Edited By Alex Knapp and Michael Noer, Forbes Staff

Immigrants have been part of this nation’s history since its founding. Many of those who fought in the Revolution, signed the Declaration of Independence or attended the Constitutional Convention were born abroad. For 250 years, the United States has been a beacon for those who wanted the freedom and opportunity to build a better life for themselves. With that in mind, we have ranked 250 immigrants who best succeeded in achieving their own American Dream during their lifetimes. (Everyone on our historic list is now dead. For the list of 250 most successful living immigrants, click here.)

AMERICA’S GREATEST INNOVATORS

#1. Alexander Graham Bell (1847 - 1922) • United Kingdom 🇬🇧

The founder of AT&T invented the first practical telephone as part of his efforts to invent devices to help the deaf community. He had multiple patents to his name, including ones on wireless communication using light, aerial vehicles and the audiometer—which is still in use to identify hearing problems.

#2. Alexander Hamilton (1755 - 1804) • Nevis 🇰🇳

Effectively orphaned and penniless when his mother died, his Caribbean community pooled money to pay for his education in New York's King's College (now Columbia). He became Washington's right-hand man during the Revolution, managing both his correspondence and spy rings. Along with James Madison and John Jay, he wrote the Federalist Papers and as first Secretary of the Treasury he defined America's financial system.

#3. Andrew Carnegie (1835 - 1919) • United Kingdom 🇬🇧

The steel magnate and philanthropist came to America when he was 12 and started working a year later. He built an industrial empire thanks to investments in railroads, oil and steel. He famously sold Carnegie Steel to J.P. Morgan in 1901 for nearly $500 million—which in today's dollars is closer to $20 billion. Carnegie pocketed about half the transaction, using that fortune to fund libraries, schools and other institutions.

#4. Mary Pickford (1892 - 1979) • Canada 🇨🇦

In front of the cameras, the Hollywood star was "America's sweetheart." Behind the scenes, she was a savvy businesswoman who quickly gained creative control over her films as a producer. She also cofounded United Artists, which broke the studio system's vertical integration by offering distribution services to independent movies.

#5. Marcus Goldman (1821 - 1904) • Germany 🇩🇪

Tired of being a shopkeeper, Goldman opened up what would become investment banking giant Goldman Sachs in 1869.

#6. Irving Berlin (1888 - 1989) • Russia 🇷🇺

The writer of classic American songs like "White Christmas" and "God Bless America" came to America at the age of 5 to escape Jewish persecution in Russia.

#7. Charles Pfizer (1824 - 1906) • Germany 🇩🇪

When he founded his namesake company in 1849, Pfizer started out manufacturing food additives before expanding into pharmaceuticals.

#8. Eleuthere du Pont (1771 - 1834) • France 🇫🇷

His namesake chemical company, which manufactures everything from medical packaging to insulation to electronics, began life as a gunpowder mill in Delaware.

#9. Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) • Germany 🇩🇪

Einstein won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921, not for his famous Theory of Relativity, but for his discovery of the photoelectric effect, which is applied in everything from cameras to solar cells. After becoming an American citizen in 1939, he wrote a letter to President Roosevelt successfully urging him to start what would become the Manhattan Project.

#10. Levi Strauss (1829 - 1902) • Germany 🇩🇪

Strauss came to San Francisco as a dry goods merchant supplying would-be prospectors during the California Gold Rush. One of his customers was Jacob Davis, with whom he co-invented denim "waist overalls"—a.k.a. blue jeans.

#11. Jacob Davis (1831 - 1908) • Russia 🇷🇺

With Strauss, the Russian-born tailor pioneered the use of copper rivets to reinforce workwear, which made his blue jeans long lasting.

#12. Thomas Mellon (1813 - 1908) • United Kingdom 🇬🇧

Inspired by Ben Franklin's autobiography, Mellon became a lawyer, using his salary to buy up large portions of downtown Pittsburgh. In 1869, he left the practice of law and founded Mellon Bank, now BNY Mellon.

#13. John Jacob Astor (1763 - 1848) • Germany 🇩🇪

After arriving in New York, he built a fur trading empire and used the profits to become Manhattan's first real estate mogul.

#14. Nikola Tesla (1856 - 1943) • Croatia 🇭🇷

The prolific inventor's pioneering work in alternating current and radio technologies helped lay the foundation for 20th century industry.

#15. Emile Berliner (1888 - 1989) • Russia 🇷🇺

After coming to America to avoid being drafted into the Franco-Prussian War, Berliner invented the Gramophone, kicking off the modern music industry.

#16. Elizabeth Arden (1881 - 1966) • Canada 🇨🇦

Arden came to America after dropping out of nursing school and worked at a pharmaceutical company, where she taught herself about skincare. She opened her first Red Door Salon, a luxury beauty parlor, in 1910. Today her eponymous company sells a wide variety of cosmetics.

#17. An Wang (1920 - 1990) • China 🇨🇳

The engineer was the cofounder of Wang Laboratories, which helped propel computing into the office with its line of word processors.

