100 Notable alumni of University of Iowa

Updated: June 23, 2026 EliteDegrees

University of Iowa is ranked #74 in the world and #49 in United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from University of Iowa sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. Many individuals affiliated with University of Iowa won Nobel Prizes for Peace, in Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Economics.

Liang Chow

1. Liang Chow

1968-. (aged 58)
artistic gymnast coach
Liang Chow is a Chinese-American former artistic gymnast. He is the founder, owner, and head coach of Chow's Gymnastics and Dance Institute in West Des Moines, Iowa. He is notable for being the coach of 2008 Olympic balance beam champion Shawn Johnson and 2012 Olympic individual all-around champion Gabby Douglas. He coached senior US gymnasts Norah Flatley and Rachel Gowey...
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Max Allan Collins

2. Max Allan Collins

1948-. (aged 78)
writer novelist film director screenwriter
Max Allan Collins is an American mystery writer, noted for his graphic literature, screenplays and comics. His best known work includes the Ms. Tree and Road to Perdition comics (the latter being the basis for an acclaimed film of the same name), and his long-running literary series characters such as steely hitman Quarry, hardened thief Nolan, and antiheroic private investigator...
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James Cartwright

3. James Cartwright

1949-. (aged 77)
military officer
James Edward "Hoss" Cartwright is a retired United States Marine Corps general who last served as the eighth vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from August 31, 2007, to August 3, 2011. He previously served as the Commander, U.S. Strategic Command, from September 1, 2004, to August 10, 2007, and as Acting Commander, U.S. Strategic Command from July...
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Conor Dwyer

4. Conor Dwyer

1989-. (aged 37)
swimmer
Conor James Dwyer is a former American competition swimmer and Olympic gold medalist. He competed in freestyle and medley events, and won a gold medal as a member of the winning U.S. 4×200-meter freestyle relay team at the 2012 Summer Olympics. In total, he has won seventeen medals in major international competitions: nine gold, six silver, and two bronze spanning...
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Mark Shapiro

5. Mark Shapiro

film producer television producer editor
Mark Shapiro is an American television and media executive. In 2018, he was promoted to become the president of Endeavor, after working as the co-president of WME-IMG since 2016. He was executive vice president for programming and production at ESPN until 2005, before becoming CEO and president of Six Flags, Inc. Shapiro has also been the CEO and executive producer...
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Robert Gallery

6. Robert Gallery

1980-. (aged 46)
American football player
Robert J. Gallery is an American former professional football player who was an offensive guard for eight seasons in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the University of Iowa and received unanimous All-American recognition. He was selected with the second overall pick by the Oakland Raiders in the 2004 NFL draft. He also played for the...
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Jarrod Uthoff

7. Jarrod Uthoff

1993-. (aged 33)
basketball player
Jarrod Reed Uthoff is an American professional basketball player for Pallacanestro Trieste of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA). He played three seasons of college basketball for the Iowa Hawkeyes.
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Bryan Bulaga

8. Bryan Bulaga

1989-. (aged 37)
American football player
Bryan Joseph Bulaga is an American former professional football player who was an offensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Iowa Hawkeyes, and was selected by the Green Bay Packers in the first round of the 2010 NFL draft, winning Super Bowl XLV that season. He also played for the Los Angeles Chargers.
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Mike Daniels

9. Mike Daniels

1989-. (aged 37)
American football player
Michael Wayne Daniels Jr. is an American former professional football player who was a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Iowa Hawkeyes and was selected by the Green Bay Packers in the fourth round of the 2012 NFL draft.
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Brandon Scherff

10. Brandon Scherff

1991-. (aged 35)
American football player
Brandon Scherff is an American former professional football guard who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons. He played college football for the Iowa Hawkeyes, earning unanimous All-American honors. He was selected by the Washington Redskins in the first round of the 2015 NFL draft, where he played for seven seasons and earned five Pro Bowls and...
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Yaa Gyasi

11. Yaa Gyasi

1989-. (aged 37)
writer novelist
Yaa Gyasi is a Ghanaian-American novelist. Her work, most notably her 2016 debut novel Homegoing and her 2020 novel Transcendent Kingdom, features themes of lineage, generational trauma, and Black and African identities. At the age of 26, Gyasi won the National Book Critics Circle's John Leonard Award for Best First Book, the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, the National Book...
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Nile Kinnick

