Alan Baxter graduated from Williams College – and, after getting work on Broadway in the 1930s, was top billed in movies like RAGS TO RICHES and BORROWED HERO and PRISONER OF JAPAN and CLOSE-UP and BEHIND PRISON WALLS in the 1940s.
That said, Baxter also got a lot of supporting-actor work in Hollywood – that’s him as Jesse James in BAD MEN OF MISSOURI, and that’s him in a Jimmy Cagney picture, and that’s him in an Errol Flynn picture, and that’s him in one of the THIN MAN outings by William Powell and Myrna Loy – heck, that’s him in WINGED VICTORY, reprising the part he played on Broadway! – and that’s him in various other movies where he was second-billed to his leading lady du jour.
But, yeah, that’s also him – top-billed – in stuff like MY SON IS A CRIMINAL as well as IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU, is my point.
Back on Page One, the idea got floated that celebrity athletes shouldn’t count unless they also managed a star turn in some other capacity.
So the fact that Colorado State University still displays the Olympic medal won by Glenn Morris – who got hailed by Newsweek as “the nation’s new iron man” when he set a new world record while just qualifying for the Olympics, and who then had the post-TRIUMPH-OF-THE-WILL camera of Leni Riefenstahl linger on him in OLYMPIA as he set a new new world record while earning Decathlon gold – that’s irrelevant.
But the fact that 20th Century Fox then gave him top billing, trying to recapture the Johnny Weissmuller formula in TARZAN’S REVENGE – that’s relevant.
At that: college football standout James Pierce graduated from Indiana University before he got top billing in TARZAN AND THE GOLDEN LION.
Now, that wasn’t his only star turn; a year earlier, Pierce had been the top-billed actor in THE RETURN OF GREY WOLF as the blinded woodsman getting tons of help from one of those super-capable wonder dogs that folks love to build films around. And, sure, he earned other credits: that was him as Prince Thun of the Lion Men, back in the days when Buster Crabbe was FLASH GORDON; and, likewise, that was him as Frank James, back when Fred Thomson was JESSE JAMES; and so on.
But it’s as Tarzan that Pierce was most famous; as per IMDB, he and his wife went on to play Tarzan and Jane in hundreds of radio episodes “that played in every US state, South America and Western Europe”.
One more in the same vein: Slingin’ Sammy Baugh, who graduated from TCU and then set pro football records that make no damn sense.
Just look at the number of years when he led the league in passer rating (which is a danged high number; it’s still the record), and note how many of them were years when he also led the league in punting (also a high number; also still the record); do you see how one of 'em is a year when he also led the league in intercepting the passes thrown by other quarterbacks? Yeah, that’s – well, that’s nuts.
Naysayers would maybe figure he severely outclassed players back then, but maybe wouldn’t amount to much now; I’ll simply add that the single-season yards-per-punt record would be held by Shane Lechler, who recently averaged an amazing 51.14 to beat the count-'em-on-the-fingers-of-one-hand number of other punters who’ve been on the right side of 50.00 – with the lone exception of Baugh, at 51.40.
Anyhow, he was top-billed in KING OF THE TEXAS RANGERS, because (a) somebody was bound to star in a movie serial about cowboy gunslingers on horseback foiling Nazi saboteurs, and (b) if the role calls for a sure-footed guy with fast hands, then why the heck wouldn’t you just call in the triple-threat king of the gridiron?
David Niven graduated from Sandhurst Military College.
The great character actor Sam Jaffe graduated from City College of New York and studied Engineering at Columbia University graduate school. He later taught mathematics, and became the dean of the Bronx Cultural Institute (a prep school).
Heh. I can’t tell if that’s a compliment or an insult – or if you’re mistaking me for somebody else? (And if that’s a compliment or an insult?)
Thing is, I’m just unremarkably answering the OP’s question while casually bumping the thread each day so others can readily add posts likewise – and all that takes is, well, “access to google” plus “an idle moment every 24 hours”.
Like, you know how KUKLA, FRAN AND OLLIE was big in the '40s? If you push the button, you see Fran Allison graduated from Coe College – and anybody could idly google that response, and I happen to qualify; and what’s distinctive about that?
No, it wasn’t meant as an insult - there’s another message board where someone uses a screen name similar to your’s and is a big film buff, thought you were him.
Oh, hey, no offense taken, then. I mean, I guess it was only ever hypothetical offense, but now it’s not even that. Also, that guy sounds awesome.
And since you made mention of Jaffe and some actors from the other side of the Atlantic, I’ll add that he did GUNGA DIN with Eduardo Ciannelli – who apparently not only earned a degree but even practiced medicine for a while before he was the mysterious Doctor Satan in THE MYSTERIOUS DOCTOR SATAN: top-billed as the title character because, hey, full marks for being a superhero who chats with intrepid reporter Lois before catching up to a speeding locomotive where that criminal mastermind is up to no good, but, c’mon: the interesting draw here is Ciannelli.
