Famous Coloradans

John Elway was named vice president of player operations for the Denver Broncos in 2011. As a player in the NFL he led the Denver Broncos to five Super Bowl appearances and won two (98,99). He was elected to NFL Hall of Fame in 2004. He is the owner of Elway's Steakhouses and several local car dealerships. He coached his son Jack in 2007 as Cherry Creek High School's football quarterbacks coach. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images)

John Denver (folk musician)

The first musician inducted into the Colorado Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, John Denver hit it big in the 70s with his combination country-pop-folk music which included hits like "Take Me Home, Country Roads" and "Rocky Mountain High," the latter of which was honored in 2007 as Colorado's second official song by lawmakers. A portrait of Denver was placed in the state capitol in October 2008 after the posthumous honor. Denver was named as Colorado's poet laureaute in 1977. He died in a plane crash Oct. 12, 1997, in California and a memorial service for him was held at Aurora's Faith Presbyterian Church. Denver's ashes were scattered in the Rocky Mountains. (credit: AP)

Aron Ralston (Explorer/Adventurer)

Ralston, a Boulder resident, grew up in Englewood where he attended West Middle School and Cherry Creek High School. He is famous because of his well known act: in May 2003 Ralston amputated his own arm to free himself after being trapped by a boulder in remote Blue John Canyon in Utah's Canyonlands National Park. When Ralston was found after the deed was done he was taken first to a hospital in Utah then transferred to St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction. He still climbs and did accomplish his goal of solo climbing all Colorado's 14ers in the winter months. A 2010 movie about Ralston's experience in Utah -- "127 Hours" -- was directed by Danny Boyle and received several Academy Award nominations. Here, Ralston speaks with Academy Award winner Colin Firth on the red carpet outside the 2011 Oscars. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Earth, Wind & Fire (musicians)

The funk group Earth, Wind & Fire was officially formed in Chicago in 1969 but three of the members attended Denver's East High School together. Phillip Bailey played in the Denver club scene for two years with an R&B band before the entire group headed to Chicago. Earth, Wind & Fire burst onto the music scene with its self-title debut album in 1970 and was a dominant force in the world of music for at least two decades. Bailey, Larry Dunn, and Andrew Woolfolk, all alumni of East, have been inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Bailey was born at Denver Health Medical Center in 1951 and in 2012 the group helped out the Denver Health Foundation by performing at their Nightshine Gala fundraiser in Denver. (photo credit: Chris Jackson/Getty Images for Vintage at Goodwood)

Lindsey Vonn (skier)

Vonn, of Vail, lived up to expectations and won gold in the Olympic downhill in February 2010, in Whistler, Canada. It was the first time an American woman has won gold in the event. Vonn moved to Vail to train when she was 11. At age 20 she had her first World Cup victory. She was the overall World Cup champion several times. In 2011 while she was hanging out at the Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy a sophomore named Parker McDonald asked if she would attend his homecoming dance and she accepted. Vonn made headlines for several years for her romance with golfer Tiger Woods. (photo credit: JOE KLAMAR/AFP/Getty Images)

Erik Weihenmayer (Adventurer)

Erik Weihenmayer lost his eyesight at the age of 13 to a degenerative disease. He moved to Colorado after his marriage in the late 1990s and currently lives in Golden. In 2001 Weihenmayer made history by becoming the first blind person to climb Mount Everest. Since then he has continued his adventures and has made numerous high profile public speaking events. In the summer of 2011 he competed in the reality TV show "Expedition Impossible" with his climbing guide Jeff Evans. He is the author of "Touch the Top of the World: A Blind Man's Journey to Climb Farther Than the Eye can See." (photo credit: CBS)

Condoleezza Rice (Former Secretary of State)

T.J. Miller (actor)

T.J. Miller was born in Denver and attended East High School where his drama teacher encouraged him to do standup. In the summer of 2013 he starred in a sitcom on Fox called "The Goodwin Games." He has appeared in the J.J. Abrams film "Cloverfield" as well as "She's Out of My League." He also had roles in "Gulliver's Travels" and the live action version of "Yogi Bear." Variety named him one of its top ten comics to watch in 2008. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Scott Carpenter