12. Nile Kinnick

1918-1943 (aged 25)
American football player
Nile Clarke Kinnick Jr. was an American naval aviator, law student, and college football player for the Iowa Hawkeyes. He won the 1939 Heisman Trophy and was a consensus All-American. He died during a training flight while serving as a United States Navy aviator in World War II. Kinnick was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951,...
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Brooks Wheelan

13. Brooks Wheelan

1986-. (aged 40)
comedian television actor podcaster
Brooks Wheelan is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and podcaster. First breaking through as a cast member and writer for the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live during the 2013–2014 season, Wheelan currently hosts the podcast Entry Level. He has also released a half-hour special for Comedy Central, acted in various movies and shows including Big Hero 6:...
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Joe Haldeman

14. Joe Haldeman

1943-. (aged 83)
screenwriter novelist science fiction writer writer journalist
Joe William Haldeman is an American science fiction author and former college professor. He is best known for his novel The Forever War (1974), which was inspired by his experiences as a combat soldier in the Vietnam War. That novel and other works, including The Hemingway Hoax (1991) and Forever Peace (1997), have won science fiction awards, including the Hugo...
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Cap Anson

15. Cap Anson

1852-1922 (aged 70)
baseball player
Adrian Constantine Anson, nicknamed "Cap" (for "Captain"), "Pop", and "Baby" (early in his career) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman. Including his time in the National Association (NA), he played a record 27 consecutive seasons. Anson was regarded as one of the greatest players of his era and one of the first superstars of the game. He...
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Marshal Yanda

16. Marshal Yanda

1984-. (aged 42)
American football player
Marshal John Yanda is an American former professional football player who spent his entire 13-year career as a guard for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Iowa Hawkeyes, and was selected by Baltimore in the third round of the 2007 NFL draft.
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Dallas Clark

17. Dallas Clark

1979-. (aged 47)
American football player
Dallas Dean Clark is an American former professional football player who was a tight end for 11 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), primarily for the Indianapolis Colts. He played college football for the Iowa Hawkeyes, earning unanimous All-American honors and recognition as the top college tight end in the nation. He was selected by Indianapolis in the first...
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Macdonald Carey

18. Macdonald Carey

1913-1994 (aged 81)
film actor actor television actor
Edward Macdonald Carey was an American actor. He first made his career starring in various B-movies from the 1940s through the 1960s, (with a few A-picture exceptions like Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt), and was known in many Hollywood circles as "King of the Bs". Beginning in 1965, he portrayed patriarch Dr. Tom Horton on NBC's soap opera Days of...
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James E. Hansen

19. James E. Hansen

1941-. (aged 85)
university teacher physicist astrophysicist environmentalist climatologist
James Edward Hansen is an American climatologist. He is an adjunct professor directing the Program on Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is best known for his research in climatology, his 1988 Congressional testimony on climate change that helped raise broad awareness of global warming, and his advocacy of action to avoid dangerous...
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Ricky Davis

20. Ricky Davis

1979-. (aged 47)
basketball player
Tyree Ricardo Davis is an American former professional basketball player who played twelve seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Iowa Hawkeyes.
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Denis Johnson

21. Denis Johnson

1949-2017 (aged 68)
musician novelist essayist screenwriter playwright
Denis Hale Johnson was an American novelist, short-story writer, and poet. He is perhaps best known for his debut short story collection, Jesus' Son (1992). His most successful novel, Tree of Smoke (2007), won the National Book Award for Fiction. Johnson was twice shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Altogether, Johnson was the author of nine novels, one novella,...
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Tristan Wirfs

22. Tristan Wirfs

1999-. (aged 27)
American football player
Tristan Patrick Wirfs is an American professional football offensive tackle for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Iowa Hawkeyes, and was selected in the first round by Tampa Bay in the 2020 NFL draft. He has been selected to five consecutive Pro Bowls.
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Benny Johnson

23. Benny Johnson

1987-. (aged 39)
web editor columnist political writer political pundit journalist
Benny Johnson is an American right-wing political commentator and YouTuber. He has contributed to several conservative media outlets such as Breitbart News, TheBlaze, National Review, and The Daily Caller.
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Michael Cunningham

