List of Famous people born in Illinois, United States of America
Noah Gray-Cabey
Noah Gray-Cabey is an American actor and pianist. He is known for his roles in the television series My Wife and Kids and Heroes. He has appeared on the television shows Ripley's Believe It or Not, 48 Hours, The Tonight Show, Good Morning America and The Oprah Winfrey Show. Gray-Cabey also starred in the CBS medical drama Code Black as Dr. Eliot Dixon.
Helen Morgan
Helen Morgan was an American singer and actress who worked in films and on the stage. A quintessential torch singer, she made a big splash in the Chicago club scene in the 1920s. She starred as Julie LaVerne in the original Broadway production of Hammerstein and Kern's musical Show Boat in 1927, as well as in the 1932 Broadway revival of the musical, and appeared in two film adaptations, a part-talkie made in 1929 and a full-sound version made in 1936, becoming firmly associated with the role. She suffered from bouts of alcoholism, and despite her notable success in the title role of another Hammerstein and Kern's Broadway musical, Sweet Adeline (1929), her stage career was relatively short. Helen Morgan died of cirrhosis of the liver at the age of 41. She was portrayed by Polly Bergen in the Playhouse 90 drama The Helen Morgan Story and by Ann Blyth in the 1957 biopic based on the television drama.
Katrina Lenk
Katrina Lenk is an American actress, singer, musician, and songwriter. She is known for originating the role of Dina in the Broadway musical The Band's Visit, for which she won the 2018 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. Her additional stage credits include roles in the Broadway productions of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Once, and Indecent, as well as roles in regional theater productions.
Alvin M. Weinberg
Alvin Martin Weinberg was an American nuclear physicist who was the administrator at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) during and after the Manhattan Project. He came to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in 1945 and remained there until his death in 2006. He was the first to use the term "Faustian bargain" to describe nuclear energy.
Dolores Hart
Dolores Hart, O.S.B., is an American Roman Catholic Benedictine nun who was previously a prominent actress. She made ten films in five years, playing opposite Stephen Boyd, Montgomery Clift, George Hamilton, and Robert Wagner, having made her movie debut with Elvis Presley in Loving You (1957). By the early 1960s an established leading lady, she "stunned Hollywood" by announcing that she would forgo her life as an actress, leaving behind her career to enter the Abbey of Regina Laudis monastery in Connecticut, where she serves her monastic community.
Jeff Austin
Jeff Austin was an American mandolinist and singer best known for being a founding member of the Yonder Mountain String Band.
Bill Callahan
William E. Callahan is an American football coach who is the offensive line coach for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He was formerly the head coach of the Oakland Raiders for the 2002 and 2003 seasons and led them to Super Bowl XXXVII. He was also the head coach for the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the offensive line coach and interim head coach for the Washington Redskins.
Shannon Brown
Shannon Brown is an American former professional basketball player. He attended Proviso East High School in Maywood, Illinois, was named Illinois Mr. Basketball in 2003, and played college basketball for Michigan State University. He was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the 25th overall pick in the 2006 NBA draft.
Herbert Sobel
Herbert M. Sobel Sr. was an American commissioned officer with Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, in the 101st Airborne Division during World War II. Sobel was portrayed in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers by David Schwimmer.
Jeff Monken
Jeffrey Michael Monken is an American football coach. He is currently the head football coach at the United States Military Academy, a position he has held since the 2014 season. Monken previously served as the head football coach of Georgia Southern University from 2010 to 2013. Prior to that, he worked under Paul Johnson as a running backs coach and special teams coordinator at Georgia Southern, the United States Naval Academy, and Georgia Tech.