# Renaissance people in the arts **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 24, 2017, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794 "2017-06-24T22:47:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![HyacinthBucket](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hyacinthbucket/32/3063_2.png) [@HyacinthBucket](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HyacinthBucket)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2017, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794/41 "2017-06-27T18:09:28Z")
> [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](#): > > Bryan May, guitarist for Queen and currently holding the record for the longest time keeping the same hairstyle, has a PhD in astrophysics. Not the arts, but awesome in itself. Not only is he one of the greatest rock guitarists EVER, but he and his dad hand-made the guitar that Brian still plays back in the 1960s when he was just a teenager. So we can add “instrument maker” to his list of credits too. He’s also written or co-authored several books on astrophysics. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red\_Special](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Special) ---
**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:** [June 27, 2017, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794/42 "2017-06-27T18:30:06Z")
> [@mikecurtis](#): > > Paul Newman - actor, IndyCar driver, entrepreneur, activist, and philanthropist. Newman also won a Golden Globe for directing _Rachel, Rachel_ – which was up for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, getting him an Oscar nomination as producer. ---
**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:** [June 27, 2017, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794/43 "2017-06-27T18:34:39Z")
And, speaking of Paul Newman, Robert Redford of course famously went from being an Oscar-nominated actor to being an Oscar-winning director – and then, in his Sundance Film Festival days, to being an Oscar-nominated producer. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2017, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794/44 "2017-06-27T19:03:37Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > Author Jo Nesbø is also lead singer and guitarist for the band _Di Derre_, which has 4 top ten albums in his native Norway (the band’s first hit album predates the Harry Hole series.) I left a few things out. He also has a degree in Economics and worked as a financial analyst before his writing career took off. Also, from the _New Yorker_: > [@](#): > > When he was eighteen, he won the prize for best junior player at the prestigious Norway Cup. But torn ligaments in both knees made an athletic career impossible… ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2017, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794/45 "2017-06-27T19:16:56Z")
Since someone already said Steve Martin, I’ll throw out Rupert Holmes. Known to most people (if known at all) as the singer of the song they love to hate, “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)”, he was also the creator and writer of the television show _Remember WENN_, wrote the musical _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_, the play _Say Goodnight, Gracie_, the libretto of the shows _Curtains_ and _First Wives’ Club_, AND wrote a novel called _Where the Truth Lies_. A multi-talented guy, to be sure, and as someone who had the pleasure of meeting him, I can say he’s also very gracious and sweet. ---
**Author:** ![Haldurson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/51bf81/32.png) [@Haldurson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Haldurson)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2017, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794/46 "2017-06-27T20:53:19Z")
Isaac Asimov: Professor of Biochemistry, prolific writer of science fiction, mysteries, and non-fiction, covering diverse subjects of science, history, religion, Shakespeare, poetry (well, limericks), etc. He was also well known as a populariser of science. Richard Feynman: Nobel prize-winning Physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project. He also was a much beloved teacher at Caltech in the years I was present. He had art exhibits, he regularly played the Bongos in campus stage productions, he taught informal classes on safe cracking and lock picking, he was infamous for his practical jokes, and his physics lectures have been required reading at many schools. He also conducted (informal) research on psychedelic drugs, and was a critic of what he perceived as math illiteracy among biologists and social scientists (he claimed that the state of the soft sciences was a shambles due to a total misunderstanding of basic math and statistics by members of those fields). Before Sagan, he was THE science guy, the person who could take almost any scientific concept and put it into terms that even a layman could understand. And oh yeah, he solved the mystery of the Challenger disaster shortly before his death from cancer. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2017, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794/47 "2017-06-27T21:05:51Z")