24. Michael Cunningham

1952-. (aged 74)
poet screenwriter writer film screenwriter university teacher
Michael Cunningham is an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for his 1998 novel The Hours, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1999. Cunningham is Professor in the Practice of Creative Writing at Yale University.
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Bill Perkins

25. Bill Perkins

1969-. (aged 57)
film actor businessperson poker player
William Osborne Perkins III is an American hedge fund manager and poker player. Perkins manages Skylar Capital, an energy trading hedge fund that had approximately $500 million in assets under management as of 2023.
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David Milch

26. David Milch

1945-. (aged 81)
screenwriter writer television producer film producer television writer
David Sanford Milch is an American writer and producer of television series. He has created several television shows, including ABC's NYPD Blue (1993–2005), co-created with Steven Bochco, and HBO's Deadwood (2004–2006, 2019).
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Sam LaPorta

27. Sam LaPorta

2001-. (aged 25)
American football player
Samuel Joseph LaPorta is an American professional football tight end for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Iowa Hawkeyes and was named the Big Ten Tight End of the Year in 2022. He was selected by the Lions in the second round of the 2023 NFL draft. As a rookie, LaPorta...
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Nicholas Meyer

28. Nicholas Meyer

1945-. (aged 81)
novelist film producer film director actor director
Nicholas Meyer is an American screenwriter, director and author known for his best-selling novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, and for directing the films Time After Time, two of the Star Trek feature films, the 1983 television film The Day After, and the 1999 HBO original film Vendetta.
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John Boyd

29. John Boyd

1927-1997 (aged 70)
military officer
John Richard Boyd was a United States Air Force fighter pilot and Pentagon consultant during the second half of the 20th century. His theories have been highly influential in military, business, and litigation strategies and planning.
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Anthony Swofford

30. Anthony Swofford

1970-. (aged 56)
autobiographer novelist writer
Anthony Swofford is an American writer and U.S. Marine veteran, best known for his 2003 book Jarhead, based heavily on his accounts of various situations encountered in the Persian Gulf War. This memoir was the basis of the 2005 film of the same name, directed by Sam Mendes.
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Connie Hawkins

31. Connie Hawkins

1942-2017 (aged 75)
basketball player
Cornelius Lance "Connie" Hawkins was an American professional basketball player. A New York City playground legend, "the Hawk" was to play basketball for the Iowa Hawkeyes but was unjustly implicated in a point-shaving scandal that saw him kicked out of school as a freshman and essentially blackballed from the NBA. Hawkins found refuge with the Pittsburgh Rens of the American...
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Keegan Murray

32. Keegan Murray

2000-. (aged 26)
basketball player
Keegan Mitchell Murray is an American professional basketball player for the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Iowa Hawkeyes before he was selected fourth overall by the Sacramento Kings in the 2022 NBA draft. He is the twin brother of Kris Murray.
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Jay Norvell

33. Jay Norvell

1963-. (aged 63)
American football coach American football player
Merritt James Norvell III is an American college football coach and former player. He was the head football coach at Colorado State University from 2022 to 2025. Norvell served as the head football coach at the University of Nevada, Reno from 2017 to 2021. His father, Merritt Norvell, was the athletic director at Michigan State University from 1995 to 1998.
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Matthew Whitaker

34. Matthew Whitaker

1969-. (aged 57)
diplomat lawyer politician
Matthew George Whitaker is an American lawyer, politician, and diplomat serving as the 26th United States ambassador to NATO since 2025 in the second administration of President Donald Trump. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in Trump's first administration as acting United States attorney general from November 2018 to February 2019, following the resignation of Jeff Sessions....
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Sandra Cisneros

35. Sandra Cisneros

1954-. (aged 72)
arts administrator teacher novelist poet essayist
Sandra Cisneros is an American writer. She is best known for her first novel, The House on Mango Street (1984), and her subsequent short story collection, Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories (1991). Her work includes experimentation with emerging subject positions, which Cisneros attributes to growing up in a context of cultural hybridity and economic inequality that endowed her with...
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Don DeFore

36. Don DeFore

1913-1993 (aged 80)
television actor stage actor actor film actor
Donald John DeFore was an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the sitcom The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet from 1952 to 1957 and the sitcom Hazel from 1961 to 1965, the former of which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination.
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Micah Hyde

