# Pre 1950s Celebrities With College Degrees **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 17, 2016, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245 "2016-11-17T08:53:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/61 "2016-11-27T01:18:49Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > you don’t say Huh. How’d ya selectively de-capitalize all of that stuff? Well, no point in me dwelling on it; as long as I’m here, let me make quick mention of how Macdonald Carey graduated from the University of Iowa and then landed a whole bunch of not-quite-a-guy-you’d-give-top-billing-to roles in Hollywood in the '40s: he was second-billed to Betty Hutton in DREAM GIRL, as he was to Paulette Goddard in HAZARD; and he was second-billed if he was doing a war movie like WAKE ISLAND, or a western like STREETS OF LAREDO, or a musical comedy like SALUTE FOR THREE; and he was of course _third_-billed in THE GREAT GATSBY, because you not only need a guy like Alan Ladd at #1, but you also need a leading lady at #2 as Daisy Buchanan before you get to a guy like Carey at #3 as Nick Carraway. (#4 in that one was, naturally, the Jordan Baker role – ably fielded, in this case, by University of Michigan grad _Ruth Hussey_, who likewise had plenty of second-billed credits but who’d just earned top billing the year before, in I, JANE DOE – sure as she’d been top-billed in WITHIN THE LAW before that, and sure as she’d picked up an Oscar nomination in between.) (Thing is, that kind of implies that Carey never got a top-billed star turn in a film in the '40s – and that’d be _wrong,_ since he got one in DR BROADWAY.) ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/62 "2016-11-27T02:18:40Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Huh. How’d ya selectively de-capitalize all of that stuff? I didn’t, the board’s software must have. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/63 "2016-11-27T02:45:18Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > I didn’t, the board’s software must have. Weird. Well, again, I have little desire to bump this without adding relevant and new stuff, so let me mention how Hugh Beaumont earned a Master of Theology degree before starring as private eye Michael Shayne in THREE ON A TICKET and coming back for another go-round as Shayne in TOO MANY WINNERS – and beating typecasting, by then getting top billing as a money-laundering con artist in the film noir MONEY MADNESS – but _before_ that, before all five of his outings as Shayne in the '40s, he was already getting second billing under his leading lady in APOLOGY FOR MURDER and THE LADY CONFESSES. And after all _that_ it was the '50s, and he was A Little Hard On The Beaver Last Night. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/64 "2016-11-27T14:51:12Z")
Monty Woolley graduated from (and then taught at) Yale before taking his signature Broadway role to the screen in **The Man Who Came To Dinner** before earning his first Oscar nomination, as a leading man, in **The Pied Piper** – and then, after Woolley was top-billed over Ida Lupino in **Life Begins At Eight-Thirty** , and then over Grace Fields in **Holy Matrimony** , he took a supporting role in **Since You Went Away** ; but (a) doing so earned him a _second_ Oscar nomination, and (b) he then went right back to getting top billing, in **Irish Eyes Are Smiling**. (He then settled down to supporting roles in Cary Grant movies – but then the '40s ended, and he promptly bounced back to top billing in **As Young As You Feel**.) ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/65 "2016-11-27T16:41:46Z")
I’m enjoying the hell out of this thread. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/66 "2016-11-27T16:56:59Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > At that, it’s my understanding that Margaret Hamilton earned a teaching certificate at college before achieving cinematic immortality as the Wicked Witch of the West. Margaret Hamilton worked for several years as a kindergarten teacher, but then she got divorced, and divorced women couldn’t work as teachers. She had a young son to support, and already lived in the Los Angeles area, so she went looking for work where no one cared if a person was divorced, and found enough success as a character actress, that she didn’t need to wait tables, or anything like that. She only got what amounted to bit parts as first, but she had a really good voice (probably from having been a teacher), so that when one person in a crowd scene needed to shout a line, she usually snagged it; it got her a higher pay rate then the rest of the walk-ons, and it got her noticed. When you think about it, the way she did the lines in _Wizard of Oz_ were just the way someone would read a “witch” voice in a story to a small child. