Famous Wisconsinites

[LinksToThePast]

I thought I would start a thread on Famous Wisconsinites. Anybody know any they can post? If you do, do you know where they were born? What their claim to fame was?

LinksToThePast

[LinksToThePast]

Spencer Tracy, famous actor, was born on April 5, 1900, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

His mother, Caroline Brown, could trace her ancestros back to Colonial America. His father John, had was Irish.

Surnames in his ancestry are:
Berry, Brown, Clark, Colton, Cooper, Dorchester, Guhin, Kritchwell, Niles, Stearns, Stebbins, Tracy, Wright

He did not graduate high school, enlisting in the Navy during his third year of high school. He spent two years in college before pursuing an acting career.

Spencer made more than 50 films, garnered nine Academy Award nominations (more than any player in his lifetime) and won two Academy Awards.

He married actress Louise Treadwell in 1923 and they had two children, Susan and John.

Near the end of his life, Tracy's health suffered he died in 1967, just weeks after completing his last film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.

LinksToThePast

[LinksToThePast]

Al Jarreau was born a preacher's son in Milwaukee, April 12, 1940. His debut as a singer was when he was four. Later he became a member of the church choir.

He attended Ripon College and earned his Bachelors Degree.
He achieved a Masters Degree in psychology from the University of Iowa. He pursued a career as a social worker and eventually moved to San Francisco and began a career in rehabilitation counseling.

He eventually gave that up and decided to pursue a show business career. He moved to LA then eventually to New York.

He is the only vocalist in history to receive a grammy in three different categories, Jazz, R&B, and Pop.

LinksToThePast

[LinksToThePast]

Although Arnold was born in Graz, Austria, he received his education at Wisconsin's own University of Wisconsin-Superior with a Bachelor's degree in international marketing of fitness and business in 1979.

He received an Honorary Doctorate from his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin Superior, in 1996 in recognition of his charitable works.

Arnold was the first private citizen in the U.S. to own a Humvee. Not a WI fact, but just an interesting tidbit.

LinksToThePast

[AJE]

"We will miss his special gifts, including a unique ability to make people laugh. More importantly, we will always remember his warm-hearted nature and deep commitment to his friends and the people with whom he worked."

Christopher Crosby Farley, He grew up in Madison, Wisconsin with three brothers and a sister. Birthdate Feb 15, 1964. Chris Farley was a reckless comedian whose life ended tragically from an accidental drug overdose at age 33.

***Tommy Boy
***Sheep Head
***Dirty Work
***Saturday Night Live
These are some shows to name a few, guarantee you'll be laughing before the night is done!

[Kris10]

Liberace was born "Wladziu Valentino Liberace" in West Allis, Wisconsin in 1919. He known for his piano playing as well as his flamboyant costumes! The Liberace Foundation has a full biography. Liberace had an extensive TV and performing career before passing away in 1987.

There are many Wisconsinites gracing TV in the present:

Jane Kaczmarek of "Malcolm in the Middle" was born on December 22, 1955 in Milwaukee.

Jane Kaczmarek's husband, Bradley Whitford of "The West Wing," was born in Madison on October 1, 1959.

Eric Szmanda of "CSI" was born on July 24, 1975 and hails from Mukwonago.

Angie Jakusz of the upcoming "Survivor : Palau" season is also from Mukwonago, born on March 27, 1980.

[AJE]

Heather Graham

Originally hailing from the Midwest, Graham was born in Milwaukee, WI, on January 29, 1970. The elder of two girls (younger sister Aimee is also an actress), Graham led a fairly uneventful childhood thanks to her father's strict job with the F.B.I and her mom being a school teacher. A quiet, unpopular girl, by her own account, Graham became interested in acting at a young age. She had her first role, as Dorothy, in a school production of The Wizard of Oz and remained active in the theater throughout high school, winning the title of Most Talented from her peers. After high school, Graham packed up and headed to Los Angeles.

