Des Plaines native Jeff Daniel Phillips wanted a career in the fine arts, but his claim to fame turned out to be his quietly explosive caveman in those wildly popular Geico Insurance commercials. “I kept a lid on it for a long time that I was the Caveman,” Phillips told us. “Only recently have I been letting people know it’s me because you always worry about being pigeon-holed.”

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Des Plaines native evolves into Geico Caveman