37. Micah Hyde

1990-. (aged 36)
American football player
Micah Richmond Hyde is an American former professional football safety who played in National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. He played college football for the Iowa Hawkeyes, and was selected by the Green Bay Packers in the fifth round of the 2013 NFL draft. After four years in Green Bay, Hyde signed with the Bills, where he would form...
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Ana Mendieta

38. Ana Mendieta

1948-1985 (aged 37)
film director sculptor artist land artist photographer
Ana Mendieta was a Cuban-American performance artist, sculptor, painter, and video artist who is best known for her "earth-body" artwork. She is considered one of the most influential Cuban-American artists of the post–World War II era. Born in Havana, Cuba, Mendieta left for the United States in 1961.
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Mark Stoops

39. Mark Stoops

1967-. (aged 59)
American football player
Mark Thomas Stoops is an American college football coach and former player. He most recently served as the head football coach for the University of Kentucky from 2013 to 2025. Stoops is the all-time winningest head coach in the history of the Kentucky Wildcats football program, surpassing former coach Paul "Bear" Bryant.
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Jackson Galaxy

40. Jackson Galaxy

1966-. (aged 60)
writer television presenter cat behaviorist musician
Jackson Galaxy is an American cat behaviorist, YouTuber, and former host of the television show My Cat from Hell.
Steven Erikson

41. Steven Erikson

1959-. (aged 67)
archaeologist writer anthropologist
Steve Rune Lundin, known by his pseudonym Steven Erikson, is a Canadian novelist who was educated and trained as both an archaeologist and anthropologist.
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John Getz

42. John Getz

1946-. (aged 80)
television actor stage actor actor film actor
John William Getz is an American character actor. After starting his acting career on stage, he has appeared in numerous television series and films, most notably Blood Simple, The Fly, and The Social Network.
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David Sanborn

43. David Sanborn

1945-2024 (aged 79)
wind instrument player saxophonist composer jazz musician recording artist
David William Sanborn was an American alto saxophonist. He worked in many musical genres; his solo recordings typically blended jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He began playing the saxophone at the age of 11 and released his first solo album, Taking Off, in 1975. He was active as a session musician and played on numerous albums by artists including...
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C. J. Beathard

44. C. J. Beathard

1993-. (aged 33)
American football player
Casey Jarrett "C. J." Beathard is an American professional football quarterback. He played college football for the Iowa Hawkeyes and was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the third round of the 2017 NFL draft. Beathard has also been a member of the Jacksonville Jaguars and Miami Dolphins.
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Mary Beth Hurt

45. Mary Beth Hurt

1946-. (aged 80)
television actor stage actor actor film actor
Mary Beth Hurt is a retired American actress of stage and screen. She is a three-time Tony Award-nominated actress.
Jock Mahoney

46. Jock Mahoney

1919-1989 (aged 70)
military officer television actor actor stunt performer film actor
Jacques Joseph O'Mahoney, known professionally as Jock Mahoney, was an American actor and stuntman. He starred in two action/adventure television series, The Range Rider and Yancy Derringer. He played Tarzan in two feature films and was associated in various capacities with several other Tarzan productions. He was credited variously as Jacques O'Mahoney, Jock O'Mahoney, Jack Mahoney, and finally Jock Mahoney.
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Greg Morris

47. Greg Morris

1933-1996 (aged 63)
television actor
Francis Gregory Alan Morris was an American actor. He was best known for portraying Barney Collier on the television series Mission: Impossible and Lieutenant David Nelson on Vega$.
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Don Nelson

48. Don Nelson

1940-. (aged 86)
basketball player basketball coach
Donald Arvid Nelson is an American former professional basketball player and head coach. Nelson is second all-time in regular season wins of any coach in NBA history, with 1,335 (he held the record for most wins for almost 12 years before he was surpassed by Gregg Popovich in 2022). He coached the Milwaukee Bucks, the New York Knicks, the Dallas...
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Bret Bielema

49. Bret Bielema

1970-. (aged 56)
head coach
Bret Arnold Bielema is an American football coach who is the head football coach at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, a position he has held since the 2021 season. He served as the head coach at Wisconsin from 2006 to 2012, achieving a 68–24 record and taking them to three straight Rose Bowl Games and at Arkansas from 2013 to...
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Luka Garza