She has been in a number of movies, these are some of the one's I've seen her act.
*Blessed (2004)
*Anger Management (2003)
*From Hell (2001)
*Say It Isn't So (2001)
*Austin Power's Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)

[AJE]

Famous Wisconsinites
Don Ameche actor, Kenosha
Roy Chapman Andrews naturalist and explorer, Beloit
John Bardeen inventor, Madison
Carrie Catt woman suffragist, Ripon
Ellen Corby actress, Racine
William Defoe actort, Appleton
Tyne Daly actress, Madison
August Derleth author, Sauk City
Jeanne Dixon seer, Medford
Chris Farley actor, Madison
Zona Gale author, Portage
Eric Heiden speed skater, Madison
Woody Herman band leader, Milwaukee
Loretta Sell Hildegarde singer, Adell
Harry Houdini magician, Appleton
Thomas Hulce actor, Whitewater
Pee Wee King singer, Abrams
George F. Kennan diplomat, Milwaukee
Robert La Follette politician, Primrose
Liberace pianist, West Allis
Allen Ludden tv host, Mineral Point
Alfred Lunt actor, Milwaukee
Frederic March actor, Racine
Jackie Mason comedian, Sheboygan
Charles and John Ringling circus entrepreneurs, Baraboo
Pat O'Brien actor, Milwaukee
Georgia O'Keeffe painter, Sun Prairie
Amy Pietz actress, Oak Creek
Charlotte Rae actress, Milwaukee
William H. Rehnquist jurist, Milwaukee
Gena Rowlands actress, Cambria
Tom Snyder newscaster, Milwaukee
Spencer Tracy actor, Milwaukee
Thorstein Veblen economist, Cato Township
Orson Welles actor and producer, Kenosha
Laura Ingalls Wilder author, Pepin
Thornton Wilder author, Madison
Charles Winninger actor, Athen
Frank Lloyd Wright architect, Richland Center
Bob Uecker baseball player, Milwaukee
Les Paul musician, Waukesha

[AJE]

Tony Shalhoub aka MONK
DOB: 10-9-1953
Hometown: Green Bay Wisconsin

MONK:
USA on Fridays @ 9:00 PM (Eastern time)

Former police detective Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub), whose photographic memory and amazing ability to piece together tiny clues made him a local legend, has suffered from intensified obsessive-compulsive disorder and a variety of phobias since the unsolved murder of his wife, Trudy, in 1997. Now on psychiatric leave from the San Francisco Police Department and working as a freelance detective/ consultant on difficult cases, Monk hopes to convince his former boss, Captain Leland...

[pk]

