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Top 10 Famous people from Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a state in the upper Midwestern United States, bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the south-west, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the north-east, and Lake Superior to the north. Its capital city is Madison.

The Badger State is one of the nation’s leading dairy producers and is known as “America’s Dairyland”. It is particularly famous for its cheese. Wisconsin has a diverse landscape that was greatly impacted by glaciers during the Ice Age, except for the Driftless Area.

Many legendary people have called Wisconsin home, below is a list of the top10 famous people from Wisconsin;  

1. Vel Phillips

Vel Phillips 2007 – Wikipedia

Velvalea Hortense Rodgers “Vel” Phillips was born on February 18^th 1923 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was an American attorney, politician, jurist, and civil rights activist associated with a long list of firsts. In 1951, Phillips was the first African-American woman to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School. In 1956, she became the first female and first African-American elected to the Milwaukee Common Council and the first African American, as well as the first woman, to serve as a jurist in Wisconsin.

In the early 1960s, she introduced a fair-housing ordinance that sparked an almost decade-long legislative battle. The bill was defeated 18-1 with only her vote in favor. Between the years of 1963 and 1967, Phillips would reintroduce the fair housing bill three additional times, only to have it defeated each time. Phillips’s ordinance passed in 1968, Shortly after the national Fair Housing Act was signed into law.

Vel Phillips died on April 17, 2018.

2. Mark Ruffalo

Mark Alan Ruffalo was born on November 22, 1967 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He is an American actor, director, and environmental activist who is best known for portraying the character of Bruce Banner/the Hulk in a series of superhero movies. During his career, Ruffalo has been nominated for at least one Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award, one of a select group to have been nominated for all four awards.

He began acting in the early 1990s and first gained recognition for his work in Kenneth Lonergan’s play This Is Our Youth (1998) and drama film You Can Count On Me (2000). Ruffalo’s accomplishments include nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for playing a sperm-donor in the comedy-drama The Kids Are All Right (2010), Dave Schultz in the biopic Foxcatcher (2014), and Michael Rezendes in the drama Spotlight (2015). He won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor in a TV Movie for playing a gay writer and activist in the television drama film The Normal Heart (2015), and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his dual role in the miniseries I Know This Much Is True (2020).

3. Colin Kaepernick

Colin Kaepernick 2012 – Wikipedia

Colin Rand Kaepernick was born on November 3, 1987, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is an American gridiron football player and social activist who is best known for kneeling during the national anthem before games to protest racial injustice and police brutality against African Americans.

Colin Kaepernick captained Pitman to their first-ever playoff victory and was conferred with the ‘Most Valuable Player’ award (MVP) by the ‘Central California Conference’ in 2005. He received the ‘Western Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year’ award twice (2008 and 2010). In 2008, he was the MVP of the ‘Humanitarian Bowl’.

He has been a free agent since opting out of his contract with the 49ers in early 2017.

4. Willem Dafoe

Willem Dafoe 2019 – Wikipedia

William James “Willem” Dafoe was born on July 22, 1955, in Appleton, Wisconsin. He is an American film and voice actor. He is a versatile actor best known for portraying dark and unconventional characters in films and his distinctive raspy voice. Willem is most notable for playing the Green Goblin in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy.

Dafoe is the recipient of various accolades, including the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, in addition to receiving nominations for four Academy Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a British Academy Film

5. Tony Bennett

Bennett – Wikipedia

Anthony Guy Bennett was born on June 1, 1969 in Clintonville, Wisconsin. He is an American former professional basketball player and the men’s basketball head coach at the University of Virginia since March 31, 2009.

Bennett is a three-time recipient of the Henry Iba Award, two-time Naismith College Coach of the Year, two-time AP Coach of the Year, and four-time ACC Coach of the Year. He holds records for career winning percentage and single-season wins at both Virginia and Washington State, and is one of three coaches in history to lead his program to ten consecutive winning ACC records.

6. Zack Synder

Zack Snyder – Wikipedia

Zachary Edward “Zack” Snyder was born on March 1, 1966, in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer, best known for action/science fiction movies. Snyder began his career as a director with the 2004 action horror film ‘Dawn of the Dead’. Today, he is a household name and the go-to director for superhero and fantasy movies.

Snyder often uses slow motion, particularly the technique of speed ramping, in and out of the fight scenes in his films, differing from other directors who make multiple cuts and close-ups during a fight. In 2004, he founded the production company The Stone Quarry (formerly known as Cruel and Unusual Films) alongside his wife Deborah Snyder and producing partner Wesley Coller.  

7. John Bardeen

John Bardeen – Wikipedia

John Bardeen was born on May 23, 1908, in Madison, Wisconsin. He was an American engineer and physicist who revolutionized the fields of electronics and magnetic resonance imaging. He is the only person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics twice.

In 1956, with fellow scientists William B. Shockley and Walter H. Brattain, Bardeen shared the award for the invention of the transistor. He received the award for the second time in 1972, with Leon N. Cooper and John R. Schrieffer, for formulating the theory of superconductivity.

He died of heart disease on January 30, 1991.

8. Les Paul

Les Paul – Wikipedia

Lester William Polsfuss was born on June 9, 1915, in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Les Paul was an American jazz, country, and blues guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor. He was one of the pioneers of the solid-body electric guitar, and his prototype, called the Log, served as inspiration for the Gibson Les Paul.

A solid-body musical instrument is a string instrument built without its normal sound box and relying on an electromagnetic pickup system to directly detect the vibrations of the strings. These instruments are usually plugged into an instrument amplifier and loudspeaker to be heard.

Paul is the only person to be included in both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1988) and the National Inventors Hall of Fame (2005).

On August 12, 2009, Paul died of complications from pneumonia.

9. Chris Farley

Chris Farley – Wikipedia

Christopher Crosby Farley was born on February 15, 1964, in Madison, Wisconsin. He was an American actor and comedian who is remembered for playing various roles in NBC’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ from 1990 to 1995.

Farley was known for his loud, energetic comedic style. He received the ‘MTV Movie Award’ for ‘Best On-Screen Duo’ in 1996 for his movie ‘Tommy Boy’ which he shared with David Spade. He was posthumously awarded a star on the ‘Hollywood Walk of Fame’ in 2005.

Chris Farley died of an accidental drug overdose in 1997 at the age of 33.

10. Liberace

Liberace – Wikipedia

Child prodigy Wladziu Valentino Liberace was born on May 16,1919. He was an American pianist, singer, and actor who enjoyed a career spanning for decades.

Dubbed “Mr. Showmanship” because of his flamboyant performances and lifestyle. At the height of his fame from the 1950s to 1970s, he was the highest-paid entertainer in the world with established concert residencies in Las Vegas and an international touring schedule.

Liberace passed away on February 4, 1987