> [@Banksiaman](#): > > Recently I found out that the Sam Shepherd I’ve always enjoyed as an actor [esp Chuck Yaeger in The Right Stuff], is the same Sam Shepherd who is an accomplished playwright and author and whom I always assumed to be a different person. I have to say, he’s a mighty impressive bloke on all three counts. Are these not all highly related? > [@](#): > > What other people would have comparable achievement and critical acclaim across at least three fields of the arts? Well, Shakespeare was an actor, playwright and poet. Christopher Marlowe was a playwright, poet, and translator. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2017, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794/48 "2017-06-27T22:09:32Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Are these not all highly related? Not really. I can’t think of very many actors who are also playwrights, especially in recent times. Gene Wilder comes to mind, but his plays are not nearly as celebrated as Shepard’s. Not only that, but his plays tend to be quite complicated and cerebral; a far cry from, say, _Baby Boom_. ---
**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:** [June 27, 2017, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794/49 "2017-06-27T22:17:10Z")
> [@DooWahDiddy](#): > > Not really. I can’t think of very many actors who are also playwrights, especially in recent times. Do we get to count Lin-Manuel Miranda? ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2017, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794/50 "2017-06-27T22:22:31Z")
> [@Peanut\_Gallery](#): > > [Donald Glover](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Glover). Standup Comic, Rapper, Singer, TV Show Writer/Producer/Director/Actor. > > [Redbone](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp7eSUU9oy8) DonG lover is the best. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2017, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794/51 "2017-06-27T23:09:27Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Do we get to count Lin-Manuel Miranda? Ha, well I’m not the OP, but if I were then I would say no. A play is very different than a musical, and even if it weren’t, I would still maintain that writing a show and acting in it is very different than writing a novel and a song and a play. Or, in Shepard’s case, writing plays but acting in films. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794/52 "2017-06-28T01:36:05Z")
Harrison Schmitt: Ph.D. in geology, Apollo astronaut, U.S. Senator, adjunct university professor (of engineering physics, not geology), probable photographer of [one of the most famous images ever taken](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_Marble). ---
**Author:** ![I-VI-ii-V](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c89c15/32.png) [@I-VI-ii-V](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I-VI-ii-V)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2017, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794/53 "2017-06-28T04:16:29Z")
Nick Offerman - actor, woodworker, author ---
**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:** [June 29, 2017, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794/54 "2017-06-29T12:14:39Z")
Hollywood kept trying to buy Sylvester Stallone’s ROCKY script, but he kept turning them down so long as they planned to cast someone _else_ starring in the lead role. And so the picture eventually got made the way he’d hoped – with him picking up Oscar nominations for his performance _and_ his screenplay – and he then started playing actor/writer/director for the blockbuster ROCKY II. And then again for the bigger blockbuster that was ROCKY III; and again, for the even bigger blockbuster that was ROCKY IV; and he did it again for ROCKY BALBOA, too. (With plenty of other credits as actor or writer or director too, of course.) ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2017, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794/55 "2017-06-29T13:34:07Z")
Author [Andrew Vachss](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Vachss) has led a life that would be considered “unreal” if it were fiction. Freedom fighter, attorney for children accused of sex crime, an expert in sexual predators, founder of a therapy dog program to help sexually abused children, and author of 33 books. ---
**Author:** ![Major\_Matt\_Mason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@Major\_Matt\_Mason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Major_Matt_Mason)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794/56 "2017-07-03T15:15:22Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Eric Idle - writer, actor, songwriter (for _Spamalot_). Plus _The Rutles._ Clint Eastwood: Actor, director, producer. Mike Nesmith: Singer, songwriter, author. Davy Jones: Actor, singer, songwriter. Micky Dolenz: Actor, singer, songwriter, woodworker. Peter Tork: Singer, musician, songwriter, teacher. -MMM- ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794/57 "2017-07-03T15:31:21Z")
^ Clint Eastwood: add pianist and soundtrack to the list. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2017, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794/58 "2017-07-03T16:37:14Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Mel Brooks. Writer, movie producer, director, actor, writer of hit Broadway musicals (including writing the songs) Plays jazz drums, too. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2019, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794/59 "2019-02-23T21:04:42Z")
Bumping this thread to add [Linn-Manuel Miranda](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lin-Manuel_Miranda) to the list. Is there any creative thing he does not do and do well? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/renaissance-people-in-the-arts/789794.md?page=2)