The Pittsburgh Walk of Fame gained some new stars today.
In a ceremony MC’d by WQED producer and host Rick Sebak, with performances by River City Brass, 10 local legends were enshrined on the Pittsburgh Walk of Fame for the 2026 induction with bronze stars embedded in the sidewalk of the Strip District Terminal.
The Pittsburgh Walk of Fame’s 2026 Induction Gifts 10 Local Legends Their Star
“These are people with ties to southwestern Pennsylvania who have not only impacted Pittsburgh, but have left their mark on America and the world,” Sebak said.
This year’s inductees are: broadcaster Myron Cope; choreographer Martha Graham; photographer Charles “Teenie” Harris; athlete Franco Harris; ketchup namesake and entrepreneur H.J. Heinz; actress Shirley Jones; athlete Mario Lemieux; composer Henry Mancini; actor Jimmy Stewart; and inventor George Westinghouse.
Lemieux attended the ceremony to accept the honor, alongside representatives of the other inductees, including: Frank Kurtik, historian and former Heinz family staffer on behalf of H.J. Heinz; Dana and F. Dok Harris, accepting on behalf of Franco Harris; and Elizabeth and Danny Cope, accepting on behalf of Myron Cope.
Honoring Legacies of Innovation and Artistry
Oliver Tobin, a Pittsburgh native and former dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company, accepted the award on the eponymous choreographer’s behalf. He noted that Graham’s work changed the course of his life, giving him “an artistic language, a community, a sense of purpose, and countless experiences.”
“Martha Graham’s legacy reaches far beyond the history books,” Tobin said. “It lives in the nearly 700 dancers who have danced in her company, in each dance student who is encountering and discovering her revolutionary dance technique, in every artist she is inspired to create something truthful and new, and in every audience member moved to think and feel by her company’s performances.”
According to Kelly Stewart Harcourt, accepting on behalf of her father, Jimmy Stewart, being born and raised in Pittsburgh played a major role in the actor’s life and shaped him into the person he became.
“Seeing his star on this walkway makes me feel that Dad is coming home,” she said.
While accepting his star, Lemieux — who played with the Pittsburgh Penguins for almost two decades — told the story of his first time seeing the Steel City skyline, when Penguins sports broadcaster Paul Steigerwald picked him up at the airport and drove him through the Fort Pitt Tunnel.
“[I] didn’t speak any English,” he said. “At the end of the tunnel, there it was, the city of Pittsburgh, an amazing sight for a young French Canadian, and that’s when I fell in love with the city and the people. And I’m here 42 years later, and this is called home for us.”
Building on the Inaugural Class
The stars join George Benson, Nellie Bly, Andrew Carnegie, Rachel Carson, Roberto Clemente, Michael Keaton, Fred Rogers, Jonas Salk, Andy Warhol and August Wilson, the inaugural class inducted on October 20, 2025.
The Pittsburgh Walk of Fame, a nonprofit organization, was established in 2024 by founder and executive director — and longtime Shady Ave editor — Nancy Polinsky Johnson. This year’s inductees were selected by a 150-member selection committee. (TABLE Magazine Editor-in-Chief Keith Recker and Shady Ave Editor-in-Chief are members of this committee.)
“This dynamic group really represents the diversity of the talented people who have come out of southwestern Pennsylvania and made a noteworthy mark on American culture,” Polinsky Johnson said in a statement. “And that’s what this Walk is designed to celebrate.”
About the Author
Amanda Reed has written for Popular Science, Pittsburgh Magazine, Pittsburgh City Paper, Very Local Pittsburgh, GearPatrol and TheStreet. Amanda earned the 2021 Ray Sprigle Best of Show Award from the Western Pennsylvania Press Club for a story on stressed-out college counseling centers. She lives in Bloomfield with JunkJunk, a handsome, sad-looking tuxedo cat who wants only wet food and attention.
About the Photographer
Sean Collier is the editor-in-chief of Shady Ave and the arts and culture editor of TABLE Magazine. Before joining the TABLE Media team, he spent nearly 15 years as a writer, editor and columnist at Pittsburgh Magazine. As the in-house film critic for the top-rated WDVE Morning Show since 2009, he’s been Pittsburgh’s most widely heard voice on movies for nearly two decades. A Pittsburgh native, Sean has since 2020 appeared weekly on KDKA-TV’s popular Pittsburgh Today Live talk show. He’s the co-founder of Vigilance Theater Group and an active stand-up comedian and event host. He can be found on Instagram and Twitter at @seancollierpgh.
Subscribe to TABLE Magazine’s print edition.