#18. Joseph Pulitzer (1847 - 1911) • Austria 🇦🇹

Best known for his newspaper empire and the journalism prize that bears his name, Pulitzer also fought for the Union in the Civil War and served in the House of Representatives, where his committee position secured New York City as the site of the Statue of Liberty.

#19. Thomas Paine (1737 - 1809) • United Kingdom 🇬🇧

The author of Common Sense (1776) is also credited with popularizing "The United States of America" as the name for the new nation. Washington had his words read aloud to inspire Continental soldiers during the Revolution.

#20. Frank Capra (1897 - 1991) • Italy 🇮🇹

The Oscar-winning director of classic movies like Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939) stepped away from movies at the peak of his career to serve in the U.S. Army after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

#21. Meyer Guggenheim (1828 - 1905) • Switzerland 🇨🇭

Guggenheim built a successful lace importing business after coming to America, and used the proceeds to invest in Colorado copper mines in the 1880s. By 1901, his company dominated the U.S. mining industry and expanded to sites in Africa and South America.

#22. Anna Bissell (1846 - 1934) • Canada 🇨🇦

Her husband invented the carpet sweeper, but she was its top salesperson. After his death in 1889, she became CEO of the company, making her the first American female CEO, and over the course of the next 30 years she made Bissell one of the dominant companies in its category.

#23. Benjamin Graham (1894 - 1976) • United Kingdom 🇬🇧

Warren Buffet's mentor is considered the "father of value investing" and his book The Intelligent Investor has remained in print since its publication in 1949.

#24. Eugene Kleiner (1923 - 2003) • Austria 🇦🇹

After serving in World War II, he got his engineering education thanks to the GI Bill. Later he helped start chip pioneer Fairchild Semiconductor before cofounding VC firm Kleiner Perkins, which backed many of the companies that dominate today's tech sector.

#25. James Wilson (1742 - 1798) • United Kingdom 🇬🇧

Born in Scotland, he moved to Philadelphia when he was 22 and became a lawyer. He signed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. In 1789, he was appointed by Washington to the Supreme Court.

#26. Andrew Grove (1936 - 2016) • Hungary 🇭🇺

Grove survived Nazi-occupied Hungary only to face a Stalinist regime after the war. He escaped across the border in 1957, coming to America for his education. After graduating, he was the first hire at Intel by founder Gordon Moore. Eleven years later, Grove became Intel’s CEO.

#27. Don Prudencio Unanue (1886 - 1976) • Spain 🇪🇸

The cofounder of Goya Foods (with wife Carolina), he established one of the largest Hispanic-owned American businesses, which is now owned and operated by his grandchildren.

#28. Carolina Unanue (1890 - 1984) • Spain 🇪🇸

With her husband, she opened and operated Goya's first storefront in New York City, which first specialized in Spanish food like sardines and olives before expanding to include Latin American cuisine.

#29. Hedy Lamarr (1914 - 2000) • Austria 🇦🇹

The famed actress of Hollywood's Golden Age tinkered with inventions in her spare time, including "frequency-hopping" tech for torpedoes that paved the way for GPS and WiFi.

#30. John Mackay (1831 - 1902) • Ireland 🇮🇪

He struck out during California's gold rush, but became a silver kingpin in Nevada, using his wealth to launch the Commercial Cable Company, which laid undersea telegraph cables to compete with Jay Gould's Western Union monopoly.

#31. Rose Blumkin (1893 - 1998) • Belarus 🇧🇾

Three months after "Mrs. B" sold her Nebraska Furniture Mart to Warren Buffett in 1989, she started a rival store across the street. Buffett bought that one in 1992.

#32. Stephen Girard (1750 - 1831) • France 🇫🇷

The French-born banker came to New York before the Revolution and helped save the nation by becoming the federal government's main source of credit during the War of 1812.

#33. Igor Sikorsky (1889 - 1972) • Russia 🇷🇺

After fleeing the Russian Revolution for America, he formed the Sikorsky Manufacturing Company in 1923 and invented the first helicopter.

#34. Frederick Weyerhaeuser (1834 - 1914) • Germany 🇩🇪

As a young German immigrant, he worked his way up the chain at an Illinois sawmill, and when the business began to struggle, he bought it. He eventually expanded the lumber business to the point where it handled every log processed on the Mississippi. His Weyerhaeuser Company is still the largest seller of timber in the world.

#35. Adolph Zukor (1873 - 1976) • Hungary 🇭🇺

In 1913, the Paramount Pictures cofounder and longtime chief produced the first feature-length American movie, The Prisoner of Zenda.

#36. Elizabeth Blackwell (1906 - 2005) • United Kingdom 🇬🇧

In 1849, Blackwell became the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States, and mentored other women while practicing medicine. During the Civil War, she and her sisters trained nurses to support the Union war effort.

#37. Jacob Schiff (1847 - 1920) • Germany 🇩🇪

As head of investment bank Kuhn, Loeb & Company, Schiff financed the growth of railroads, electricity, and telegraphs. In 1904, he floated the first Japanese bonds on Wall Street, which ended up paying for about half of that nation's war effort against Russia during the Russo-Japanese War.

