Meet a Montanan
Like any state, Montana has its share of celebrities. Take a walk through time with us as we look at some of the Montana natives who have burst onto the national scene.Ella J. Knowles Haskell (1860-1911): Haskell was the first female lawyer in Montana, as well as the first female candidate for U.S. state attorney general. In 1896, she was the first Montana woman elected to a political convention, and in her later years she won cases before the U.S. Circuit Court and Supreme Court. Knowles Hall at the University of Montana at Missoula is named for Ms. Haskell.Gary Cooper (1901-1961): Cooper gained fame as a Hollywood Western star and appeared in more than one hundred films. He received two Academy Awards for Best Actor (1941′s Sergeant York and 1952′s High Noon). His reputation lives on to this dayas recently as 2009, Cooper appeared on a commemorative U.S. postage stamp.Sam Peckinpah (1925-1984): Peckinpah was another Montana native who gained acclaim in the Western genre, this time as a director. His most famous films are The Wild Bunch (1969), Straw Dogs (1971), and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974).Richard Brautigan (1935-1984): Brautigan wrote books about America, although it was sometimes hard to tell, with titles like The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western (1974), Sombrero Fallout: A Japanese Novel (1976), and The Tokyo-Montana Express (1980). However, his best known work is the aptly-titled Trout Fishing in America (1967).Evel Knievel (1938-2007): This American daredevil was born in Butte, where he started out on the local rodeo and ski jumping circuits. Four of Knievel’s televised jumps, most notably his 1974 attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon at Twin Falls, Idaho, are in the top twenty most-watched ABC’s Wide World of Sports episodes. Knievel is buried in Butte’s Mountain View Cemetery.Steve Albini (1962-present): Growing up in rural Missoula, Montana provided the subject matter for several of this punk rocker’s later songs. He founded several groups, including Big Black, Flour, and Shellac, and also founded the Electrical Audio recording complex, which has recorded albums by groups like Pixies, Nirvana, and Manic Street Preachers.