# Celebrities with REAL (Not Honorary) Doctorates **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 17, 2007, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613 "2007-02-17T14:32:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/81 "2007-02-22T10:48:12Z")
Terminus Est writes: \> My location allows me to access the SCI database from the convenience of my \> desk. Danica’s paper has been cited twice. So it appears than that Typo Knig’s papers have been cited more than the paper that Danica McKellar co-authored. I’d like to know how many times my one paper has been cited. Zero, I suspect. It’s “Khayyamic n-Simplices - A Generalization of Pascal’s Triangle” by Wendell Wagner, Jr., in _The Journal of Undergraduate Mathematics_, Volume 7, Number 1, March 1975. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/82 "2007-02-22T11:34:51Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] Terminus Est writes: \> My location allows me to access the SCI database from the convenience of my \> desk. Danica’s paper has been cited twice. So it appears than that Typo Knig’s papers have been cited more than the paper that Danica McKellar co-authored. I’d like to know how many times my one paper has been cited. Zero, I suspect. It’s “Khayyamic n-Simplices - A Generalization of Pascal’s Triangle” by Wendell Wagner, Jr., in _The Journal of Undergraduate Mathematics_, Volume 7, Number 1, March 1975. [/QUOTE] Dude, _you_ wrote that? Man, I’m a huge fan! I especially loved the part about the angles. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/83 "2007-02-22T11:52:10Z")
TV time writes: \> Sexy Hollywood star Heddy Lamarr (from Austria with a biography that reads \> like a thriller) was regarded as something of Mathmatical genius and If I \> remember correctly did end up getting advanced degrees in mathamatics after \> her film career was over. Some of her inventions/theories still are (pun here) \> making waves. No, this isn’t accurate. Here’s the true story: > **[Hedy Lamarr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr)** > > Hedy Lamarr (/ˈhɛdi/; born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler; November 9, 1914\[a\] – January 19, 2000) was an Austro-Hungarian-born American actress and technology inventor. She was a film star during Hollywood's Golden Age. > After a brief early film career in Czechoslovakia, including the controversial Ecstasy (1933), she fled from her first husband, a wealthy Austrian ammunition manufacturer, and secretly moved to Paris. Traveling to London, she met Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio head Louis B. Mayer, wh... She was the co-inventor of frequency-hopping (spread spectrum). She never even attended college. She was apparently quite a smart person, but she never did anything else that displayed her mathematical/scientific/engineering abilities. She just happened to be at the right place and the right time to come up with the idea of frequency-hopping. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/84 "2007-02-22T13:47:52Z")
**Darryl Lict** - You may be right. I don’t know - I don’t like football. But I know Alan studied law while playing pro football full time. During his and in his career he started in 235 games. He almost never missed a game. All I know is he was (and probably still is) smart and kind and very gentle for someone so large. StG ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/85 "2007-02-22T14:14:00Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] Terminus Est writes: \> My location allows me to access the SCI database from the convenience of my \> desk. Danica’s paper has been cited twice. So it appears than that Typo Knig’s papers have been cited more than the paper that Danica McKellar co-authored. I’d like to know how many times my one paper has been cited. Zero, I suspect. It’s “Khayyamic n-Simplices - A Generalization of Pascal’s Triangle” by Wendell Wagner, Jr., in _The Journal of Undergraduate Mathematics_, Volume 7, Number 1, March 1975. [/QUOTE] And you are not using an alias? Aren’t you worried about math groupies and stalkers? ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/86 "2007-02-22T17:36:52Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] Terminus Est writes: \> My location allows me to access the SCI database from the convenience of my \> desk. Danica’s paper has been cited twice. So it appears than that Typo Knig’s papers have been cited more than the paper that Danica McKellar co-authored. I’d like to know how many times my one paper has been cited. Zero, I suspect. It’s “Khayyamic n-Simplices - A Generalization of Pascal’s Triangle” by Wendell Wagner, Jr., in _The Journal of Undergraduate Mathematics_, Volume 7, Number 1, March 1975. [/QUOTE] Sorry, **Wendell**. The journal isn’t listed in the citation index. Our library system doesn’t even carry it. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2007, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/87 "2007-02-23T15:07:00Z")
Thanks, Terminus Est. No citations, as I suspected. Too minor a journal even to be carried by most libraries, for that matter. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2007, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/88 "2007-02-23T18:28:52Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] Thanks, Terminus Est. No citations, as I suspected. Too minor a journal even to be carried by most libraries, for that matter. [/QUOTE] We should create our own version of a Google Bomb. Everyone at the Dope who authors a paper (no matter the subject) should cite Wendell’s paper. Get your friends and coworkers involved too! Let’s make _Khayyamic n-Simplices - A Generalization of Pascal’s Triangle_ #1! ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/89 "2007-02-24T03:34:14Z")
