Semisecret Chicagoans: You hardly knew they were here

Anna Johannson / Associated Press
Maria Shriver waves to supporters of her husband, California gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger, at a campaign stop Oct. 6, 2003, in Huntington Beach, Calif. Shriver was born in Chicago and left soon after.
Alan Greth / Associated Press
Warren Zevon plays a synthesizer in his West Hollywood, Calif., apartment on Oct. 25, 1989. He is among the group that was born here but didn't stay.
Frederick M. Brown / Getty Images
Actor Fred Williamson attends "The House That Jack Built" premiere on July 14, 2009, in Hollywood. Williamson went to Northwestern University.
Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times
Legendary poet and musician Patti Smith at the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan, where she lived during its heyday. Smith was born in Chicago and left soon after.
RFS / Associated Press
Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer is pictured Aug. 10, 1971. He was born in Chicago.
Chicago Tribune
Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa tribesman Khumjo Chumbi examine the purported scalp of an Abominable Snowman during a visit to Chicago in 1960. Hillary's family and his family moved into a Park Ridge home in 1963 and lived there for about a year.
Susan Tripp Pollard / McClatchy-Tribune
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver attends Game 4 of the NBA Western Conference quarterfinals between the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Clippers at Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on April 27, 2014. Silver attended the University of Chicago.
Mickey Adair / Getty Images
Astrophysicist Carl Sagan poses before a Florida State Universty Distinguished Lecture Series speech at the Turnbull Conference Center, circa 1984, in Tallahassee, Fla. Sagan attended the University of Chicago.
Associated Press
A crowd cheers for Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly across the Atlantic alone, as she boards her single-engine Lockheed Vega airplane in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, for the trip to London on May 22, 1932. She spent most of her youth in Kansas, Iowa and Minnesota but moved to Chicago as a teen and graduated from Hyde Park High School.
Darron Cummings / Associated Press
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks during a campaign rally in Fort Wayne, Ind., on May 2, 2016. Sanders attended the University of Chicago.
Robert Altman / Getty Images
Singer Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane poses for a portrait in Golden Gate Park on May 7, 1969, in San Francisco. Slick was born in Chicago and moved away.
Alex Garcia / Chicago Tribune
Famed musical producer Quincy Jones talks about his career in Chicago on Oct. 11, 2001. Jones was born in Chicago.
Getty Images / Getty Images
George Takei as Sulu, left, and Walter Koenig as Chekov, right, in the television series "Star Trek." Koenig was born in Chicago and moved elsewhere.
Chicago Tribune
Marlon Brando was born in Nebraska but spent his early teens in Evanston and then Libertyville.
Charles Osgood / Chicago Tribune
Charlton Heston in his room at the Ritz Hotel in Chicago.
Chicago Tribune / Chicago Tribune
Ald. Bernie Stone, 50th, appears with former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, center, during a visit to Chicago on Sept. 12, 1976. Meir worked at a library in Lawndale when she was younger.
CBS
Ed Asner, center, with Ted Knight, left, and Mary Tyler Moore on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Asner attended the University of Chicago.
Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune
Northwestern alum, actor and director Zach Braff leads an acting class in a workshop at the Mussetter-Struble Theater on Northwestern University's Evanston campus May 6, 2013. Braff attended Northwestern.

PUBLISHED: May 21, 2016 at 11:31 a.m. | UPDATED: August 21, 2019 at 11:23 p.m.

When Wilmette police announced Monday that singer Sinead O’Connor was missing, it caused a strange kind of shock: Hardly anyone knew she was living in the north suburb in the first place. The troubled performer was soon located, but that got us thinking about the celebrities who have resided here briefly, establishing little association with Chicago.

We’re not talking about people like Martin Luther King Jr., whose stay on the West Side in 1966 was well covered, or the many comedians such as Tina Fey who came through Second City and whose biographies are tied to the city. We’re talking about less well-known connections such as …

GONE BEFORE YOU KNEW THEY WERE HERE

Marlon Brando: The actor was born in Nebraska but spent his early teens in Evanston and then Libertyville. He struggled so badly at Libertyville High School that his father sent him to a military school in Minnesota.

Golda Meir: The future Israeli prime minister was a Chicagoan for a brief time when she was a young woman, working at a library in the Lawndale neighborhood.

Amelia Earhart: The aviation pioneer spent most of her youth in Kansas, Iowa and Minnesota but moved to Chicago as a teen and graduated from Hyde Park High School on the South Side.

Sir Edmund Hillary: The conqueror of Mount Everest and his family moved into a Park Ridge home in 1963 and lived there about a year while he was paid by Chicago-based Field Enterprises to travel around the country giving speeches.

Charlie Chaplin: The film star lived briefly in Chicago in 1915 while working for Essanay Studios.

Orson Welles: The film director, born in Wisconsin, attended the Todd School for Boys in Woodstock, Ill., from age 10 to 15. He then took a painting course at the Art Institute of Chicago before setting off to establish himself as an international “boy wonder” of drama and film.

Don Novello: The comic who played Father Guido Sarducci on “Saturday Night Live” grew up in Ohio and worked at advertising firm Leo Burnett in Chicago before leaving town for a comedy career.

The Marx Brothers: In the 1910s, the young comic team lived on the South Side and then moved to a farm southwest of the city, near La Grange. The brothers’ mother, Minnie, chose the more rural home because farmers could be exempted from the military draft during World War I.

BORN HERE, DIDN’T STAY

Raquel Welch, actress

Dorothy Hamill, figure skater

Robin Williams, comic actor

Patti Smith, singer

Warren Zevon, singer

Frances McDormand, actress

Quincy Jones, musical producer

Bobby Fischer, chess champion

Maria Shriver, journalist and activist

Walter Koenig, Chekov of “Star Trek”

Grace Slick, singer

ATTENDED COLLEGE HERE, DIDN’T STAY

University of Chicago:

Bernie Sanders, presidential candidate

Ed Asner, actor

Adam Silver, NBA commissioner

Carl Sagan, cosmologist

Northwestern University:

Warren Beatty, actor

Zach Braff, actor

Charlton Heston, actor

Fred Williamson, actor

We could list many, many more, but we’re trying to highlight people whose Chicago connection is little known. Want to share more? Email mjacob@tribpub.com.

Mark Jacob is the Tribune’s associate managing editor for metropolitan news.