Mayim Bialik, who starred in the TV series Blossom, is now a grad student in neuroscience.
“Don’t stand so close to me…”
Steve Buscemi was a firefighter in Little Italy, New York, for several years in the early 80’s.
Fred “Herman Munster” Gwynne wrote a series of well-regarded children’s books (“The King Who Rained,” “A Chocolate Moose for Dinner”) In college, he was the editor of the Harvard Lampoon.
Ventriloquist and voice actor Paul Winchell (voice of Tigger, Gargamel, Dick Dastardly and many others) has been involved in the development of an artificial heart.
So was Denis Leary. And in fact, I believe both of them re-joined their old fire stations after 9/11 and put in a bunch of volunteer firefighter time.
Which reminds me: Dennis Farina was a cop.
And Dennis Franz is a decorated Vietnam vet, which is probably completely irrelevant to the OP, but I think it’s interesting.
Vincent Price was an avid cook, the author of a number of
cookbooks and founded the Vincent Price Gallery at East Los Angeles Community College way back in 1951.
Martin Mull isn’t just an actor/comedian (though he’s a damn good one) as the IMDB indicates, but also an artist with more than 30 one-man shows to his credit. He is also a gifted musician with several albums exhibiting his peculiar sense of humor. Well worth tracking down those 1970s efforts, particularly the live gig, “Martin Mull and His Fabulous Furniture in Your Living Room!!” with the hilarious tune “Just Licks Off Of Records That I Learned.” He also has a master’s degree in design.
Voice actress Grey de Lisle has released a couple of country/folk albums. (“Graceful Ghost” is really good.)
Sonny Bono: Successful singer and songwriter, popular US Congressman, mediocre downhill skier.
Ooh, and my father-in-law once ran into him in a bar and I kid you not, they exchanged recipes! How fun is that? My FIL has a recipe for salad dressing from Vincent Price!
Forgive my ignorance, but I thought this was Charo’s main accomplishment. If you’re presenting this as her ‘alternate’ accomplishment, what else is she known for? Her acting? (No snark intended)
You can’t stop there! Give us a hint. Oil and vinegrette type? Creamy Italian? Bleu cheese? Tamarind and mango? Miracle Whip with a dash of Heinz Ketchup? Inquiring cuilinary minds, etc.
Paul Newman was a professional quality auto racer. He’s getting on, but he’s still darn good.
Peter Garrett, the former lead singer of the Oils, is now an Australian federal politician.
Her main accomplishment, at least in the U.S., is being famous for being famous. She’s one of those people who seems to be all over the place even though you can’t figure out what exactly she did to deserve such attention.
Oh, murder and death and grief and sorrow…
Inconceivable!
Actually, I think he’s still the only one that actually wrote a book all by himself. All the other ones I know of had ghostwriters (you can usually see their name in small print somewhere on the cover or the title page or something).
I have his two books on wrestling. They’re really quite good. Much better than I would have expected from a man who takes beatings for a living.
IIRC, he was the only guitarist for Queen.
In my head, I’m imagining Vincent Price doing a cooking show…this man with a really deep, scary voice saying, “…mix in one egg, a pinch of salt…” and I’m having a good laugh. 
I haven’t heard that either Colin Hay or Peter Garrett was a teacher - Garrett studied at ANU and NSW and graduated with a law degree.
And of course there’s also his interest in salad dressing and popcorn.
Madonna and the crowd of other celebreties who have written “children’s books” get no credit for this from me. These books (with one or two exceptions, and she ain’t one of them) are putrid, and would NEVER get published without them already being famous. People who work hard to write and get published in this genre are slapped in the face when someone can write any old crap and get it published, then get touted as a “successful children’s writer.” The parellel would be John Travolta buying a plane and using it without actually learning how to fly. Now that it’s hip to write a children’s books, any celebrity with half of a overworked “cute idea” can scribbled it down, get the secretary to flesh it out, and get a book deal.
</rant>
Me either, in general. Then I found a couple of great children’s books in the library that entertained me by a woman named Julie Edwards.
As in, Mrs. Blake Edwards. D’oh. :smack:
I was surprised to learn recently that Arnold Schwarzenegger paints. Apparently watercolor is his choice of medium and he gives the paintings away as gifts. Knowing him I would imagine they are pretty good.