[QUOTE=Zakalwe] [QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] Thanks, Terminus Est. No citations, as I suspected. Too minor a journal even to be carried by most libraries, for that matter. [/QUOTE] We should create our own version of a Google Bomb. Everyone at the Dope who authors a paper (no matter the subject) should cite Wendell’s paper. Get your friends and coworkers involved too! Let’s make _Khayyamic n-Simplices - A Generalization of Pascal’s Triangle_ #1! [/QUOTE] That would be **sweeet!** But co-authors, referees, and journal editors would probably not let it pass. It’s a rare thing when someone can pull off a [scientific joke](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpher-Bethe-Gamow_paper) like that. I understand that [Ralph Alpher](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Alpher) was quite pissed that his work was turned into a joke - by his [advisor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gamow)! ---
**Author:** ![Stinkum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Stinkum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stinkum)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/90 "2007-02-24T06:02:01Z")
Former porn star Sharon Mitchell has earned a PhD in something or other (can’t remember right now, sorry). ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/91 "2007-02-24T06:14:38Z")
[QUOTE=Stinkum] Former porn star Sharon Mitchell has earned a PhD in something or other (can’t remember right now, sorry). [/QUOTE] Google reveals that if you think about it, you can guess. 🙂 -FrL- Okay you couldn’t really guess beforehand, I know. The answer is: Her PhD is in Human Sexuality. I’d like to read that dissertation. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/92 "2007-02-24T06:43:38Z")
[QUOTE=Wendell Wagner] She just happened to be at the right place and the right time to come up with the idea of frequency-hopping. [/QUOTE] As I recall an NPR report on her, wasn’t it more inspired by her eidetic remembrances of her then-husband’s cocktail-party conversations than her own original thinking? Eidetic (so-called “photographic”) memory would be an advantage for an actress, even one as hot and naked as her. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/93 "2007-02-24T18:03:33Z")
**Paul Winchell** had a Doctor of Acupuncture degree (seriously). He also held patents on the first artificial heart, the flameless cigarette lighter, illuminated pen- ballpoint (behind cartridge), the freezer interrupt indicator, battery heated gloves, a battery lighted key case, a portable blood plasma defroster, a sectional garment for hypothermia, a piezo-electric diaphragm, an aluminum electrical generator, novelty phonograph records, novelty upside down mask and mirror, a reversible alphabet that could be seen normally when shown in a mirror, rubber sand that allowed for the sturdy attachment of pictures to frames, an invisible garter belt and a retractable fountain pen. All from [here](http://www.paulwinchell.com/biography.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/94 "2007-02-24T19:12:33Z")
[Ross Martin](http://www.wildwildwest.org/w2/audio/images/rmartin/rmrc1.jpg), best known as Artemus Gordon in _The Wild Wild West_, had a doctorate in- I believe- music, but I unfortunately can’t find a cite. (He’s been dead a bit too long I suppose.) He was something of a Renaissance man who spoke many languages and read several books per week. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/95 "2007-02-24T19:15:37Z")
[Robert Gant](http://www.robertgant.com/) from _Queer as Folk_ has a JD as well (I’ll mention since some other JDs have been counted). ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2007, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/96 "2007-02-24T21:44:40Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] [Ross Martin](http://www.wildwildwest.org/w2/audio/images/rmartin/rmrc1.jpg), best known as Artemus Gordon in _The Wild Wild West_, had a doctorate in- I believe- music, but I unfortunately can’t find a cite. (He’s been dead a bit too long I suppose.) He was something of a Renaissance man who spoke many languages and read several books per week. [/QUOTE] Thanks for mentioning this. I had no idea how brilliant he was. According to [this site](http://movies.aol.com/celebrity/ross-martin/46031/biography) and [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Martin), he spoke seven languages, was a trained concert violinist (giving his first solo performance at age eight), and also had an MA in psychmetrics and a law degree. But, alas, no mention of a doctorate. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/97 "2007-02-25T00:05:07Z")
