Notable People from Iowa

Herbert Hoover

president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 (1874–1964)

John Wayne

American actor (1907–1979)

Norman Borlaug

American biologist (1914–2009)

Henry A. Wallace

American politician (1888–1965); Vice President of the United States from 1941 to 1945

Glenn Miller

American band leader, arranger, and composer (1904–1944)

Donna Reed

American film and television actress

Cloris Leachman

American actress and comedian (1926–2021)

Mamie Eisenhower

First Lady of the United States from 1953 to 1961

Johnny Carson

American talk show host and comedian (1925–2005)

Buffalo Bill

American frontiersman and showman (1846–1917)

Lee de Forest

American inventor (1873–1961)

Lou Henry Hoover

First Lady of the United States from 1929 to 1933

Grant Wood

American painter (1891–1942)

James A. Van Allen

American astrophysicist (1914–2006)

Robert Noyce

American businessman and engineer (1927–1990)

Laurel Clark

NASA astronaut, medical doctor, United States Navy Captain, and Space Shuttle mission specialist (1961-2003)

Andy Williams

American singer (1927–2012)

Edwin G. Krebs

American biochemist (1918–2009)

Jean Seberg

American actress (1938–1979)

Carl Van Vechten

American writer and photographer (1880–1964)

Wallace Carothers

American organic chemist (1896–1937)

Robert A. Dahl

American political scientist (1915–2014)

Marcia Wallace Peams

American actress and comedian (1942-2013)

Joey Jordison

American musician (1975–2021)

Julie Adams

American actress (1926–2019)

Sue Lyon

American actress (1946–2019)

Bix Beiderbecke

American jazz musician (1903-1931)

Clair Cameron Patterson

American chemist and geochemist (1922–1995)

W. Edwards Deming

American professor, author, and consultant (1900-1993)

Walter Cunningham

American astronaut (1932–2023)

Fred Lawrence Whipple

American astronomer

George Gallup

American statistician (1901–1984)

Aldo Leopold

American writer and scientist (1887-1948)

George Reeves

American actor (1914–1959)

Harry Hopkins

American politician, 8th United States Secretary of Commerce, assistant to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1890-1946)

Jim Inhofe

United States Senator from Oklahoma (1934–2024)

Oswald Veblen

American mathematician (1880–1960)

William D. Leahy

United States admiral, ambassador to France, Chief of Staff (1875–1959)

Charlie Haden

American musician and educator (1937–2014)

Bobby Driscoll

American actor (1937–1968)

Tommy Bolin

American guitarist (1951–1976)

Priscilla Lane

American actress (1915–1995)

Robert James Waller

American writer (1939-2017)

Wallace Stegner

American historian, writer, and environmentalist (1909-1993)

Frank Jack Fletcher

United States Navy admiral, Medal of Honor recipient

Art Farmer

American jazz trumpeter (1928–1999)

Marilyn Maxwell

American actress and singer (1921–1972)

Morgan Taylor

athletics competitor (1903-1975)

Harry Harlow

American psychologist (1905–1981)

Allan Sandage

American astronomer (1926–2010)