Four Illinois Cities Among the Top Small Towns For Famous People

You rarely think of the most influential stars coming from small towns but it happens quite a bit.

24/7 Tempo took a look at Small Towns Where the Most Famous People Are From and Illinois is repped four different times. Here's how they figured it out:

Cities, towns, villages, boroughs, and Census-designated places with fewer than 25,000 residents were ranked based on the number of famous or noteworthy people who were born there. In cases where two places boasted the same number of people worthy of consideration, the one with the smaller total population (and thus the higher per capita rate of famous folk) was rated higher.

Of the 50 different towns they looked at the lowest ranked in Illinois was Ottawa at #40.

The website says that 45 people are famous from Ottawa and lists Terrence Malick, Bob McGrath, Scotty Bowers, Johnston McCulley and Tim Finchem as famous faces from that town.

Next up with 49 famous people all time, Freeport was listed as #34. The Pretzel City was once home to Calista Flockhart, Gerald McClellan, Ravi Patel, Louella Parsons and Ken Behring.

Further up the list, Hinsdale checks in at #17. 24/7 Tempo says 64 famous people call that suburb home with their most famous folks are Chris Klein, Danielle Campbell, Nicholle Tom, John Lynch and Dizzy Reed.

Lastly, in Illinois but barely, East St. Louis took the #6 spot with 100 famous people overall and their biggest celebs being Jimmy Connors, Shelley Winters, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Cuonzo Martin.

Illinois has produced plenty of famous faces over the years including folks who have won many awards and accolades so I guess it shouldn't be considered much of a surprise when you see so many small towns listed.

The big question, do you feel like maybe 24/7 missed a few towns in Illinois?