Ranker's Ten Most Famous People From Denver Includes a Porn Star

We love Ranker, since, as the website's name implies, it ranks just about anything and everything.

Moreover, the results are often surprising, as seen in our previous roundups of the ten most famous attendees of CSU and the University of Denver.

That definitely proved the case with the site's list of the most famous people from Denver.

Frankly, we weren't familiar with three people in the top ten — including a certain porn star.

As for the number one pick, you'll have to judge for yourself whether to be excited or appalled by the person chosen.

Check out the photo-illustrated ten, supplemented with Denver-centric excerpts from each person's respective Wikipedia pages.

Number 10: Chauncey Billups
Chauncey Ray Billups (born September 25, 1976) is a retired American professional basketball player who played 17 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). A star at the University of Colorado, he was chosen third overall in the 1997 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics. A five-time NBA All-Star and a three-time All-NBA selection, Billups played for the Celtics, Toronto Raptors, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers and Team USA. He won the NBA Finals MVP in 2004 after helping the Pistons beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals, and was given the nickname "Mr. Big Shot" for making late-game shots with Detroit....

Born in Denver, Colorado, Billups graduated from George Washington High School of Denver in 1995. At George Washington, he was a four-time All-State first team pick, Colorado Mr. Basketball three times, and Colorado Player of the Year as a sophomore and as a junior. He started on varsity as a freshman. He was selected to the 1995 McDonald's All-American Team but did not play due to a shoulder injury.

Number 9: James Q. Wilson
[Denver-born] James Quinn Wilson (May 27, 1931 – March 2, 2012) was an American academic, political scientist, and an authority on public administration. Most of his career was spent as a professor at UCLA and Harvard. He coauthored a leading university textbook on American government, as well as many scholarly books and articles, and op-ed essays. He gained national attention for a 1982 article introducing the broken windows theory. Wilson served on many national committees and boards, and was elected president of the American Political Science Association....

Number 8: Sierra Boggess
Sierra Marjory Boggess (born May 20, 1982) is an American theater actress and singer....

Sierra Boggess was born and raised in Denver, Colorado, with her two sisters, Summer and Allegra. The three of them were members of the Colorado Children's Chorale. Her parents are Kellun Turner and Michael Boggess. She attended George Washington High School[2] and graduated from Millikin University with a BFA in musical theater.

Boggess got engaged to fellow West End star Tam Mutu in January 2012, but they reportedly broke off the engagement in June 2014.

Boggess began a relationship with Josh Stolz in early 2015.


Number 7: Keeani Lei
Keeani Lei (born March 16, 1981) is an American porn star.

Lei was born in Denver, Colorado. Her father is Panamanian and her mother is Chinese. After birth, her parents moved to Panama where she grew up and went to high school. At age 20, Lei moved to Florida with her mother. In Florida, she went to The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. It was at the university where she came to like surfing and skating. This is where her name comes from. "Keeani" is the name of a character in the surfing movie North Shore. The name means wave in Hawaiian. "Lei" means flower necklace.

Number 6: Ruth Handler
Ruth Marianna Handler (née Mosko; November 4, 1916 – April 27, 2002) was an American businesswoman and inventor. She served as the president of the toy manufacturer Mattel Inc., and is remembered for her role in marketing the Barbie doll.

Handler was born as Ruth Marianna Mosko in Denver, Colorado to Polish Jewish immigrants Ida Mosko (née Rubenstein) and Jacob Mosko.[2] She married her high school boyfriend, Elliot Handler. They moved to Los Angeles in 1938. Her husband decided to make their furniture out of two newfound types of plastics, Lucite and Plexiglas. Ruth Handler suggested that he start doing this commercially and they began a furniture business. Ruth Handler worked as the sales force for the new business, landing contracts with Douglas Aircraft Company and others.

Number 5: Jan-Michael Vincent
Jan-Michael Vincent (born July 15, 1944) is a retired American actor best known for his role as helicopter pilot Stringfellow Hawke on the 1980s U.S. television series Airwolf (1984–86) and as the protagonist of John Milius’s 1978 surfing epic Big Wednesday.

Vincent was born July 15, 1944, in Denver, Colorado, to Doris and Lloyd Vincent. His family moved to Hanford, California, when Jan-Michael was young. Vincent attended Ventura College in Ventura, California.

Number 4: Duane Lee Chapman
Duane Lee "Dog" Chapman I. (born February 2, 1953) is an American bounty hunter and a former bail bondsman. He starred in a weekly reality television program called Dog the Bounty Hunter, which was cancelled in 2012 after 8 seasons. He currently stars in the reality television program Dog and Beth: On the Hunt.

Chapman was born [in Denver] on February 2, 1953 to Wesley and Barbara Chapman. He is the oldest of four children, with two younger sisters and one brother. According to Chapman though, everyone is his 'brother' and he is German on his mother's side and English on his father's side. His mother was a minister for the Assembly of God church and passed her Christian faith onto her son.

Number 3: Douglas Fairbanks
[Denver-born] Douglas Fairbanks (May 23, 1883 – December 12, 1939) was an American actor, screenwriter, director, and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro but spent the early part of his career making comedies.

An astute businessman, Fairbanks was a founding member of United Artists. Fairbanks was also a founding member of The Motion Picture Academy and hosted the first Oscars Ceremony in 1929. With his marriage to Mary Pickford in 1920, the couple became Hollywood royalty and Fairbanks was referred to as "The King of Hollywood," a nickname later passed on to actor Clark Gable. His career rapidly declined however with the advent of the "talkies." His final film was The Private Life of Don Juan (1934).

Number 2: AnnaSophia Robb
AnnaSophia Robb (born December 8, 1993) is an American actress, model and singer. She has starred in films such as Because of Winn-Dixie, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Bridge to Terabithia, Race to Witch Mountain, Soul Surfer, and The Way, Way Back. She also played the lead role of Carrie Bradshaw on The CW's series The Carrie Diaries from 2013 to 2014.

Robb was born in Denver, Colorado, the only child of Janet, an interior designer, and David Robb, an architect. She was named after her maternal great-grandmother, Anna Sophie, and her paternal grandmother, Anna Marie. She is of Danish, English, Irish, Scottish, and Swedish descent. She grew up in a Christian home and was home-schooled. She started taking an interest in acting and began by performing in front of 500 individuals on her church stage.[8] She competed in dance and gymnastics for four and a half years, but quit in order to focus on acting. In 2009, the Arapahoe Herald reported that she was attending Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colorado. She graduated in 2012.

Number 1: Karl Rove
[Denver-born] Karl Christian Rove (born December 25, 1950) is an American Republican political consultant and policy advisor.[1] He was Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff during the George W. Bush administration until Rove's resignation on August 31, 2007. He has also headed the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives. Since leaving the White House, Rove has worked as a political analyst and contributor for Fox News, Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal.

Prior to his White House appointments, he is credited with the 1994 and 1998 Texas gubernatorial victories of George W. Bush, as well as Bush's 2000 and 2004 successful presidential campaigns. In his 2004 victory speech Bush referred to Rove as "the Architect". Rove has also been credited for the successful campaigns of John Ashcroft (1994 U.S. Senate election), Bill Clements (1986 Texas gubernatorial election), Senator John Cornyn (2002 U.S. Senate election), Governor Rick Perry (1990 Texas Agriculture Commission election), and Phil Gramm (1982 U.S. House and 1984 U.S. Senate elections).
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