List of Famous people born in Illinois, United States of America
James Brady
James Scott Brady was an assistant to the U.S. President and the fifteenth White House Press Secretary, serving under President Ronald Reagan. In 1981, Brady became permanently disabled from a gunshot wound during the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan. Brady's death was ruled a homicide, caused by the gunshot wound he received 33 years earlier.
John Altobelli
John Edward Altobelli was an American college baseball coach who worked for 27 seasons at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, California. During his career, he led the Pirates to four California state junior college titles and in 2019 was named National Coach of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association.
James McDivitt
James Alton McDivitt is an American former test pilot, United States Air Force (USAF) pilot, aeronautical engineer, and NASA astronaut who flew in the Gemini and Apollo programs. He joined the USAF in 1951 and flew 145 combat missions in the Korean War. In 1959 he qualified as a test pilot at the Air Force Experimental Flight Test Pilot School and Aerospace Research Pilot School, and joined the Manned Spacecraft Operations Branch. By September 1962, McDivitt had logged over 2,500 flight hours, of which more than 2,000 hours was in jet aircraft. This included flying as a chase pilot for Robert M. White's North American X-15 flight on July 17, 1962, in which White reached an altitude of 59.5 miles (95.8 km) and became the first X-15 pilot to be awarded Astronaut Wings.
Beck Bennett
Christopher Beck Bennett is an American actor, comedian, and writer who is a current cast member on Saturday Night Live, joining in 2013. Before his tenure on SNL, he was recognized for the AT&T "It's Not Complicated" commercials where he interviewed children, his sketch videos with the comedy group Good Neighbor, and his YouTube show Theatre of Life.
John Paul Stevens
John Paul Stevens was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1975 until his voluntary retirement in 2010. At the time of his retirement, he was the second-oldest-serving justice in the history of the court and the third-longest-serving justice. At the time of his death, he was the longest lived Supreme Court justice ever. His long tenure saw him write for the court on most issues of American law, including civil liberties, death penalty, government action and intellectual property. In cases involving presidents of the United States, he wrote for the court that they were to be held accountable under American law. A registered Republican when appointed who throughout his life identified as a conservative, Stevens was considered to have been on the liberal side of the court at the time of his retirement.
Susan Downey
Susan Nicole Downey is an American film producer. Until February 2009, she was Co-President of Dark Castle Entertainment and Executive Vice President of Production at Silver Pictures, Joel Silver's production company. Susan is married to Robert Downey Jr. The couple has formed their own production house named Team Downey.
William Petersen
William Louis Petersen is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his role as Gil Grissom in the CBS drama series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000–2015), for which he won a Screen Actors Guild Award and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award; he was further nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards as a producer of the show.
Debora Green
Debora J. Green is an American physician who pleaded no contest to setting a 1995 fire which burned down her family's home and killed two of her children, and to poisoning her husband with ricin with the intention of causing his death. The case was sensational, and covered heavily by news media, especially in the Kansas–Missouri area, where the crimes occurred. Though Green has petitioned for a new trial twice in recent years, her requests have not been successful.
Christie Hefner
Christie Ann Hefner is an American businesswoman and activist. Hefner served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Playboy Enterprises from 1988 to 2009. Hefner is the daughter of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.
Ben Zobrist
Benjamin Thomas Zobrist, nicknamed Zorilla, is an American former professional baseball second baseman and outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays/Rays, Oakland Athletics, Kansas City Royals, and Chicago Cubs. Zobrist played in three World Series, winning the last two becoming a two-time World Series champion in consecutive seasons of 2015 with the Royals and 2016 with the Cubs.