They were born in a small town. Meet 48 famous (or otherwise interesting) Hoosiers

Editor's note: This story was originally published in 2018.

A savvy tech investor who noticed "Spotify." A cult leader turned mass murderer. Not one but two Tarzans. The National Rifle Association's very first boss.

All were from the small towns of Indiana.

And so were a lot of other unusual and/or notable people. Here are 48 of them, listed in no particular order.

We defined "small town" as a place having fewer than 17,504 residents. By drawing the line there, we could include the rocker John Mellencamp, which seemed only right because it was he who wrote the hit song, "Small Town," and he's from Seymour, population: 17,503.

Steve McQueen, actor

Born: Beech Grove, pop. 14,192

Steve McQueen (1930-1980) was a film star who, on the "cool" scale , possibly would outrank even James Dean (Fairmount, pop: 2,954). "No actor since, not even Daniel Craig as James Bond, has done more than echo his catlike grace and genuine aura of danger," said an otherwise damning 2011 report in the DailyMail.com. In 2017 McQueen was the subject of a movie called "Steve McQueen: American Icon," about the actor's late-in-life conversion to Christianity.

More from the archives:That time Indiana teens ratted out dirty ‘Louie Louie’ lyrics, and the FBI got involved

Jim Jones, cult leader

Born: Crete, pop: unincorporated

Jim Jones (1931-1978) was a charismatic cult leader who got his start as a preacher in Indianapolis. In the early 1960s he championed civil rights and racial integration and founded a church called the Peoples Temple. He later led his followers to California and finally to the South American nation of Guyana. In the fall of 1978, with American authorities beginning to investigate abuse allegations against him, he ordered his some 900 followers to drink poison. They did, and they died. Jones died of a gunshot wound to the head believed to have been self-inflicted.

Florence Henderson, 'Brady Bunch' actress

Born: Dale,pop: 1,593

Florence Henderson (1934-2016) was best known as the mom on the 1970s sitcom, "The Brady Bunch," about a blended family. It was never clear if Carol Brady was divorced or a widower. She mock-cleared that up in a 2015 interview by saying: "I killed my husband." In Indianapolis, Henderson was best known for her performances, nearly annually since the 1990s, of "God Bless America" during pre-Indy 500 ceremonies at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Jimmy Hoffa, labor union leader

Born: Brazil,pop: 7,912

James "Jimmy" Hoffa (1913 - nobody knows) was the 20th century's most renowned labor leader (Jack Nicholson played him in a 1992 biopic). Hoffa was president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters for nearly a decade until 1971 when he went to prison on charges of jury tampering, conspiracy and fraud. On July 30, 1975, he called his wife from a pay phone outside a Detroit restaurant to tell her the mobsters he was supposed to meet had stood him up. He was never heard from again. His body was never found.

Chuck Taylor, shoemaker

Born: Azalia, pop: unincorporated

Charles Hollis "Chuck" Taylor (1901-1969) was an early 20th-century basketball player who went to work for Converse Rubber Shoe Co. as a shoe salesman/basketball consultant. He advised Converse to make improvements, such as making the shoe stronger around the ankles. The new design was a success, and Converse showed its appreciation by adding Taylor's signature to the canvas uppers.

James Dean, actor

Born: Fairmount, pop. 2,954

James Dean (1931-1955) was an actor who remains a worldwide symbol of cool and youthful angst even though he was in just three movies and even though he has been dead since 1955. He died in a car crash.

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Gus Grissom, astronaut

Born: Mitchell, pop: 4,350

Gus Grissom (1926-1967) was one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts. In 1961 he became the second American in space. The widely acclaimed 1983 movie "The Right Stuff" paints Grissom as a goat responsible for the sinking of his Mercury spacecraft upon touchdown in the sea, but a 2016 book, "Calculated Risk: The Supersonic Life and Times of Gus Grissom" (Purdue University Press), exonerates him. Grissom and fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee died when a fire swept their spacecraft during a training exercise.

Jim Davis, cartoonist

Born: Fairmount,pop: 2,954

Jim Davis (b. 1945) is the creator of the cartoon cat Garfield, the world's most widely syndicated cartoon.