List of people from Kenosha, Wisconsin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of Kenoshans, notable citizens of Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Angela Alvarez, actress and director (Cake)
Alan Ameche, football player
Don Ameche, actor, Academy Award-winner (Cocoon)
Jim Ameche, actor (Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy)
Nick Angotti, actor
Eric Benson (r/n Philip Jerome Stumpf), radio actor ("The Shadow", "Let's Pretend", more)
Gail Berenson, author, lecturer, professor of piano at Ohio State University
Nancy Berg, actress (Fail Safe, more)
Peter V. Bianchi, staff artist, National Geographic Magazine
Thom Bierdz, actor (Murder, She Wrote, more)
Chester Biscardi, composer, director of musical arts at Yale University
Daniel Bisno MD, ophthalmologist on faculty at Washington University
Richard W. Blake, actor
Joe Bonadio, jazz drummer
Dick Bosman, major league baseball pitcher and coach (Washington Senators, Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox)
Kenneth C. Brugger naturalist, chemical engineer
Claude Cailliet, jazz musician, bandleader (MadiSalsa)
Lucien Cailliet, composer, conductor, film orchestrator (The Ten Commandments)
Katie Camosy, filmmaker (not famous)
Jeff Cesario, comedian, TV writer
Nick Cibrario, author (The Pomelo Tree)
Dr. Thomas C. Cesario, dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine and College of Health Sciences
Barbara E. Chernik, librarian, author
Buddy Clark, jazz bassist and recording artist [1]
Donald Clarke, author of several books on musical subjects
Edward F. Cline, film director
Virginia Croskery, soprano
James A. Crossin MD, F.A.C.S., noted bariatric surgeon
Sarah Deakins, actress (Smallville)
Jo Ann Deering, comedienne
Harlan Draeger, Chicago Journalism Hall of Famer
N. Max Dunning, architect (Chicago Furniture Mart)
Debbie Ellis, actress (Everwood, more)
Dr. John Ficcadenti, chief researcher, the Shroud of Turin project
Danielle Franke, actress (Green River)
William Gagliani, horror-fiction author (Wolf's Trap)
Pam Kray Galligan, champion fencer, founder of NYC graphic-arts studio Nil Hubris
Judith Heide Gilliland, author (Strange Birds)
Christina Gillmore, Miss Wheelchair America, 1999
Scott Glenn, actor
Jerry Golden, ABC reporter who was first with the John F. Kennedy assassination news
John Goray (1912-1990), artist and Walt Disney creative cartoonist (Thumper)
Bert I. Gordon, film director (The Food of the Gods)
Linda Ham, manager of the Johnson Space Center
John Hambrock, syndicated comic strip artist ("The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee")
Barbara Hammond, off-Broadway playwright (Norman & Beatrice)
Michael P. Hammond, chairman, National Endowment for the Arts
Linda Haugen, composer and songwriter
Florence Parry Heide, author (The Shrinking of Treehorn)
Milt Herth, songwriter and keyboard artist (Russ Morgan Orchestra, The Milt Herth Trio)
Jim Iaquinta, actor (Rana)
Tim Iaquinta, actor, film producer
George Elmer Inman, developer of fluorescent lighting
Jim Isermann, artist
Nick James, writer and director
Jim Jensen, CBS news anchor and reporter
Horace Greely Johnson, inventor, referred to as 'The Edison of Underwear'
Raymond Edward Johnson, radio actor, host of Inner Sanctum
Samuel C. Johnson, founder, Johnson Wax
Edward S. "Ned" Jordan, automaker, Jordan Motor Car Company (Jordan Playboy, Jordan Ace), columnist ("Ned Jordan Speaks" AutoWeek) and ad writer ("Somewhere west of Laramie")
James W. Jorgenson, chair, chemistry department, University of North Carolina
Eugene Karlin, magazine artist and illustrator (Fortune, Look, Esquire)
Margaret McElwain Kemper, lecturer, president of the American League of Organists
Floyd Kishline, engineer and inventor (Nash-Kelvinator, Graham-Paige)
Bob Kiss, mayor of Burlington, Vermont
Richard Klevickis, screenwriter (Wild Kingdom)
Kenjamin Lafayette, actor, comedian and graphic designer
Tony Landa, dancer
Margaret Landon, author (Anna and the King of Siam (The King and I )
Gregg Lawrence, vocalist (The Frankie Carle Orchestra)
James Lesniak, pianist and opera coach (Metropolitan Opera Company)
Sean Lewis, television journalist (NBC News)
Drue Leyton, actress
Sam Locante, actor (The Stone Killer)
Freddie Mann, musician (The Freddie Mann Orchestra)
Tony Mantuano, chef (Spiaggio)
Major General Robert Bruce McCoy commander of the 32nd Infantry Division, for whom Fort McCoy is named [2]
John McEvoy, columnist and author ("Riders Down", "Blind Switch", more)
Mike Mertz, graphic designer
Frank L. Mitchell, automaker (Mitchell-Lewis Motor Company)
Lois J. Mogensen, Artist, Printmaker (not famous)
Al Molinaro, actor Happy Days
Wayne Morton, actor
Charles W. Nash, automaker Nash Motors, Nash-Kelvinator
Rev. Lloyd John Ogilvie, United States Senate Chaplain
Michael Oldani, anthropologist, pharmaceutical researcher, Fulbright Scholar (Princeton University)
Oliver "Ollie" O'Mara, shortstop/third baseman for the Detroit Tigers and Brooklyn Dodgers
Megan Oster, figure skater
Milton K. Ozaki, author and detective novelist
Peter Palmer, saxophonist, bandleader, songwriter (Mercury Records)
Mario Petrelli, commander of the United States Military Academy Band at West Point
Michael Phillips, theater critic, Pulitzer Prize jurist
Roxanne Heide Pierce, author
Peter Pirsch, builder of fire equipment
Nan Pollard, illustrator of children's books
George Pollard, portrait artist to the presidents and stars
Joseph V. Quarles, U.S. Senator and former Kenosha mayor
Thom Racina, author and screenwriter (General Hospital)
Dr. Thomas C. Reeves, professor and author (A Question of Character - A Life of John F. Kennedy)
Dora Remington, actress (Ma Perkins, NBC)
Spike Robinson, jazz saxophonist
Dr. Gary Roemer, biologist, lecturer
Gerald J. Ruben, twelve-time Emmy Award and Peabody Award-winning television news producer (KTLA-TV, Associated Press, Radio and Television News Association)
Mark Ruffalo, actor
Tony Russel, film and stage actor (Hearts Are Wild)
Jim Rygiel, triple Academy Award winner (Lord of the Rings) IMDB Biography Page
Mary Sauer, principal pianist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1959, and on the piano faculty of DePaul University for 33 years, where she was coordinator of the keyboard program. http://www.cso.org/main.taf?erube_fh...rtistid=msauer
Will Schaefer, film composer (Walt Disney Productions) arranger (The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson), songwriter (Spongebob Squarepants) and Emmy Award-nominee
S. D. Schindler, artist, illustrator of children's books
Stephen Schmelling, chemical-physics author and director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Robert S. Kerr Environmental Research Center
Rebecca Scott, model and actress, Miss August 1999 for Playboy Productions
Chester Sheard, photojournalist
Christopher Latham Sholes, publisher, inventor of the QWERTY keyboard
Charles Siebert, actor (Trapper John, MD)
Zalman Simmons, industrialist (Simmons Company) and Kenosha mayor
Paul Sorenson, actor (Dallas)
Kathie Sullivan, vocalist (The Lawrence Welk Show)
John Stephenson, voice actor (Flintstones)
Charlie Talbert, actor (Angus)
Stan Thorn, singer ("Shenandoah-Sunday in the South", more)
Maria Tirabassi, actress (Crime Story)
Concetta Tomei, actress (China Beach)
Jason W. Tower, cinematographer, editor
Daniel J. Travanti, actor (Hill Street Blues)
Caroline Solfronk Vacha, Juilliard-trained flutist, called "The Grand Dame of the Chicago Lyric Opera and the Chicago Ballet"
Nick Van Exel, point guard for the San Antonio Spurs
Irving Wallace, author (The Chapman Report)
Sylvia Wallace, editor of Photoplay, writer Modern Screen Magazine, and author ("Empress", "The Fountains")
Orson Welles, producer, actor, writer, director (Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Touch of Evil, F is for Fake)
Paul Weyrich, founder and CEO of the Heritage Foundation and the Free Congress Foundation and member of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission.
William J. White, industrial engineer, professor and former chairman, CEO and president of Bell & Howell Company, chairman and president of Whitestar Graphics and executive vice-president of USG Corporation Corporation, and author ("From Day One")
Anthony Winther and Martin Winther, inventors (eddy currents), automakers (Winther Motors), and radio manufacturers (Oriole Radio)
Tony Wons, actor, author, radio host (Tony Wons' Radio Scrapbook)
Oscar U. Zerk, engineer and inventor (Zerk fittings)
Joseph Zimmerman, invented the first Answering machine
Léon Leblanc and Vito Pascucci, founders of Leblanc, Inc., makers of musical instruments