Scott Carpenter, seen here in this 1959 photo, was born in Boulder in 1925 and later attended Boulder High School. Prior to his death in 2012 he lived in Vail. He was the second American astronaut to orbit the Earth and the fourth American to enter into space. He was one of NASA's seven Mercury program group, which also included John Glenn, Gus Grissom and Alan Shepard. A popular park for sledding and swimming in Boulder -- Scott Carpenter Park -- is named in his honor. It includes a large rocket-shaped climbing structure at its playground. (Photo By Nasa/Getty Images)

Trey Parker & Matt Stone (Writing Team)

Trey Parker and Matt Stone both grew up in Colorado, own a multi-million dollar mansion in Steamboat Springs and have been spotted at Nuggets games during their multiple visits each year back to the state. The writing/producing/directing team met when they were attending the University of Colorado at Boulder. Comedy Central hired the pair in 1997 to create the popular animated series "South Park," a show that Steven Kroft of 60 Minutes said in September 2011 "changed the face of cable TV." Their pair's popular 1999 movie "South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut" followed. Then in 2011 their giant hit Broadway musical "The Book of Mormon" became a big winner at the Tony Awards. In the summer of 2012 the traveling version of the musical debuted in Denver. (credit: CBS)

AnnaSophia Robb (actress)

Born in Denver on Dec. 8, 1993 ... Anna-Sophia Robb had a successful film and TV career in her teenage years and that continues now that she's an adult. Her roles include Carrie in the TV series The Carrie Diaries and starring roles in films "Race to Witch Mountain" and "Bridge to Terabithia." She also played Bethany Hamilton in the surfing film "Soul Surfer" based on Hamilton's experience losing an arm to a shark. Robb told CBS4 in an interview in 2007 that she was been forced to do a lot of traveling since she started acting in movies, but she is happy whenever she gets to return to Denver and hang out with her friends. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

Gerald Ford (Former President)

A Vail valley resident before his Denver 2006 death, Ford had a family home in Beaver Creek and is singlehandedly credited with putting Vail on the map as a national and international resort destination. An elaborate memorial ceremony for Ford on Vail's slopes in 2006 saw skiers carrying torches making their way down the trails. A stretch of Interstate 70 in Eagle County bears the name Gerald R. Ford Memorial Highway, and a post office, an amphitheater and a park in the area are also named after him. (credit: Vail Resorts)

Mark Schlereth (ESPN analyst)

(credit: Brian Bahr/Allsport/Getty Images)

The Lumineers

The Lumineers, a Denver band (pictured are band members Wesley Schultz, Neyla Pekarek and Jeremiah Fraites) have an exciting folk-Americana sound and have steadily been gaining fans for years. Their second full length album hit No. 1 on the Billboard chart in April. (credit: Erika Goldring/Getty Images)

Molly Brown (Titanic survivor, womens' rights crusader)

The "unsinkable" Molly Brown got her name after she became one of the survivors of the The Titanic, but she was also a crusader for women's rights, even running for a Colorado senate seat. She moved to Leadville in early 1886 to keep house for her brother and met James Joseph Brown later that year. After a whirlwind courtship they married on Sept. 1, 1886. The Browns struck it rich when J.J.'s persistence at the Little Johnny mine led to the discovery of vast quantities of gold and copper in 1893. The Brown family moved to Denver in 1894 and Molly founded the Dumb Friend's League, designed the juvenile court system and ran for US Senate in 1914. The Molly Brown House, located on Pennsylvania Street, is one of Denver's popular tourist attractions. A popular musical based on her life and experiences called "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" still pleases audiences after 50 years of various runs, including one on Broadway in the 1960s. It was also a feature film at the time starring Debbie Reynolds.