(He was plenty busy otherwise: third-billed after the guys playing Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin in THE LEAGUE OF FRIGHTENED MEN, and third-billed in DILLINGER, and third-billed in THE GIRL FROM SCOTLAND YARD, and third-billed in BLIND ALIBI, and third-billed in LAW OF THE UNDERWORLD, and so on – not even counting when he was first-billed in THE CREEPER – but, c’mon: Doctor Satan!)
Since it’s Christmas Eve, this’d be a fine time to mention IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE in general and Princeton grad Jimmy Stewart in particular – but somebody already mentioned him, so I’ll just note that Donna Reed got offers from Hollywood studios while she was in college “but insisted on finishing her education first.”
Anyhow, before IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE in '46, Reed had already been top-billed in FAITHFUL IN MY FASHION; and then, after GREEN DOLPHIN STREET in '47, she was second-billed to Alan Ladd in BEYOND GLORY in '48 before getting second-billed to him again in CHICAGO DEADLINE in '49; and so on.
Incidentally: remember the guy who played the key role of Peter Bailey? You know, George Bailey’s hardworking dad? That was Samuel Hinds, who’d already (a) worked with Stewart in DESTRY RIDES AGAIN and YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU; and who’d already (b) earned a degree from Harvard long before all of that, and before he was Doctor Kildare in all those DOCTOR KILDARE films.
(No, not that Doctor Kildare; he was the other one; the protagonist’s dad.)
Hinds also did some Abbott and Costello movies, and some Donald O’Connor movies, and some Bing Crosby movies, and so on; he wasn’t really ‘star’ material, but I figure he arguably hit “Hey, It’s That Guy” status at some point – because whenever they needed a police commissioner, or a coach or a warden or a mayor or an admiral or a senator or a governor, well, then, man, there he was.
…and, since I just mentioned Bing Crosby, and it’s Christmas, it seems like a good time to add that Crosby was pre-law at Gonzaga University in the '20s before getting so big in the '30s that they gave the dropout an honorary degree before he won an Oscar in the '40s and then, y’know, starred in WHITE CHRISTMAS in the '50s.
And if anyone wants to nitpick that that doesn’t count, well, (a) I’d argue that he qualifies, given how the OP worded it; but (b) for the sake of completeness, I’ll add that one of the movies he starred in during the '40s was WELCOME STRANGER, which was directed by and featured a little acting from Elliott Nugent, OSU Class of '19, who’d been second-billed to leading lady Marion Davies in NOT SO DUMB sure as he’d been second-billed to leading lady Betty Compson in THE VIRTUOUS HUSBAND – as well as top-billed, in SO THIS IS COLLEGE and WISE GIRLS.
Nugent picked up a writing credit on that last one, there – just like when he starred in THE MALE ANIMAL on Broadway. (Granted, they swapped in Henry Fonda for the movie version, just like they swapped in Joan Leslie for Gene Tierney; but they hired Nugent to direct, which got him solid name placement on the movie poster. Nugent directed all sorts of movies in the '40s – a Bob Hope picture, an Alan Ladd picture, a Danny Kaye picture, a Ray Milland picture, you name it – and wore plenty of hats on Broadway, as actor and writer and director and producer and whatever.)
At that: one Nugent-directed movie I didn’t mention was THE MOUTHPIECE, about a mob lawyer and the woman he falls for – oh, and the woman who’s fallen for him, because Aline MacMahon could totally nail that third-billed role.
In fact, MacMahon – who was third-billed to Marlene Dietrich and Fred MacMurray in THE LADY IS WILLING, and to William Powell and Kay Francis in ONE WAY PASSAGE, and to Douglas Fairbanks Jr and Loretta Young in THE LIFE OF JIMMY DOLAN – even racked up an Oscar nomination when she was third-billed to Katharine Hepburn and Walter Huston in DRAGON SEED, when they didn’t get nominated for a thing.
MacMahon also pulled off top-billed dramatic roles (in KIND LADY and SIDE STREETS and HEAT LIGHTNING), not to mention how she was top-billed in all those comedies she did alongside Guy Kibbee (THE MERRY FRINKS and BIG HEARTED HERBERT and WHILE THE PATIENT SLEPT), and all after graduating from Barnard College.
One more film MacMahon was third-billed in: WEEK-END MARRIAGE, with fifth billing going to supporting actor Grant Mitchell – you know, not the guy in the Cary Grant role, but Reverend Harper in ARSENIC AND OLD LACE; and, obviously, not the guy in Olivia de Havilland’s role in A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, but that’s him playing her dad; and that’s Paul Muni as Emile Zola in THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA, but, sure, put Grant Mitchell in as Georges Clemenceau.