[pk]

Just a thought:

If anyone has ever met someone that is famous from Wisconsin, or perhaps related to someone on the list, please feel free to add any stories you may have that you would like to share. Or another thought, if you have any photos from the past of someone famous from WI that would be fun to see also.

pk

[AJE]

Darth Vader's brother, Chad, becomes comedic force on Internet
Feb 21, 2007
Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Chad Vader gets no respect, but he sure gets plenty of laughs.

Poor Chad, the younger brother of the evil Jedi knight slayer Darth Vader, is stuck managing a grocery store in a series of short films that have become an international hit thanks to video-sharing sites YouTube and MySpace. The six wacky episodes created by Aaron Yonda and Matt Sloan have been viewed more than 9.5 million times on those sites alone.

The popularity of Chad's misadventures has allowed Yonda and Sloan, both aspiring filmmakers, to quit their jobs and negotiate a contract with a major media company they won't yet name. It has also led to talk that Chad Vader may be the best comedy started in Madison since The Onion, the satirical newspaper founded here in the late 1980s.

:lol: :arrow:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

[AJE]

John Matuszak- Actor

Birthdate October 25 , 1950, Oak Creek Wisconsin
RIP: June 17, 1989

Goonies 1985

Lotney 'Sloth' Fratelli in _Goonies, The (1985) , his make-up took five hours to complete. One of the eyes (which was out of place on the face) was mechanically operated off-screen by remote control. He had to time his blinking to match the blinks of the robotic eye. A crew-member would countdown from three, two, one and tell him to blink. The cast was told not to get him wet in scenes outside of the pirate ship, but the kids inadvertently did so, holding up filming for an entire day. In the scene where Chunk and Sloth head down through the grate to follow the gang and the Fratelli's, you can see that Sloth is wearing an Oakland Raiders T-Shirt. Matuszak was a former Oakland Raiders football player.