Phil Heath (Bodybuilder)

Phil Heath, a former University of Denver men’s basketball player, won the 2011 Mr. Olympia contest in September 2011. With the win, Heath -- whose nickname is "The Gift" -- joined names like of Lee Haney, Ronnie Coleman and Arnold Schwarzenegger as the world champion in bodybuilding. Heath, of Arvada, was a member of the DU Pioneers from 1998-2002. He played 65 games as a point guard and shooting guard before beginning his professional career in bodybuilding. (photo credit: FLEX Magazine)

Kristen Schaal (Actress)

Television actress and comedian Kristen Schaal was born in Longmont and raised on a Boulder County farm. She played a supporting role in the HBO series Flight of the Conchords, had a fun cameo in the movie "The Muppets" and was the voice of Trixie the Triceratops in Toy Story 3. She has also appeared on the Daily Show and has a role in the show Bob's Burgers. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)

Jessica Biel (actress)

Jessica Biel grew up in Boulder, was tutored through a program at and graduated from Fairview High, plus attended prom at the school. She landed her first role as Mary Camden on "7th Heaven" in 1996 after relocating to California. Biel was named as one of the 50 most beautiful people by People Magazine in 2007. Biel has not forgotten her Colorado connections. In August 2006, she returned to Denver to keep a lunch date her father helped to auction off at a fundraiser to benefit Molly Bloom, the teen who lost her leg in a prom night accident in May 2006. The date took place at Denver's swanky restaurant The Palm and the price paid by a Colorado gentleman was $30,000. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images) (Photo by Steffen Kugler/Getty Images)

Goose Gossage (MLB Hall of Famer)

Hall of Fame pitcher Rich "Goose" Gossage grew up in Colorado Springs and attended Wasson High School. He has a home in Colorado Springs. He was part of the unsuccessful lobbying effort to keep Wasson open in 2013. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Amy Van Dyken

Amy Van Dyken attended Colorado State University in the 1990s and was a swimming sensation. She won six Olympic gold medals during competition in the 1996 and 2000 games. In June 2014 she was injured in an ATV accident near her Arizona home and came to Colorado's Craig Hospital to work on her recovery. The accident left her bound to a wheelchair. In October 2014 CSU honored Van Dyken by naming a street on campus after her. (credit: CBS)

Chuck Pagano (football coach)

Chuck Pagano, the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts, was diagnosed with leukemia in Fall 2012. and had to step away from his coaching duties during treatment. He is a graduate of Fairview High School. His father, Sam, won three Colorado state championships as a high school coach for Fairview. (credit: Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)

Amy Adams (actress)

Adams was born August 20, 1974, in Italy but her family moved to Castle Rock. She sang in the choir at Douglas County High School and danced at Boulder's Dinner Theatre which is where she was discovered and is now a major star in Hollywood. She has been nominated for an Academy Award four times -- for "The Master," "Junebug," "The Fighter" and "Doubt." Her first major breakthrough role was in Disney's "Enchanted" where she starred as Giselle. She performed one of the nominated songs from Enchanted at the 2008 Oscars. Other movies she has starred in include "The Muppets," "Julia & Julia," "Leap Year" and "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian." She and her husband had a child in 2010. (Photo by Mark Davis/Getty Images)

Missy Franklin (Swimmer)

Four-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer (and also bronze medalist) Melissa Franklin graduated in 2013 from Regis Jesuit High School, a private Catholic high school in Aurora. Missy told CBS4 in an interview that she could swim before she could walk. She holds the world record in the Women's 200m Backstroke. (photo credit: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

Jon Krakauer (writer)

Krakauer lives and writes in Boulder, where he keeps a relatively low profile. He lived in Colorado in the 70s and then moved back in 1998 and has been here since then. He established the Everest '96 Memorial Fund at the Boulder Community Foundation after writing "Into Thin Air" and in 2009 helped raise money for the Boulder-based Veterans Helping Veterans Now group while promoting his book "Where Men Win Glory." He told CBS4 at the time that in Boulder "People don't recognize me ... I lead a normal life here." (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

Judy Collins (musician)

Collins, a member of the Colorado Music Hall of Fame, grew up in Denver and attended East High School and then the University of Colorado. Her father Charles Collins was a blind radio personality and bandleader who got her interested in music with piano lessons. At age 13 she performed with the Denver Symphony. Late in her teens she took up guitar and started playing folk music in clubs along the Front Range in 1959. Then her career took off and with many hits in the Top 10, a Grammy, and gold and platinum record sales she became a folk icon. One of her songs is titled "The Blizzard (the Colorado Song)." She performs in Colorado regularly. (credit: DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images)

Tom Tancredo (Politician)

