The following is a list of Finnish Americans, including both original immigrants who obtained American citizenship and their American descendants.
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
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by editing the page to add missing items, with references to reliable sources.
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
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
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; father 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 (1931–2025), Golden Globe-winning film and stage actress[13]
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]
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
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
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
"Archived copy". Archived from the original on May 22, 2009. Retrieved September 30, 2009.{{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 February 16, 2012. Retrieved July 23, 2012. "Arthur Kylander, Finnish American Folksinger"; born in Kangasniemi, Finland
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)"