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/67 "2016-11-27T17:12:38Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Margaret Hamilton worked for several years as a kindergarten teacher, but then she got divorced, and divorced women couldn’t work as teachers. She had a young son to support, and already lived in the Los Angeles area, so she went looking for work where no one cared if a person was divorced, and found enough success as a character actress, that she didn’t need to wait tables, or anything like that. > > She only got what amounted to bit parts as first, but she had a really good voice (probably from having been a teacher), so that when one person in a crowd scene needed to shout a line, she usually snagged it; it got her a higher pay rate then the rest of the walk-ons, and it got her noticed. > > When you think about it, the way she did the lines in _Wizard of Oz_ were just the way someone would read a “witch” voice in a story to a small child. Not true, she was already acting for years before her divorce (which happened around the time Oz was released) and she had been acting on stage before she went to Hollywood. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/68 "2016-11-27T19:35:15Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Not true, she was already acting for years before her divorce (which happened around the time Oz was released) and she had been acting on stage before she went to Hollywood. Heck, IMDB says her screen debut was way back in 1933, with **Another Language**. (IMDB also says that John Beal, who was _also_ in that one, had already earned a BS in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, and was in **Hat, Coat, and Glove** with Hamilton in 1934; and was still boyish enough to play Marius in the 1935 film version of **Les Misérables** , the one with Fredric March as Jean Valjean and Charles Laughton as Inspector Javert; and that he was second-billed to Ann Shirley in 1936, but in 1937 graduated to top billing over Joan Fontaine in **The Man Who Found Himself** before he again got top billed in **Doctors Don’t Tell** and **One Thrilling Night**.) (His career then got interrupted by WWII service – but _after_ the war, he was back to getting top billing in **Messenger of Peace** and **Key Witness** ; and then second billing, under Martha Vickers, in 1949’s **Alimony** , which is still pretty good.) ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/69 "2016-11-27T19:57:42Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > When you think about it, the way she did the lines in _Wizard of Oz_ were just the way someone would read a “witch” voice in a story to a small child. I wonder if she was the one who originated that particular voice as the standard witch voice. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/70 "2016-11-27T20:43:01Z")
Christopher Lee nearly made it. He placed 11th for Eton, missing out by one place. He then went to Wellington, but his father ran out of money with one year remaining. Lee then joined the military. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2016, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/71 "2016-11-27T21:28:30Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Christopher Lee nearly made it. He placed 11th for Eton, missing out by one place. He then went to Wellington, but his father ran out of money with one year remaining. Lee then joined the military. Burgess Meredith arguably missed it even closer before joining the military as well; he dropped out of Amherst, but made such a name for himself on stage and screen that they promptly awarded him an honorary degree anyway – in 1939, the year he was top-billed as George to Lon Chaney Jr as Lennie in **Of Mice And Men** ). Anyhow, you know the rest: film-noir leading-man roles in the '40s when he wasn’t busy as Ernie Pyle in **The Story of GI Joe** ; and then blacklisted in the '50s, before winning a Tony on Broadway and playing the Penguin on television in the '60s; and then earning Oscar nomination after Oscar nomination in the '70s. That’s a pretty weird career arc. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2016, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/72 "2016-11-28T12:32:42Z")
Movie trivia buffs know that Cornell grad Franchot Tone was the third guy up for the Best Actor Oscar alongside his **Mutiny On The Bounty** co-stars – and that obviously shouldn’t have happened, sure as the _next_ Oscar ceremony naturally saw the birth of the Best Supporting Actor category. Thing is, Hollywood knew _exactly_ what to do with Tone after **Bounty** : billing him second under Bette Davis in **Dangerous**. And then billing him second under Loretta Young, in **The Unguarded Hour**. And billing him second to Jean Harlow, in **Suzy**. And billing him second to Katharine Hepburn, in **Quality Street**. And billing him second to Myrna Loy, in **Man-Proof**. And second to Gladys George, in **Love Is A Headache**. And second to Joan Bennett, in **The Wife Takes A Flyer**. And second to Deanna Durbin, in **His Butler’s Sister**. And second to Mary Martin, in **True To Life**. And second to Merle Oberon, in **Dark Waters**. And second to Lucille Ball, in **Her Husband’s Affairs**. And second to an all-grown-up Shirley