Tancredo ran for president as a Republican in 2008 and left the race relatively early on, but he is known across the country as one of the nation's most conservative politicians when it comes to immigration policy. According to his Web site, he "successfully pushed the issue of illegal immigration to the forefront of the national debate before ending his campaign just prior to the Iowa Caucus." He was elected to Congress in 1998 and opted against running for re-election after 5 terms. He made a run for governor as the American Constitution Party candidate in 2010 after a series of events led him to leave the GOP but he lost out to Democrat John Hickenlooper. (credit: ALEXANDER KLEIN/AFP/Getty Images)

John Hickenlooper (politician)

John Hickenlooper is currently Colorado's governor. Prior to that he served as mayor of Denver. Hickenlooper was one of the founders of Denver's popular Wynkoop Brewery. (credit: David Cannon/Getty Images)

The Fray (rock group)

The popular Denver band's self titled second album debuted at No. 1 on the weekly Billboard magazine album chart in February 2009. Band members attended Ralston Valley High School and Faith Christian Academy in Arvada. The Fray first hit it big in 2006 with songs like "How to Save a Life" and "Over My Head (Cable Car)." The music video for "Over My Head" was shot at Denver's East High School. Their 2005 album How to Save a Life received two Grammy nominations. The Fray performed with U2 at Invesco Field at Mile High in May 2011. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

Ralphie

University of Colorado Buffaloes mascot Ralphie storms the field at Folsom Field in Boulder at the start of every Buffs home football game. Pictured in this 2009 photo is Ralphie V. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Cam The Ram

Cam the Ram is the mascot for the Colorado State University Rams. He can be found hanging around Colorado State University's stadium Hughes Stadium during home games rooting for the CSU Rams. (credit: CBS)

Chauncey Billups (Pro Basketball Player)

Billups, an NBA point guard, was born in Denver in 1976 and is a graduate of George Washington High School. Billups attended the University of Colorado at Boulder and was honored in 2004 as only the fifth player to have his jersey number (No. 4) retired. Billups was an NBA Finals MVP while playing for the Detroit Pistons. He was traded to the Nuggets in 2008 for Allen Iverson and led the team to the playoffs, winning the NBA Sportsmanship Award in the process. He was traded to the New York Knicks in 2011 and has played on several other NBA teams since then. He has given back to his hometown of Denver by setting up the Porter-Billups Leadership Academy at Regis University and serves on the board for the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library. (credit: Noah Graham/NBAE/Getty Images)

Shane Carwin (extreme fighter)

Madeleine Albright (Former US Secretary of State)

Albright was born in Czechoslovakia. Her family was driven out by Nazi storm troopers and then by communists and moved to Denver in 1948. "Denver is where I grew up believing in the American dream," she said in her speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2008 in Denver, an event she described as "a homecoming." In high school she won the Rocky Mountain Empire Award "for reciting, in alphabetical order, the 51 members of the United Nations." Her father, Josef Korbelova, was the founding dean of the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver. Albright attended Kent Denver School and held a summer job at the Denver Post where she met her former husband, Joseph Medill Patterson Albright. She served as the first woman Secretary of State from 1997 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. An exhibit showcasing her jewelry titled "Read My Pins: The Madeleine Albright Collection" was featured at the Denver Art Museum in 2012. (credit: PHILIPPE LOPEZ/AFP/Getty Images)

Pete Coors (businessman)

Gary Faulkner (Traveler)

Gary Faulkner is a construction worker from Greeley who flew to Pakistan on a one-man mission to hunt down terrorist Osama bin Laden in 2010. He was found in the forests of Pakistan armed with a sword, pistol and night-vision goggles and was briefly detained by Pakistani officials. His unusual story gained him 15 minutes of fame, including a hilarious appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. (credit: CBS)

The String Cheese Incident (jam band)

Martina Navratilova (Tennis Legend)

Martina Navratilova was a hit when she spoke at a Women's Foundation of Colorado in Denver in November 2011. She lives in Aspen and also has a home in Florida. She was one of the most accomplished tennis players in history, winning 18 Grand Slam titles in singles, 31 more in doubles and another 10 in mixed doubles.

