From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of people whose career was all or part in Illinois; people are not included if they left the state before beginning a career.
- John Bardeen (1908-1991) winner of two Nobel prizes in physics
- Edward Beecher, religion
- Louis Bellson, music
- Jack Benny, Comedian
- Joseph Cardinal Bernardin (1928-1996), religion, Cardinal for the Archdiocese of Chicago
- Black Hawk, Sauk Indian Chief
- Lydia Moss Bradley, philanthropy
- Anthony Braxton, jazz musician
- Phil Brooks, American Professional Wrestler. * William Jennings Bryan, politician
- Daniel H. Burnham, architect
- Joe Cannon, politics, GOP
- Al Capone, business
- Anton Cermak, politics, Dem
- Hillary Clinton, first lady
- Billy Corgan (born 1967), rock musician from Alternative Rock band "Smashing Pumpkins"
- John Coughlin, politics, Dem
- Cindy Crawford (born 1966), supermodel
- Common (rapper), rapper , songwriter , producer , actor
- Richard J. Daley (1902-1976), Chicago mayor (1955-1976); Democrat
- Richard M. Daley (born 1942), Chicago mayor (1989-present), son of Richard J. Daley; Democrat
- Clarence Darrow, law
- Miles Davis, musician
- John Deere, manufacturer
- John Dewey, philosophy
- Bo Diddley, musician
- Everett Dirksen (1896-1969), politics, United States Senator, Senate Minority Leader, Republican
- Dorothy L. Dodson, athlete
- Stephen Douglas, politics, Dem
- Theodore Dreiser, author
- Finley Peter Dunne, author
- Dick Van Dyke, actor
- Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, settler
- Walt Disney, creator
- Louis Farrakhan, Nation of Islam leader
- James T. Farrell, author
- Enrico Fermi (1901-1954), nuclear physics
- Eugene Field, author
- Marshall Field, business
- Marshall Field Jr., business
- Marshall Field III, business
- Dan Fogelberg, musician
- Thomas Ford, politics, Dem
- John T. Frederick, literature
- R. Buckminster Fuller, scientist
- Gene Hackman, screen actor
- George Halas, (1895-1983) sports, co-founder of National Football League and longtime coach-owner of the Chicago Bears
- Herbie Hancock, jazz musician
- William Rainey Harper, education
- Carter Harrison, Sr., politics, Dem
- Carter Harrison, Jr., politics, Dem
- Dennis Hastert, Republican, Speaker of the U.S. House, 1998-2006
- George Peter Alexander Healy, artist
- Ben Hecht, author
- Hugh Hefner, publisher
- Ernest Hemingway, writer
- William Holabird, architect
- Raymond Hood, architect
- Henry Horner, politics, Dem
- Rock Hudson, actor
- Robert Maynard Hutchins, education
- René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, explorer
- Victor F. Lawson, newspapers. Longtime owner/editor of the Chicago Daily News
- Abraham Lincoln, politics, Whig, GOP
- Mary Todd Lincoln, Lincoln's wife
- Robert Todd Lincoln, Lincoln's son
- Vachel Lindsay, author
- John A. Logan, politics, Dem, GOP
- Frank Orren Lowden, politics, GOP
- James Robert Mann, politics, GOP
- Michael Mann, film director
- George S. May, businessman, golf promoter
- Edgar Lee Masters, author
- Cyrus Hall McCormick, business
- Robert R. McCormick, newspapers
- Joseph Medill, newspapers
- Charles Edward Merriam, education
- Robert H. Michel, (born 1923), politics, longtime member of Congress and former House Minority Leader, Republican
- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), architect
- Harriet Monroe, poet
- Dwight L. Moody, religion
- William Vaughn Moody, author
- George Cardinal Mundelein, religion
- John M. Palmer, politics, GOP, Dem
- Phoebe Palmer, society
- Potter Palmer, business
- Francis W. Parker, education
- Tom Paxton, (born 1937) folk musician and singer-songwriter
- John Mason Peck, author
- Richard Pryor, comedian
- George M. Pullman, business
- Carl Sandburg, poet
- Edward Wyllis Scripps, newspapers
- Richard W. Sears, business
- Bernard J. Sheil, religion
- William Shockley, (1910-1989), physicist invented transistor
- Bobby Short, singer
- Gene Siskel, film critic
- Albion W. Small, sociology
- Joseph Smith, religion
- John Spalding, Scottish churchman
- Amos Alonzo Stagg, sports
- Ellen Gates Starr, social work
- John Paul Stevens, supreme court justice
- Adlai Stevenson II, politician, Vice President, Presidential candidate in 1952 and 1956, Democrat
- Melville E. Stone, newspapers
- Louis Sullivan, architect
- Gustavus Franklin Swift, business
- David Foster Wallace, author
- Aaron Montgomery Ward, business
- Muddy Waters, music
- George Wendt, actor, best known for the role of Norm Peterson on the television show Cheers
- John Wentworth, politics, Dem
- Frances E. Willard, social activist
- Oprah Winfrey, media icon
- Frank Lloyd Wright, architect
- Kanye West, rapper , songwriter , producer