William "Dick the Bruiser" Afflis, wrestler

Born: Delphi,pop: 2,893

William "Dick the Bruiser" Afflis (1929-91) was a rough-talking, gravelly-voiced muscle man who in the 1960s and 1970s dominated pro wrestling in Indianapolis and throughout the Midwest as an athlete and promoter.

Ambrose Burnside, sideburns inventor

Born: Liberty, pop: 2,133

Ambrose Burnside (1824-1881) was, at different times, all of these things: 1) a mediocre Civil War general, 2) a U.S. Senator from Rhode Island, 3) a governor of Rhode Island, and 4) the first president of the National Rifle Association. But his lasting claim to fame is this: He grew his facial hair in such a distinctive way that the style was named for him: burnsides. Later the syllables were flipped.

From the archives:This gay German artist was the template for Norman Rockwell's Saturday Evening Post work

Larry Bird, basketball star

Born: French Lick, pop: 1,807

Larry Bird (b. 1956) was a basketball star in high school, college and professionally and is widely considered among the greatest to play the game. He became known as "the hick from French Lick." In 2015 Bird, who lives in Indianapolis, told Indianapolis Monthly he rarely returns to his old hometown: “I love my childhood there. Some beautiful country down in Southern Indiana. But I don’t get down there."

Erwin George 'Cannonball' Baker, racer

Born: Lawrenceburg, pop: 5,042

Erwin George "Cannonball" Baker (1882-1960) won the very first race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a motorcycle sprint, in 1909. But what really distinguished him were his record-setting cross-country motorcycle and automobile runs, like his 1914 trip from San Diego to New York in 11 days, 11 hours and 11 minutes — 3,379 miles, only four of them on paved roads. The latter-day "Cannonball Run" races (and subsequent Burt Reynolds movies) are named for Baker.

Cannonball run:Indy man won first ever Speedway race, but what came later was crazy

Catt Sadler, news anchor

Born: Martinsville, pop: 11,828

Catt Sadler (b. 1974) was an anchor on the TV show E! News and E! News Weekend who left abruptly in 2017 after discovering her male co-host, Jason Kennedy, was making more money than she was. "I learned that he wasn't just making a little more than I was," Sadler told USA Today. "In fact, he was making close to double my salary for the past several years."

Earl Butz, politician 

Born: Albion, pop: 2,349

Earl Butz (1909-2008) was a high-profile U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in the 1970s under presidents Nixon and Ford. He was known for his jokes, one in particular because it was so racist and offensive he was fired. His next move was to join the faculty at Purdue University's ag department. He lived out his life in West Lafayette, dying at age 99.

Orville Redenbacher, popcorn guru

Born: Brazil, pop. 7,912

Orville Redenbacher (1907-1995), pioneered gourmet popcorn. He made his own TV commercials. He wore a bow tie and had weird hair and thick-rimmed glasses, and people thought he was made-up, as phony as Tony the Tiger. But that was just Redenbacher being Redenbacher.

Henry Lee Summer, singer 

Born: Brazil, pop. 7,912

Henry Lee Summer (b. 1955) is a rock and roll singer-songwriter-musician who for a while in 1988 had the number one song on Billboard Magazine's mainstream rock category, "I Wish I Had A Girl."

Tavis Smiley, talk show host 

Grew up in: Bunker Hill, pop. 888

Smiley (b. 1964) is a radio talk show host who has interviewed many leading politicians and entertainers during a career that began in the 1990s. More recently he was affiliated with PBS, which severed ties with him in 2017 following allegations involving sexual misconduct. Smiley then sued PBS, claiming its investigation was flawed and, further, that PBS created a "racially hostile" environment.

Jim Gaffigan, comedian

Born: Chesterton, pop: 13,068

Jim Gaffigan (b. 1966) is a stand-up comedian with a low-key delivery and material that's clean but also extremely funny.

Will Shortz, crossword king 

Born: Crawfordsville, pop: 15,915

Will Shortz (b. 1952) is the world’s only academically accredited puzzle master. He designed his own major in enigmatology (the study of puzzles) at Indiana University, where he graduated in 1974. Shortz edited the crossword puzzle for the New York Times and served also as NPR's "puzzle master." An avid table tennis player, Shortz is the owner of the biggest table tennis club in the U.S. 

