# Most famous or interesting fictional alumni from your school? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 8, 2020, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108 "2020-09-08T17:23:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/104 "2020-09-10T13:52:36Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > **Dolph Lundgren** technically never attended MIT, but he got a Fulbright Scholarship to attend, but before he could get there he was spotted in a Sydney nightclub and became first a bodyguard to Grace Jones and then her lover. (things like this never happen to me, alas). as a result, he got a small part in the James Bond film Jones was in, **A View to a Kill** and was able to get the role of Rocky’s opponent, Ivan Drago, in **Rocky IV**. After that he was He-Man in **Masters of the Universe** , but then slipped down into direct-to-video territory. Actually, he’s had a major role in all three Expendables movies. His character had a Masters in Chemical Engineering from MIT, before he “became chemically unbalanced”. ---
**Author:** ![carlb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carlb/32/5930_2.png) [@carlb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlb)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/105 "2020-09-10T14:09:19Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Also an RPI grad, and I couldn’t remember _any_ mentions of it in fiction, so thank you for that. (Actually, there was one, in the Doonesbury comic strip; Alex Doonesbury, daughter of Mike Doonesbury and J.J. Caucus was trying decide among Cornell, RPI and MIT. The strip had a website contest where you could vote for which school she would attend. All three schools hacked the contest but I think MIT did it first and also best so she ended up there.) Funny - my decision was between Cornell and RPI. Got a better financial aid package from RPI. 😁 ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/106 "2020-09-10T14:11:42Z")
Mine was between Carnegie-Mellon and RPI and yes, the financial aid package clinched it. (Although RPI was only a 2 1/2 hour drive from home while Pittsburgh would have been about nine hours so that was also a factor.) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/107 "2020-09-10T14:31:15Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > I went to Kent State University. I can’t think of any fictional alumni… Nor can I, but it got a shoutout on _Star Trek: Voyager_ once, so it’s got that goin’ for it: [Kent State University | Memory Alpha | Fandom](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Kent_State_University) > [@Colibri](#): > > I’m sure the fictional character best known for being a graduate of my Alma Mater, Cornell University, is Andy Bernard from _The Office_, who often boasts about it… And Ed Helms, who played him, is a graduate of Oberlin College, my own alma mater. He’s back on campus from time to time, and has been a strong supporter of the jazz music program at the Conservatory. I’ve only come across a handful of fictional Oberlin grads over the years. There’s a professor of Far Eastern Studies who’s mentioned in John Scalzi’s military sf novel _Old Man’s War_, and several characters in William Goldman’s (himself an alum) 1984 semi-autobiographical novel _The Color of Light_, the opening of which is set on campus. I’ve written some _Star Trek_ fanfic and retroactively made Dr. Helen Noel, from _ST:TOS_, an Oberlin grad, as it happens. The actual Oberlin alumni are an impressive lot, I’d say: [List of Oberlin College and Conservatory people - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Oberlin_College_and_Conservatory_people) > [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > …Fiction writers seem to think that everyone in West Virginia comes from a small town with a name like Rock Throw or Pigeon Hollow and that we all live in dilapidated shacks without electricity or indoor plumbing. And your point is…? D&R ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/108 "2020-09-17T00:40:11Z")
I’ve been ignoring this thread, because I couldn’t think of any. Then last night I happened to watch the episode of Parks & Rec where Ben Wyatt mentions attending Carleton College. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/109 "2020-09-17T13:49:19Z")
A friend of mine was a penciller for Marvel and DC comics and used to put some identifiers on characters so readers would recognize them after being introduced briefly. One trick was to put a college jacket or shirt on them, and since we were at Dartmouth he used that a few times. I’m pretty sure a detective or PI on a run of _Cloak and Dagger_ or _Spider-Man_ had that for several issues, and it made it into the character via text as well. ---
**Author:** ![Tatterdemalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/43a26b/32.png) [@Tatterdemalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tatterdemalion)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/110 "2020-09-17T14:37:41Z")
I went to Georgia Tech, our most prominent fictional alum is [George P. Burdell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_P._Burdell) ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/111 "2020-09-17T16:17:33Z")
UW-Platteville is probably too small to be mentioned. Of the real-life alumni, none are very famous IMHO. Brian ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/112 "2020-09-17T22:26:50Z")
The Kurt Russell and Mel Gibson characters in Robert Towne’s _Tequila Sunrise_ both ran track at Redondo Union High School when they were younger. In Cameron Crowe’s original book of _Fast Times at Ridgemont High_, he claims in the introduction that he went undercover to collect the material at a high school in “Redondo Beach, California”. At the time there were 2 high schools in the city, and we all thought “could it be Aviation HIgh? Because it doesn’t really read like something that would happen here” Later he admitted that the school was really in Claremont High in San Diego. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/113 "2020-09-18T19:19:33Z")