[QUOTE=Terminus Est] My location allows me to access the SCI database from the convenience of my desk. Danica’s paper has been cited twice. [/QUOTE] [Google scholar](http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=mckellar+winn&btnG=Search) lets you see who has cited any paper. I use it instead of pubmed now, especially for vanity searches. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/98 "2007-02-25T12:46:53Z")
dropzone writes: \> As I recall an NPR report on her, wasn’t it more inspired by her eidetic \> remembrances of her then-husband’s cocktail-party conversations than her own \> original thinking? Eidetic (so-called “photographic”) memory would be an \> advantage for an actress, even one as hot and naked as her. I believe the story goes as follows: When she was married to her first husband, a German arms manufacturer, she heard him discuss with other people at the dinner table one of the main problems that existed with torpedoes. The problem was that it would be better if they could communicate with them after they were launched so that even if a ship moved, it would be possible to hit it with the torpedo. The problem with trying to communicate by radio was that, whatever radio frequency one used, the ship could jam it. Even if one used many frequencies, it would be possible to jam the signal at all of the frequencies. Years later, in 1942, after she had divorced him and moved to Hollywood to act there, she was talking one day with George Antheil, an avant-garde composer who also composed film scores for a living. (It appears to me that she would have been between her second and third husbands at the time.) Antheil was very mechanically inclined, since his avant-garde music used a lot of instruments specially designed for his music. They were sitting at the piano, where Antheil was playing a song that had lots of jumps back and forth in the notes. It occurred to Lamarr that if one could jump around in frequency very quickly in sending and receiving radio signals, one would have a radio signal that would be difficult to jam (or even to be know that it was there). All one would have to do was to synchronize the timing for the sender and the receiver so they would both know at any split-second what frequency the radio signal was being sent at. She explained this to Antheil, who said that one way to mechanically control a radio signal was to use a player piano roll, in which the frequency of the signal would jump around 88 different frequencies several times a second. They patented this idea. It didn’t get used until thirty years later, at which point it was possible to change frequencies much faster using electronic methods instead of mechanical ones. I’ve never heard anything about Hedy Lamarr’s memory. I’ve read that the general consensus in Hollywood was the following: She was one of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood. She was obviously a very smart person. She was, unfortunately, not a very good actress. Incidentally, according to the link in Fiveyearlucker’s post, the Chayes-McKellar-Winn paper has been cited three times, not two times. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2007, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/99 "2007-02-25T19:53:22Z")
My husband (the sports nut) would like me to add [Dr. Randy Gregg](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Gregg_(ice_hockey)), 5-time Stanley Cup Champion with the Edmonton Oilers and current orthopedic surgeon to the list. I’m guessing he is famous to people who know about sports. Another interesting hockey player is [the Honorable Ken Dryden](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dryden%2C_Ken), former goalie (arguably one of the best to play the game) and current Member of Parliament and former Cabinet Minister in Canada. He has a law degree from McGill University and several honourary doctorates from various Canadian universities. Sorry, realized we weren’t looking for honourary doctorates here. Still, interesting career moves. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2014, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613/100 "2014-09-16T16:18:33Z")
This is an old thread, I know, but it came up on a google search for celebrities with doctorates. I figured it was worth a bump for an update on one of my favorite actors, who was mentioned earlier in this thread: Congratulations to Peter Weller, PhD! From [Peter Weller’s Wikipedia page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Weller): > [@](#): > > In 2007, Weller began a Ph.D. at UCLA, in Italian Renaissance art history. He filed his dissertation in October 2013, and revealed at the Official Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas on August 2, 2014, that he had obtained his doctorate. (do you think he minds if people call him Dr. Robocop?) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrities-with-real-not-honorary-doctorates/392613.md?page=6)