14 People From Illinois You Will Instantly Recognize
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Elizabeth Crozier
Author
A tremendous number of celebrities and other famous icons have come out of Illinois, and some are more recognizable than others. This list of 14 familiar people from the Land of Lincoln will surprise you.
How many of these faces do you recognize instantly? Scroll on to find out:
Griffin is a controversial comedian who was born in Oak Park in 1960. She is known for several TV specials and comedy albums and has won a Primetime Emmy Award. She currently lives in Los Angeles.
He is an actor best known for films like Say Anything and High Fidelity. Born in Evanston in 1966, he actually still lives in Illinois. Cusack owns a condo in a high-rise in downtown Chicago.
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Born in DeKalb in 1966, Crawford is a model and actress known for appearing on the covers of magazines like Vogue, People, and Cosmopolitan. She is also known for her iconic upper lip mole and for appearing in several Pepsi commercials in the 1990s. She moved to New York after living in Chicago for a bit but now resides in Malibu.
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Illinoisans especially know this face. When it comes to familiar people, this one is extra close to home. Rauner was born in Chicago in 1957 and is known as a businessman and politician. He is the current governor of the state, as of 2015, and presently lives at the Illinois Executive Mansion in Springfield.
Ford was born in 1942 in Chicago and went to school in nearby Park Ridge. He is an award-winning actor who is best known for playing Hans Solo in Star Wars and the lead in Indiana Jones. Today, he lives in Los Angeles with is family.
One of the most familiar people in the country, Obama was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1961, but is still considered for be from Illinois since he made is political career here. He served in the Illinois State Senate and as a U.S. Senator before holding two terms as the nation's 44th president. Though he has lived multiple places throughout his life, he currently calls Chicago home and has, on and off, for about three decades.
This Obama was born in Illinois. She arrived in a Chicago hospital in 1964 and went on to serve as the nation's First Lady under Barack Obama. During her time in this role, she worked on The White House garden and on encouraging better children's nutrition in schools. She also currently lives in Chicago with her husband and kids.
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Another well-known politician, Clinton was born in Chicago in 1947. She is best known for her 2016 presidential run as well as for serving as First Lady while Bill Clinton was president. It is also noteworthy that she served as secretary of state for Barack Obama. Currently, she lives in New York.
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This familiar face came into the world in 1950 in Evanston. He is an actor and comedian who became famous doing skits on Saturday Night Live. Murray is also known for roles in films like Ghost Busters, Groundhog's Day, Caddyshack, and many more. He is an Emmy and Golden Globe winner, and he currently lives in Charleston, North Carolina.
One of Illinois' best was born in 1922 in Oak Park. White is an Emmy award-winning actress and comedian best known for her role as Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls television show, though you may be more familiar with her on The Mary Tyler Moore Show or on one of many game shows, like Match Game and Password. She currently lives in Carmel, California.
A journalist who became famous for being a news anchor on Fox News, Kelly was born in Champaign in 1970. She has become a more familiar person in recent months and currently hosts an NBC morning show in New York.
Not all familiar people are still with us. Regan was born in the northern Illinois town of Tampico in 1911. He became a Hollywood actor before shifting to politics. He served as the governor of California in the 1960s and as the 40th president of United States in the 1980s, for which he is best known for helping end the Cold War. He died in 2004 in Los Angeles.
Best known as the 16th President of the United States, Lincoln is as famous for the things he did in life as he is for the way he died. He was born in Hodgeville, Kentucky and lived in Indiana for part of his childhood before coming to Illinois, where he lived most of his life. He was a statesman and a lawyer, and as everyone knows, he was assassinated in 1865 at a theatre in Washington, D.C.
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Born in Chicago in 1951, Williams got his start doing stand-up in San Francisco and Los Angeles before securing a spot in a sitcom called Mork & Mindy. He also took on hilarious roles in many films like Mrs. Doubtfire as well as in more serious works like Good Will Hunting. This amazing comedian and actor passed in 2014 in Paradise Cay, California.
For more interesting stories about famous people from our state, check out eight homicides in Illinois history that will never be forgotten.
How many familiar people did you recognize? Share with us in the comments below!
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