List of Northwestern University alumni

The following is a list of notable alumni who attended Northwestern University

Academia

David J. Skorton, president, Cornell University
Graham Spanier, president, Pennsylvania State University
John Pople, Noble Prize in Chemistry, 1988
Jacques Vallee, computer scientist, astronomer and UFO researcher

Actors/Celebrities

Claude Akins, actor (Inherit the Wind, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo)
Ann-Margret (Olsson) (Class of 1963), actress and singer (never graduated)
Sharif Atkins, actor (ER)
Warren Beatty (dropped out), actor (Bonnie and Clyde, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Shampoo)
Lee Phillip Bell 16 time Emmy winning talk show host and soap opera creator (The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful)
Richard Benjamin, actor
Craig Bierko, Tony-nominated actor
Karen Black (attended for two years), actress
Zach Braff, actor (Scrubs), director (Garden State)
Charles Busch, actor, Tony-nominated playwright
Bruno Campos, actor (Nip/Tuck)
Stephen Colbert, comedian (The Colbert Report, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart)
Kate Collins, popular soap opera actress.
Amanda Congdon, former hostess of Rocketboom
Cindy Crawford, model (never graduated)
Stephanie D'Abruzzo, actress, puppeteer (Avenue Q)
William Daniels, actor (Boy Meets World)
Zooey Deschanel, actress (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) (never graduated)
Nancy Dussault, Tony-nominated stage and television actress ("Too Close for Comfort")
Gregg Edelman, musical theatre actor and Tony-award nominee (Into the Woods)
Temi Epstein, child actress (North and South, Book 1)
Daniele Gaither, actress, comic (MADtv)
Frank Galati, Tony-winning, Oscar-nominated director, Northwestern professor
Ana Gasteyer, actress, comic (Saturday Night Live, Mean Girls, Wicked)
Heather Headley, Tony Award-winning actress and singer (Aida, The Lion King)
Marg Helgenberger, actress (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation)
Charlton Heston, actor, NRA President
Harry J. Lennix, actor (The Matrix Revolutions, "Commander in Chief" (2005) TV Series, Ray, The Matrix Reloaded)
Martha Hyer, Oscar nominated actress (Some Came Running)
Laura Innes, actress (ER)
Brian d'Arcy James, actor (Tony Award nominee for Sweet Smell of Success: The Musical)
Clinton Kelly, television personality (What Not to Wear)
Richard Kind, actoor ("Mad About You," "Spin City")
Clyde Kusatsu, actor (All American Girl)
Sherry Lansing, former CEO of Paramount Pictures
Cloris Leachman, actress (The Facts of Life)
Laura Linney, actress (The Truman Show) (attended for a year then transferred)
Shelley Long, actress (Cheers, The Money Pit) (never graduated)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, actress (Saturday Night Live, Seinfeld)
Paul Lynde, actor, comic (Hollywood Squares)
Stephanie March, actress (Law & Order: SVU)
Garry Marshall, director, producer (Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley)
Ralph Meeker, actor (Kiss Me Deadly, Paths of Glory)
Josh Meyers, actor (MADtv)
Seth Meyers, comic (Saturday Night Live)
John Cameron Mitchell, writer, performer, director (Hedwig and the Angry Inch)
Jason Moore, Tony-winning director ("Avenue Q")
Megan Mullally, Emmy-winning actress (Will and Grace) (never graduated)
Dermot Mulroney, actor (About Schmidt, My Best Friend's Wedding)
Patricia Neal, actress (A Face In The Crowd, Hud)
Agnes Nixon, four time Emmy winning soap opera writer/producer (All My Children, One Life to Live, Another World, As the World Turns, Loving)
Jerry Orbach, actor (Law & Order) (never graduated)
Mary Beth Peil, actress (Dawson's Creek)
Paula Prentiss, actress
Charlotte Rae, actress (The Facts of Life)
Tony Randall, actor, (The Odd Couple) (never graduated)
Jeri Ryan, actress, (Boston Public, Star Trek: Voyager)
David Schwimmer, actor (Friends)
Katherine Shindle, Miss America 1998
Jerry Springer, host of The Jerry Springer Show, former mayor of Cincinnati
McLean Stevenson, actor ("Mash")
Peter Strauss, actor
Nicole Sullivan, actress (MADtv)
Inga Swenson, actress (The Miracle Worker, Benson)
Jason Tyne, actor (Tony n' Tina's Wedding)
Billie Lou Watt, actress (Search for Tomorrow, Astroboy)
Kimberly Williams, actress (Father of the Bride, According to Jim)
Fred Williamson, athlete, film actor (MASH, Three the Hard Way, Black Caesar)