Temple, in **Honeymoon**. And second to his own wife, Joan Crawford, in **The Bride Wore Red**. That’s gotta be some kind of record, right? Was any other guy else second-billed to that many leading ladies of Hollywood’s golden age? (For the exception that proves the rule, there’s his role in **Between Two Women** – where he was in a love triangle with Maureen O’Sullivan and Virginia Bruce, and so got top billing by dint of just sometimes sharing the screen with one and sometimes with the other.) Thing is, Hollywood was fine with him as a man among men; it’s just that, for every **Trail of the Vigilantes** where he was the star amidst gunslingers on horseback, there was a **Moulin Rouge** where he got billed second to Constance Bennett; and for every **Five Graves To Cairo** where he was the star thwarting Rommel in the desert, there was a **The World Moves On** where he got billed second to Madeleine Carroll. And, sure, he was the star fighting in the Pacific as the title character in **Pilot #5** – but even as the title character in **The King Steps Out** , Tone of course had to defer to Grace Moore as his top-billed leading lady. That is a _weirdly_ specific persona. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2016, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/73 "2016-11-29T00:34:06Z")
At that, **Nice Girl?** featured Tone: second-billed to a leading lady, because, uh, the word “Girl” in the title? Dude never even stood a _chance_. He was second-billed to Franciska Gaal in **The Girl Downstairs** , and _I’ve never heard of Franciska Gaal._ Where was I? Oh, right: along with Tone, that one featured Robert Benchley, who famously played Joe Doakes in maybe two dozen short comedy films in the '30s and '40s; one got nominated for an Oscar, another actually won one? Anyhow, the guy eventually got top billing in full-length comedies-- in **Snafu** and, technically, **The Reluctant Dragon** – after getting supporting roles in Fred Astaire movies and Rosalind Russell movies and so on, after garnering himself plenty of publicity as a radio personality and a member of the Algonquin Round Table and a writer for Vanity Fair and et cetera, after graduating from Harvard. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2016, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/74 "2016-11-29T12:15:47Z")
Also a Harvard grad: Olympic boxer Don Terry, who got top billing in everything from WHEN G-MEN STEP IN to A FIGHT TO THE FINISH – and, with Rita Hayworth as the pretty gal in a supporting role, PAID TO DANCE and WHO KILLED GAIL PRESTON? But then WWII was in full swing, and he did what he’s best known for: appearing as DON WINSLOW OF THE NAVY in '42, and DON WINSLOW OF THE COAST GUARD in '43. And he apparently never acted again _after_ '43, since there was a war on for real and he was busy serving in the for-real Navy: was awarded the Purple Heart, promptly got promoted to Lieutenant Commander, returned to civilian life in '46 and set to making plenty of money in business and getting plenty active in philanthropy. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2016, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/75 "2016-11-30T12:24:14Z")
Andrew Kennedy graduated from – well, it wasn’t Carnegie Mellon yet, but it was the Carnegie Institute of Technology, so he still gets listed as an alum. Some would say he qualified for this thread the year DEATH OF A SALESMAN won the Tony for Best Play – with Kennedy winning the Tony for originating the role of Biff on Broadway, opposite Lee J Cobb as Willy Loman – because that’s the year he earned his first of his five Oscar nominations; but others would say, _no, he qualified before that, when he was top-billed in movies like KNOCKOUT and STRANGE ALIBI._ And, granted, in THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON, Kennedy was only third-billed after Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland – but that’s still pretty high-profile, and who _else_ could’ve done better against that star power? Hey, even Claude Rains had no chance of getting billed between Flynn and Brenda Marshall in THE SEA HAWK, so it’s scant surprise that Kennedy got billed second to leading lady Marshall the following year, in HIGHWAY WEST. (Several years later, in '49, he was still getting second billing under leading lady Barbara Hale; but, again, that’s still pretty good.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2016, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/76 "2016-12-01T06:18:42Z")
Dinah Shore of course had THE DINAH SHORE SHOW on television from 1951 to 1957, which of course doesn’t count, but which is the sort of thing that of course doesn’t just _happen_; she was the top-charting female vocalist of the '40s, belting out a string of #1 hits and getting second billing in a Danny Kaye movie and otherwise putting her name out there – including, well, landing her own _radio_ show. Anyhow, well before all of that Shore was apparently the first Jewish cheerleader at Vanderbilt University, where she earned a degree in sociology. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2016, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/77 "2016-12-03T01:00:06Z")
