Detroit is or was home to many people who went on to make it big. Some Detroiters found their fame on the big screen or behind it. Still others found their fame in music or comedy. One Detroiter became famous for taking a stand on a controversial issue: assisted suicide. Whether they are famous or infamous, these people help put Detroit on the map.
Tim Allen
Star of Home Improvement, a television comedy set in a Detroit suburb. Allen spent much of his childhood in Birmingham. He attended Western Michigan University and performed stand-up comedy at Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle in Detroit.Justin Bartha
Justin Bartha is best known as Nicholas Cage's sidekick in National Treasure. He was born in West Bloomfield in 1978 and attended West Bloomfield High School.Sonny Bono
Best known as part of The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, Bono wrote several of the duo's hit songs and later was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He was born in Detroit in 1935.Jerry Bruckheimer
Bruckheimer is a powerful Hollywood producer. In addition to producing movies like National Treasure, Pirates of the Caribbean and Pearl Harbor, Bruckheimer has produced several television shows. He was born in Detroit in 1945.Ellen Burstyn
Burstyn starred in The Exorcist and won the Academy Award for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. She was born in Detroit and attended Cass Tech High School.Bruce Campbell
Star of Sam Raimi's cult classic The Evil Dead. He currently stars in USA's Burn Notice. He was born in Birmingham in 1958. He grew up in the Metro Detroit Area and met Raimi in High School.Alice Cooper
Cooper was born Vincent Damon Furnier in Detroit in 1948. Originally, Furnier's band was named Alice Cooper. After the band broke up, Furnier changed his name to Alice Cooper. He often returns to the Detroit area.Francis Ford Coppola
Coppola is the academy-award winning director of The Godfather. He was born in Detroit in 1939 but raised in New York.Roger Corman
Camp filmmaker in 1950s and 60s Hollywood, Corman was responsible for such classics as The Wasp Woman, The Brain Eaters and the original The Little Shop of Horrors. He is still going strong as a producer. He was born in Detroit in 1926.Jeff Daniels
Star of Terms of Endearment, Dumb and Dumber, and The Squid and the Whale, Daniels was raised in Chelsea, Michigan. After making it big, Daniels opened the Purple Rose Theatre Company in Chelsea where his family still resides. He is married to his high school sweetheart.