#38. Desi Arnaz (1917 - 1986) • Cuba 🇨🇺

Arnaz was a Broadway and movie star before inventing television syndication and the multicamera sitcom with his wife Lucille Ball.

#39. Sehat Sutardja (1961 - 2024) • Indonesia 🇮🇩

The billionaire cofounder of semiconductor firm Marvell held over 400 patents.

#40. Harry Houdini (1874 - 1926) • Hungary 🇭🇺

The famed escape artist also briefly became an aviator after buying a plane in 1909.

#41. Ida Rosenthal (1886 - 1973) • Belarus 🇧🇾

Rosenthal first designed a bra that would improve the fit of the dresses she sold, but it soon became so popular she opened the first Maidenform factory in 1925. The company, now a Hanesgroup subsidiary, is led by her granddaughter, Elizabeth Coleman.

#42. Valentin Gapontsev (1939 - 2021) • Russia 🇷🇺

A physicist by training, billionaire Gapontsev founded laser-maker IPG Photonics and emigrated to the U.S. after the fall of Communism.

#43. John Hertz (1879 - 1961) • United Kingdom 🇬🇧

The founder of both his namesake rental car company and the Yellow Cab Company began his career as a copyboy at the Chicago Morning Herald.

#44. Enrico Fermi (1901 - 1954) • Italy 🇮🇹

He built the world's first nuclear reactor in 1942 as part of the Manhattan Project, four years after he won the Nobel Prize in Physics.

#45. Wernher von Braun (1912 - 1977) • Germany 🇩🇪

After working on Germany’s rocket weapons in World War II, von Braun became one of the principal architects of America's space program, and is widely credited with the success of the Apollo missions.

#46. Eugene Houdry (1892 - 1962) • France 🇫🇷

The inventor of the catalytic converter, Houdry also developed a chemical process for refining gasoline that was used to make airplane fuel during World War II and still informs modern refining methods.

#47. Elie Wiesel (1928 - 2016) • Romania 🇷🇴

The Holocaust survivor and author of Night (1956) won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 "for being a messenger to Mankind."

#48. John von Neumann (1903 - 1957) • Hungary 🇭🇺

Nearly all modern computers are based on the architecture that von Neumann developed. And that's just one of his myriad achievements in mathematics, computer science, meteorology and physics.

#49. Har Gobind Khorana (1922 - 2011) • Sweden 🇸🇪

Khorana won the 1968 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research into how the body uses DNA to create proteins. In 1970, he built the first artificial gene, paving the way for modern biotechnology companies.

#50. Bob Hope (1903 - 2003) • United Kingdom 🇬🇧

The comedian began his career as a street performer as a child, and began his famous USO performances for American troops in 1941, headlining dozens of shows over the course of five decades.

#51. Helena Rubinstein (1872 - 1965) • Poland 🇵🇱

Rubinstein left Poland for Australia to avoid an arranged marriage, where Rubinstein founded her eponymous cosmetics company. She moved to the U.S. in 1915, where she turned one salon into a national chain and began a vicious rivalry with Elizabeth Arden (see #16).

#52. Eberhard Anheuser (1806 - 1880) • Germany 🇩🇪

Anheuser was part of a long line of wine makers before moving to the United States, where he switched to beer by taking control of the struggling brewery that eventually became Anheuser-Busch.

#53. Adolphus Busch (1839 - 1913) • Germany 🇩🇪

After the Civil War, Busch bought out Anheuser's brewery partner and joined his father-in-law's business. He used pasteurization and refrigerated railcars to build a national beer brand, which he christened Budweiser.

#54. Allan MacLeod Cormack (1924 - 1998) • South Africa 🇿🇦

Cormack won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1979 for his research that underpins modern CT scanners. Not bad for a guy who never got a doctoral degree.

#55. Henry Kissinger (1923 - 2023) • Germany 🇩🇪

One of the most consequential influences on American foreign policy, Nixon's Secretary of State recalled being bullied by Hitler Youth before his family fled Germany in 1938.

#56. Oscar Mayer (1859 - 1955) • Germany 🇩🇪

Mayer worked at Spam-maker Armour & Company before opening his own meat business, which became one of the most popular in Chicago and later went national, embracing the then-novel practice of branding its products.

#57. William Colgate (1883 - 1857) • United Kingdom 🇬🇧

The founder of Colgate-Palmolive started off making soap, starch and candles. The toothpaste came later, in 1873, when his son ran the business.

#58. John Jacob Bausch (1830 - 1926) • Germany 🇩🇪

The optical company he started with his friend Henry Lomb was floundering until Bausch started experimenting with rubber on the family stove, making a pair of cheap, durable frames—the first of many inventions.

#59. Henry Lomb (1828 - 1908) • Germany 🇩🇪

During the Civil War, Lomb sent his soldier's pay to his partner Bausch to keep their optometry company going.

#60. Marcus Daly (1841 - 1900) • Ireland 🇮🇪

Daly worked in one of John Mackay's mines (see #30) before making his way to Butte Montana, where he got a job running a small mine. After his bosses declined to acquire a nearby copper mine, Daly bought it himself, which........

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