Becky Hammon (Basketball Star)

WNBA star Becky Hammon played college basketball for the Colorado State University Rams in the late 1990s. She started out her career playing for the New York Liberty and now plays for the San Antonio Silver Stars. She was recently selected as one of the top 15 WNBA players of all time. (credit: D. Clarke Evans/NBAE via Getty Images)

Rachael Flatt (Figure Skater)

Accomplished figure skater Rachael Flatt is graduate of Cheyenne Mountain High School in Colorado Springs. She appeared in the Olympics in 2010 and won Colorado's 2011 Sportswoman of the Year award. (credit: YURI KADOBNOV/AFP/Getty Images)

Gary Hart (former US Senator)

(Photo credit: ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP/Getty Images)

Hunter S. Thompson (literary legend)

Roy Halladay (baseball player)

A no-hitter in the playoffs -- and in the same season that he's thrown a perfect game? Who does that? Arvada West High School grad Roy Halladay, that's who. Halladay was one of the best (and highest paid) pitchers in the major leagues during his relatively short career (he announced his retirement in 2013). After the 2009 season the Blue Jays traded him to the Philadelphia Phillies and in 2010 alone he A) pitched a perfect game against the Florida Marlins B) had 21 wins and C) pitched a no-hitter on Oct. 6, 2010, in the first round of the playoffs. He was within one out of a no-hitter on Sept. 27, 1998, in just his second major league start, pitching for Toronto against Detroit. Halladay grew up in Arvada. After being named the starter for the American League all-star team in 2009 the Denver Post called him "the greatest starting pitcher the state of Colorado has produced." (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Byron White (Football Star, Sup. Court Justice)

Former Supreme Court Justice Byron White was born in Fort Collins in 1917. White grew up in Wellington and attended the University of Colorado, where he acquired the nickname "Whizzer" for his skills on the football field. (It was a nickname he depised.) He set records both at CU and in the NFL, including leading the league in rushing, before leaving to join the Navy during World War II. White graduated first in his class from CU and went on to Yale Law School. President John F. Kennedy appointed White to the High Court in 1962 at the age of 44. As justice, White was a hard-liner on law-and-order who often spoke for the court in decisions which enhanced police authority. He dissented in the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling which legalized abortion. White retired from the court in 1993 and returned to Colorado in 2001. He died in Denver in 2002 from complications of pneumonia. More than 700 people attended his funeral in Denver. (credit: CU Sports Information)

Jeffery Donovan (Actor)

At Denver Comic Con 2014 actor Jeffery Donovan, best known for the cable series "Burn Notice," said he recently moved to Colorado. (credit: Joe Corrigan/Getty Images)

Big Head Todd & The Monsters (band)

For more than 20 years, Big Head Todd & The Monsters has been entertaining Colorado and all of the Rocky Mountain region. Todd Park Mohr, Brian Nevin and Rob Squires formed the band in 1986. They attended Columbine High School together and formed the band at the University of Colorado. Jeremy Lawton joined the band later. The band formed Big Records in 1989 and released their first album "Another Mayberry." In 1993 they signed with Giant Records and recorded "Sister Sweetly" with Prince. The album went platinum and three singles from it hit the rock charts. Big Head Todd and the Monsters wrote "Blue Sky" at the request of the crewmembers of Space Shuttle Discovery, the first mission to head into space after the Columbia disaster. (credit: CBS)

Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. (actor)

Douglas Fairbanks was born in Denver in 1883. Fairbanks began his acting career at the age of 12 and attended Denver's East High School. He said he attended the Colorado School of Mines although no records have been found. In 1915 he went to Hollywood and formed United Artists with Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford and was a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. His film credits include "The Mark of Zorro," "The Three Musketeers" and "Robin Hood." (credit: AP)

Stephen White (author)

Best-selling author Stephen White was born on the East Coast but eventually settled in Colorado where he received his doctorate in psychology from the University of Colorado in 1979. White worked at the University at Colorado Health Sciences Center and as a staff psychologist at Children's Hospital. White is the creator of the "Alan Gregory" psychological thrillers which are set in Boulder. Research in his early writing career included spending a day at the CBS4 newsroom to gather more information for one of his characters, Gregory's ex-wife, who appears in his second novel "Private Practices." White now writes full time and lives with his family in Denver. (credit: authorstephenwhite.com)

Ted Haggard (Preacher)