Business

Edwin G. Booz, founder of Booz Allen Hamilton
Nick Chabraja, chairman and CEO, General Dynamics
Alvin V. Cheeks, Chairman & CEO of ClinDev Global Inc., minister, and conservative civic activist
Terri Dial, former CEO of Wells Fargo Bank
Craig Donohue, CEO of Chicago Mercantile Exchange
Christopher Galvin, former CEO of Motorola
Hugh Hefner, founder and publisher of Playboy (attended graduate sociology course)
John H. Johnson (briefly attended), founder of the Johnson Publishing Company (Ebony and Jet magazines)
Sherry Lansing, chairman, Paramount Pictures
Kathy Kolbe, author and entrepreneur
Joseph Levy Jr., Levy Venture Management
Jeffrey McClelland, COO, US Airways
Blythe McGarvie, former CFO of a Fortune 500 company and director of several corporations including Accenture, Lafarge NA, Pepsi Bottling Group, St. Paul Travelers and Wawa
John Meriwether, founder of Long-Term Capital Management
George Nemhauser, noted Operations Research figure
David R. Nissen, President and CEO, GE Consumer Finance
Steve Odland, Chairman & CEO, Office Depot, Inc.
Peter George Peterson, former Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers (1973-1984), co-founded the Blackstone Group (*also listed under Politics, government, and public policy)
Christine Poon, vice chairman and worldwide chairman of medicines & nutritionals, Johnson & Johnson
Jerry Reinsdorf, owner of the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago White Sox
Patrick G. Ryan, chairman and CEO, Aon Corporation
Alfred Steele, President of Pepsi-Cola & actress Joan Crawfords last husband. (class of 1923)
Jeanette Sarkisian Wagner, former Vice Chair, Estee Lauder International
William A. Woodburn, President and CEO, Strategy & Integration, Infrastructure for GE

Journalism

J.A. Adande, ESPN contributor Around The Horn and Los Angeles Times sports columnist
Allison Beach, commentary page editor, Austin American-Statesman
Kevin Blackistone, ESPN contributor Around The Horn and Dallas Morning News sports columnist
Christine Brennan, USA Today columnist and NBC commentator
Elisabeth Bumiller, The New York Times White House Correspondent
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Gregg Easterbrook, author and journalist
Rich Eisen, NFL Network anchor
Mike Greenberg ESPN Sportscenter Host, Co-Host of Mike and Mike in the Morning on ESPN Radio
Michael Isikoff, investigative journalist for Newsweek magazine
Walter Kerr, Broadway theater critic, playwright, and author
Rikki Klieman, Court TV anchor and legal analyst
Rachel Nichols, ESPN and Washington Post reporter
Barry Petersen, foreign correspondent, CBS News
Kathy Reichs, best-selling novelist and forensic anthropologist.
Anatole Shub, journalist for Washington Post and New York Times, author*
Michael Wilbon, ESPN analyst (Pardon the Interruption) and Washington Post sports columnist

For more notable alumni visit the Medill School of Journalism's Hall of Achievement: http://www.medill.northwestern.edu/alumni/honors/

Law

Richard Ben-Veniste, former Watergate counsel and 9/11 Commission member
David Boies, counsel, Bush v. Gore; founding partner, Boies, Schiller & Flexner
Erwin Chemerinsky, professor at Duke University School of Law, prominent legal scholar
Arthur Goldberg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
John Paul Stevens, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Joel D. Joseph, Washington-Based Attorney, Author (including Black Mondays: Worst Decisions of the Supreme Court)

