# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Nordic\_Pacer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/77aa72/32.png) [@Nordic\_Pacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nordic_Pacer)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/41 "2003-02-19T15:55:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gopher \* > \*\*How about high school? > > Steven Spielberg went to my school and hated it. \*\* **Gopher** , I think we went to the same high school. If it’s the one that Spielberg referred to as being full of anti-Semitic jerks, that is… ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/42 "2003-02-19T16:27:00Z")
“Jon Stewart went to the College of William and Mary (Virginia state school). Actually I just learned that the other day. Our other distinguished graduate that I can think of is Glenn Close.” This guy named Thomas Jefferson went to William and Mary, too. Perhaps you’ve heard of him? “Flounder” from Animal House went to the same college I attended. ---
**Author:** ![Tazmanian\_Devil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cc9497/32.png) [@Tazmanian\_Devil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tazmanian_Devil)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/43 "2003-02-19T16:30:51Z")
Went to high school with Andy Richter, former sidekick of Conan O’ Brien. ---
**Author:** ![Yossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/9de0a6/32.png) [@Yossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yossarian)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/44 "2003-02-19T16:54:29Z")
I graduated from [Sul Ross State University](http://www.sulross.edu), and so did… Dan Blocker! That’s right–TV’s very own Hoss Cartwright is my _only_ famous fellow alumni. The University where I currently work is equally not well known, but does have at least one famous alumni: Alex Haley. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/45 "2003-02-19T17:09:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by plnnr \* > \*\*“Flounder” from Animal House went to the same college I attended. \*\* Stephen Furst, aka Vir Cotto from Babylon V? ---
**Author:** ![acrossthesea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@acrossthesea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/acrossthesea)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/46 "2003-02-19T17:43:13Z")
Simon & Garfunckle went to (and met at) my junior high school. (Many years before I was born) They didnt start making music though till high school, but I didnt go to that school. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/47 "2003-02-19T17:44:51Z")
[Trinity College](http://www.trincoll.edu/pub/trinity_people/distinguished_alumni.html) in Hartford, CT, where I got my bachelor’s degree, includes playwright Edward Albee and columnist George F. Will amongst its alumni. But while it’s not as well known as Dartmouth or Amherst, it’s not exactly a backwater, either. [King College](http://www.king.edu/) in Bristol, TN, where I taught for five years, qualifies as a genuinely obscure college. But it numbers writer [Katherine Paterson](http://www.alexlibris.com/bio_paterson.asp) among its alumni. Crime novelist [Patricia Cornwell](http://www.patriciacornwell.com/about_main.html) also attended King for a semester or two, later graduating from Davidson College in NC. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/48 "2003-02-19T17:50:40Z")
Howard Goodall, who wrote the Blackadder theme song. His dad was Principal at one point, too. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/49 "2003-02-19T17:51:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CrankyAsAnOldMan \* > \*\*Pearl S. Buck went to my college, a small woman’s college in VA that most people haven’t heard of. \*\* That would be Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg. Most people haven’t heard of it, but I know my way around both Virginia and the world of small colleges. I don’t know much about it, though. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/50 "2003-02-19T17:54:49Z")
I graduated Dowling College in Long Island as did Mark Mathabane, author of Kafir Boy, which is the story of his life as a victim of apartheid in South Africa. He also wrote Kafir Boy in America, which has a whole chapter on the great Student Association election scandal of 83 or maybe 84. It mentions the first guy I ever had sex with. I remember Mark very well. He was well dressed and nobody liked him. As I recall, he also attended Quincy College, which was mentioned in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/51 "2003-02-19T18:14:13Z")
## " quote: ## Originally posted by plnnr “Flounder” from Animal House went to the same college I attended. Stephen Furst, aka Vir Cotto from Babylon V? Yes, that’s him. He and my SO lived in a sort of commune called Mulberry House (IIRC). ---
**Author:** ![Gazelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Gazelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gazelle)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/52 "2003-02-19T18:19:47Z")
Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) went to Heidelberg American High School (HHS) in Heidelberg, Germany. I thnk he was there in the early seventies; I was there in the mid- to late-eighties. Eric Zeier, former Baltimore Ravens quarterback, went to HHS in the early nineties; my brother knew him. Mary Lou Retton went to the University of Texas at Austin at the same time I did, but I wasn’t there long (1987/1988). That’s about it. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/53 "2003-02-19T18:46:10Z")
