The World’s Famous Accountants

Pop-Culture Accountants

• The name of all the accountant characters on the NBC TV show, “The Office” are: Kevin, Angela Kinsey, and Oscar Martinez
• Will Ferrel played an accountant for the IRS in the movie Stranger than Fiction, as well as a forensic accountant in the movie The Other Guys
• Steve Carrell played an accountant for the IRS in the movie Dinner for Schmucks
• Ewan McGregor played an accountant in the movie Deception

Famous Accountants

• Fra Luca Pacioli – Considered the “Father of Accounting”
• William Welch Deloitte – Founder of both Deloitte & Touche and Pricewaterhouse Coopers
• Arthur Andersen – Founder of the famous firm named after him
• William Cooper – Founder of a firm eventually consolidated into PWC
• Alwin & Theodore Ernst – Technically two people, brother that started what would eventually be Ernst and Young
• Charles Haskins – A New York accountant that eventually merged with the others
• William Lybrand, Adam & Edward Ross, & Robert Montgomery several accountants that merged with the others
• James Marwick – A Scottish accountant that the M in KPMG is named after
• William Peat – An accountant from London, eventually merged with Marwick’s company. The P in KPMG.
• Samuel Price – Part of Price Waterhouse Coopers
• Elijah Sells – Eventually partnered with Charles Haskins
• George Touche – Touche, pronounced Tock, created a firm that eventually merged with Deloitte’s
• Edwin Waterhouse – Part of Price Waterhouse Coopers
• Frederick Whinney – His firm eventually consolidated into Ernst and Young
• Arthur Young – A Scottish man that opened a Chicago accounting firm that eventually merged into Ernst and Young

Famous People that were previously Accountants

• John D. Rockefeller was an accountant prior to starting Standard Oil and becoming one of the richest men alive at the time
• John Grisham, the novelist was previously a lawyer and prior to that an accountant
• J.P. Morgan, the famous owner of the investment banking firm started his career as an accountant
• Walter Morgan, the father of the mutual fund industry, created the Wellington Fund which is the flagship fund of the Vanguard company
• Arthur Blank, owner of the Atlanta Falcons and one of the co-founders of the Home Depot was an accountant
• Bob Newhart, the comedian from The Bob Newhart Show
• Kenny G. the saxophone player
• Gibby Hanes, lead singer of he Butthole Sufers graduated Accounting Student of the Year and worked a year in the field before starting the band
• 1,400 FBI Agents are accountants, including Thomas Pickard, the #2 man in the organization

Could you be the next famous accountant, or know any other famous accountants that you would like to add to the list?  Contact us to contribute or check out more articles on the site!