List of people from Cedar Rapids, Iowa
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The following is a list of notable people from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This list includes people who were born, have lived, or worked there.
- Jameil Aossey, songwriter and producer
- Douglas Barr, actor and vintner
- Michael Boddicker, musician (distant cousin of Mike Boddicker, MLB player)
- Molly Brown, actress
- Marvin D. Cone, artist
- Paul Conrad, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist
- Joshua Coyne, musician
- Jim Cummins, NBC News correspondent, 1963 graduate of Regis High School
- Geof Darrow, comic book artist
- Michael Daugherty, classical composer
- Don DeFore, actor and president of National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
- Bobby Driscoll, child actor, Treasure Island, Peter Pan
- Mark Elliot, voice-over artist for Disney previews
- Michael Emerson, actor, grew up in Toledo, Iowa
- Paul Engle, poet
- James Erwin, author
- Terry Farrell, actress
- Ed Gorman, writer
- John Hench, Disney animator and Imagineer
- Harry Hershfield, cartoonist
- Larry N. Jordan (born 1952), publisher, journalist, and author, launched weekly Cedar Rapids Press-American as a 15-year-old student[1]
- Bert Kelly, jazz musician
- Ashton Kutcher, actor, star of films and TV's Two and a Half Men
- Ron Livingston, actor, Office Space, Band of Brothers, grew up in Marion, Iowa
- Byron McKeeby, artist
- Conger Metcalf, artist
- Dow Mossman, author
- Matthew Reinhart, author and pop-up book artist
- Megan Reinking, actor
- Ann Royer, painter, sculptor
- William L. Shirer, journalist and author
- Riley Smith, actor
- Soju, drag queen[2]
- Carl Van Vechten, novelist and photographer
- Brooks Wheelan (born 1986), stand-up comedian, featured player on Saturday Night Live
- Elijah Wood, actor, The Lord of the Rings
- Grant Wood, painter (American Gothic)
Business
- Arthur A. Collins (1909–1987), inventor and founder of Collins Radio Company[3]
- Walter Donald Douglas, co-founder of Penick & Ford Starch Company, died on RMS Titanic
- Bob Parsons, founder of Parsons Technology and Go Daddy
- John Stuart, CEO of Quaker Oats
- Mark Walter, CEO of Guggenheim Partners, co-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers
Military
- Salvatore Giunta, US Army, first living recipient of Medal of Honor since Vietnam War[4][5]
- John O. Miner, U.S. Navy rear admiral
- Paul Tibbets, pilot of B-29 Enola Gay that dropped atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan; lived in Cedar Rapids until 1927
Politics
- Richard Lyon-Dalberg-Acton, 4th Baron Acton (1941–2010), British peer and politician
- Jeff Cooling (born 1987), member of the Iowa House of Representatives
- John Ely, member of Iowa General Assembly, instrumental in abolishing capital punishment in Iowa
- T. Cooper Evans (1924–2005), congressman
- Bourke B. Hickenlooper (1896–1971), lieutenant governor, 29th governor of Iowa, 4-term U.S. senator[6]
- Benny Johnson, conservative political commentator and columnist
- Sami Scheetz (born 1996), member of the Iowa House of Representatives
- Kara Westercamp, Associate White House Counsel and nominee for the United States Court of International Trade
Science
- John Mark Dean (1936–2025), conservationist and marine biologist[7]
- Alexander Lippisch (1894–1976), aerodynamics pioneer and aircraft designer[8]
- Wright Brothers, Orville (1871–1948) and Wilbur (1867–1912), aviation pioneers, resided in Cedar Rapids in their youth[9][10]