I am not sure if Rick Husband spent much or anytime at the Fresno State campus. I believe he did his course work long distance. It doesn't take away from the tragedy but he may have less a tie to Fresno then others mentioned.

William Saroyan is Famous? Lets not forget Rick Husband who graduated Fresno State and was Capt. of the Shuttle that burned in the atmosphere when the panles became loose.
Theres also Joe Villicano who is the local Superhero explaining to kids that gangs and drugs are bad for ya. He has a fantastic Silver outfit and a black cape.

Don't forget Gary Scelzi.

And didn't Cher go to school here?

K-Fed, haha. Though I'm sure you guys don't want to claim him. :) I'm from Lemoore; Steve Perry (Journey) lived on my street and I went to school with Lorenzo Neal's siblings. Not exactly Fresno Co.. but close. :)

Olympian Rafer Johnson, and his brother, 49er cornerback Jimmy Johnson are from Kingsburg.

Powerboat racing family, Hauenstein's live in Kingsburg.

Larry Hillblom, the 'H' in DHL, and father of countless Asian children named Larry Jr, was from Kingsburg.

Actor Jan Michael Vincent spent his teens in Hanford.

I used to work with the sister (or maybe it was wife) of the famous rodeo clown from Fresno, Wilber Plaugher.
Also wasn't the country & western group, 'Dave and Sugar' from Sanger?

1960's to 1970's Oakland Raiders Quarterback Daryle "The Mad Bomber" Lamonica.
Singer songwriter Warren Zevon " Werewolves of London", "Poor Pitiful Me"
Debbie Iyall lead singer of Romeo Void "A Girl in Trouble is a Temporary Thing" and "Never Say Never"
Two time Indy 500 winner Bill Vukovich maybe the greatest American driver ever.
Ross Bagdasarian aka David Seville founded Alvin and the Chipmunks and co-wrote with his cousin William Saroyan the song "Come on-a My House". He aslo wrote "The Witch Doctor"
Two members of the band Animotion " Obsession" live in Fresno.
Billionaire Kirk Kevorkian who once owned MGM and helped develop Las Vegas into what it is today.
James Porteus invented in 1883 the Fresno Scraper one of the most important agricultural and engineering machines ever made. It was used to build the Panama Canal and is the basis for the bulldozer and other similar devices

Actor / singer Ken Curtis (GunSmoke) lived next door to me growing up. I think I remember him passing in my Junior year...

-s

Film Director Sam Peckinpah was born and grew up in Fresno, 1925 and left during WWII and lived in Inglewood later.
He was best known for making the western film 'the Wild Bunch' in 1969

Actor Slim Pickens was born in Kingsburg, CA and grew up in Hanford, CA. Besides being type casted in many westerns he maybe best known for his roll in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), as the Air Force major T.J. 'King' Kong who rides the bomb down like he's a cowboy on a horse...

Actor Sid Haig (Sidney Eddie Mosesian) born in Fresno he is best known as the character Captain Spaulding from Rob Zombie's horror film The Devil's Rejects & House of 1000 Corpses, one of his few staring rolls, he's mostly a character actor with small parts who's been in many other films like George Lucas's THX-1138, he has been in a few Quentin Tarantino's films like Jackie Brown and Kill Bill vol 2, but he's more notably in many of films by the director who influenced Tarantino, Jack Hill. Hill made films like Spider Baby or the Maddest Story ever Told (1968), Pit Stop, The Big Doll House, the Big Bird Cage, Coffy, Foxy Brown (1974). Sid Haig has also have parts as villains in many TV shows since the 1960s (Batman, Star Trek, Daniel Boone, Gunsmoke, Get Smart, Mission Impossible, Mannix, Police Story, Rockford Files, Emergency!, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, Charlie's Angles, Police Woman, Jason of Star Command, Hart to Hart, Quincy, Buck Rogers, Dukes of Hazzard, TJ Hooker, A-Team, Fall Guy, Amazing Stories, MacGyver, etc...) He's now in a current career revival thanks to his character of Captain Spaulding (note: Groucho Marx character in the 1930 film Animal Crackers was Captain Jeffrey T. Spaulding).

Baseball Hall of Famers Frank Chance and Tom Seaver.

The guy from Mannix, I think (or one of those 70's cop shows)

Cher went to Fresno High IIRC

Teacher-Astronaut Barbara Morgan is a Fresno native.