I’m looking to see which actors or actresses might have credentials that would indicate a brighter star shining within. I recall that Geena Davis had Mensa credentials. anyone else. Also, Cindy Crawford was majoring in Physics before she got pulled into modeling. Is there anyone with say, an MIT degree, or something else that would be impressive from a science/math standpoint? I know that more than a few, like Brooke Shields graduated from an Ivy League school, but I’m looking for credentials in math and science, or something like Mensa.
Ashton Kutcher attended (but did not graduate from) the University of Iowa, in biomedical engineering. James Woods was a poly sci major at MIT but also did not finish his degree. “Dolph Lundgren graduated from the Royal Institute of Technology. He has a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney (1982), and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983 – but quit after two weeks to pursue acting.” (copied from Wikipedia)
Not Hollywood per se, but in the entertainment world Brian “Dexter” Holland, lead singer of the Offspring has a bachelors in biology and a masters in molecutlar biology as well as being a PhD candidate in molecular bio at one time at USC. Not too shabby for a punk rocker.
Danica McKellar (Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years) was a math major at UCLA. And another non-acting one; Brian May, the lead guitarist of Queen, is a physicist and chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University.
What does a restriction to math/science have to do with being a genius?
And once again proving that UCLA beats 'SC at everything but football, Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin lectures in paleontology and life sciences in Westwood. He went to UCLA for his undergrad and holds a PhD in zoology from Cornell.
I came in to say Charlie Chaplin. Maybe the Marx Brothers and W. C. Fields. D. W. Griffith and John Ford.
But a math degree? A Ph.D.? Mensa? They let anybody who can spell their own name into Mensa. Genius means a hell of a lot more than graduating college. Have you been out in the real world?
And lest I forget, Vandals bassist Joe Escalante holds a degree in Old Norse from UCLA as well, and went to my husband’s law school (where I met him a few years ago). He holds a JD with a specialization in anti-trust litigation (which I suppose is not very punk rock, but that’s another discussion).
Holy crap! I knew he was a bright guy, but day-um…
Then there’s Danica McKeller from the Wonder Years- after that show ended, she went on to graduate Summa cum Laude from UCLA with a degree in Mathematics, and even proved a new math theorem, the Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem. She now writes books to encourage girls to be better at math.
I’m interested specifically in those with a background in math or science. I’m not equating that with genius. I was just using the term very loosely. The Mensa angle is interesting as it is something people know and might indicate to the general populace, fairly or unfairly, someone who would do very well with math/science.
I think you’d find that anyone with a real genius for math, science, whatever, would hardly abandon it to make a career of acting. Geniuses are driven by the force of their insights to expand the sum of human knowledge.
Sure, some actors may have shined at other things and have degrees, etc. But geniuses? Nah.
In the same vein : Queen guitarist Brian May also happens to be a renowned astrophysicist (holding PhDs in both math and physics) and has recently been appointed chancelor of a university in Liverpool. I hope at the end of the year, he hands students their diplomas with one hand and melts their faces with the other, otherwise what’s the point ?
It should be pointed out that majoring in physics does not mean intelligent. In fact a PhD in physics does not mean intelligent although it does mean a willingness work hard to acheive a goal and a basic understanding of science. I’ve known many chemistry PhD’s that I would not label as particularly intelligent. I wouldn’t label my own supervising professor as intelligent. He basically memorized thousands of reactions but has no idea about science behind the goal he is trying to accomplish. He publishes pretty MO pictures regularly, then one day asked me to tell our computational chemist to find out what direction the electrons were moving. Obviously the only reason he publishes pretty MO pictures is because they fill space and look smart, but he clearly doesn’t know anything about the calculations behind them.
My point is that degree doesn’t mean anything beyond the fact that they accomplished a goal that doesn’t require genius, and not finishing a degree (as in the case of Cindy Crawford) is considerably less interesting.
It should also be pointed out that Cindy Crawford didn’t study Physics – she was a Chemical Engineering major.
Who apparently didn’t even complete her first year. So she’d’ve been taking introductory math and chemistry courses, but likely hadn’t had physics yet (still usually in the 2nd year in most ChemE programs I know of).
It’s entirely possible to be quite gifted in certain areas, even on a “genius” level, yet develop an interest in a different area entirely. Especially if that person is talented in more than one area. When I was a kid, I was considered “gifted” in math and music and abstract thinking (1600 SAT), and I can still hold my own in these disciplines, among others. But professionally, a career in art was more suited to my personality, and after several false starts, that’s the career I wound up in. It’s possible to be gifted in more than one discipline, and to take a few decades to find the most compatible path; that doesn’t diminish the paths not taken.
The two dumb blondes in Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion; Lisa Kudrow has a degree in Biology from Vassar, and Mira Sorvino graduated magna cum laude in East Asian Studies from Harvard.
I was channel surfing and came across a show with some academic talking about ancient Rome; and I thought “that guy looks like Peter Weller.” Then they cut to some footage of ruins and other people talking and then the same guy with his name on-screen. “That is Peter Weller!”