Same here, no fictional characters from my undergrad school, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy & Science (now University of the Sciences), just a bunch of druggies: Lilly, Buroughs, Rorer (remember Quaaludes?), Warner, McNeil, Wyeth. Their products made for some interesting parties. I’m not going to name names, but students showing up with sealed 1-ounce bottles of cocaine hydrochloride USP and other psychoactive party favors was common (did I mention there was a very high burn-out rate at that school?). I can’t find any famous people, fictional or non-, who attended my medical school. ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2020, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/114 "2020-09-19T01:07:43Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Hooterville gets 3 Nobels. I went to a state school in Northern California, nestled in the East Bay hills. If we restrict the list to _only_ alumni, the the count of Nobel Prize winners is…31 (list [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_University_of_California,_Berkeley_alumni)) Of course, the count gets more respectable in length if you add in the recipients who were professors at the university (only 22). 🕶 As far as fictional alumni, I couldn’t really think of anyone besides Mrs. Robinson’s daughter from The Graduate, but the Wiki page with the Nobel list came to my rescue. Some of the more notable fictional alumni: **Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown** from _Back to the Future_ (according to the director, I don’t remember this coming up in the films) **Joanie Caucus** from _Doonesbury_ (Boalt Law, of course) **Jack Bauer** from _24_ (a Masters in Criminology, or was it Criminality?) **Adrian Monk** (I assume **Trudy Monk** also went to Berkeley) **Steve and Elyse Keaton** , _Family Ties_ (they met as undergraduates) ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2020, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/115 "2020-09-19T08:39:23Z")
I was going to say earlier, Jack Bauer got his BA in English at UCLA which is incredibly weird for a man who routinely saves the world by killing a bunch of people. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2020, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/116 "2020-09-19T14:32:53Z")
Captain Kirk, oddly enough. But the story might bore you. The Student Building with a few restaurants, cafes and the bookstore was called the Student Building. The campus newspaper thought this name sucked, and campaigned to name it after Kirk in honour of alumnus William Shatner. Administration did not favour this - possibly since Shatner was not a prolific donor. The Building ended up being called The Shatner. No idea if it is still called that now. ---
**Author:** ![Evin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@Evin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evin)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2020, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/117 "2020-09-19T15:42:40Z")
While Paterno coached at a state school, he played football at and graduated from Brown, the Ivy school in Providence. I think he still holds the record for the most career interceptions. He was also the quarterback. As a Yale grad, I nominate Mr, Burns as its most famous fictional alumnus. He also was a member of Skull and Bones. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/118 "2020-10-13T04:31:34Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Captain Kirk, oddly enough. Did the _fictional_ Captain Kirk go there, or just the actor who played him. I thought Kirk was strictly an Academy grad. ---
**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:** [October 13, 2020, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/119 "2020-10-13T19:30:25Z")
The University of Maryland has two of the strongest women in television history, Dana Scully and Liz Lemon. > [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > Fiction writers seem to think that everyone in West Virginia comes from a small town with a name like Rock Throw or Pigeon Hollow and that we all live in dilapidated shacks without electricity or indoor plumbing. One of my army roommates from back in the day was from Gauley Bridge (I always thought he was saying Golly Bridge). He did nothing to dispel the stereotype. He’s the only person I’ve met who would put half a can of Copenhagen in his lip at a time. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/120 "2020-10-13T19:44:09Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > > [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > > > Captain Kirk, oddly enough. > > Did the _fictional_ Captain Kirk go there, or just the actor who played him. I thought Kirk was strictly an Academy grad. I remember in the late Eighties there was a group of Princeton U. students who claimed that JTK would attend the university. Absolutely zero support for that in _Star Trek_ canon, but there you go. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2020, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/121 "2020-10-13T19:56:18Z")
You know, come to think of it… I could swear I read somewhere (can’t find the source now) that Denny Crane, played by Shatner, was conceived of as Crane parodying Shatner playing Kirk at his most outlandish. So if Shatner existed in the mind of the fictional character he portrayed as part of his own in-universe persona, apart from the real world, does that not make him a fictional character himself? Like in that movie _This is the End_, where the various comedians et. al are credited for appearing as an identically named fictional “character” rather than “himself” or “herself”? But with that, I don’t believe that helps the Princeton students build a case, as the real (and presumably fictional) Shatner attended McGill University. ---
**Author:** ![Eclipse\_Chaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Eclipse\_Chaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eclipse_Chaser)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/122 "2020-10-26T09:07:14Z")
I went to the same grammar school (English high school before they changed the system) as the sixties model/actress Twiggy. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2020, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108/123 "2020-10-26T15:32:07Z")
I should also note that Mel Brooks’ script for **Young Frankenstein** had young Dr. Frederick Frankenstein teaching medical students at Johns Hopkins in his first scene. But mention of the Hop didn’t make it into the movie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-or-interesting-fictional-alumni-from-your-school/920108.md?page=7)