In the '20s, Broadway actor Conrad Nagel hit it big in silent films: sometimes getting billed second to a leading lady like Greta Garbo or Norma Shearer or Myrna Loy, but often enough getting movie-star top billing as a genuine matinee idol. Some folks had a hard time going from silent films to talkies; but, again, Nagel’s background was _Broadway,_ so his voice served him just fine in the '30s: still getting second billing to various leading ladies, but also scoring top billing at least a dozen times – even aside from his four star turns as hero investigator Alan O’Connor. In fact, Nagel’s voice was _so_ great that the celeb was a natural for emcee work; after hosting Oscar ceremony after Oscar ceremony, he hosted a radio show from '37 to '47 before he started hosting a TV show in '48 and '49. (I mean, he of course kept at that gig in the '50s; it’s just that it goes beyond the scope of the thread.) Anyhow, before all of that he graduated from Highland Park College. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2016, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/78 "2016-12-03T13:23:09Z")
Dane Clark graduated from Cornell (and, apparently, even got a law degree) before getting supporting roles on screen in the early '40s – that’s him with Cary Grant in DESTINATION: TOKYO, and with Bogie in ACTION IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC, and with John Garfield in PRIDE OF THE MARINES – before leading-man status came his way: getting top-billed in 1946’s HER KIND OF MAN, and 1947’s THAT WAY WITH WOMEN, and 1948’s EMBRACEABLE YOU; and, okay, he was second-billed to Laraine Day in 1949’s WITHOUT HONOR before he promptly went back to top billing in the 1950 western BARRICADE, but that’s hardly the point. The point is, he was top-billed in 1940s films like WHIPLASH and MOONRISE, and it’s irrelevant to this thread that he then spent the 1950s likewise getting top-billed in, well, THE GAMBLER AND THE LADY, NEVER TRUST A GAMBLER, THE MAN IS ARMED, THE TOUGHEST MAN ALIVE, PAID TO KILL, GUNMAN IN THE STREETS, MASSACRE, and other films with titles that can surely be lined up to form a whole movie plot. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/79 "2016-12-04T06:15:15Z")
Clark was also second-billed in GOD IS MY CO-PILOT to Dennis Morgan – a guy who also qualifies for this thread, as he graduated from Carroll College before fielding a variety of leading-man roles in the '40s: he was top-billed in TEAR GAS SQUAD as a nightclub singer turned police cadet, which is kind of a weird combination; and he and his leading lady did that SHINE ON HARVEST MOON biopic, which just so happened to be about, well, vaudeville performers; and he was top-billed in Warner’s attempt to ape Paramount’s buddy comedy formula, cheerfully swapping Hope and Crosby for Morgan and Carson as song-and-dance men in TWO GUYS FROM TEXAS; and he was top-billed as the guy rallying locals to fight the Nazis in DESERT SONG when he wasn’t pretending to be an innocuous nightclub singer, which… …oh, I get it; that’s not _actually_ variety; it’s He’s A Music Guy; and so, yeah, he also did a romance picture where he got top billing over Janis Paige, and it was of course a musical; and he of course got top-billed in another movie, where of all things he played a tenor; and he was top-billed in yet another movie doing the nightclub thing yet again, because of course he was; and so on, and so on. (That degree from Carroll College? Music; and, decades later, they even gave him the Distinguished Alumnus Award – because, really, what _more_ can you do with a degree like that, beyond parlaying it into a full-on movie-star career?) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2016, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245/80 "2016-12-04T07:00:36Z")
Of course, I’m being unfair to Morgan; he was perfectly capable in a top-billed role in straight-up drama (as he did in '48, with TO THE VICTOR) or comedy (as he did before that, in '41, with KISSES FOR BREAKFAST). But he was also perfectly capable handling a supporting role – as he did in the '30s, with KING OF ALCATRAZ. Top billing in _that_ one went to Gail Patrick, who (a) had been top-billed the year before, in HER HUSBAND LIES; and who (b) followed up a year later by once again getting top billing: as a crusading lady lawyer, in DISBARRED. She went on to get top billing in WOMEN IN BONDAGE in the '40s – and to get plenty of _supporting_ roles in the '40s, in BREWSTER’S MILLIONS and MY FAVORITE WIFE and CALENDAR GIRL and so on – but let me now stop yammering on and on about that to make explicit that she’d of course earned a college degree in Alabama, sure as her alma mater of course eventually started offering an award named after her. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pre-1950s-celebrities-with-college-degrees/772245.md?page=5)