912–1992), historian; author of Jews, God and History, which received critical acclaim and has sold over a million and a half copies; has lectured on Jewish history throughout the United States, Canada, South Africa, Brazil, and Finland; author of The Indestructible Jews, The Jews in America, and Appointment in Jerusalem
Eino Friberg (1901–1995), Protestant Minister and English translator of The Kalevala, the Finnish national epic
Bill Aho (born 1957), businessman who is a partner with The SagePoint Group, a management consulting firm, served as Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning for Darden Restaurants and was instrumental in turning around the Red Lobster business.
Mike Markkula (born 1942), entrepreneur; angel investor and second CEO of Apple Computer, Inc.; provided early critical funding and managerial support; known as Apple employee #3
Gustave Niebaum (1842–1908), established Inglenook Winery in Napa Valley, California, the first Bordeaux style winery in the US
Oscar Wirkkala (1880–1959), logger and inventor, developed the high lead method of logging, which revolutionized the industry; also invented important pieces of that industry's machinery used during the first half of the 20th century
Film and television
Pamela Anderson, actress, father is of part Finnish ancestry[9]
Alexa Davalos (born 1982), actress, mother is of partial Finnish descent
Elyssa Davalos (born 1959), actress, father was of partial Finnish descent
Richard Davalos (1930–2016), actor; starred in East of Eden (1955) as James Dean's brother; portrayed the convict Blind Dick in Cool Hand Luke (1967); won the Theatre World Award for his performance in the Arthur Miller play A Memory of Two Mondays in 1955; fa is of Finnish descent[12]
Anna Easteden (born 1976), actress; The House of Branching Love (2009) and Sideways (2009); co-starred in soap operas Passions and Days Of Our Lives, and the series Bones
Taina Elg (born 1931), Golden Globe-winning film and stage actress[13]
Brian Heidik (born 1968), won $1,000,000 on the Thailand edition of Survivor[16]
Nancy Juvonen (born 1967), American-Finnish film producer; with Drew Barrymore, co-owner of production company Flower Films; produced Never been Kissed (1999), Charlie's Angels (2000), Donnie Darko (2002), Charlie's Angels – Full Throttle (2003); wife of comedian and talk show host Jimmy Fallon[17]
Bonnie Pietila, casting director and producer for The Simpsons
Joyce Randolph (born Joyce Sirola, 1924–2024), actress, best known for playing Trixie Norton on The Honeymooners
Allison Rosati (born 1963), journalist, paternal Finnish ancestry
Eric Saarinen (born 1942), cinematographer, son of Eero Saarinen
Albert Salmi (1928–1990), film and television actor[24]
Steve Schubert (born 1951), football player, paternal grandmother was a Finnish immigrant
Vanessa Williams (born 1963), singer, actress, producer, former fashion model; first African American to be crowned Miss America; a DNA test revealed she is 12% Finnish[25]
Renée Zellweger (born 1969), actress and producer; mother of partial Finnish descent
Daphne Zuniga, actress, mother of partial Finnish descent
Military personnel
Johannes Anderson (1887–1950), Finnish-born U.S. Army soldier during World War I; Medal of Honor recipient
Reino Hayhanen (1920–1961), U.S. spy; Soviet Lt. Colonel who defected to the U.S. during the Cold War; helped break open the Hollow Nickel Case which led to the capture of top Soviet spies in the U.S. looking for atomic secretsTimothy L. Kopra
Timothy L. Kopra (born 1963), astronaut; flew missions on the International Space Station and Space Shuttle Discovery; U.S. Army Colonel; Desert Storm veteran; Bronze Star recipient; West Point graduate
Lauri Törni (1919–1965), Finnish Army Captain who led an infantry company in Finnish Winter and Continuation Wars; moved to the United States after World War II and adopted the name Larry Thorne; served with the U.S. Army Special Forces in Vietnam War; killed in Laos while on a clandestine mission
