# Out of Character ambitions for famous people **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 11, 2009, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488 "2009-06-11T21:01:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/21 "2009-06-12T04:16:45Z")
Ringo Starr said that he wanted to open a hair salon after the Beatles dissolved (he didn’t think they’d last very long!). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/22 "2009-06-12T04:25:23Z")
Former NY Yankees center fielder [Bernie Williams](http://www.berniewilliams.com/music/music_eng.php) is a classically-trained guitarist who has a recording contract. > [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > There’s no evidence that Fidel Castro seriously wanted to be a professional baseball player. It’s a little known fact, however, that Mickey Mantle always aspired to be a Caribbean dictator, but nobody ever gave him a chance.😉 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/23 "2009-06-12T04:31:40Z")
Dolph Lundgren has a master’s in Chemical Engineering and won a scholarship to (for? at? with?) MIT. Nice. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/24 "2009-06-12T04:41:21Z")
Sacha Baron Cohen studied in Cambridge and was considering pursuing a PhD before he became Borat. Not strictly relevant to the OP, but another interesting fact: his brother is a famous psychologist noted for his work with autism. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/25 "2009-06-12T05:42:01Z")
Hedy Lamarr’s now famous invention: > **[Hedy Lamarr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr#Frequency-Hopping_Spread-Spectrum_Invention)** > > Hedy Lamarr (/ˈhɛdi/; born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler; November 9, 1914\[a\] – January 19, 2000) was an Austro-Hungarian-born American actress. 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, who offered her a movie con... ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/26 "2009-06-12T06:30:41Z")
Kurt Russell was a Pro baseball player until he had a shoulder injury and fell back on acting instead. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/27 "2009-06-12T06:34:18Z")
Tom Cruise considered becoming a monk when he was a teenager. Other would be churchmen: Josef Stalin considered becoming a Russian Orthodox priest and Jackie Mason _was_ a rabbi before becoming a comedian. William Sanderson (character actor probably best known as Larry on _Newhart_ or Farnum on _Deadwood_) has a law degree but started acting in college and ended up never practicing law. Stephen Colbert intended to become a marine biologist but an ear injury as a teenager made it impossible for him to spend long periods of time underwater. Johnny Depp moved to L.A. to become a musician and singer and took acting gigs (among others) to pay the bills. He never intended to become or studied to be an actor. > [@Early\_Out](#): > > Ringo Starr said that he wanted to open a hair salon after the Beatles dissolved (he didn’t think they’d last very long!). Danny Devito worked as a hairdresser and planned to remain one if his acting career didn’t work. He actually owns some shops that his sister (also a hairdresser) manages. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/28 "2009-06-12T06:44:56Z")
Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain probably would have spent his life as a riverboat pilot, which was his first love, had it not been for the Civil War. (He joined a Confederate regiment, found he didn’t really like getting shot at, deserted, and joined his brother in the Nevada territory where, there being no riverboats, he began writing for newspapers.) ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/29 "2009-06-12T06:45:24Z")
Howard Zinn, now known as a historian and fervent anti-war activist, directly killed large numbers of people, probably hundreds, during World War II by dropping bombs on them. He was a bombardier aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress and he bombed numerous targets in Germany, Hungary and Czechoslovakia; he also dropped bombs on Royan, France, in one of the first ever military uses of napalm, which led to the fiery deaths of Germans and French civilians alike. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/30 "2009-06-12T08:52:19Z")
Oliver Stone is a decorated veteren of Vietnam. I think conscription in the last centiury was so universal, that we should not include military careers. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/31 "2009-06-12T09:31:22Z")
(British pop star) Robbie Williams is now a UFOlogist. 'Nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/32 "2009-06-12T10:56:27Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickenson are/were both Olympic class fencers. He’s also an airline pilot. A couple of times a year he flies a plane full of fans to a concert. I forget which airline he works for though. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/33 "2009-06-12T11:14:09Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Kurt Russell was a Pro baseball player until he had a shoulder injury and fell back on acting instead. One of his minor league teammates was Ron Shelton, the writer and director of “Bull Durham.” Shelton has said that Crash Davis was based on Russell, and that he’d wanted Russell to play the role. It didn’t workj out, so he had to settle for KEvin Costner. Ulysses S. Grant hated Army life, though that’s the only career he was ever any good at. He really wanted to be a mathematics professor. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/34 "2009-06-12T11:23:32Z")
Cindy Crawford originally planned on being a chemical engineer but dropped out of college as her modeling career grew. Ron Jeremy has a master’s degree in special education and worked as a teacher before becoming a porn actor. Nigel Tufnel would have become a haberdasher or a surgeon. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/35 "2009-06-12T12:14:28Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > Not realistic, I know, but Joan Jett would have sacrificed it all to be the starting center fielder for the Baltimore Orioles. Well that’s just stupid, she couldn’t play center field, you’d have to play her in left to hide her arm. She’d probably be a better bet than Felix Pie although she is 50 now. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/36 "2009-06-12T12:54:59Z")
Albert Einstein supposedly said something like “If I had it all to do over again, I would have been a plumber”. ---
**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:** [June 12, 2009, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/37 "2009-06-12T13:01:50Z")
Pamela Stephenson gave up her quite successful work as an actress to become a psychologist: > **[Pamela Stephenson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Stephenson)** > > Pamela Stephenson, Lady Connolly (born 4 December 1949) is a New Zealand-born psychologist, writer, actress and comedian. She moved with her family to Australia in 1953 and studied at the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA). After playing several stage and television roles, she emigrated to the United Kingdom in 1976. > Parts in television shows including Space: 1999, New Avengers, The Professionals and Tales of the Unexpected preceded her breakthrough role in the satirical sketch show ... ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/38 "2009-06-12T13:12:00Z")
David Lee Roth is doing Paramedic work in New York. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/39 "2009-06-12T13:16:44Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > John Malkovich is a master puppeteer. I seriously came into this thread to say the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2009, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488/40 "2009-06-12T14:34:41Z")
James Franco is really into painting. Singer/songwrtier Bryan Adams has been successful as a photographer and has a book or two of his photos published. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/out-of-character-ambitions-for-famous-people/499488.md?page=3)