List of Belgian Americans


This is a list of notable Belgian-Americans. However, the term Belgian-American is here used in a very liberal way: It includes not only Americans of Belgian descent and Belgians who took American citizenship, but also Americans born in Belgium, Belgians born in the USA, Belgians who lived for a considerable period of time in the United States and vice versa. All, however, would describe themselves as Belgian-Americans.
A brief bio beside each entry helps to clarify in which of these categories each individual falls.
To be included in this list, the person must have a Wikipedia article showing they are Belgian American or must have references showing they are Belgian American and are notable.

Artists

  • Ted LeFevre, theatrical set designer
  • Jan Yoors, Flemish-American artist, photographer, painter, sculptor, writer, tapestry creator, and, earlier in life, a gypsy
  • Tony Mafia, American-Belgian painter, sculptor, and singer-songwriter whose work combined expressionist, surrealist, and symbolic themes.

Builders

  • George Washington Goethals, Brooklyn-born son of Belgian immigrants. Goethals was the first recorded Belgian-American graduate of West Point and was appointed by Theodore Roosevelt to build the Panama Canal, which he accomplished under budget in 1914.

Business people

Entertainers

Fashion

Inventors

Journalists

Musicians

  • Dirk Verbeuren, Belgian-born drummer
  • Evelyne Brancart, Belgian-born pianist
  • Pierre D'Archambeau, Swiss-born violinist; Belgian parents
  • Désiré Defauw, Belgian-born violinist and conductor. He made his American debut with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Since 1940, Defauw was director and conductor of the Orchestra of the Symphonic Concerts of Montreal. During the following years he conducted the major American Orchestras: the Boston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, with the Chicago Symphony he was Musical Director and Conductor for four years. The Grand Rapids Symphony, and the Chicago Youth Orchestra, he was visiting conductor of orchestral activities at Northwestern University in 1955. Just before his death, he retired as director of the Gary Symphony Orchestra in Indiana.
  • G-Eazy, rapper
  • Frédérique Petrides née Frédérique Mayer, Belgian-American conductor. In New York City, Petrides founded the Orchestrette Classique, an all-women's chamber orchestra, which existed from 1932 to 1943, premiered works by new American composers, such as Paul Creston, Samuel Barber and David Diamond; and gave five to six concerts annually in Carnegie Chamber Music Hall, now Weill Recital Hall; founded the Carl Schurz Park concert series on Manhattan's Upper East Side in 1958; founded the West Side Orchestral Concerts in 1962; founded the Hudson Valley Symphony Orchestra in Tarrytown, New York in the 1930s, and founded the Student Symphony Society in New York City in 1950. Ms. Petrides was also editor and publisher of the ground-breaking Women in Music newsletters, which, in the 1930s chronicled the activities of women musicians from the ancient Egyptian times to the then present and were published in New York and circulated internationally. Petrides's accomplishments were followed and reviewed by leading critics and writers such as Virgil Thomson, H. Howard Taubman, Irving Kolodin, Olin Downes, Robert A. Simon, Jerome D. Bohm, Francis D. Perkins, Theodore Strongin, Raymond Ericson, Harold C. Schonberg and Robert Sherman who, in the New York Times of July 3, 1970, describes Petrides as "a prime mover in New York's cultural affairs since the mid-1930s".
  • Jean-Baptiste "Toots" Thielemans, Belgian jazz artist well known for his guitar, harmonica play and also for his highly accomplished professional whistling. He made his big breakthrough when he went on European tour with Benny Goodman in 1950. He moved to America in 1952 where he is extremely well known, especially among the jazz community. Quincy Jones said this about him in 1995: "I can say without hesitation that Toots is one of the greatest musicians of our time. On his instrument he ranks with the best that jazz has ever produced. He goes for the heart and makes you cry. We have worked together more times than I can count and he always keeps me coming back for more". Toots hates his favourite instrument, the harmonica, being called a 'miscellaneous instrument'. Indeed, the late Clifford Brown said: "Toots, the way you play the harmonica they should not call it a miscellaneous instrument". His successes include harmonica solo contributions to film scores for Midnight Cowboy, The Getaway, Sugarland Express, Cinderella Liberty, Turks Fruit, Jean de Florette and others. In 1962, he had a massive hit with 'Bluesette'. He also did many concerts and recordings with legends such as George Shearing, Ella Fitzgerald, Quincy Jones, Bill Evans, Jaco Pastorius, Natalie Cole, Pat Metheny, Paul Simon and Billy Joel. Many people also will remember him from the music used for the 'Old Spice' TV commercial.

Politicians

Prelates

Scholars

  • Francis Deblauwe, Belgian-American Mesopotamian archaeologist and culture-heritage expert known for the project
  • George Sarton, seminal Belgian-American polymath and historian of science; father of May Sarton
  • Robert Triffin, Belgian-born economist best known for his critique of the Bretton Woods system, later known as Triffin's Dilemma
  • Marc Van de Mieroop, Belgian-American Assyriologist
  • Gonda Van Steen, Belgian-American classical scholar and linguist

Scientists

Singers

Sports

Writers

Other