# Famous people who went to your otherwise unheralded school **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 19, 2003, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050 "2003-02-19T03:02:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/1 "2003-02-19T03:02:21Z")
Some people attend Harvard, Yale or Stanford. This thread is not for them. Famous people are supposed to go to those schools. This thread is for those of us who went to second, third, or lower tier schools. Your state schools, small private colleges, what have you. Did anyone famous go there? I am mostly thinking of people who are still living. I’ll start. I atttended [The State University of New York at Buffalo](http://www.buffalo.edu) . We have Miramax films boss Harvey Weinstein, actor [Peter Riegert](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Riegert,+Peter) (best know for his role in _Animal House_) , and editorial cartoonist [Tom Toles](http://www.ucomics.com/tomtoles/bio.phtml). Well, what would you expect from a school that has a college named for [Millard Fillmore](http://www.mfc.buffalo.edu/) ? ---
**Author:** ![Gopher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a183cd/32.png) [@Gopher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gopher)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/2 "2003-02-19T03:20:09Z")
How about high school? Steven Spielberg went to my school and hated it. ---
**Author:** ![Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Laughing\_Lagomorph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laughing_Lagomorph)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/3 "2003-02-19T03:21:56Z")
Yes, sorry. I meant to mention high schools were fine too. I went to two high schools and AFAIK no one even remotely famous went to either of them. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/4 "2003-02-19T03:23:23Z")
Undergrad at UC Santa Barbara: Michael Douglas Grad at Drew University (New Jersey): Soon-Yi Previn; James van der Beek (the latter didn’t graduate) ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/5 "2003-02-19T03:31:39Z")
Jesse Ventura went to my high school. He was a senior when I was a sophomore. He was Jim Janos then…tall, skinny guy on the swim team. Lettered three years in a row. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/6 "2003-02-19T03:36:38Z")
Phil Alden Robinson (director of “Field of Dreams”) went to my college, along with one president (Chester Alan Arthur) and maybe another (Jimmy Carter claimed so, but there is no record, since he was in a special program for Navy training and not a regular student). ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/7 "2003-02-19T04:07:34Z")
Madonna: St. Andrew (elementary) School, Rochester, MI. (She started the year after I left.) St. Andrew closed as a parish school some time in the 1970s, then was re-opened as Holy Family Regional Elementary School at some later date (1980s?). Pam Eldred, Miss America, 1970, was _(I believe)_ a graduate of Mercy College, Detroit, where I took a couple of courses a couple of years later. I never met either of them, although I knew a guy who went out on a date with Ms. Eldred and my kid brother was one year ahead of Madonna, so probably encountered her on the playground. ---
**Author:** ![Berkut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e57/32.png) [@Berkut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Berkut)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/8 "2003-02-19T04:17:49Z")
Al Gore, Sr. Al Gore, Jr. teaches here. ---
**Author:** ![ScorpioStem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@ScorpioStem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ScorpioStem)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/9 "2003-02-19T04:19:56Z")
Aimee Mann (singer) went to my high school. She only went there for her freshman, sophomore, and junior years. My mom was apparently really good friends with her; she has quite a few old pictures of the two of them. ---
**Author:** ![Cessandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cessandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cessandra)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/10 "2003-02-19T04:29:29Z")
I went to Sam Houston State U and so did Dan Rather. ---
**Author:** ![Lorenzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@Lorenzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorenzo)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/11 "2003-02-19T04:29:52Z")
The best known but far from famous person who went to school with me was actually expelled from my HS but went on to the University of Michigan and became, among other things, Christopher Reeve’s personal physician after his horrible accident. ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/12 "2003-02-19T04:34:55Z")
Rick Husband, Commander of the Columbia, received a MA from California State University, Fresno in 1990. He apparently took a Fresno State sweatshirt with him on the flight and was scheduled to come back this spring and present it to the school. ---
**Author:** ![Chaco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d26b3c/32.png) [@Chaco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chaco)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/13 "2003-02-19T04:47:47Z")
San Francisco State University: Annette Bening, Johnny Mathis, Danny Glover, and David Carradine. ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/14 "2003-02-19T05:24:29Z")
Actors Matthew McConaughey and Forest Whitaker went to my high school. That’s all I know off the top of my head. Is there any place one can look up famous people by their school (besides IMDb)? ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/15 "2003-02-19T05:33:56Z")
I briefly attended a horrible little fresh water college in Southern Missouri. Actually, they threw my sorry butt out of there after one semester. They constantly told everyone that **Robert Cummings** , a really cheesy 1950s TV and grade B movie actor was an alumni–and the only one they bragged about. I attended, and twice graduated from, one of the great public universities with too many distinguished graduates to list. ---
**Author:** ![Jervoise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jervoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jervoise)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/16 "2003-02-19T06:20:27Z")
My university is distinguished in Australia, but hardly well-known outside this country, so I guess it counts as “unheralded”. Anyway, Bob Hawke, former Prime Minister of Australia, attended my uni. He is reputed to have set a record in yard glass drinking (that’s beer drinking from a _very_ long glass with a big bulb at the end) at the uni tavern. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/17 "2003-02-19T06:31:10Z")
Matt Groening (creater of _The Simpsons_), Michael Richards (Kramer on _Seinfeld_) and I all went to The Evergreen State College. It’s no coincidence that the Simpsons live on Evergreen Terrace. And WNBA player Kate Starbird went to the same high school I did. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/18 "2003-02-19T06:34:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Narrad \* > Anyway, Bob Hawke, former Prime Minister of Australia, attended my uni. He is reputed to have set a record in yard glass drinking (that’s beer drinking from a _very_ long glass with a big bulb at the end) at the uni tavern. Well, naturally. Isn’t that how you become Prime Minister of Australia? [sub]Oh, I’m gonna hear it for that one.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/19 "2003-02-19T07:28:45Z")
Former Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John D. Ryan and former U.S. Senator Guy M. Gillette both graduated from my high school. Neither is well known any more, but used to be. ---
**Author:** ![Second\_Echo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@Second\_Echo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Second_Echo)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/20 "2003-02-19T07:32:15Z")
Jerry Cantrell (of Alice in Chains fame) went to my high school. He preceded my friends and I by about 10 years, but we have the old yearbooks to prove it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050.md?page=2)