Lew Wallace, 'Ben Hur' author 

Born: Crawfordsville, pop. 15,915

Lew Wallace (1827-1905) was probably the most versatile Hoosier of all time. He was a lawyer, a Civil War general, the governor of the New Mexico territory (where he helped bring the outlaw Billy the Kid to justice), a U.S. ambassador (minister to the Ottoman Empire), and author of one of the best-selling books written in  English, "Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ." It has been made into a movie several times.

Ernie Pyle, war correspondent 

Born: Dana, pop: 608

Ernie Pyle (1900-1945) was a newspaper writer who became famous as a war correspondent during World War II. He was known for his folksy but powerful writing style and for his empathy for the rank-and-file soldiers. He embedded with them and was killed during fighting in the Pacific in the later stages of the war.

Will Geer, 'The Waltons' actor 

Born: Frankfort, pop: 16,422

Will Geer (1902-1978) is best known as the grandfather in the super-wholesome 1970s TV show "The Waltons." Geer is lesser-known as a left-wing social activist who in the 1950s was blacklisted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities, a consortium of American lawmakers seeking to root out communists.

James Hubert 'Babe' Pierce, Tarzan

Born: Freedom, pop: unincorporated

James Hubert "Babe" Pierce (1900-1983), played Tarzan the ape man in the last Tarzan movie made in the silent era. He later voiced Tarzan on hundreds of radio broadcasts. The role of Jane was voiced by Pierce's wife Joan. Joan's father, author Edgar Rice Burroughs, was the creator of the Tarzan character. The Pierces settled in Shelbyville (pop: 19,191, Shelby County), where his father was mayor. They're buried there.

Sammy L. Davis, war hero

Lives in: Freedom, pop. unincorporated

Sammy L. Davis, (b. 1946) a Vietnam war hero and Medal of Honor recipient who went on to make frequent inspirational, patriotic speeches. 

John Wooden, basketball coach

Born: Hall, pop: unincorporated

John Wooden (1910-2010) was a basketball star at Purdue University who later became famous as the "Wizard of Westwood," a nickname bestowed while he coached the basketball team at the University of California at Los Angeles. Under his guidance, the UCLA Bruins won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period, including a record seven in a row.

Bobby Helms, country singer 

Born: Helmsburg, pop: unincorporated

Bobby Helms (1933-97) was a country singer who crossed over into rock and roll in rock's early days. His "Jingle Bell Rock," which he recorded in 1957, continues to receive massive play every December. At the time of his death, Helms was living in Martinsville (pop. 11,800).

Mick Mars, Motley Crue guitarist

Born: Huntington,pop: 17,391

Mick Mars (b. 1955, as Robert Allen Deal), who moved from Terre Haute as a young child, was Motley Crue's guitarist. His road to stardom began, he told IndyStar in 2005, in Huntington "at the 4-H Fair when I saw (country singer) Skeeter Bonn playing at Hier's Park. I was maybe 3 years old. He had on a bright orange suit with a bunch of rhinestones on it and a big white Stetson hat. I was a little kid, but I was knocked over."

Dan Quayle, U.S. vice president 

Grew up in: Huntington, pop. 17,391

Dan Quayle (b. 1947) moved to Huntington as a child. He was the U.S. vice president under President George H.W. Bush (1989-1993) and became known for his defense of family values and for his frequent verbal gaffes like: "It's wonderful to be in the great state of Chicago!"

George Ade, writer/journalist 

Born: Kentland pop: 1,748

George Ade (1866-1944), a writer and journalist known for his Mark Twain-level humor and pretension-lancing, wrote essays and short stories and plays. His plays did well on Broadway, and Ade got rich. He gave some of his money to his alma mater, Purdue University, and Purdue named its football stadium partially for him — Ross-Ade Stadium.

Gene Stratton-Porter, naturalist 

Born: Lagro, pop: 415

Gene Stratton-Porter (1863-1924) was a novelist, nature photographer, conservationist and silent movie-era producer. 

