The following list includes notable people who were born or have lived in Chicago or from the surrounding suburbs.
Politicians and statesmen
- Benjamin Adamowski, mentor turned rival of Richard J. Daley
- John Ashcroft, former Attorney General
- Rod Blagojevich, former congressman and current governor of Illinois
- James Borow, former State Senator and close friend of President Lincoln
- James Bowler, former Alderman and Congressman
- Jane Byrne, former Mayor
- Anton Cermak, former Mayor
- Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, retired four-star general in the U.S. Army and presidential candidate in 2004
- Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S. Senator & former First Lady
- "Bathhouse" John Coughlin, former Alderman
- Richard J. Daley, former Mayor
- Richard M. Daley, current Mayor
- Stephen A. Douglas, early U.S. Senator and Presidential candidate who debated Abraham Lincoln
- John M. Harlan, former Supreme Court Justice
- Carter Harrison, Sr., former Mayor
- Carter Harrison, Jr., former Mayor
- Michael "Hinky-Dink" Kenna, former Alderman
- Joseph Medill, newspaper editor & former Mayor
- Barack Obama, Junior Senator from Illinois
- William Butler Ogden, first mayor of Chicago, entrepreneur
- Roman Pucinski, former Congressman and Alderman and onetime mayoral candidate
- Donald Rumsfeld, former Congressman, former United States Secretary of Defense
- Amos G. Throop, former City Treasurer, temperance advocate in 19th Century
- William Hale Thompson, last Republican mayor of Chicago
- Elihu B. Washburne, former Secretary of State and former Minister to France
- Harold Washington, former Mayor
- John Wentworth, former mayor and Congressman
- HRH Prince Peter of Yugoslavia (was born here)
Athletes, coaches, and related figures
- Dusty Baker, former manager of the Cubs
- Ernie Banks, MLB Hall of Famer and Mr. Cub
- Steve Bartman, Infamous Cubs Fan
- Dick Butkus, Pro Football Hall of Famer
- CM Punk, Professional Wrestler
- Harry Caray, TV & Radio Broadcaster
- Charles Comiskey, major league baseball player Comiskey Park is named for[1]
- Grant DePorter, destroyer of the "Bartman ball"
- Mike Ditka, former Bears coach and television analyst
- Bobby Dotter, former NASCAR driver turned owner
- Michael Finley, NBA player
- Ozzie Guillen, Venezuelan manager of the Chicago White Sox;
- George Halas, former coach of the Chicago Bears
- Dorothy Hamill, figure skater
- Hal Higdon, distance runner, running writer
- Michael Jordan, former NBA player
- Mike "Coach K" Krzyzewski, college basketball coach
- Marv Levy, former coach of the Buffalo Bills
- Herman Long, baseball player and manager[1]
- Jim McMahon, NFL Quarterback of 1985 Super Bowl Champion Bears
- Donovan McNabb, NFL quarterback
- Walter Payton, Pro Football Hall of Famer
- Scottie Pippen, former Chicago Bulls forward
- Ryne Sandberg, former Cubs second baseman
- Ron Santo, former Cubs third baseman and current WGN broadcaster
- Billy Sianis, bringer of the Curse and founder of the Billy Goat Tavern
- Mike Singletary, former Bears linebacker and NFL Hall of Famer
- Sammy Sosa, former Cubs player
- Amos Alonzo Stagg, football coach
- Isiah Thomas, Basketball Hall of Famer
- Brian Urlacher, Chicago Bears Linebacker
- Dwayne Wade, NBA star
Musicians
- Emma Abbott, (1850-1891), born in Chicago, noted soprano[2]
- Avant, singer
- Marty Casey, frontman of the rock band Lovehammers
- Peter Cetera, singer
- Jimmy Chamberlin, Smashing Pumpkins drummer
- Gene Chandler, singer
- Steve Cole, Jazz saxophonist
- Sam Cooke, singer
- Common, rapper
- Billy Corgan, singer and Smashing Pumpkins frontman
- Da Brat, rapper
- Miles Davis, musician
- Jack DeJohnette, drummer/pianist
- Disturbed, rock group
- Willie Dixon, Blues songwriter and record producer
- Do Or Die or D.O.D.
