Notable People from Illinois

George Ellery Hale

American astronomer (1868-1938)

Eddie Albert

American actor (1906–2005)

Ken Mattingly

American astronaut

Anita Borg

American computer scientist (1949-2003)

Josephine Cochrane

American inventor (1839–1913)

Curtis Mayfield

American singer-songwriter (1942–1999)

Fred MacMurray

American actor (1908–1991)

William Goldman

American novelist, screenwriter and playwright (1931-2018)

William L. Shirer

American journalist (1904–1993)

Paul Tibbets

United States Air Force pilot (1915–2007)

Ken Berry

American actor (1933–2018)

James Henry Breasted

American archaeologist, Egyptologist and historian (1865–1935)

Richard Hamming

American mathematician and information theorist (1915–1998)

Roy O. Disney

American businessman and producer, co-founder of The Walt Disney Company (1893–1971)

Janet Jagan

president of Guyana, prime minister of Guyana, nurse (1920-2009)

Tino Insana

American actor (1948-2017)

Gaylord Simpson

American paleontologist (1902–1984)

Shel Silverstein

American poet, cartoonist, songwriter, and children's writer (1930-1999)

Carrie Snodgress

American actress (1945-2004)

Dennis Farina

American actor (1944–2013)

Clive Cussler

American novelist (1931–2020)

Emmett Till

African-American lynching victim (1941–1955)

George Lincoln Rockwell

American founder of the American Nazi Party (1918–1967)

James Earl Ray

American criminal, convicted for the murder of civil rights activist and Nobel peace prize laureate Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968

Archibald MacLeish

American poet and Librarian of Congress (1892-1982)

George Mikan

American basketball player, coach, commissioner

James McDivitt

American astronaut and test pilot (1929-2022)

Daniel Ellsberg

American whistleblower (1931–2023)

Ralph Bellamy

American actor (1904–1991)

Gil Scott-Heron

American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author (1949–2011)

Virgil Abloh

American fashion designer (1980-2021)

Mitzi Gaynor

American actress (1931–2024)

Bob McGrath

American actor (1932–2022)

Andre Braugher

American actor (1962–2023)

John Sturges

American film director (1910–1992)

Gary Gygax

American game designer and author (1938–2008)

Hal B. Wallis

American film producer and art collector (1898–1986)

Virginia Cherrill

American actress (1908–1996)

James Jones

American author (1921–1977)

Bonita Granville

American actress (1923-1988)

Wild Bill Hickok

American folk hero and lawman (1837–1876)

John Paul Stevens

United States Supreme Court justice (1920–2019)

Harold Lasswell

American political scientist (1902-1978)

Marguerite Perey

French physicist (1909–1975)

Elizabeth Magie

American board game designer (1866–1948)

Grote Reber

American pioneer of radio astronomy (1911–2002)

Ethel Kennedy

American human-rights campaigner and spouse of US Senator Robert F. Kennedy

Abbey Lincoln

American singer (1930–2010)

Loïe Fuller

American dancer (1862–1928)

Ken Norton

American boxer (1943-2013)