Medicine

Cheddi Jagan, dentist/Guyanese president
Charles H. Mayo, doctor (Mayo Clinic)
Robert F. Furchgott, Ph.D., 1940, Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine (1998)
Daniel Hale Williams, first person to perform open heart surgery

Music, literature and the arts

Steve Albini, recording engineer, member of Big Black, Rapeman, and Shellac
Saul Bellow, author and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Bellow's most famous fictional character, Augie March, also attended Northwestern University for a time
Andrew Bird, singer-songwriter (The Mysterious Production of Eggs)
Grace Bumbry, internationally-acclaimed mezzo-soprano
William Butler, member of indie rock band The Arcade Fire
Cynthia Dobrinski, handbell composer and clinician
Tananarive Due, author and journalist
Kyle Gann, composer, microtonalist
Chester Gould, cartoonist and author of Dick Tracy
Howard Hanson, composer
Sheldon Harnick, lyricist (Fiddler on the Roof)
Ardis Krainik, former general manager, Lyric Opera of Chicago
George R.R. Martin, New York Times best-selling author (A Game of Thrones)
Sherrill Milnes, internationally-renowned baritone
Robert McHenry, encyclopedist and author
Karen A. Page, James Beard Award-winning author
Steve Rodby, Grammy-winning jazz bassist, album producer
Ned Rorem, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer
David Sanborn, saxophonist
Joseph Schwantner, composer
Sidney Sheldon, author (never graduated)
Paul Winter, musician, founder Paul Winter Consort
Mary Zimmerman, Tony Award-winning director (Metamorphoses)

Politics, government, and public policy

George Ball, former Undersecretary of State
Rod Blagojevich, Governor of Illinois
William Jennings Bryan, three-time Democratic presidential nominee
Salem Chalabi, ex-General Director of the Iraqi Special Tribunal (resigned in September 2004)
Rahm Emanuel, former aide to Bill Clinton and Democratic congressman
Dick Gephardt, former House Democratic leader
Jim Kolbe, U.S. Representative from Arizona
George McGovern, South Dakota Senator and 1972 Democratic candidate for president
Eduardo Mondlane, Revolutionary leader of Mozambique
Newton Minow, former director of the Federal Communications Commission
Peter George Peterson, former chairman of the Council On Foreign Relations, United States Secretary of Commerce (1972-1973) (*also listed under Business)
Adlai Stevenson, Illinois governor and two-time Democratic presidential nominee
Harold Washington, first black Chicago mayor

Sports

Mike Adamle, football player and sportscaster
Darnell Autry, football player and actor
D'Wayne Bates, football player
Luis Castillo, San Diego Chargers football player
Barry Cofield, New York Giants Defensive Lineman
Luke Donald, golfer
John L. "Paddy" Driscoll, football player
Evan Eschmeyer, former basketball player
Pat Fitzgerald, former 2-time All-American football player, current Northwestern head football coach
Joe Girardi, former baseball player, current Manager, Florida Marlins
Jim Golliday, track
Otto Graham, professional football player
Mike Greenberg, sportscaster, ESPN
JA Happ, baseball player
Napoleon Harris, football player
Noah Herron, Football Player, Green Bay Packers
Nathan William Linkon, basketball coach, Infosys
Mark Loretta, baseball player
Todd Martin, tennis player
Brent Musburger, sports announcer, ABC
Matt O'Dwyer, football player
Matt Pearl, sportscaster
Dave Revsine, sportscaster, ESPN
Marty Riessen, tennis player
Darren Rovell, CNBC Sports Business Reporter
Steve Tasker, football player, sports announcer, Buffalo Bills
Rick Telander, sportswriter

Other

Richard Skrenta, creator of the first computer virus, Elk Cloner.
Jade Small, Miss Illinois 1999
Katherine Shindle, Miss Illinois 1997 and Miss America 1998
Joseph Staten, writer and director of the Halo video games