- Florence Kirsch Du Brul, classical pianist
- Phil Everly, singer
- Lupe Fiasco, rapper
- Harvey Fuqua, singer/songwriter/producer
- Benny Goodman, musician/bandleader
- Steve Goodman, singer
- Gene Greene, singer
- Buddy Guy, Blues guitarist
- Herbie Hancock, musician
- James Iha, former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist
- Quincy Jones, musician/songwriter/producer
- Brendan Kelly, musician
- R. Kelly, singer
- William Kimball, founder of Kimball Piano Company
- Gene Krupa, musician
- Ramsey Lewis, musician
- Curtis Mayfield, musician/songwriter/guitarist
- Tom Morello, guitarist
- James Petrillo, musician's union head
- Liz Phair, musician
- Rhymefest, rapper
- Lou Rawls, singer
- Mavis Staples, singer
- Hound Dog Taylor, guitarist
- Jeff Tweedy, musican
- Twista, rapper
- Muddy Waters, Blues musician
- Peter Wentz, bassist and lyricist for Fall Out Boy
- Jon Walker
- Kanye West, rapper
- Wesley Willis, musician
- Tony Williams, jazz drummer
- Howlin' Wolf, musician
- D'arcy Wretzky, former Smashing Pumpkins bassist
- Paul Butterfield, Blues musician
- James Cotton, Blues musician
- Horatio Spafford, penned the hymn "It Is Well With My Soul"
- Matt Skiba Lead singer of Alkaline Trio
- OK Go Power-pop Band
- Patrick Stump, lead singer/guitarist for Fall Out Boy
- Zim Zum, guitarist/musician, songwriter for The Pop Culture Suicides
Entertainment figures
- Maria Kanellis, wrestler
- CM Punk, wrestler
- Gillian Anderson, actress
- Dominic Armato, voice actor
- Adam Baldwin, actor
- Ike Barinholtz, comedian
- Ralph Bellamy, actor
- James Belushi, actor/comedian
- John Belushi, actor/comedian
- Jack Benny, actor/comedian
- Edgar Bergen, ventriloquist
- Shelley Berman, comedian
- Michael Ian Black, comedian
- J. J. Bittenbinder, television talk show host
- Budd Boetticher, film director
- Tom Bosley, actor
- Buddy Bregman, composer/arranger
- Allan Carr, producer
- Dan Castellaneta, comedian
- Cedric the Entertainer, actor/comedian
- Kyle Chavarria, actress
- Joan Cusack, actress/comedienne
- John Cusack, actor
- Walt Disney, founder of The Walt Disney Company/mogul
- Mike Douglas, talk show host
- Michael Clarke Duncan, actor
- Dennis Farina, actor
- Chris Farley, actor/comedian
- Jon Favreau, actor/writer/director
- Tina Fey, actress/writer
- Michael Flatley, dancer
- Harrison Ford, actor
- Bob Fosse, director/choreographer
- Hugh Hefner, publisher/mogul
- John Hughes, film director/writer
- Philip Kaufman, film director
- Ron Livingston, actor
- Lar Lubovitch, choreographer
- Bernie Mac, actor/comedian
- William H. Macy, actor/producer
- John Malkovich, actor
- David Mamet, playwright/poet/screenwriter/director
- Michael Mann, film director/writer/producer
- Jenny McCarthy, actress/model
- Frances McDormand, actress
- Rick Moranis, actor
- Brian Doyle-Murray, actor
- Bill Murray, actor/comedian
- Bob Newhart, actor/comedian
- Melvin Van Peebles, director
- Jeff Perry, actor
- William L. Petersen, actor
- Jeremy Piven, actor
- Harold Ramis, actor/director/comedian
- Bill Rancic, winner of The Apprentice
- John C. Reilly, actor
- Pat Sajak, game show host
- Horatio Sanz, actor/comedian
- Amy Sedaris, actress
- David Sedaris, radio broadcaster & author
- Gary Sinise, actor
- Gloria Swanson, actress
- Mr. T., actor
- Vince Vaughn, actor
- Raquel Welch, actress
- Robin Williams, actor/comedian
- Billy Zane, actor
- Florenz Ziegfeld, empresario
Writers, thinkers, scientists, and cultural figures
- Franklin Pierce Adams, columnist
- Jane Addams, awarded Nobel Peace Prize
- Mortimer Adler, writer and educational reformer
- Nelson Algren, writer
- Saul Bellow, awarded Nobel Prize for Literature
- Allan Bloom, writer and translator
- Ray Bradbury, author
- Allan G. Brodie, orthodontics educator
- Gwendolyn Brooks, poet
- Daniel Burnham, architect
- Edgar Rice Burroughs, writer
- Chris Bury, journalist
- Mother Cabrini, saint
