Oscar Pettiford (September 30, 1922 – September 8, 1960) was an American jazzdouble bassist and composer. He was one of the earliest musicians to work in the bebop idiom.

Jazz bassist Christian McBride called Pettiford “probably the most important bass player of that bebop generation in terms of creating new language for the bass.” Jamela Pettiford, a singer in St. Paul, Minnesota, and a descendant of the Pettiford family, told Minnesota Public Radio in 2022 that the Pettiford family band traveled itinerantly for a time as road musicians before settling in north Minneapolis. Pettiford died in 1960 in Copenhagen, shortly before his 38th birthday, from a virus closely related to polio.