List of Famous people born in Illinois, United States of America
Iman Shumpert
Iman Asante Shumpert is an American professional basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Shumpert was selected by the New York Knicks with the 17th overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft. Shumpert won an NBA championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016.
Harrison Ford
Harrison Ford is an American actor, pilot, and environmental activist. As of 2019, the U.S. domestic box office grosses of his films total over $5.1 billion, with worldwide grosses surpassing $9.3 billion, placing him at No. 4 on the list of highest-grossing domestic box office stars of all time. In addition to his box office success, he is also an Academy Award nominee, a four-time Golden Globe nominee, a three-time Saturn Award winner, and the recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award and the Cecil B. DeMille Award.
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney was an American entrepreneur, animator, writer, voice actor and film producer. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film producer, Disney holds the record for most Academy Awards earned by an individual, having won 22 Oscars from 59 nominations. He was presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honors. Several of his films are included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
Ted Kaczynski
Theodore John Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, is an American domestic terrorist, anarchist and former mathematics professor. He was a mathematics prodigy, but abandoned his academic career in 1969 to pursue a more primitive life. Between 1978 and 1995, he killed three people and injured 23 others in a nationwide bombing campaign against people involved with modern technology. He issued a social critique opposing industrialization and advocating a nature-centered form of anarchism.
John Wayne Gacy
John Wayne Gacy was an American serial killer and sex offender known as the Killer Clown who assaulted and murdered at least 33 young men and boys. Gacy regularly performed at children's hospitals and charitable events as "Pogo the Clown" or "Patches the Clown", personas he had devised. He was also active in his local community as a Democratic Party precinct captain and building contractor.
Bill Murray
William James Murray is an American actor, comedian, and writer. Known for his deadpan delivery, he first rose to fame on Saturday Night Live, a series of performances that earned him his first Emmy Award, and later starred in comedy films—including Meatballs (1979), Caddyshack (1980), Stripes (1981), Tootsie (1982), Ghostbusters (1984), Ghostbusters II (1989), What About Bob? (1991), Groundhog Day (1993), and Kingpin (1996). His only directorial credit is Quick Change (1990), which he co-directed with Howard Franklin.
Michelle Wu
Michelle Wu is an American lawyer and politician who is a member of the Boston City Council. She is the first Asian American woman to serve on the council. First elected in 2013, Wu has served on the Boston City Council since January 2014. From January 2016 to January 2018, she served as council president—the first woman of color to hold that position. In September 2020, Wu announced her candidacy for the 2021 Boston mayoral election.
Lauren Ridloff
Lauren Ridloff is a deaf American actress known for her role as Connie on the TV series The Walking Dead. In 2018, her breakthrough role was her lead performance in the Broadway play Children of a Lesser God, for which she was nominated several awards, including a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. She was subsequently cast in The Walking Dead for its ninth season. She will play a deaf superhero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Eternals, scheduled to be released in 2021.
Peter Sarsgaard
John Peter Sarsgaard is an American actor. His first feature role was in Dead Man Walking in 1995. He then appeared in the 1998 independent films Another Day in Paradise and Desert Blue. That same year, Sarsgaard received a substantial role in The Man in the Iron Mask (1998), playing Raoul, the ill-fated son of Athos. Sarsgaard later achieved critical recognition when he was cast in Boys Don't Cry (1999) as John Lotter. He landed his first leading role in the 2001 film The Center of the World. The following year, he played supporting roles in Empire, The Salton Sea, and K-19: The Widowmaker.
Hugh Hefner
Hugh Marston Hefner was an American magazine publisher. He was the founder and editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine, a publication with revealing photographs and articles which provoked charges of obscenity. The first issue of Playboy was published in 1953 featuring Marilyn Monroe in a nude calendar shoot; it sold over 50,000 copies.