- Marvin Camras, inventor
- Raymond Chandler, writer
- Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
- Michael Crichton, writer
- James W. Cronin, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
- James Gould Cozzens, novelist
- Joan Cusack, actress
- John Cusack, actor
- Zachary Taylor Davis, architect
- Donald J. DePorter, philanthropist
- John Dewey, educational reformer
- G. Walter Dittmar, first president of the Illinois State Dental Society
- Vladimir Drinfeld, mathematician, winner of the Fields Medal
- E. Lloyd Du Brul, dental anatomist
- Stuart Dybek, author
- Mircea Eliade, Romanian-born religious scholar and philosopher
- James T. Farrell, writer
- Enrico Fermi, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
- Milton Friedman, winner of the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences
- Edward Gorey, artist
- John Gunther, writer
- E. Gary Gygax, author
- George Ellery Hale, astronomer
- Ernest Hemingway, writer
- Leon Kass, writer and chair of The President's Council on Bioethics
- Dr. Fazlur Khan, civil engineer
- Ann Landers (Esther Pauline Friedman Lederer), columnist
- Catherine T. MacArthur Philanthropist
- Maury Massler, dental educator
- Charles G. Maurice, dental educator
- Merrill C. Meigs, newspaper publisher
- Frederick B. Moorehead, dental educator
- Charles Gilman Norris, author
- Frank Norris, novelist
- Frederick Bogue Noyes, dental educator
- Ruth Page, ballet dancer
- Ed Paschke, artist
- John Dos Passos, novelist and painter
- Theodore Regensteiner, inventor of the four-color litographic press
- Earl W. Renfroe, orthodontist and African-American activist
- Mike Royko, columnist
- Carl Sandburg, poet
- Dan Savage, columnist
- Isaac Schour, president of the International Association for Dental Research
- William L. Shirer, journalist and historian
- Shel Silverstein, poet, songwriter, and children's writer
- Leo Strauss, political philosopher
- Louis Sullivan, architect
- Stanislav Szukalski, artist and provocateur, friend of Ben Hecht, part of the Chicago Renaissance
- Lorado Taft, sculptor
- Maria Tallchief, ballet dancer, founder of the Chicago City Ballet
- Studs Terkel, broadcaster, author
- James Tiptree, Jr., author
- Stanley D. Tylman, dental educator, wrote Theory and Practice of Crown and Bridge Prosthesis
- Thorstein Veblen, economist and social critic
- Irving Wallace, writer
- Robert Woodrow Wilson, founder and first director of Fermilab
- Frank Lloyd Wright, architect
- K. A. Applegate, author
Criminals
- Al Capone, mobster
- John Dillinger, bank robber
- John Wayne Gacy, serial killer
- H.H. Holmes, early serial killer
- Theodore Kaczynski, the unabomber
- Jose Padilla, aka Abdullah al-Muhajir, alleged terrorist
- Jack Ruby, killed Lee Harvey Oswald
- Richard Speck, mass murderer
Historical Figures
- Bob Bernard, entrepreneur
- Mother Cabrini, first American saint
- Philo Carpenter, first Chicago pharmacist
- John Chancellor, journalist
- Bernard J. Cigrand, father of Flag Day in the United States
- Ira Glass, NPR broadcaster
- Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, early Chicago settler
- Marshall Field, entrepreneur
- Betty Ford, former First Lady
- Ada Sawyer Garrett,, 19th Century socialite
- Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard, early Chicago developer
- Louis Joliet, French explorer
- John Kinzie, early Chicago settler
- Matthew Laflin, early Chicago gunpowder manufacturer and philanthropist
- Horatio G. Loomis, one of the organizers of the Chicago Board of Trade
- Philip Maxwell, early Chicago physician
- Jacques Marquette, missionary
- William S. Paley, CBS executive
- Potter Palmer, entrepreneur
- George Pullman, entrepreneur, inventor
- Captain George Streeter, riverboat captain and squatter
- Paulina Tayler, early Chicago settler
- Charles Yerkes, entrepreneur
References
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