Notable People from Illinois

Ronald Reagan

president of the United States from 1981 to 1989 and actor (1911-2004)

Walt Disney

American animator, producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor and entrepreneur, founder of The Walt Disney Company (1901–1966)

Ernest Hemingway

American author and journalist (1899–1961)

Robin Williams

American actor and comedian (1951–2014)

Ray Bradbury

American author and screenwriter (1920–2012)

Bobby Fischer

American chess player (1943–2008)

James Watson

American molecular biologist, geneticist, zoologist and Nobel Laureate (1928–2025)

Robert Andrews Millikan

American physicist (1868–1953)

Miles Davis

American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer (1926–1991)

Roger Ebert

American film critic and author (1942–2013)

Jane Addams

American feminist social activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, philosopher, and writer (1860–1935)

Philip K. Dick

American science fiction author (1928–1982)

Charlton Heston

American actor (1923–2008)

Michael Clarke Duncan

American actor (1957–2012)

Donald Rumsfeld

American politician and diplomat (1932–2021)

Gloria Swanson

American actress (1899–1983)

Raymond Chandler

American novelist and screenwriter (1888–1959)

Carl Sandburg

American writer and editor (1878–1967)

Edgar Rice Burroughs

American writer (1875–1950)

Garry Shandling

American comedian (1949–2016)

Charlie Kirk

American political activist (1993–2025)

Michael Crichton

American author, screenwriter, film director (1942–2008)

Clinton Joseph Davisson

American physicist (1881-1958)

Aaron Swartz

American computer programmer and internet-political activist (1986–2013)

Betty White

American actress and comedian (1922–2021)

Hugh Hefner

American businessman and magazine publisher (1926–2017)

Ted Kaczynski

American domestic terrorist, mathematician and anarchist (1942–2023)

Edward Mills Purcell

American physicist (1912-1997)

Carl Rogers

American psychologist (1902–1987)

William Holden

American actor (1918–1981)

Quincy Jones

American record producer and composer (1933–2024)

Betty Ford

First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977

Raquel Welch

American actress (1940–2023)

Ben Roy Mottelson

Danish nuclear physicist (1926–2022)

Betty Friedan

American feminist writer and activist (1921–2006)

Clyde Tombaugh

American astronomer (1906–1997)

Rock Hudson

American actor (1925–1985)

Gary Coleman

American actor (1968–2010)

James Cronin

American physicist

Sidney Sheldon

American writer (1917–2007)

John Robert Schrieffer

American physicist (1931-2019)

Benny Goodman

American jazz clarinetist and bandleader (1909–1986)

Shelley Winters

American actress (1920–2006)

David Ogden Stiers

American actor (1942–2018)

Mary Astor

American actress and author (1906–1987)

John Dos Passos

American novelist (1896–1970)

Bob Newhart

American stand-up comedian and actor (1929–2024)

Anton LaVey

Founder of the Church of Satan, author of the Satanic Bible (1930-1997)

Marsha Hunt

American actress (1917–2022)

Michael Madsen

American actor (1957–2025)