Before being publicly embarrassed in a gay sex scandal Ted Haggard was president of the National Association of Evangelicals -- the largest Evangelical Chrisitian group in the country. He left the Colorado Springs church he founded, New Life Church, in 2006. Since then he has appeared from time to time as a high profile interview subject on shows including Oprah Winfrey. He told GQ magazine in 2011 that he is probably bisexual. He has discussed the creation of a new church called St. James Church in Colorado Springs. (credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

Michael Brown (former FEMA head, radio host)

Michael Brown, the former Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is a conservative radio talk show host at KOA radio in Denver. Brown resident from his FEMA post after Hurricane Katrina and amid of storm of criticism over the way his agency handled the disaster response. He is the author of "Deadly Indifference: The Perfect (Political) Storm: Hurricane Katrina, The Bush White House, and Beyond." (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

Rick Reilly (sports columnist)

Reilly is one of the country's best sports columnists. He was born in Boulder and started his career writing for the Daily Camera and the Denver Post. He lives in Denver and is a relatively visibly figure in the city who appears at sports banquets and writes frequently about Denver pro teams. He won the Denver Press Club's Damon Runyon Award in 2009. He wrote for Sports Illustrated for more than two decades before joining ESPN in 2008. In early 2009 he made a statement he thought he would never have to live up to, saying that if the Colorado Rockies made the playoffs he would give the state Capitol's golden dome a "tongue bath." The Rockies clinched a wild card berth and in October 2009 there he was, licking the Capitol. In 2010 he was the official starter for the Bolder Boulder road race. (Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images)

David Duval (golfer)

Tyler Hamilton (cyclist)

Retired cyclist and part-time Boulder resident Tyler Hamilton dropped a bomb on the cycling world in 2011, going on 60 Minutes and telling reporter Scott Pelley that he and U.S. Postal Service teammate Lance Armstrong regularly used banned substances while Armstrong was winning his multiple Tour de France races. Hamilton had much success as a professional cyclist but retired from the sport after testing positive for banned substances. Hamilton calls Boulder home and in 2009 worked with physician Paul Berger on depression issues he says he struggles with. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Pam Grier (actress)

3Oh!3 (rock group)

Trista And Ryan Sutter ('Bachelorette' stars)

Trista And Ryan Sutter met and fell in love on the set of the show. They are both now Vail residents. Ryan graduated from and played football for the University of Colorado. They are seen here with daughter Blakesley. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Philip Anschutz (entrepreneur)

Billionaire Philip Anschutz, born in Kansas, moved to Denver in the early 1960s and still calls the city home. The self-made millionaire recently invested in the Walden Media production company, which focuses on family films like "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe." In 2007 Anschutz sold his remaining shares of Qwest -- the company he founded -- and testified in Denver on behalf of the company's former CEO, Joe Nacchio, during his federal insider trading trail. (credit: CBS)

Kate Hudson (actress)

Kevin Costner (actor)

Jeremy Bloom (Athlete, Philanthropist)

Tim Allen (actor)

Gerald Albright (musician)

Gerald Albright is a bass player and saxophone player who has sold quite a healthy number of albums (more than 1 million in the U.S., according to his website.) His forte is contemporary jazz and straight-ahead jazz. He lives in Denver (Photo by Rick Diamond/Getty Images)

Josh Blue (comedian)

Comedian Josh Blue, born in West Africa, currently resides in Denver. He moved to Denver after graduating from college in 2001 and began performing at the Mercury Cafe and eventually progressed to shows at Comedy Works. He has spent little time in Colorado since winning the NBC series, "Last Comic Standing" in August of 2006. Blue has also appeared on "Mind of Mencia" on Comedy Central and "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." (credit: JoshBlue.com)

John Amos (actor)

Actor John Amos, born in New Jersey, graduated from Colorado State University and played football for the Rams. Amos played the role of the father in "Good Times" in 1974. He also has guest starred on several dozen other series including "The Cosby Show," "West Wing," "Psych" and "Men in Trees." (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

Glenn Miller (legendary jazz bandleader)

Attended University of Colorado at Boulder in 1920s
In 1953, CU students officially named the ballroom in the Memorial Center the Glenn Miller Ballroom. (credit: CBS)

Frank Shorter (running legend)

Don Cheadle (actor)

