Anthony Bourdain is among the stars of screen, stage, page, business and sports up for the New Jersey Hall of Fame this year.
The hall unveiled its list of nominees Monday, which includes 35 men, 13 women and two families, among them a few repeat picks who weren’t chosen for induction in prior years.
Superstar Newark actor Michael B. Jordan, 35, set to make his directorial debut in “Creed III,” out this fall, is also up for the hall.
Newark and Plainfield’s P-Funk pioneer George Clinton is another nominee. Clinton, 80, who is reportedly the subject of a forthcoming biopic possibly starring Eddie Murphy, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with Parliament-Funkadelic in 1997. He received a Grammy lifetime achievement award in 2019.
Veteran actor Bebe Neuwirth (”Cheers,” “Frasier,” “Madam Secretary”), 63, an Emmy and Tony winner who grew up in Princeton, is a repeat nominee for the hall after she was on the ballot just last year.
Actor, dancer and singer Lola Falana, 79, born in Camden, is another nominee in the hall’s performing arts and entertainment category. So is director Brian De Palma (”Scarface,” “Carrie,” “Carlito’s Way”), 81, a Newark native.
Famously ageless “Ant-Man” actor Paul Rudd, 53, who was born in Passaic, is a first-time nominee.
Inductees are chosen from a combination of factors, including a public vote and whether or not living nominees are available to attend an induction ceremony. The last two ceremonies were virtual because of COVID-19. Previous inductions took place at the Paramount Theatre in Asbury Park.
Honorees were born or raised in New Jersey or resided in the state at some point in their lives (and yes, some still do live here).
Bourdain, a nominee in the enterprise category who grew up in Leonia, was an Emmy-winning TV host, writer and professional foodie who died in 2018, when he was 61. The host of CNN’s “Parts Unknown” was nominated for the hall in 2017, but was removed from contention after he said he couldn’t make the ceremony. He was also nominated shortly after his death.
The New Jersey Hall of Fame, which inducted its first class in 2008 (Harriet Tubman, Bruce Springsteen, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein and Meryl Streep were among those chosen), is set to have a ribbon cutting this fall for a permanent physical location at the American Dream mega mall in East Rutherford.
Online voting for the New Jersey Hall of Fame is open now until Friday, May 20. Voters are asked to select their top two choices in each category.
Here is the full list of nominees.
PERFORMING ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
George Clinton
Brian DePalma
Lola Falana
Chelsea Handler
Michael B. Jordan
Nathan Lane
Henry Jay Lewis
Bebe Neuwirth
Paul Rudd
Phoebe Snow
ARTS & LETTERS
Margaret Bourke-White
Lonnie Bunch
Janet Evanovich
Gaetano Federici
John McPhee
Walter Dean Myers
Violet Oakley
Alfred Stieglitz
George Tice
Dr. George Theophilus Walker
ENTERPRISE
Anthony Bourdain
James E. Burke
Bruce S. Gordon
Ralph Izzo
Woody Johnson
The Mars Family
Denise Morrison
Dr. Leon G. Smith
The Unanue Family
Roy Vagelos
PUBLIC SERVICE
Sir George Carteret
Dorothea Dix
Louis Freeh
Governor Richard J. Hughes
Peter W. Rodino
Edith Savage-Jennings
George Shultz
Lucy Stone
Governor Christine Todd Whitman
David T. Wilentz
SPORTS
Al Attles
Ben Borgmann
Victor Cruz
Stanley Dancer
Sid Dorfman
Lou Lamoriello
Heather O’Reilly
Amos (Alonzo) Stagg
Paul Tagliabue
Sonny Werblin
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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup on Twitter.
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