Dale Eugene Wayrynen (1947–1967), U.S. Army enlisted soldier; recipient of the Medal of Honor, America's highest military decoration, for his actions in the Vietnam War
Jorma Kaukonen (born 1940), blues, folk and rock guitarist[26]
Peter Kaukonen (born 1945), blues, folk and rock guitarist; younger brother of Jorma Kaukonen
David Mustaine (born 1961), musician best known as the co-founder, vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter of American heavy metal band Megadeth[citation needed]
Jaco Pastorius (1951–1987), influential jazz bassist[27]
Carolyn Carlson (born 1943), choreographer and performer[31]
Politics
Gregory Nevala Calvert (1937–2005), National Secretary of Students for a Democratic Society, 1966–67
Gus Hall (1910–2000), labor organizer, a founder of the United Steelworkers of America trade union; a leader of the Communist Party USA; five-time U.S. presidential candidate[32]
Cheri Honkala (born 1963), the Green Party's nominee for vice-president in the 2012 U.S. presidential election
Emil Hurja (1892–1953), pioneer of political opinion polling; a top advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt; appeared on the cover of Time magazine in March 1936
Oscar Larson (1871–1957), U.S. Representative from Minnesota, Republican, lawyer
Robert W. Mattson, Jr. (1948–2012), Minnesota State Auditor, 1975–1979; Minnesota State Treasurer, 1983–1987
Robert W. Mattson, Sr. (1924–1982), Minnesota State Attorney General, 1964–1967John Morton
John Morton (1724–1777), signer of the Declaration of Independence; delegate who cast the deciding vote in favor of Pennsylvania's support for United States Declaration of Independence[33]
Dan O'Brien (born 1966), former American decathlete, deemed one of the best decathlon athletes of the 1990s, winning an Olympic gold medal in Atlanta in 1996 after winning three consecutive world titles
Kevin Tapani, Major League Baseball pitcher who played for the New York Mets, Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago White Sox, and Chicago Cubs, 1989–2001
Nick Theslof, soccer player and coach; first American player to play in Europe
Tyler Varga, retired NFL running back for Indianapolis Colts; Finnish mother
Other
Carrie Keranen, voice actress, production manager, producer and voice director
^Noted as one of several Finnish Americans at [9]; parents were Finnish immigrants
^"Actress Vanessa Williams Explains How DNA Powers Her Family Tree". ancestry.com. May 14, 2013. Archived from the original on April 5, 2015. Retrieved August 23, 2014.
^Described as "Finnish-American" at [10] Archived 2006-04-21 at the Wayback Machine; father was Finnish and mother was Jewish-American
^"Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-05-22. Retrieved 2009-09-30.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)"Jaco's Grandmother on his Mom's side, Kaisa Eriika ISOJÄRVI, was born north of the Arctic Circle in Lappi, Finland, and married David Haapala from Minnesota, whose father, Andrew Haapala was from Oulu, Finland"
^"Arthur Kylander". Archived from the original on 2012-02-16. Retrieved 2012-07-23. "Arthur Kylander, Finnish American Folksinger"; born in Kangasniemi, Finland
^[11] "T-Bone Slim (the itinerant Finnish-American worker from Ashtabula, Ohio, Matt Valentine Huhta)"
^Holland, Bernard (24 November 1985). "Music: Finnish Tribute". The New York Times.
^"Biennale de la Danse 2008". Archived from the original on 2009-10-07. Retrieved 2009-10-05.
^[12] Archived 2007-06-11 at the Wayback Machine "Although a few younger Finns held notable positions in the party leadership (e.g. Gus Hall, the party general secretary)"
^[13] Archived 2006-05-07 at the Wayback Machine "JOHN MORTON was an early Finnish-American"
^[14] Archived 2010-01-03 at the Wayback Machine"William Alex Stolt"
^"/volume7/countries/finland.html Welcome to... / Bienvenue à". Archived from the original on 2001-06-06. Retrieved 2006-08-01.
^"Cleveland Athlete Seeks Discus Throw Honors at Los Angeles". Salt Lake Tribune. May 17, 1932. Retrieved October 31, 2014.