There are quite a number of famous and successful people who, in some form or another, have a connection to Montessori. ou may recognize some of the names below.

People who attended Montessori school as children:

  • Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google.com

  • Julia Child, chef, author, TV personality

  • Taylor Swift, pop music superstar

  • Jeff Bezos, financial analyst, founder, Amazon.com

  • Katherine Graham, owner/editor of the Washington Post

  • Prince William and Prince Harry, English royal family

  • Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis, editor, former first lady (John F. Kennedy)

  • Anne Frank, famous diarist from World War II

  • Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Nobel Prize winner for Literature

  • Seth Curry, Professional basketball player

  • Helen Hunt, Emmy Award winning actor

  • T. Berry Brazelton, noted pediatrician and author

  • Will C. Smith, Jr., Maryland State Senator

  • Will Wright, video-game designer (SimCity, Spore)

  • Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Austrian painter and architect

  • George Clooney, Academy Award-winning actor

  • Kami Cotler, actress (youngest child on long-running series The Waltons)

  • Melissa and Sarah Gilbert, actors

  • Elizabeth Berridge, actress

  • Joshua Bell, American violinist, owner of Stradivarius violin

  • Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, rap star, music mogul

People who chose Montessori schools for their own children:

  • Bill & Hillary Clinton, former president/senator, NY

  • John Bradshaw, psychologist and author

  • Dick Ebersol and Susan St. James, television executive and actress

  • Stephen J. Cannell, TV writer-producer-director (The Rockford Files and many others)

  • Willie Nelson, musician, has a Montessori school on his ranch

  • Patty Duke Austin, actress

  • Cher Bono, singer-actress

  • Michael Douglas, actor

  • Yul Brynner, actor

  • Marcy Carcy, TV producer

  • Shari Lewis, puppeteer

  • Yo Yo Ma, cellist

  • David Blaine, magician

Finally, others with some kind of Montessori connection:

  • Alexander Graham Bell, noted inventor, provided financial support directly to Dr. Montessori. Helped establish the first Montessori class in Canada and one of the first in the United States.

  • Thomas Edison, noted scientist and inventor,helped to found a Montessori school.

  • Bruno Bettelheim, noted psychologist/author, was married to a Montessori teacher.

  • Erik Erikson, anthropologist/author, had a Montessori teaching certificate.

  • Jean Piaget, noted Swiss psychologist, made his first observations of children in a Montessori school.

  • Alice Waters, restaurateur and writer, is a former Montessori teacher.

  • President Wilson’s daughter trained as a Montessori teacher. There was a Montessori classroom in the basement of the White House during Wilson’s presidency.

  • Mister Rogers, children's TV personality, was a strong supporter of the Montessori method.