50. Luka Garza

1998-. (aged 28)
basketball player
Luka Hudson Garza is a Bosnian-American professional basketball player for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Bosnia and Herzegovina national team.
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James Tolkan

51. James Tolkan

1931-. (aged 95)
television actor television director actor film actor
James Stewart Tolkan is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as high school vice-principal in charge of discipline Mr. Strickland in Back to the Future (1985) and Back to the Future Part II (1989), and as the character's ancestor, Marshal James Strickland, in Back to the Future Part III (1990). Other memorable film roles include Serpico...
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Reza Aslan

52. Reza Aslan

1972-. (aged 54)
writer university teacher religious studies scholar television producer opinion journalist
Reza Aslan is an Iranian-American scholar of sociology, writer, and television host. A convert to evangelical Christianity from Shia Islam as a youth, Aslan eventually reverted to Islam but continued to write about Christianity. He has written five books on religion: No God but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam; Beyond Fundamentalism: Confronting Religious Extremism in the Age...
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Peter Craig

53. Peter Craig

1969-. (aged 57)
television actor film director actor writer novelist
Peter Craig is an American novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for co-writing the screenplays to The Town (2010), The Batman (2022), and Top Gun: Maverick (2022), earning an Academy Award nomination for the last.
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Toby Huss

54. Toby Huss

1966-. (aged 60)
screenwriter television actor voice actor actor film actor
Tobias Huss is an American actor. He portrayed Artie in the Nickelodeon series The Adventures of Pete & Pete (1993–1996), performed voice-over work on the animated series Beavis and Butt-Head (1994–1997, 2011, 2022–present) as well as its two animated films, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996) and Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe (2022), voicing various characters including the character...
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Bob Stoops

55. Bob Stoops

1960-. (aged 66)
American football player
Robert Anthony Stoops is an American former football coach who was the head football coach at the University of Oklahoma from 1999 through the 2016 season, and on an interim basis during the 2021 Alamo Bowl. He led the Oklahoma Sooners to a record of 191–48 over his career. His 2000 Oklahoma Sooners football team won the 2001 Orange Bowl,...
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Diablo Cody

56. Diablo Cody

1978-. (aged 48)
executive producer writer television producer film producer blogger
Brook Maurio, known professionally by the pen name Diablo Cody, is an American writer and producer. She gained recognition for her candid blog and subsequent memoir, Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper (2005). Cody received critical acclaim for her screenwriting debut film, Juno (2007), winning both the Academy Award and the BAFTA Award for Best...
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Alex Karras

57. Alex Karras

1935-2012 (aged 77)
actor television actor American football player professional wrestler film actor
Alexander George Karras was an American professional football player, professional wrestler, sportscaster, and actor. He was a four-time Pro Bowl selection playing defensive tackle for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL), where he played from 1958 to 1970. He is a member of the College Football Hall of Fame and was elected to the Pro Football Hall...
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David Eigenberg

58. David Eigenberg

1964-. (aged 62)
television actor voice actor film producer actor film actor
David Eigenberg is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Steve Brady on the HBO series Sex and the City and its revival series And Just Like That... and as Firefighter/Lieutenant/Captain Christopher Herrmann on NBC's Chicago Fire.
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Paul Rust

59. Paul Rust

1981-. (aged 45)
musician screenwriter television actor comedian film actor
Paul Rust is an American actor, comedian and writer. He starred in the 2009 film I Love You, Beth Cooper and the Netflix series Love.
Colin Egglesfield

60. Colin Egglesfield

1973-. (aged 53)
model television actor actor film actor
Colin Egglesfield is an American actor. He played Josh Madden in the soap opera All My Children, Auggie Kirkpatrick on The CW's reboot of the drama series Melrose Place, and Dex in the film Something Borrowed.
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D. B. Weiss

61. D. B. Weiss

1971-. (aged 55)
television director showrunner author director writer
Daniel Brett Weiss is an American screenwriter and television producer. Along with his collaborator David Benioff, he is best-known for co-creating Game of Thrones (2011–2019), the HBO adaptation of George R. R. Martin's series of books, A Song of Ice and Fire. He also wrote and produced the 2022 American teen comedy-drama Metal Lords.
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Flannery O'Connor

