Leading Ladies

She played Cora Crawley in the TV series “Downton Abbey” and was born to educator parents in Evanston.

This NASA astronaut flew five missions into space between 1993 and 2000 and spent much of her childhood in Rockford.

This Chicago native is best known for her TV roles in “One Day at a Time,” “Jane the Virgin,” “Six Feet Under” and “Queen of the South.”

Born in 1940 in Chicago, this pop culture icon is still associated with a fur bikini she wore in a 1966 film.

A new “Perry Mason” TV series debuted this summer, but this Rockford-reared beauty starred in the original TV series opposite Raymond Burr.

She was born in Chicago and became a U.S. National Figure Skating Champion and Olympic Bronze Medal winner in 1972. She practiced at the now-gone Wagon Wheel ice rink in Rockton.

This little girl grew up in a middle-class family in Park Ridge to become a U.S. Senator, Secretary of State, First Lady and Democratic presidential nominee.

She was born and raised in Chicago and earned an Oscar, Golden Globe, SAG and two Grammy Awards. You might remember her from Season 3 of “American Idol” and the film “Dreamgirls.”

This now-retired CEO of the Archer Daniels Midland Co. doubled the revenue of her company and moved its global headquarters to Chicago in 2013.

This comedian grew up in Oak Park and trained at Second City before she joined the cast of “Saturday Night Live” in 2012, where she still works today.

In 2005, she qualified to race in the Indianapolis 500 and achieved the best finish of any woman in the history of that race. She grew up in Rockton.

This little girl was born in Freeport, in 1964 and didn’t get her big break as an actress until 1997, when she played the lead role in TV hit “Ally McBeal.” Since 2010, she’s been married to another Illinois native – actor Harrison Ford, born in Chicago.

At age 16, she was detasseling corn near her home in DeKalb when a photographer snapped a photo that launched her career as a 1990s supermodel. A 4.0 student, she founded a successful business enterprise she manages today.

She attended St. Ignatius College Prep on the Near West Side of Chicago before winning a Best Actress Golden Globe Award for the TV series “Jane the Virgin.”

You’ll recognize this Rochelle,-born actress, nominated three times for an Oscar, from the Jason Bourne film series as well as films “The Notebook,” “Nixon,” “Pleasantville,” “The Contender” and “The Upside of Anger.” Her parents owned a gas station in Rochelle while she was growing up.