Rogers Park

Julia Louis-Dreyfus lived on Eastlake Terrace when she was a student at Northwestern in the early 1980s. She once answered the door topless for her building engineer — or so he says.

Uptown

“From 1971 to 1975, I shared a three-bedroom apartment in Uptown with an ever-changing cast of roomies,” recalls Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin, who worked as a VISTA volunteer with the Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation.

Lincoln Park

Shortly before Henry Darger died, his landlords discovered the illustrated 15,145-page manuscript for The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What Is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion in the room at 851 W. Webster Ave., which he had rented for 43 years.

Near North Side

Gene Siskel, the Chicago Tribune film critic and foil for Roger Ebert, lived in a co-op at 1301 N. Astor St., whose dining room was decorated with a mural depicting “a mountainous Greek scene of horses, a temple, armor and a female nude.”

Norwood Park

Doomed guitarist Terry Kath of the band Chicago attended Taft High School, whose other musical claim to fame is as the inspiration for Rydell High in Grease. Kath accidentally killed himself with a 9mm pistol at the age of 31.

Albany Park

On Dec. 9, 2008, FBI agents knocked on the door of a house at on Sunnyside Ave. Gov. Rod Blagojevich answered the door in his jogging outfit, was arrested, and later sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Irving Park

After Uncle Tupelo broke up, Jeff Tweedy moved from Belleville to Chicago and founded Wilco. He settled with his wife, Lounge Ax owner Sue Miller, where they raised two sons.

Galewood

Hugh Hefner grew up at 1922 N. New England Ave., and fed his dreams of smoking a pipe and wearing pajamas all day at the Montclare Theatre on Grand Avenue: “all those images of the Jazz Age, the flappers…and thinking that I’d missed the party.” Hefner loved Steinmetz High School, where he founded his first magazine. Hef was so fond of his alma mater he later donated $37,500 to print the school newspaper, the Steinmetz Star.

Hermosa

Walt Disney was born at 2156 N. Tripp Ave., still preserved as his birthplace. However, the Disneys moved to Missouri when Walt was 4 years old.

Humboldt Park

When Saul Bellow was 9 years old, his family moved from Montreal to Humboldt Park, where his father joined in Prohibition-era bootlegging. Augie March, Bellow’s fictional alter ego, was, of course, also a Humboldt Parker.

Wicker Park

Nelson Algren lived in a third-floor walkup at 1523 W. Wabansia Ave., where he chronicled low life in the Polish neighborhood in his novels Never Come Morning and The Man With the Golden Arm.

Austin

Super restaurateur Erick Williams, owner of Mustard Seed Kitchen and Daisy’s Po-Boy and Tavern, winner of the James Beard Award for Best Chef in the Great Lakes, learned to cook on the West Side, where his grandmother gave him prep work for dinner before his mother came home from work.

Near West Side

David Schwimmer got his start doing improv with Stephen Colbert at Northwestern, then co-founded the Lookingglass Theater Company. Schwimmer remained so attached to Chicago that in 1998, he paid $425,000 — about half his ultimate per-episode Friends salary — to buy a loft in a converted warehouse at 850 W. Adams St. He sold it in 2020 after moving to New York. Big shot.  

North Lawndale

Twista, the world’s fastest rapper — 598 syllables in 55 seconds, according to a speech pathologist — grew up in K-Town.

Little Village

Before it was Mexican, Little Village was Polish and Bohemian. Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak (nee Sajdak) grew up there, and attended Farragut High School.

Pilsen

Before Pilsen was Mexican, it, too, was Polish and Bohemian. Chicago Bears founder George Halas fell into the latter category. His parents emigrated to Chicago from the original Pilsen, in Austria-Hungary.

Bronzeville

Lou Rawls grew up in the Ida B. Wells Homes, where he learned to call a cold wind off Lake Michigan “The Hawk,” a term he popularized in the song “Dead End Street.”

Grand Boulevard

In 1914, the Marx Brothers bought a house at 4512 S. Grand Boulevard (now King Drive), because Chicago was a convenient home base for touring the vaudeville circuit. “We lived in Chicago for 12 years,” Groucho would recall. “I saw Ty Cobb play baseball many a day at White Sox Park. We lived right near there.”

Hyde Park

Blackstone Avenue between 51st and 53rd streets is Honorary Chaka Khan Way. It runs along the west side of Kenwood Academy, where the singer was a student known as Yvette Marie Stevens.

Calumet Heights

“I just used to say, ‘I’m from around 87th and Stony,’” says rapper Common, who drew on his South Side upbringing in such songs as “The Corner” and “The People.”

Roseland

Dick Butkus grew up in Roseland and attended Chicago Vocational School and the University of Illinois before being drafted by the Bears, meaning he played all his home games in his home state.

East Side

Six feet four inches tall, weighing 360 pounds, tavern owner’s son Moose Cholak often entered the wrestling ring with a real moose head on his shoulders, as the crowds howled “Mooooose.” Wrestling didn’t pay, though, so Cholak went to work for Streets and San.

Hegewisch

It’s still one of Chicago’s great literary mysteries: In 1996, crime novelist Eugene “Guy” Izzi’s body was found hanging outside the window of his 14th floor writing office. Was it a suicide, or did the bulletproof vest and brass knuckles found on his body suggest foul play? Izzi grew up in Hegewisch, worked in the mills, and based his early books on the lives of his fellow steelworkers.

West Elsdon

During an episode of A&E’s “Donnie Loves Jenny,” Jenny McCarthy stopped by her childhood home, a West Elsdon bungalow where the family’s initials are carved in cement on the patio. McCarthy also visited 7-9-11 Liquor, 4884 S. Archer Ave., where she worked as a checkout girl.

Gage Park

Gage Park native John C. Reilly was nominated for an Oscar for Chicago, which, inappropriately, was filmed in Toronto.

Englewood

Years ago, I interviewed Lil Durk at his grandmother’s two-flat on Ashland Avenue, which was empty except for a dining table and a TV set. I didn’t think much of his music, because he autotuned the shit out of everything. I guess I don’t know what the kids like, because Durk has scored two top 10 hits.

Beverly

Overheard in Beverly: “Hey, dey’re buildin’ a new Cat’lick Church over dere in Orland Park.” This is one of the last strongholds of the “dese, dem, and dose” accent, parodied on Saturday Night Live’s “Bill Swerski’s Superfans” sketches by Beverly’s own George Wendt. No wonder Norm Peterson didn’t sound like he was from Boston.

Edgewater

Hillary Rodham was born in Edgewater Medical Center and lived at 5722 North Winthrop Avenue until she was 4. Her father, Hugh, ran for 49th Ward alderman. Finishing near the bottom of the field, he expressed his disgust for the Democratic machine by moving to Park Ridge and voting for Eisenhower.