Hale Irwin (professional golfer)

Jack Dempsey (boxer)

This world heavyweight champion boxer in the early 1900s was born in the southern Colorado town of Manassa. His full name was William Harrison Dempsey. He was nicknamed "The Manassa Mauler." (credit: AP)

Allen Ginsberg (Beat poet)

Hattie McDaniel (actress)

McDaniel, the first African-American to ever win an Academy Award, dropped out of Denver's East High School when she was a sophomore to pursue her career in show business. She won that Oscar in the Best Supporting Actress Category for her portrayal of "Mammy" in "Gone With The Wind." She was the first African American woman to attend the Academy Awards ceremony as a guest and not a servant. Her family moved to Colorado in 1900, first living in Fort Collins then moving to Denver. (credit: AP)

Taylor Phinney (cyclist)

Taylor Phinney, a Boulder resident, is a young star in the cycling world. Phinney is the son of 1984 Olympic medalists Connie Carpenter-Phinney and Davis Phinney. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Davis Phinney (cyclist legend)

Roseanne Barr (Comedian, Actress)

Joel Dreessen (NFL Player)

Joel Dreessen grew up in Fort Morgan and played football for the state championship-winning Fort Morgan High School football team in his senior year. He went on to star at Colorado State University for the Rams and then joined the NFL's Houston Texans out of college. In 2012 he joined the Denver Broncos and started at tight end, but injuries led to his retirement after the 2013 season. (credit: CBS)

Buffalo Bill Cody (Famous Westerner)

"Buffalo Bill" was born William F. Cody in Scott County, Iowa in 1846. His first recorded trip to Colorado came in 1859 when he tried his luck as a prospector in the Pikes Peak gold rush. He began hunting buffalo to feed Kansas Pacific Railroad construction crews, eventually winning the name "Buffalo Bill" after a shooting match with another hunter. Cody died Jan. 10, 1917, and is buried, at his request, at the summit of Lookout Mountain above Golden. The Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave there now is part of the Denver Mountain Parks system. (Photo credit: Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

Barry Petersen (Journalist)

Barry Petersen, one of CBS News' most experienced correspondents, lives in Denver. Petersen recently wrote a book called "Jan's Story: Love lost to the long goodbye of Alzheimer's" about the struggle he shared with his wife, Jan Chorlton, who was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease in 2005 and is now in an assisted living facility. Jan was also a CBS News journalist. (credit: CBS)

Ken Salazar (politician)

Ken Salazar served as Secretary of the Interior under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013. Before that he represented Colorado in the U.S. Senate four years. Prior to that the Democrat was Colorado's attorney general for many years. (credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)

Cleo Parker Robinson (dance legend)

Robinson is founder and executive artistic director of the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble, a dance group that has toured the world and won international acclaim. (credit: CBS)

John Oates (singer)

John Oates is the "Oates" of Hall & Oates, the classic rock group which scored numerous major hits in the 70s and 80s. He lives in the Aspen area and is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (credit: David Livingston/Getty Images)

India.Arie (singer)

Neal Cassady (writer)

Neal Cassady, born in Salt Lake City, was raised in Denver by his alcoholic father. He spent much of his youth bouncing between cheap hotels in what is now LoDo and reform schools for car theft. He did attend Columbia University in 1946 where he met Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg and became a driving force in the Beat Generation and the psychedelic movements of the 1960s. Cassady and Kerouac were known to have hung out at Charlie Brown's in the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Denver. He died in 1968, just four days short of his 42nd birthday. (credit: CBS)

Keri Russell (actress)

Bill Daniels (businessman)

Often called the father of cable television, Daniels was born July 1, 1920, in Greeley and died in 2000, leaving behind an estate worth more than $1 billion. Much of that estate went to endow the Daniels Fund which provides scholarships to needy students throughout the Rocky Mountain region. He also requested that his elaborate home "Cableland" be left to the city of Denver to be used as the official mayor's residence. In May 2010 the mayor's office announced they would sell the home and donate the proceeds to the Denver Scholarship Foundation. Daniels founded Daniels & Associates in 1958 and eventually operated or managed hundreds of cable systems over the years. He also was a decorated naval aviator in World War II and is the namesake of the Bill Daniels Neighborhood Hero Award which is handed out to people in Denver who demonstrate bravery in the community. (credit: CBS)