Nick Goepper, Olympic skier

Grew up in: Lawrenceburg, pop. 5,042

Goepper (b. 1994) is a champion skier who learned the sport in this southern Indiana town. Goepper overcame battles with depression and anxiety to win Olympic medals in freestyle ski events in both the 2014 Sochi games and again in 2018 in South Korea. “I started to really question myself and my motives," Goepper told USA Today prior to the 2018 games, "having these crazy existential questions like why am I doing this? What is the point?” Then he won the silver.

Rick Mount, basketball star 

Born: Lebanon, pop. 15,792

Rick Mount (b. 1947) was a basketball star in high school (in 1966 he became the first high school athlete to make the cover of Sports Illustrated) and in college (Purdue University) but did not thrive in a brief professional career with the Indiana Pacers. Mount returned to his hometown and has lived there ever since. "I never liked big cities, and I hated travel and airplanes," Mount told SI in 2001. 

Irene Dunne, Oscar-nominated actress

Born: Madison, pop: 12,014

Irene Dunne (1898-1990), who spent her teenage years here, was a movie star nominated for Best Actress Academy Awards five times. But she was only semi-driven. She once said to the film historian David Shipman: "Acting is not everything. Living is." Dunne's life was remarkably stable for a movie star. She was married to a dentist, Francis Griffin, for nearly 40 years, until his death. She lived in the same house, in Holmby Hills, Calif., for more than four decades.

Robert Indiana, pop artist 

Born: New Castle,pop: 17,426

Robert Indiana (1928-2018) was an artist best known for his widely reproduced "LOVE" sculpture, the "LO" stacked on top of the "VE." He was born Robert Clark. He left Indiana as a teenager but gained fame only after decamping for New York in the 1960s as the ground-breaking pop artist Robert Indiana. "I had to leave Indiana to become Robert Indiana," he told the IndyStar in 2014.

Dan Patch, pacer horse 

Born: Oxford, pop: 1,162

Dan Patch (1896-1916) was a record-setting pacer horse who made millions while defeating all comers and setting speed records. Patch was one of the few horses to have a movie made about him, "The Great Dan Patch" (1949). He was said to have an excellent disposition, too. The horse's owner, Marion Savage, was so broken-hearted by Patch's death that he himself died just 24 hours later. He was 57.

Twyla Tharp, dancer/choreographer

Born: Portland, pop: 6,161

Twyla Tharp (b. 1941) is a dancer and choreographer. She has won a Tony and two Emmy awards. She founded her own dance company, Twyla Tharp Dance, in 1965, two years out of Barnard College. She created dances for other companies as well, such as the Joffrey Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Paris Opera Ballet, Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet, Boston Ballet and the Martha Graham Dance Company.

Cole Porter, hit songwriter 

Born: Peru, pop: 11,417

Cole Porter (1891-1964), with his clever lyrics and beautiful melodies, is probably the greatest American songwriter of the 20th century. His songs were recorded by Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald and many others. Here's a short list of Porter's hits: "Let's Do It, Let's Fall In Love"; "Night and Day"; "Anything Goes"; "I Get A Kick Out Of You"; and this rather different "Night and Day."

Mary Meeker, venture capitalist  

Born: Portland, pop: 6,161

Mary Meeker (b. 1960) is the founder and general partner at BOND, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm, and is considered among the nation's leading experts on new technologies. She is the top-ranked woman on Forbes' "Midas List," its ranking of the savviest tech investors, where she is sixth out of 100. Among the companies Meeker noticed early: Spotify. 

Jackie Young, basketball star 

Born: Princeton, pop: 8,644

Jackie Young (b. 1998) is the leading scorer in Indiana high school girls basketball history with 3,268 points. Over her career, she averaged 30.8 points while shooting .583 from the field. She averaged 10.3 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 3.5 steals. She went on to play for the University of Notre Dame.

Elmo Lincoln, Tarzan actor 

Born: Rochester, pop: 6,218

Elmo Lincoln (1889-1952), born Otto Elmo Linkenhelt, was the very first movie Tarzan, way before Johnny Weissmuller. Handsome and muscular, Lincoln started off as a shirtless extra in silent adventure serials. He was noticed by director D.W. Griffith, who cast him as a blacksmith in Griffith's "Birth of a Nation." A few years later Lincoln landed the role of Tarzan in the first of the silent movies based on the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. He went on to play the "ape man" in several more silent films, but after the advent of talkies, his star faded.