Mitchell was fourth-billed in NEXT TIME WE LOVE – which was actually pretty solid, as Margaret Sullavan and Jimmy Stewart and Ray Milland were going 1-2-3. Mitchell also got fourth-billed in NO MAN OF HER OWN – which is also respectable, given that it was Clark Gable and Carole Lombard at the top – but never mind that now; he managed to get third billing in GRIDIRON FLASH, after the football star and his gal; and he got second-billed to Joan Blondell in THE FAMOUS FERGUSON CASE, as well as to Evelyn Venable in THE HEADLEYS AT HOME.
Oh, and here he is getting top billing in FATHER IS A PRINCE in the 1940s, and here he is getting top billing in MAN TO MAN in the 1930s; heck, he was getting top billing as far back as the 1920s, in one of the first 3-D feature films.
And before that, he graduated from Harvard and started acting on Broadway.
Mitchell also got work as one of the Senators in MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, with Beulah Bondi playing Jimmy Stewart’s mom – and I maybe should’ve mentioned her when I was going on about IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, seeing as how she played Jimmy Stewart’s mom in that one; and she was fourth-billed as Jimmy Stewart’s mom in VIVACIOUS LADY; and she was third-billed as Jimmy Stewart’s mom in the role that got her an Oscar nomination, in OF HUMAN HEARTS.
(That’s not all she could do, you understand; after all, she’d already gotten an Oscar nomination before that, stealing scenes in THE GORGEOUS HUSSY. And then she was third-billed in PENNY SERENADE, which got Cary Grant an Oscar nomination; and that was the same year she was third-billed in ONE FOOT IN HEAVEN, which was up for the Oscar for Best Picture; and she was third-billed in a Paulette Goddard picture, and third-billed in a John Wayne picture, and third-billed in a Barbara Stanwyck picture, and third-billed in a Lionel Barrymore picture, you name it.)
(And, yes, Bondi picked up some second-billed roles – in THE CAPTAIN IS A LADY and MAKE WAY FOR TOMORROW – and even top billing, in SHE’S A SOLDIER TOO; she got plenty of work on screen after she got plenty of work on Broadway, after she got a bachelor’s degree and then a master’s degree from Valparaiso University.)
And moving from Bondi to Bond: sure, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE had a “Ma Bailey” role like I was just saying – but it also had “Bert the Cop”, as played by Ward Bond.
And that guy got all kinds of work; as per wiki, his role in that one plus his roles in a bunch of other Best Picture nominees is apparently the all-time record:
ARROWSMITH
LADY FOR A DAY
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU
GONE WITH THE WIND
THE GRAPES OF WRATH
THE LONG VOYAGE HOME
THE MALTESE FALCON
SERGEANT YORK
IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE
THE QUIET MAN
MISTER ROBERTS
And everybody knows his supporting-role schtick, right? TALL IN THE SADDLE was the western starring John Wayne, with his leading lady billed second and Ward Bond in at third; CONFLICT was John Wayne as the bareknuckle boxer, with a second-billed leading lady and Ward Bond at third as “Knockout” Carrigan; OPERATION PACIFIC was Bond getting third-billed as the sub commander, with John Wayne as the top-billed executive officer with a second-billed leading lady; and so on.
Anyhow, he eventually got top billing – in 1942’s HITLER - DEAD OR ALIVE – but he’d qualify for this thread anyway, right? I mean, you cast a movie star like Errol Flynn as Gentleman Jim Corbett, but you put him up against Ward Bond as John L. Sullivan; or you cast Henry Fonda as Wyatt Earp, and Ward Bond as Morgan Earp; or whatever.
And all after he graduated from the University of Southern California – where he of course played college football alongside, well, young John Wayne.
Incidentally: that second-billed leading lady in TALL IN THE SADDLE was Ella Raines, who (a) graduated from the University of Washington, and who (b) then went on to get billed second to William Powell in THE SENATOR WAS INDISCREET, and second to Randolph Scott in THE WALKING HILLS, and second to Brian Donlevy in IMPACT, and second to George Raft in A DANGEROUS PROFESSION – and then it was 1950, when she got top billing in THE SECOND FACE, but that’s irrelevant.
What is relevant, though, is what she did in the '40s: billed second to Eddie Bracken in HAIL THE CONQUERING HERO, and later to Charles Laughton in THE SUSPECT, and later to Edmond O’Brien in THE WEB; and she was naturally billed second to the guy playing Arsene Lupin in ENTER ARSENE LUPIN – just like she was billed second in PHANTOM LADY, and billed second in WHITE TIE AND TAILS – but even before the deadline, she managed to pull down top billing in THE RUNAROUND.
