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Famous People from Wisconsin

Can you name these famous Wisconsinites based on a short clue?
Includes fictional characters in blue
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: January 8, 2020
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First submittedMarch 15, 2012
Times taken6,063
Average score50.0%
Rating3.97
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Clue
Hometown
Answer
Guggenheim architect
Madison
Frank Lloyd Wright
Hungarian-born escape artist who grew up in Wisconsin
Appleton
Harry Houdini
Cannibalistic serial killer
West Allis
Jeffrey Dahmer
"Blue Ribbon" beer maker
Milwaukee
Frederick Pabst
Painter of flowers
Sun Prairie
Georgia O'Keeffe
"Tommy Boy" actor who overdosed in 1997
Madison
Chris Farley
"Boogie Nights" and "Swingers" actress
Milwaukee
Heather Graham
"Boys Town" and "Judgment at Nuremberg" actor
Milwaukee
Spencer Tracy
Flamboyant pianist
West Allis
Liberace
Electric guitar pioneer
Waukesha
Les Paul
Former senator and campaign finance reformer
Janesville
Russ Feingold
U.S. Senator known for the "Red Scare"
Appleton
Joseph McCarthy
Female Prime Minister of Israel
Milwaukee
Golda Meir
Progressive titan of the Senate, 1906-1925
Primrose
Robert M. La Follette, Sr
Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, 1986-2005
Shorewood
William Rehnquist
Current governor
Plymouth
Tony Evers
Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback
Burlington
Tony Romo
Legendary lumberjack
-
Paul Bunyan
Doll with unrealistic bodily proportions
Willows
Barbie
Wisconsin Badgers mascot
Madison
Bucky Badger
20 Comments
+5
Level 78
Jul 30, 2013
Golda Meir was from Milwaukee??? Cool.
+3
Level 78
Aug 8, 2015
And Bibi Netanyahu graduated from high school in Philadelphia.
+5
Level 50
May 4, 2014
Fact: Les Paul is buried in the same cemetery as my grandparents. (Not a very interesting fact but it's the best I can do.)
+2
Level 69
Jun 1, 2014
You might add Mark Ruffalo (actor).
+2
Level 30
Dec 24, 2014
I know all of these people except for Tony Romo. Can't say the same for others of this kind of quiz.

Also, the Feingold hint isn't very good. How about.. 'Former Senator who is now serving as special envoy to the DRC' or 'Former Senator known for efforts to reform campaign finance' ?

+2
Level ∞
Jan 20, 2015
Added "former senator" to the clue.
+2
Level 78
Aug 8, 2015
Not for long!
+1
Level 72
Jun 15, 2021
This aged well.
+3
Level 26
Mar 14, 2015
Frank Lloyd Wright's hometown was Spring Green. He never lived in Madison. He went to the university there, but he never lived there.
+2
Level 83
Jun 19, 2018
Apparently not. From Spring Green Wikipedia article:

"The world-renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright was born in nearby Richland Center, Wisconsin, studied in Madison, Wisconsin, and spent summers and other times near Spring Green"

Or from FLW article:

"Frank Lloyd Wright was born Frank Lincoln Wright in the farming town of Richland Center, Wisconsin /.../ In 1870 the family moved to Weymouth, Massachusetts /.../ The Wright family struggled financially in Weymouth and returned to Spring Green, Wisconsin /.../ They settled in Madison /.../ Wright attended Madison High School, but there is no evidence of his graduation. He was admitted to the University of Wisconsin–Madison"

+2
Level 66
Aug 8, 2015
Why is Feingold's first name required?
+2
Level 78
Aug 8, 2015
I also had to type russ for it to be accepted. Seemed odd.
+3
Level ∞
Aug 8, 2015
Fixed
+2
Level 78
Aug 8, 2015
Is "Boys Town" really one of Spencer Tracy's most famous movies? I would've gotten him with "Fury", "Father of the Bride", "Inherit the Wind", "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" or "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" as a clue.
+1
Level 87
May 23, 2022
Boys Town is one of the two movies that won him an Oscar. The other was Captains Courageous.
+3
Level 87
May 4, 2019
Thankfully, Scott Walker is no longer the current governor.

Also, I know a fair few Minnesotans and Michiganders who would dispute the claim that Paul Bunyan was from Wisconsin.

+2
Level 44
Jan 31, 2020
Gene Wilder and Orson Welles.
+3
Level 55
Jan 25, 2021
Tony Shaloub

Bradley Whitfield

Lynn Fontanne

Alfred Lunt

Colin Kaepernick

Willem Dafoe

Eric Heiden

Edna Ferber

And a ton of others.

+1
Level 72
Nov 9, 2022
Paul Bunyan is in the Michigan quiz, too. I know he's a fictional character, but how is he from two different places?
+1
Level 80
Oct 21, 2024
The blue text is pretty difficult to see in Dark Mode, consider changing it.