LMAO. Mr. Bean is an electrical engineer
Sweet! How’d that work? :dubious:
**Peter Falk ** has a Master’s in Public Administration from Syracuse. Of course he’s not someone you think of as a dummy.
That’s because some Oxbridge graduates think there are only two universities that count. In fact wasn’t there an episode where Sir Humphrey says something about how good UK universities are, then adds, “both of them” or something?
I’m not sure about his academic background, but here’s an anecdote about actor George Wendt, who played “Norm” on CHEERS: he was on a Celebrity Edition of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? and correctly answered every question put to him in every round. When he was egregiously voted off by the other two contestants, host Ann Robinson gave him a very nice nod by announcing: “You ARE the weakest link. Goodbye… sir.” I hope it’s true. It’s a nice story.
I find it pretty easy to believe Whoopi Goldberg has an advanced degree in literature… in 1988 or 1989 she once dropped by unannounced for a shopping spree at a used / rare bookstore my father worked at in Atlanta and according to him, bought more than $5,000 worth of books on that trip alone.
Bolding mine – obviously, the show was not Millionaire, but The Weakest Link.
Dan Rowan was mentioned earlier in this thread as possibly having been a physicist. I can neither confirm or deny that, but do remember an appearance he made on an old game show called Celebrity Sweepstakes. The question was about how many humps an Asian camel has, and Rowan said it depended on whether the animal was a Bactrian (two-humped) camel or a (one-humped) dromedary. Jim McKrell tried to explain that the dromedary was an Arabian camel, to which Rowan correctly responded that Arabia is part of Asia. Obviously, the writers meant for the answer to be “two”, as Bactria was the name given to a region of present-day Afghanistan, and thus more “truly Asian” in many people’s minds. Not Rowan’s, though – based on that episode, he seems like he’d have been a decent Doper had he lived long enough (he died in 1987).
A bit of supportive evidence (keeping in mind that “the plural of anecdote is not data”) – my brother Mark worked in a bookstore in New York for a while, and waited on her once. He wasn’t (and still isn’t) a fan of her comedy, but said she was very knowledgeable about the authors whose works she was seeking, and also one of the nicest customers – not just celebrities, but all patrons – he waited on during his stint at the store.
Robert Vaughn has a Ph.D. in communications not that anyone thinks of him as being dumb.
I believe that Nobel Prize winning Hungarian physicist Dennis Gabor is related to the Gabor sisters. I mean, would you ever think of the Gabor sisters and Nobel Prize being mentioned in the same sentence even with the most tenuous relationship?
Real sketchy on this but a few months ago, a guitar player who played in many bands (none any too famous) actually had a law degree which he never utilized. Talk about dedication to rock and roll.
Okay this one really fits the OP - Edgar Buchanan known for portraying country bumpkins (he was Uncle Joe on “Petticoat Junction”) graduated from Pacific Dental College as a full-fledged dentist. As the IMDB says he “was originally a dentist with his own practice. At age 38, he turned the practice over to his wife and began his acting career.”
Julie Newmar occassionally playing quirky roles (but almost always comes off as intelligent), does have a rather high IQ.
Jill Saint John has an IQ of 162.
Doesn’t Gene Simmons, erstwhile bass-spanker for Kiss, speak several languages and hold some level of theology degree? And didn’t he work as a kindergarten teacher? Impressive, f only he wasn’t such a knobhead.
[nitpick]
As your link clearly says, it’s ranked one of the top four academic instituitions in the UK, not the world.
[/nitpick]
Oxford and Cambridge routinely win the top two spots in UK University ranking lists. The LSE usually comes in below them. So, although we can laugh at the pomposity of the mandarins in “Yes [Prime] Minister”, there’s a historical basis for their attitude.
Of course, inter-University rivalry is a frequent source of humor:
Recording engineer/producer Tom Dowd (who worked on albums by the Allman Brothers, Eric Clapton, Aretha Franklin and countless others) was involved in the Manhattan Project as a nuclear physicist.
Among others, here’s one reference.
Wanye Rogers from MASH is a Princeton graduate. He has mostly left acting and has built up a financial empire including a successful investment firm. (PDF link)
Thankfully though, all of his perps do think he’s a bit of a dim bulb.
I can vouch for Mick’s business acumen. He is probably the most financially astute “celebrity” out there. I traded for a hedge fund and Mick used to call all the time looking for my bosses opinion. During one of his tours he contracted to be paid in yen which was an extremely good call.
Bill Cosby has got a Ph. D. in Education, and I’m pretty sure it isn’t an honorary one.
Jodie Foster graduated Yale, although with what degree I don’t know. A friend of mine from high school had a couple of classes with her.
Wouldja believe… Jodie majored in African-American Studies at Yale?
Though I suppose it was called “Black Studies” at the time.
Bill Cosby’s Doctorate is not honorary (though his thesis did involve using “Fat Albert” as a teaching tool or somesuch). He went back and earned it in the middle of his entertainment career, after dropping out of college to further that career.
Whether the fact that he was already a celebrity at the time made it easier or harder to get a doctorate is a subject for discussion and wild unfounded speculation.
This goes back a ways, but Andy Devine, who played the bumbling, overweight, raspy-voiced sidekick to Roy Rogers and to TV’s Wild Bill Hickock, was a graduate of Arizona State College.
John Cleese has a law degree.
Apparently Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) was working on his MSe. in engineering when he went into showbiz.
http://www.mgnet.karoo.net/rowanatkinson.htm
Atkinson attended Newcastle University, where he earned an honors degree In electrical and electronic engineering. He went on to Oxford in 1975 to research for a Master’s degree in Engineering Science. While at Oxford in 1977, Atkinson began appearing with the Oxford Revue and was widely noticed playing the Edinburgh Fringe theatre circuit
Wasn’t there a death metal band who’s members were all in Med School? I seem to remember them using anatomical terms rather than common vernacular for describing body parts.