Dana Perino (President Bush's press secretary)

Michelle Kwan (Figure skater)

Michelle Kwan got her college diploma from the University of Denver in 2009. Kwan received a bachelor's degree in international studies with a minor in political science. Kwan came to Denver in 2006 with a year's worth of credits from UCLA. She is a nine-time U.S. champion, two-time Olympic medal-winning and five-time world champion skater. (Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images)

Daniel Graham (football player)

NFL tight end Daniel Graham grew up in Denver and attended Thomas Jefferson High School where he played football and basketball. He then attended the University of Colorado and played for the Buffaloes. In his senior year he was an All-American and won the John Mackey Award as the nation's best tight end. Before coming to the Denver Broncos in 2007 he played for the New England Patriots for several seasons. He was released by the Broncos in 2011. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Michael Winslow (actor, comedian)

Don Johnson (Actor)

Ace Young (singer)

Joan Van Ark (Actor)

Sierra Boggess (actress)

Heidi Montag (TV personality)

Reality TV star Heidi Montag Pratt was born in Crested Butte and moved to California after graduating from high school. She enrolled in the Academy of Art University where she met Lauren Conrad and joined her on the reality series "Laguna Beach" and it's spin-off "The Hills." Montag met her husband Spencer Pratt on "The Hills." In addition to reality TV, Montag has a line of clothing and has released an album. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)

Ken Curtis (actor)

Ken Curtis played Festus Haggen, the sidekick of Sheriff Matt Dillon, on the CBS television series Gunsmoke. He was born in Las Animas and grew up in Colorado and his dad was a sheriff here. (credit: CBS)

David Wroblewski (author)

Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn

Sinbad (actor, comedian)

John Kerry (U.S. Senator, 2004 Democratic presidential nominee)

Sen. John Kerry was born Dec. 11, 1943 at Fitzsimons Army Hospital in Aurora. His father was a volunteer in the Army Air Corps during World War II and was stationed in Colorado. He won the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 2004. During the election, he and running mate John Edwards launched a cross country bus tour from Fitzsimons. Kerry lost the general election to incumbent Republican George Bush. (Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images)

Carey Lowell (Actress)

Gary Coleman (actor)

Gary Coleman was born Feb. 8, 1968, in Illinois and died on May 28, 2010. He suffered from a congenital kidney disease which halted his growth at an early age. In the late 1980s and early 1990s he called Highlands Ranch home. He had an elaborate N-scale model railroad which he happily showed off to CBS4 several times. Coleman sold his home in Colorado but he donated his train layout to the Pikes Peak "N"-gineers Train Club in Colorado Springs. Coleman was best known for his role of "Arnold Jackson" on the sitcom "Diff'rent Strokes." (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)

Tom Cruise (actor)

Originally, we thought Cruise wasn't worthy of being on this list because we thought of him as just another movie star who just happened to have a house in Colorado and didn't spend much time here. But when he did a big interview with Oprah Winfrey on her show in May 2008 on location at his awesome Telluride home, which he said he spends a lot of time at with wife Katie Holmes, and said "there is no way you can be up here (in the Rocky Mountains) and think that there isn't a God," we thought he deserved to be in this slideshow. (Photo by Kiyoshi Ota/Getty Images)

Matt Morris (Singer/songwriter)

Ward Churchill (former CU professor)

Ward Churchill became infamous in 2005 for an essay he wrote after 9/11 equating the victims to "little Eichmanns." He was an ethnic studies professor at the University of Colorado until 2007 when he was fired. In 2009 he won a lawsuit against the university, with the jury finding he was wrongfully terminated. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

Scott Elrod (actor, model)

Robert Redford (Actor, activist)

LenDale White (pro football player)

Ami Cusack (Of Survivor Fame)

Billy Kidd (skiing legend)

(credit: Getty Images)

Jon Heder (actor)

Chesley B. Sullenberger III (pilot)

Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger -- a graduate of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and the University of Northern Colorado -- piloted US Airways flight 1549 after it sustained damage from an apparent bird strike and crash-landed into New York's Hudson River in January 2009. All 155 people were pulled from the icy waters by a flotilla of rescue boats. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)