He also worked as a carpenter before he got famous, if that counts.
My favorite one concerns the current TV show Numbers, about a mathematician/former child prodigy who helps his FBI brother solve crimes. It stars Dylan Bruno as one of the FBI agents; IRL he has a bachelor’s degree from MIT.
Actress Estella Warren (Mark Wahlberg’s squeeze in Planet of the Apes) spent her youth training in synchronized swimming, and was the Canadian National Champion for synchronized swimming for three years prior to becoiming an actress/model.
I posted a thread like this once, and remember being surprised that Ashton Kutcher holds a degree in something-or-other–chemistry or engineering, maybe.
Sir Rhosis
A wiki search indicates that he majored in biochemical engineering at the University of Iowa, but dropped out of school to go into modeling.
Fred “Herman Munster” Gwynne graduated from Harvard, was editor of the Harvard Lampoon, and was an accomplished artist, writing and illustrating several children’s books.
Johnny “Tarzan” Weismuller won four olympic gold medals.
Surprising? That’s how he became famous (and got cast as Tarzan). Fellow Tarzan Buster Crabbe was also an Olympic medalist swimmer before entering the movies.
Marlon Brando: drum head tensioning device (Brando once studied latin percussion with the great Tito Puente)
Michael Jackson: anti-gravity illusion shoes
Julie Newmar: tummy control stockings that don’t flatten a shapely ass
Penn Jillette: whirlpool bath that targets female erogenous zones
Gary “Radar O’Reilly” Burghoff: fish attractor that floats on water and distributes bait
And do you know who invented the little card that stands up on a table to advertise food, drinks, or entertainment? Lawrence Welk. (And no, it did not blow bubbles.)
Tom Scholtz, the main force behing the group Boston, has a Masters degree in mechanical engineering. He designed and built most of the recording equipment that he used in his basement studio (and which was used on the first, wildly successful Boston album), and later designed the ‘Rockman’, which was a very popular guitar practice amp that sold gazillions.
Interestingly, although he had 2 years of piano training as a small child, he taught himself to play guitar, bass, organ, and drums while in college.
Scholtz wrote, produced, and engineered all of Boston’s albums. He’s the holder of 34 different patents, and was once a design engineer for Polaroid.
And of course, for some reason I spelled his name “Scholtz”. It’s “Scholz”.
Oh, here’s another celebrity tidbit: Morgan Fairchild is a Mensa member, and reportedly has an IQ around 150.
In spite of his idiotic characters and hillbilly accent, deadpan actor William Sanderson (best known as Larry of “I’m ___, this is my brother Darryl and this is my other brother Darryl” fame or as far sleazier E.B. “One hopes for the best. One perseveres. One reevaluates constantly. One is an asshole if one doesn’t” Farnum on Deadwood) graduated law school with honors but never took the bar exam or practiced. It was his “fallback” degree if acting didn’t work out.
Robert Gant (born Robert Gonzales) on Queer as Folk (the sexy HIV+ professor) was a practicing lawyer in LA for a few years before his acting career took off.
Also a lawyer who never practiced: John Cleese, while his friend and writing partner and co-Python Graham Chapman was a medical student who came thisclose to being a doctor but gave it up for show biz. Terry Jones used his share of profits from the movies (which were substantial- Holy Grail was so low budget that the cast was given major shares of the profits to offset their pitiful salaries, and nobody expected it to be a huge hit, so it essentially made them all millionaires) to open a microbrewery and return to university to study his passion, medieval literature. He’s now semi-retired from acting and teaches, writes and produces documentaries on the middle ages.
Dee from What’s Happenin’? is now a veterinarian. This is what kept coming to my mind when the girl from Family Matters whines or Dana Plato whined about having to do porn to pay the rent (sweetie, I’ve always paid the rent and I’ve never done porn- same’s true of most of the people you’ll ever meet- and Danielle Spencer probably makes one hell of a lot less than you do).
I don’t know what his academic background is but Tom Hanks is exceptionally well read and intelligent for an actor when it comes to history and space exploration (two of his interests).
I have been amazed at how seriously Angelina Jolie takes her work with children abroad and how truly informed she has become. She’s even mostly quit the wackiness (kissing her brother like a lover, wearing boyfriend’s blood, etc.) since finding her cause, it’s not just a Celebrity Jeopardy type publicity thing with her. And while I disagree with many of his statements, Bono’s no slouch either in terms of knowledge of what he’s speaking of.
Ah, and John Mahoney (Martin the dad on Frasier) was a medical researcher and reporter until he became an actor in his early forties. George C. Scott was a journalist and a journalism professor and Harold Gould (bka Rhoda’s dad or Rose’s boyfriend on Golden Girls) has a Ph.D. in English.
True, but most people today don’t realize that.
Bandleader Fred Waring (of Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians) invented the blender, or, at least, the Waring Blender, which is still a major brand.
Sir Jonathan Miller, a theater and TV producer (best known for the BBC’s complete works of Shakepeare series), and sometime actor (from the original “Beyond the Fringe” with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore), is an MD.
Mayam Bialik (Blossom of TV’s Blossom) got her PhD in neuroscience after the end of the show.
Edward Norton has a BA in History from Yale, and speaks Japanese.
British actor Stephen Fry physically cannot sing worth a damn but is an opera afficianado. He also is a bit of a magician. And he was arrested as a teen for credit card fraud.
Just like Jesus!
I read also that her father is considered one of the pre-eminent professors of Buddhist studies in the US.
Old Paulie Cicero, himself…
That’s quite interesting.
I’ve read that former Disney star Tommy Kirk is considered quite the Civil War historian (though untitled, or undegreed).
Sir Rhosis