(She got plenty of other name-on-the-poster work – in a Burt Lancaster picture, in a George Sanders picture, and so on, and so on – but that’s beside the point.)
At that, Ms. Raines had a supporting role in TIME OUT OF MIND, as evidenced by how the poster lists her name third, albeit in letters as big as those of the first-billed and second-billed leads; another name on that poster: Helena Carter, who dropped out of grad school after earning an undergraduate degree and got more prominent name placement on the poster for INTRIGUE, when she was third-billed after George Raft and June Havoc in '47; and that’s her name again, as big as anybody else’s, on the poster for RIVER LADY in '48; and she eventually landed leading-lady status, getting billed second to Douglas Fairbanks Jr in THE FIGHTING O’FLYNN in '49.
Granted, she didn’t actually get top billing until the '50s were in full swing – but I figure she only got that because by then she’d been second-billed to Ray Milland in one movie and to Donald O’Connor in another and to George Montgomery in another, and I figure she only got those roles because she’d proven she could handle second billing in the '40s – and so I figure second billing qualifies her for this thread.
And, just to keep it going: a credit that wasn’t worth mentioning for Helena Carter was her third-billed role in THE GOLDEN HAWK, which also featured a spot of acting from Paul Cavanagh – who (a) had picked up a master’s degree before getting billed second to Mae West in GOIN’ TO TOWN, and who (b) spent the rest of the '30s getting billed second to his leading lady du jour in STRICTLY UNCONVENTIONAL and MENACE and WITHOUT REGRET and CRIME OVER LONDON and THE NOTORIOUS SOPHIE LANG and TRANSGRESSION – and even getting top-billed roles, in DANGER IN PARIS and CHAMPAGNE CHARLIE and A ROMANCE IN FLANDERS.
(I don’t mean to imply that Cavanagh fell off the map in the '40s; I mean, sure, he was third-billed to Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce in THE SCARLET CLAW, but that’s just the way it goes when those two are Holmes and Watson, y’know? And after that, Cavanagh could still field a second-billed-to-his-leading-lady role – as was the case in WIFE WANTED, that 1946 picture he did with Kay Francis. And so on.)
In addition to giving Paul Cavanagh a top-billed role, DANGER IN PARIS was a chance for Bruce Seton to show what he could do in the fourth-billed one – sure as Seton was third-billed in FATHER STEPS OUT and ANNIE LAURIE, sure as he was second-billed in MIRACLES DO HAPPEN and THE VANDERGILT DIAMOND MYSTERY, sure as he got top billing in IF I WERE BOSS and RACING ROMANCE.
That was the '30s, see, when a former British Army officer who’d graduated from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst was free to do stuff like that – and, sure as he boxed in the service, there was no reason not to give a guy like that top billing in a comedy like FIFTY-SHILLING BOXER.
Of course, in the '40s there was something of a war on – which was a terrific reason why Captain Seton suddenly wasn’t free to make movies for a while. But, sure as he eventually became Major Seton, the war eventually ended – and in '46, he was right back on the big screen, getting second-billed as Spring-Heeled Jack.
(After that came the '50s, when he was FABIAN OF THE YARD on television and in the movies; and after that came the '60s, when he became Major Sir Bruce Lovat Seton of Abercorn, 11th Baronet; but that’s irrelevant, if interesting. Also irrelevant, but also interesting: he apparently holds Scotland’s all-time record for the shortest number of minutes between getting divorced from one spouse and marrying another.)
> . . . who’d graduated from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst . . .
It does not award bachelor’s degrees. It is not like, for instance, one of the American service academies. It’s more like an officers candidate school, which offers training of less than a year for people who have already graduated from college. But even that isn’t quite correct. While it is true that about 80% of the people who go to Sandhurst already have bachelor’s degrees, about 20% don’t, so graduating from Sandhurst is not an indication of having a college degree.
Much obliged for the information; I guess I’d be well-advised to steer clear of Brits should this thread continue – because, hey, if they’re going to call it a college, then what the hell else is up that sleeve? Will I breezily note that Sir So-And-So earned a PhD, only to have you gently enquire whether I realize that, at that institution, “earned a PhD” is a polite Britishism for “worked there as a groundskeeper”?
All kidding aside: with that lesson learned, I’ll now just talk up Peter Gunn himself, America’s own Craig Stevens: a guy who did receive a for-real no-foolin’ bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City back in 1936, and who’d take a supporting role in an Errol Flynn movie or a Ronald Reagan movie and so on – and who picked up prominent third billing in STEEL AGAINST THE SKY before he got top billing in THE HIDDEN HAND and SPY SHIP and SECRET ENEMIES.
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