Celebrities Born in the Great State of Michigan Quiz

Answer:

FYI - All incorrect answers are people born in Mississippi.

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- Ellen Burstyn (Detroit) is an American actress. She is famously known for the portrayal of complicated women in dramas. She was one of the Gleason Girls dancers on "The Jackie Gleason Show" in 1955.

- Edna Ferber (Kalamazoo) was an American novelist, short story writer and playwright. She initially believed her draft of what would become "So Big" (Pulitzer Prize - 1924) lacked a plot, glorified failure, and had a subtle theme that could easily be overlooked. She was a member of the "Algonquin Round Table", a group of wits who met for lunch daily at the Algonquin Hotel in New York.

- Henry Ford (Springwells Township) was an American industrialist and business magnate. He was the only American mentioned in Adolf Hitler's infamous book "Mein Kampf". Ford's work so inspired Hitler that he even reported it to the "Detroit News".

- Magic Johnson (Lansing) is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. In Game 6 of the 1980 NBA Finals, he started the game at center, in place of the injured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He won the Finals MVP, becoming the only player in NBA history to win the award as a rookie.

- Charles Lindbergh (Detroit) was an American aviator. His transatlantic plane, "The Spirit of St. Louis", needed additional fuel storage so everything extraneous was removed to lessen its weight -no radio, gas gauge, or parachute. He even had to dispense with a window in his cockpit: The gas tank took over his front field of vision so he used a periscope to see instead.

- Madonna (Bay City) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Despite mixed reviews for her performances in feature films, her acting career still went places - including Broadway. In 1988, she co-starred in "Speed-the-Plow", a David Mamet comedy about a studio production head (Joe Mantegna) who gets wrapped up with a conniving writer (Ron Silver).

- Stevie Wonder (Saginaw) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He was not born blind. It was not until after he was born prematurely that he was placed in an incubator that produced too much oxygen which resulted in him becoming blind.

- Danny Thomas (Deerfield) was an American actor, singer, nightclub comedian, producer, and philanthropist. As part of his philanthropic side, in 1962, he established St. Jude Children's Research Hospital which provides research and treatment for children suffering from catastrophic diseases, regardless of their families' ability to pay. He also founded the "Children's Miracle Network".

- Tom Selleck (Detroit) is an American actor. He auditioned to play globe-trotting archaeologist Indiana Jones in 1981's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and got the job, but was forced to turn it down because CBS wouldn't let him out of his contract to star in the private eye drama "Magnum, P.I."

- Diana Ross (Detroit) is an American singer and actress. Although she has been nominated for 12 Grammy awards, she has never won. That changed in 2012 when she received a Lifetime Achievement Award. She also appeared at the 61st annual Grammys in 2019 for a performance commemorating her 75th birthday.

- Lily Tomlin (Detroit) is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. After college, she began doing stand-up comedy in nightclubs in Detroit and later in New York City. In addition to several notable films, she won the Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play for the 1985 play "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe".

- Gilda Radner (Detroit) was an American actress and comedian. In 1975, she forever changed the face of comedy when she became a founding member of the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players". At the time, she had no way of knowing that the comedy sketch show would go on to become the wildly popular "Saturday Night Live".

- Roger Chaffee (Grand Rapids) was an American naval officer, aviator and aeronautical engineer who was a NASA astronaut in the Apollo program. He was assigned to the ill-fated Apollo I mission along with Gus Grissom and Ed White. At the time, Chaffee at 31, was the youngest person to be selected for a NASA mission.

- Francis Ford Coppola (Detroit) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. His influence on cinema reached new heights with his involvement in "Jaws," the iconic 1975 blockbuster directed by Steven Spielberg. As a producer of the groundbreaking film, he played a crucial role in its production and distribution resulting in unprecedented success and cultural impact.

- Ring Lardner (Niles) was an American sports columnist and short story writer best known for his satirical writings on sports, marriage, and the theatre and was a good friend of F. Scott Fitzgerald. For his first book of short stories, Lardner had to get copies from the magazines he had sold them to, as he held his own short stories in low regard and did not save copies.