Jay Cutler, NFL quarterback 

Born: Santa Claus,pop: 2,481

Jay Cutler (b. 1983) had a 12-year career as a pro football quarterback with several NFL teams. He was frequently maligned as disinterested and choke-prone despite being a Pro-Bowler in 2008. Cutler once was even lampooned on "South Park." Stan and Kyle meet him and say: "Nice to meet you. I mean, you kinda suck, but my dad says you might be good some day." Later Cutler said of the "South Park" dis: "I thought it was funny."

Katie Stam, Miss America

Born: Seymour, pop: 17,503

Katie Stam (b. 1986)  is the first Miss Indiana in history to win the Miss America competition. She did it in 2009.

E.W. Kelley, Steak 'n Shake founder

Born: Sharpsville,pop: 607

E.W. Kelley (1917-2003) was an executive with several large food companies who played key roles in the development of Tang, Cool Whip, Grey Poupon mustard, Smirnoff vodka, Klondike ice cream bars and A1 Steak Sauce. Later he led an investment group that bought Steak 'n Shake, the fast-food chain. In 1997 he gave $23 million to Indiana University, which named its business school after him.

Janie Fricke, country singer 

Born: South Whitley,pop: 1,751

Janie Fricke (b. 1947) is a country singer who was voted Country Music Association's Female Vocalist of the Year in 1982. She was nominated for Grammy Awards three times. As a fall-back, in case her music didn't work out, Fricke studied elementary education at Indiana University. 

Will Hays, Hollywood morality czar

Born: Sullivan,pop: 4,249

Will Hays (1879-1954) was a conservative Republican politician, a one-time RNC chairman, before becoming Hollywood's morality czar. As the first chairman of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, he tried to clean up the movies by implementing the "Hays Code."

The code, which predated a movie rating system, was the law from the 1930s into the 1950s. Here are a couple of its tenets: "Ministers of religion should not be used as comic characters or as villains"; "Excessive and lustful kissing, lustful embraces, suggestive postures and gestures, are not to be shown"; "Miscegenation (sex relationships between the white and black races) is forbidden."

Joyce DeWitt, 'Three's Company' actress

Born: Speedway, pop: 11,812

Joyce DeWitt (b. 1949), who was born in West Virginia but spent most of her childhood in Speedway, played Janet on the ABC sitcom "Three's Company." It ran from 1977 until 1984 and was somewhat groundbreaking in that one of the characters, played by John Ritter, though he wasn't gay, pretended to be gay. 

Wally Bruner, 'What's My Line' host 

Born: Tell City,pop: 7,272

Wally Bruner (1931-1997) was a former White House correspondent for ABC and the network's Vietnam bureau chief, and later the host of the game show "What's My Line," and finally host of the how-to-do-it TV show "Wally's Workshop." He lived in Indianapolis in the 1970s and when he departed gave the town a public tongue-lashing rare for its candor. "Basically we're leaving because the thinking is so very narrow in this community," he told the Indianapolis Star. "This is a strange community and one I won't recommend."

Crystal Gayle, country singer 

Born: Wabash,pop: 10,666

Crystal Gayle (b. 1951) is a country music star ("Don't It Make Your Brown Eyes Blue") who was 4 when she and her family moved here from Kentucky. She graduated from Wabash High School in 1970 and married her high school sweetheart, Bill Gatzimos. Gayle, who was born Brenda Gail Webb, is known for having really long hair. She comes from a musical family. One of her sisters is Loretta Lynn. 

John Mellencamp, singer/songwriter

Born: Seymour,pop: 17,503

John Mellencamp (b. 1951) is a rock and roll singer-songwriter known for his populist, everyman sensibility and his penchant for small towns. Here are some lyrics from his 1985 hit "Small Town": Well I was born in a small town/And I live in a small town/Prob'ly die in a small town/Oh, those small communities...

Contact Star writer Will Higgins at 317-444-6043. Follow him on Twitter @WillRHiggins.