62. Flannery O'Connor

1925-1964 (aged 39)
novelist essayist writer
Mary Flannery O'Connor was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. She wrote two novels and 31 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries.
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Big E

63. Big E

1986-. (aged 40)
powerlifter American football player professional wrestler
Ettore Ewen, known professionally under the ring name Big E, is an American broadcaster, retired professional wrestler and former powerlifter. He is signed to WWE, where he primarily appears as a panelist and analysist as well as a media spokesperson for the company. He is best known for performing in the company as an in-ring competitor from 2009 to 2022,...
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Kari Lake

64. Kari Lake

1969-. (aged 57)
news presenter journalist sports journalist politician
Kari Lake Halperin is an American political figure and former television news anchor who has served as the senior advisor to the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) since March 2025 and deputy CEO and acting CEO of USAGM since July 2025, under President Donald Trump. She was the unsuccessful Republican Party nominee in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election...
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Terry O'Quinn

65. Terry O'Quinn

1952-. (aged 74)
singer guitarist television actor actor film actor
Terrance Quinn, known professionally as Terry O'Quinn, is an American actor. He won a Primetime Emmy Award for his performance as John Locke on the TV series Lost (2004–2010). In film, he also played the title role in The Stepfather (1987) and Howard Hughes in The Rocketeer (1991) with roles in other films such as Heaven's Gate (1980), Silver Bullet...
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Tom Arnold

66. Tom Arnold

1959-. (aged 67)
screenwriter television actor voice actor actor film actor
Thomas Duane Arnold is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for playing Arnie Thomas on Roseanne, which starred his ex-wife Roseanne Barr.
Caitlin Clark

67. Caitlin Clark

2002-. (aged 24)
basketball player
Caitlin Elizabeth Clark is an American professional basketball player for the Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Regarded as one of the greatest female collegiate players, Clark was twice named national female college basketball player of the year while playing for the Iowa Hawkeyes; she remains the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer. She has helped popularize...
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Brandon Routh

68. Brandon Routh

1979-. (aged 47)
actor television actor model film actor association football player
Brandon Routh is an American actor. His portrayal of Superman in the 2006 film Superman Returns garnered him international fame. In 2011, he played the title character of the film Dylan Dog: Dead of Night. He also had a recurring role in the NBC series Chuck, as Daniel Shaw. Routh also played a supporting role in the film Zack and...
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Jean Seberg

69. Jean Seberg

1938-1979 (aged 41)
film actor actor film director
Jean Dorothy Seberg was an American actress. She is considered an icon of the French New Wave as a result of her performance in Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 film Breathless.
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Ashton Kutcher

70. Ashton Kutcher

1978-. (aged 48)
actor model financier comedian television actor
Christopher Ashton Kutcher is an American actor, film producer and businessman. His accolades include a People's Choice Award and fifteen Teen Choice Awards, in addition to a nomination for a Screen Actors Guild Award.
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Gene Wilder

71. Gene Wilder

1933-2016 (aged 83)
film director director television actor film actor singer
Gene Wilder was an American actor, comedian, writer and filmmaker. He was mainly known for his comedic roles, including his collaborations with Mel Brooks on the films The Producers (1967), Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein (both 1974), and with Richard Pryor in the films Silver Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989) and Another You...
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Howard R. Hughes Sr

72. Howard R. Hughes Sr

1869-1924 (aged 55)
businessperson inventor entrepreneur
Howard Robard Hughes Sr. was an American businessman and inventor who founded the Hughes Tool Company. He invented the "Sharp–Hughes" two-cone rotary drill bit during the Texas Oil Boom. Hughes was the father and namesake of Howard Hughes (Howard Robard Hughes Jr.), the American business tycoon and founder of Hughes Aircraft.
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Chuck Grassley

73. Chuck Grassley

1933-. (aged 93)
legislator farmer university teacher politician
Charles Ernest Grassley is an American politician serving since 2025 as the president pro tempore of the United States Senate, a position he also held from 2019 to 2021. A member of the Republican Party, Grassley is the senior U.S. senator from Iowa, serving since 1981.
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Terry Branstad

