20th-century American Jews

Joel King Goldsmith (November 19, 1957 – April 29, 2012) was an American composer of film, television, and video game music.

David Alan Gest (May 11, 1953 – April 12, 2016) was an American producer and television personality. Gest founded the American Cinema Awards Foundation in 1983. He produced the television special Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration in 2001, which was the last reunion of Michael Jackson and the Jacksons coming 17 years after their previous reunion. Gest appeared on the 2006 series of the British reality television show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!. He frequently made tabloid headlines during his marriage with Liza Minnelli. In 2016, Gest appeared in Celebrity Big Brother 17 in the UK but elected to leave the show after 13 days due to "medical reasons". This resulted him finishing in 13th place.

Zora Arkus-Duntov (December 25, 1909 – April 21, 1996) was a Belgian-born American engineer whose work on the Chevrolet Corvette earned him the nickname "Father of the Corvette.": 6  He is sometimes erroneously referred to as the inventor of the Corvette, whereas that title belongs to Harley Earl. He was also a professional racing driver, appearing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans four times and taking class wins in 1954 and 1955.

James Thomas Flexner (January 13, 1908 – February 13, 2003) was an American historian and biographer best known for the four-volume biography of George Washington that earned him a National Book Award
in Biography and a special Pulitzer Prize. His one-volume abridgment, Washington: the Indispensable Man (1974) was the basis of two television miniseries, George Washington (1984) and George Washington II: The Forging of a Nation (1986), starring Barry Bostwick as Washington.

Jack Schwartzman (July 22, 1932 – June 15, 1994) was an American film producer.

Mordicai Gerstein (November 24, 1935 – September 24, 2019) was an American artist, writer, and film director, best known for illustrating and writing children's books. He illustrated the comic mystery fiction series Something Queer is Going On.

Harry Danning (September 6, 1911 – November 29, 2004), nicknamed "Harry the Horse", was an American professional baseball player. He played his entire Major League Baseball career as a catcher for the New York Giants, and was considered to be both an excellent hitter and one of the top defensive catchers of his era. He batted and threw right-handed, and was a member of the National League All-Star team for four consecutive years, 1938-41.

David Barish Feinberg (November 25, 1956 – November 2, 1994) was an American writer and AIDS activist.

Samuel Lawrence Klusman Parks (December 13, 1914 – April 13, 1975) was an American stage and film actor. His career arced from bit player and supporting roles to top billing, before it virtually ended when he admitted to having been a member of a Communist Party cell, which led to his blacklisting by all Hollywood studios. His best known role was Al Jolson, whom he portrayed in two films: The Jolson Story (1946) and Jolson Sings Again (1949).

Herbert Gold (March 9, 1924 – November 19, 2023) was an American novelist.