My high school’s got Harry Chapin; Charles Wang; Col . Karol J. Bobko, astronaut; Leonard Riggio, founder and CEO of Barnes & Noble; Meredit C. Eredit, olympic medalist; and noble laureate Arno A. Penzias-- among many others. My college has got actors Jimmy Smits and Dominic Chianese (Jr on the Sopranos); Sheldon Silver (speaker of the NYS assembly); and Allan Dershowitz are the ones that I can think of off the top of my head. Who says public education is dead? ---
**Author:** ![White\_Lightning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@White\_Lightning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Lightning)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/54 "2003-02-19T19:13:55Z")
This one should be popular around here: Joss Whedon graduated from the university that I attended. So did Michael Bay. And Dar Williams. But not me. As for my high school, the only remotely famous alums I know of are athletes. Most recently Drew Gooden of NCAA basketball and NBA fame graduated the year after I did. I had a PE class with him once. A couple NFL players also went there, that I can’t name off the top of my head. The furthest an ECHS graduate’s ever gotten in the major leagues to my knowledge was a guy in my class who was playing ball in the Dodgers’ AA system last I heard. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/22080_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/55 "2003-02-19T19:23:13Z")
From my alma mater:[ul]\* Purdue is proud of its “cradle of astronauts” reputation, with 22 alumni having been chosen for space travel. Purdue astronauts have included the first and last men on the moon, Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan, and one of America’s original Project Mercury astronauts, Gus Grissom. Noted alumni of the past range from author and humorist George Ade and inventor David Ross to novelist Booth Tarkington and “popcorn king” Orville Redenbacher.\* [/ul]A girl from my high school became a Rockette and one of Dean Martin’s Golddiggers. Not much of a claim to fame, such as it is… ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/56 "2003-02-19T19:36:41Z")
Supposedly Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills, and Nash went to my high school, but it was an all-girls school until just before I started there in the 80s. Unless it was coed, then all-girls, then coed again. So I don’t know the veracity of that claim, but why would you make that up? Why would you make up that the least famous part of the band went to your school? My first degree is from LSU, where a fellow named Shaquille O’Neal was also enrolled. Strangely, our paths didn’t cross - he must have been in a different Creative Writing class. A lot of famous athletes who other people know of went there, but they didn’t matter much to me. I lived in a subdivision where all the streets are named after ex-LSU athletes (I lived on Jim Taylor Drive and then on Alvin Dark Road). Incidentally, Pulitzer Prize winning author Robert Penn Warren was at LSU, but he doesn’t get a street, building, stairwell, or water fountain named after him. If only he could have thrown a football instead. I also went to Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. There’s some famous folks that went there, like Gary Cole, Laurie Metcalf, and John Malkovich. ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/57 "2003-02-19T19:37:07Z")
There are a number of well-known graduates of my school (Fordham University, the red-headed bastard child of NYC universities): Alan Alda, Donald Trump, and Denzel Washington are probably the most famous. Another distinguished alum is Virginia O’Hanlon, to whom “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” was addressed. She earned a PhD in education there. A slight variation on the theme: The Marshalls: Rob (currently Oscar nominated as Best Director for _Chicago_) and Kathleen (choreographer for the recent TV version of _The Music Man_) attended the school where I taught in Pittsburgh, but quite a few years prior to my hire. ---
**Author:** ![Riptor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8edcca/32.png) [@Riptor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riptor)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/58 "2003-02-19T19:54:27Z")
Ah, White Lightning went to Wesleyan. I’ve got a friend who goes there now. She loves it. Anyway, I’m only in high school at the current time but famous people who attended Andover High School include Jay Leno and Michael Chiklis (from FX’s The Shield and The Commish). Also, Philips Academy has been host to both George Bushes. Dubya was a member of the cheerleading squad, and there’s a nice big picture of him in his uniform somewhere on campus! ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/59 "2003-02-19T21:29:08Z")
> [@](#): > > This one should be popular around here: Joss Whedon graduated from the university that I attended. That reminds me, although you’d have to be a Buffy fan to get it/care: Marti Noxon went to UC Santa Cruz, and named all of the dorms at fictional UC Sunnydale after the colleges at UCSC. ---
**Author:** ![ecugrad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac8455/32.png) [@ecugrad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ecugrad)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050/60 "2003-02-19T21:36:09Z")
Sandra Bullock attending East Carolina University (ECU) in Greenville, NC the same time I did. We had some mutual friends in common and we were on the same dorm floor for a couple semesters. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-people-who-went-to-your-otherwise-unheralded-school/156050.md?page=4)