List of Famous people born in Illinois, United States of America

Clayton Lee Harbor is an American football tight end who is a free agent. He was drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles in the fourth round of the 2010 NFL Draft. He played college football at Missouri State. He has also been a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars, New England Patriots, Detroit Lions and New Orleans Saints.

Ruby Wax is an American-British actress, comedian, writer, mental health campaigner, and lecturer. A classically trained actress, Wax starred in the sitcom Girls on Top (1985–1986), and came to prominence as a comic interviewer, playing up to British perceptions of the strident American style, in shows including The Full Wax (1991–1994), Ruby Wax Meets... (1994–1998), Ruby (1997–2000), and The Ruby Wax Show (2002). She went on to become the script editor for the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (1992–2012), also appearing in two episodes.

Jason Nelson Robards Jr. was an American actor. Known as an interpreter of the works of playwright Eugene O'Neill, Robards received two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor. He is one of 24 performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting.

Richard Dale Jenkins is an American actor. Jenkins began his acting career in theater at the Trinity Repertory Company and later made his film debut in 1974. He has worked steadily in film and television since the 1980s, mostly in supporting roles. His first major role did not come until the early 2000s, when he portrayed the deceased patriarch Nathaniel Fisher on the HBO funeral drama series Six Feet Under (2001–2005). He is also known for his roles in the films Burn After Reading (2008), Step Brothers (2008), Let Me In (2010), Jack Reacher (2012), The Cabin in the Woods (2012) and The Last Shift (2020).

Frederick Christopher Klein is an American actor who is best known for playing Paul Metzler in Election, Chris 'Oz' Ostreicher in the American Pie comedy teen films, the serial killer Cicada on The Flash and most recently as Bill Townsend in the Netflix series Sweet Magnolias.

Elizabeth Lee McGovern is an American film, television, and theater actress, and musician. She received an Academy Award nomination for her role as Evelyn Nesbit in the 1981 film Ragtime. She is also known for her performance as Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham, in the British drama series Downton Abbey, for which she has been nominated for an Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award. Her other films include Ordinary People (1980), Once Upon a Time in America (1984), The Handmaid's Tale (1990), The Wings of the Dove (1997), and The Chaperone (2018).

Thomas James Howard Jr. was an American photographer who worked at the Washington bureau of P. & A. Photographs during the 1920s. His photograph of the execution of Ruth Snyder in the electric chair at Sing Sing Prison, on January 12, 1928 has been called "the most famous tabloid photo of the decade".

William Morgan Cassidy is an American physician and politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Louisiana, a seat he was elected to in 2014. A member of the Republican Party, he served in the Louisiana State Senate from 2006 to 2009 and in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2009 to 2015.

William Felix Browder is an American-born British financier and political activist. He is the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital Management, the investment advisor to the Hermitage Fund, which at one time was the largest foreign portfolio investor in Russia. The Hermitage Fund was founded in partnership with Republic National Bank, with $25 million in seed capital. The fund, and associated accounts, eventually grew to $4.5 billion of assets under management. In 1997, the Hermitage Fund was the best-performing fund in the world, up 238%. The primary investment strategy of Browder was shareholder rights activism. Browder took on large Russian companies such as Gazprom, Surgutneftegaz, Unified Energy Systems, and Sidanco. In retaliation, on November 13, 2005, Browder was refused entry to Russia, deported to the UK, and declared a threat to Russian national security.

Robert "Yummy" Sandifer was an 11-year-old American boy from Chicago, Illinois. Sandifer's murder by fellow gang members in Chicago garnered national attention because of his age, resulting in his appearance on the cover of TIME magazine in September 1994. Nicknamed "Yummy" because of his love of cookies, standing 137 cm, Sandifer was a young member of the street gang the Black Disciples (BD). After committing murder, arson and armed robbery, he was murdered by his own fellow gang members who feared he could become an informant, and that he was attracting too much attention towards their activities. Coverage of Sandifer's death and retrospectives on his short, violent life were widely published in the American media. Sandifer became a symbol of the gang problem in American inner cities, the failure of social safety nets, and the shortcomings of the juvenile justice system.