Celebrities Born in the Great State of Illinois Quiz

Answer:

FYI - All incorrect answers are people born in Iowa.

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- Jack Benny (Chicago) was an American entertainer who was a highly regarded comic in radio, television, and film. His "masterpiece of stingy jokes" went like this: A thief holds Benny up, snarling the line, "You're money or your life". A long pause goes by - the impatient thief yells, "Come on, hurry up!" Annoyed, the notoriously cheap Benny finally says, "I'm thinking it over".

- Walt Disney (Chicago) was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. When Mickey Mouse spoke for the first time, in 1929's "The Karnival Kid" (his words were "Hot dog, hot dog"), Walt decided to lend his own voice to the mouse until 1947's "Mickey and the Beanstalk,".

- Harrison Ford (Chicago) is an American actor, regarded as a cinematic cultural icon. He acquired his famous scar when he crashed his car into a telephone pole while searching for his seat belt. The subsequent scar came courtesy of what he described as "inept" surgical attention.

- Bill Murray (Evanston) is an American actor and comedian. He joined Saturday Night Live as a replacement for Chevy Chase during the show's second season in 1977. He is perhaps most famous for his role in the "Ghostbusters" franchise playing Dr. Peter Venkman, a sarcastic and witty parapsychologist.

- Bob Newhart (Oak Park) was an American comedian and actor. He achieved huge success with his comedy album, "The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart", which won Best Album at the 1960 Grammys, beating out Nat King Cole, Harry Belafonte, and Frank Sinatra.

- Carl Sandburg (Galesburg) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln.

- Raquel Welch (Chicago) was an American actress. She starred in the film "One Million Years B.C." (1966), and, with only three lines in the film, her deer skin bikini stole the show. The fur bikini was considered mankind's first bikini and was seen as a definitive look of the 1960s.

- Dorothy Hamill (Chicago) is a retired American figure skater. She was known for her signature "Hamill camel" (a combination of a camel and a sit-spin) and wedge/bob haircut which started a fashion craze.

- Betty Friedan (Peoria) was an American feminist writer and activist. She obtained a job at UE News, a labor trade newspaper in 1947 and when she became pregnant for the second time, she was not given leave; instead, she was fired.

- Ray Bradbury (Waukegan) was an American author and screenwriter. At the age of 14, he landed himself a gig writing for George Burns and Gracie Allen's radio show, though he later said he never got any money for it.

- Edgar Rice Burroughs (Chicago) was an American writer, best known for his prolific output in the adventure, science fiction, and fantasy genres. His books inspired Arthur C. Clarke, one of the biggest names in science fiction storytelling to start writing.

- Gloria Swanson (Chicago) was an American actress who began her film career in the silent era and by the 1920s had established herself. She was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actress, most famously for her 1950 return in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard.

- Richard Pryor (Peoria) was an American stand-up comedian and actor. He was born to a prostitute named Gertrude in Peoria, Illinois. Pryor's father was a notoriously violent pimp named LeRoy Pryor. For much of his childhood, Pryor was raised in the actual brothel where his mother worked, which was owned by his no-nonsense grandmother, Marie Carter.

- Jimmy Connors (Belleville) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He reached the ATP world No. 1 ranking on July 29, 1974, and held it for 160 consecutive weeks, a record until it was surpassed by Roger Federer on February 26, 2007. He relinquished his initial grip on the No. 1 ranking for only one week, before resuming as No. 1 for another 84 weeks.

- Jennie Garth (Urbana) is an American actress. She is known for starring as Kelly Taylor throughout the "Beverly Hills, 90210" franchise and Val Tyler on the sitcom "What I Like About You". In 2012, she starred in her own reality show, "Jennie Garth: A Little Bit Country" on CMT.