74. Terry Branstad

1946-. (aged 80)
academic administrator lawyer diplomat politician
Terry Edward Branstad is a retired American politician and U.S. Army veteran who served as the 39th and 42nd governor of Iowa (1983–1999; 2011–2017) and the United States ambassador to China (2017–2020). A member of the Republican Party, Branstad is the longest-serving governor in United States history, with a total gubernatorial tenure of 22 years, 4 months, and 13 days.
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Clair Cameron Patterson

75. Clair Cameron Patterson

1922-1995 (aged 73)
geochemist geologist chemist
Clair Cameron Patterson was an American geochemist. Born in Mitchellville, Iowa, Patterson graduated from Grinnell College. He later received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and spent his entire professional career at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
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John Irving

76. John Irving

1942-. (aged 84)
novelist screenwriter writer
John Winslow Irving is an American and Canadian novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter.
Joy Harjo

77. Joy Harjo

1951-. (aged 75)
musician children's writer teacher climate activist poet
Joy Harjo is an American poet, musician, playwright, and author. She served as the 23rd United States Poet Laureate from 2019 to 2022, the first Native American to hold that honor. She was also only the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to have served three terms (after Robert Pinsky). Harjo is a seventh-generation Monahwee daughter (also known as "Menawa")....
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Jake Johnson

78. Jake Johnson

1978-. (aged 48)
actor television actor screenwriter film actor voice actor
Mark Jake Johnson Weinberger is an American actor. He has starred as Nick Miller in the Fox sitcom New Girl (2011–2018), for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series in 2013. He has also voiced a version of Spider-Man in the animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and its...
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Thomas G. Waites

79. Thomas G. Waites

1955-. (aged 71)
stage actor film director television actor actor film actor
Thomas G. Waites is an American actor and acting instructor born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Waites runs an eponymous acting studio in New York City. He has been a member of the Actors Studio since 1984.
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Tennessee Williams

80. Tennessee Williams

1911-1983 (aged 72)
screenwriter novelist writer playwright poet
Thomas Lanier Williams III, known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the three foremost playwrights of 20th-century American drama.
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Norm Coleman

81. Norm Coleman

1949-. (aged 77)
lawyer politician
Norman Bertram Coleman Jr. is an American politician, attorney, and lobbyist. From 2003 to 2009, he served as a United States senator for Minnesota. From 1994 to 2002, he was mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota. First elected as a member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Coleman became a Republican in 1996. Elected to the Senate in 2002, he was narrowly...
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T. Coraghessan Boyle

82. T. Coraghessan Boyle

1948-. (aged 78)
writer
Thomas Coraghessan Boyle is an American novelist and short story writer. Since the mid-1970s, he has published thirty one novels and more than 150 short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1988, for his third novel, World's End, which recounts 300 years in upstate New York.
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Ann Patchett

83. Ann Patchett

1963-. (aged 63)
writer novelist
Ann Patchett is an American writer, born December 2, 1963. In 2002 she received the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction for her novel Bel Canto. Patchett's other novels include The Patron Saint of Liars, Taft (1994), The Magician's Assistant (1997), Run (2007), State of Wonder (2011), Commonwealth (2016), The Dutch House (2019), and Tom Lake (2023). The...
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Joe Walsh

84. Joe Walsh

1961-. (aged 65)
radio personality business executive politician
Joseph Fidler Walsh is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Best known as a member of the rock band Eagles, his five-decade career includes solo work and stints in other bands: the James Gang, Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band, and New Zealand's Herbs. He was part of the supergroup The Best and had success as a solo artist and...
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Colby Covington

85. Colby Covington

1988-. (aged 38)
presenter professional wrestler amateur wrestler mixed martial arts fighter
Colby Ray Covington is an American professional mixed martial artist. He currently competes in the Welterweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he is a former Interim UFC Welterweight Champion. As of February 10, 2026, he is #14 in the UFC welterweight rankings.
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Jim Yong Kim

86. Jim Yong Kim

1959-. (aged 67)
anthropologist physician university teacher politician
Jim Yong Kim, also known as Kim Yong (Korean: 김용; Hanja: 金墉), is an American physician and anthropologist who served as the 12th president of the World Bank from 2012 to 2019.
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Tom Brokaw

87. Tom Brokaw

1940-. (aged 86)
news presenter writer television journalist opinion journalist program host
Thomas John Brokaw is an American author and retired network television journalist. He first served as the co-anchor of The Today Show from 1976 to 1981 with Jane Pauley, then as the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News for 22 years (1982–2004). In the previous decade he served as a weekend anchor for the program from 1973 to...
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Virgil

88. Virgil

1951-2024 (aged 73)
teacher professional wrestler
Michael Charles Jones, better known by his ring name Virgil, was an American professional wrestler and an actor. He is best known for his tenures in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) and World Championship Wrestling (WCW).
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Marilynne Robinson

89. Marilynne Robinson

1943-. (aged 83)
writer science fiction writer novelist essayist
Marilynne Summers Robinson is an American novelist and essayist. Across her writing career, Robinson has received numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005, National Humanities Medal in 2012, and the 2016 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. In 2016, Robinson was named in Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people. Robinson began teaching at the...
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Mark Johnson

90. Mark Johnson

1945-. (aged 81)
television producer film producer actor producer
Mark Johnson is an American politician and a Republican former member of the Oregon House of Representatives, representing District 52 from 2011 until 2017.
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Al Jarreau

91. Al Jarreau

1940-2017 (aged 77)
singer singer-songwriter social worker jazz musician percussionist
Alwin Lopez Jarreau was an American singer. His 1981 album Breakin' Away spent two years on the Billboard 200 and is considered one of the finest examples of the Los Angeles pop and R&B sound. The album won Jarreau the 1982 Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. In all, he won ten Grammy Awards and was nominated 19 other...
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Albert Bandura

92. Albert Bandura

1925-2021 (aged 96)
university teacher educator psychologist
Albert Bandura was a Canadian-American psychologist and professor of social science in psychology at Stanford University, who contributed to the fields of education and to the fields of psychology, e.g. social cognitive theory, therapy, and personality psychology, and influenced the transition between behaviorism and cognitive psychology. Bandura also is known as the originator of the social learning theory, the social...
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Yu Kwang-chung

93. Yu Kwang-chung

1928-2017 (aged 89)
poet writer
Yu Kwang-chung, also romanised as Yu Guangzhong, was a Taiwanese writer, poet, educator and critic.
Lin Hwai-min

94. Lin Hwai-min

1947-. (aged 79)
dancer choreographer writer
Lin Hwai-min is a Taiwanese dancer, writer, choreographer, and founder of Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan.
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

95. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak

1942-. (aged 84)
literary critic university teacher writer philosopher translator
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak ( Bengali pronunciation: [ɡajotri t͡ʃɔkɾoborti spiβak]; FBA is an Indian scholar, literary theorist, and feminist critic. She is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative Literature and Society.
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Yiyun Li

96. Yiyun Li

1972-. (aged 54)
screenwriter writer university teacher novelist short story writer
Yiyun Li is a Chinese-born writer and professor who has lived and worked in the United States since entering graduate school. She writes exclusively in English. Her short stories and novels have won several awards, including the PEN/Hemingway Award and Guardian First Book Award for A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, the 2020 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award for Where Reasons...
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Mo Mowlam

97. Mo Mowlam

1949-2005 (aged 56)
politician
Marjorie "Mo" Mowlam was a British Labour Party politician. She was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Redcar from 1987 to 2001 and served in the Cabinet of Tony Blair as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
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Kenneth Nichols

98. Kenneth Nichols

1907-2000 (aged 93)
military engineer army officer civil engineer
Kenneth David Nichols CBE was an officer in the United States Army, and a civil engineer who worked on the secret Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb during World War II. He served as Deputy District Engineer to James C. Marshall, and from 13 August 1943 as the District Engineer of the Manhattan Engineer District. Nichols led both the...
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Facundo Manes

99. Facundo Manes

1969-. (aged 57)
physician researcher neuroscientist
Facundo Manes is an Argentine neurologist and politician. Since 2021, he has been a National Deputy of Argentina elected in Buenos Aires Province. He is a member of the Radical Civic Union (UCR).
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John Anderson

100. John Anderson

1922-1992 (aged 70)
television actor stage actor film director film actor
John Duncan Anderson is an Australian politician and commentator who served as the 11th deputy prime minister of Australia and leader of the National Party from 1999 to 2005. He also served as Minister for Primary Industries and Energy Minister for Transport and Regional Development in the Howard government.
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