25 CELEBS WHO HAVE GRADUATE DEGREES

http://www.onlinegraduateprograms.com/blog/2010/08/25-celebs-who-have-graduate-degrees/

25 CELEBS WHO HAVE GRADUATE DEGREES

POSTED AUGUST 18, 2010

It’s easy to think of celebrities as people who luck into careers and wealth, but the truth is far more interesting: Most of the famous people you know started out working hard in school, pursuing other passions before becoming famous or else returning years later to complete the schooling they’d missed in the first place. Some of the celebs on this list even enrolled in online graduate programs. The lesson? No matter what else you want to do, an education is something you can’t live without.

Film and Television

1. Peter Weller: Peter Weller’s best known for RoboCop (a totally underrated flick destroyed by sequels), as well as The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension and other sci-fi movies. He’s also got a master’s degree in Roman and Renaissance Art from Syracuse University, which he earned in 2004. He’s not joking around, either: He appeared as an expert commentator on Rome: Engineering an Empire, a documentary on the History Channel.
2. David Duchovny: Before "Californication," "The X-Files," and "Twin Peaks," David Duchovny was a serious English nerd. He studied English lit at Princeton before earning his master’s in the same field from Yale.
3. Dolph Lundgren: Hard to believe, but totally true: Dolph Lundgren, Ivan Drago himself, has a master’s degree. He graduated from Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology before heading to Australia and picking up a master’s in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney. All this while also studying a growing number of martial arts. He was even awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to MIT but left to start his acting career. I’m now kind of scared of his combination of brains and brawn.
4. Rowan Atkinson: Rowan Atkinson, star of British comedies like "Blackadder" and "Mr. Bean," is famous for playing idiots. But in real life, he’s anything but stupid. He attended Newcastle University and studied electrical engineering, then got a master’s degree in the subject at Oxford. It takes a smart guy to look that dumb.
5. Sigourney Weaver: Although she would later be immortalized in the Alienfranchise as well as a host of other roles — not to mention the Gatekeeper— Sigourney Weaver started her professional life with a graduate degree. After studying English at Stanford, she earned a master of fine arts from Yale University’s School of Drama.
6. Mayim Bialik: She’ll forever be known as "Blossom," though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. She starred on the NBC sitcom for five years, after which she attended UCLA and majored in neuroscience, Hebrew, and Jewish studies. Even more, she eventually completed her Ph.D. in neuroscience. She still makes TV appearances, notably as a geeky shout-out on CBS’s "The Big Bang Theory," but make no mistake: She’s unbelievably gifted, and smarter than most Hollywood players.
7. Bill Cosby: The Coz has long understood the importance of education. Even as his acting career heated up with "I, Spy" and his stand-up comedy, he earned a master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts before earning a doctorate in education, also from UMass. He wrote a dissertation about how schools could use "Fat Albert" as a teaching tool.
8. Robert Vaughn: Long before he was in the regrettable Superman III, Robert Vaughn was best known for starring on NBC’s spy show "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." from 1964-1968. In addition to his numerous film and TV credits, though, Vaughn is also highly educated, holding a Ph.D. from USC in communications. He also authored Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting.
9. Ken Jeong: Ken Jeong has been blowing up ever since 2007′s Knocked Up, having clocked hilarious performances in The Hangover, NBC’s "Community," and much more. But he’s also a full-on doctor, and in fact earned his degree before getting into showbiz. He earned his undergrad degree at Duke, then got his medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It’s good that he’s got that to fall back on, but given his career trajectory, it looks like he’ll be acting for a while.
10. Ron Jeremy: The man known as "The Hedgehog" (for reasons you should never learn) has appeared in more than 2,000 porn movies and dozens of legit titles, but he’s also got a fallback: He’s got a master’s degree in special education from Queens College, where he also earned his bachelor’s degree in education and theater. So who knows, he might just trade in his bathrobe for a professor’s tweed.
11. Ron Silver: Ron Silver’s had a long and varied career on TV and in film, and he was also a prominent political spokesman before succumbing to esophogeal cancer in March 2009. (Interestingly, he played a Democratic political operative in his first run on "The West Wing," while in real life campaigned for Republicans.) He studied Spanish and Chinese at SUNY at Buffalo, then went on to get a master’s in Chinese history at St. John’s University.
12. Charlie Korsmo: Child actor Charlie Korsmo made a splash with Dick Tracy,What About Bob?, and Hook, and he even returned to the business for 1998′s Can’t Hardly Wait. However, he’s since moved on with his professional career, earning a J.D. from Yale Law School after getting his bachelor’s degree in physics from MIT. He’s now a visiting professor at Brooklyn Law School.
13. Rachel Maddow: Host of MSNBC’s "The Rachel Maddow Show," Maddow got her start in political studies with some impressive education. She studied public policy at Stanford, then earned a Ph.D. at Oxford after winning a Rhodes Scholarship. She’s been on the fast track to punditry stardom ever since.
14. Ilan Mitchell-Smith: Ilan Mitchell-Smith’s film and TV appearances in the 1980s peaked with Weird Science, the 1985 John Hughes comedy. A few years later, he transitioned out of acting to pursue education, racking up a master’s degree at Fordham University and a Ph.D. at Texas A&M. He taught for a while at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, before heading back to California to teach at Cal State-Long Beach.

Music

15. Dexter Holland: I am going to resist the strong urge to make "pretty fly for a white guy" puns and just go straight ahead: Dexter Holland, guitarist and lead singer of The Offspring, has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in molecular biology from the University of Southern California, which makes him a whole lot smarter than you ever thought he was. He was even a Ph.D. candidate in the field, but ditched it to pursue the band. (With multiple platinum albums to his name, it’s hard to fault his decision.)
16. Art Garfunkel: Art Garfunkel gets a bad rap. It’s gotta be tough playing second banana to Paul Simon, one of the best songwriters of his era, especially when his solo career takes off while yours is significantly less popular. The upside: He’s always got higher level degrees to fall back on. After earning a bachelor’s degree in art history, Garfunkel picked up a master’s degree in math.
17. Brian May: As a lead guitarist and songwriter for Queen, Brian May came up with some of the most enjoyable rock songs of the past 40 years, including "We Will Rock You," "Fat Bottomed Girls," and "I Want It All." He’s also — wait for it — an astrophysicist. He studied physics at Imperial College London, earning high marks, but took time off from his doctorate studies to see if that whole rock star thing would work out. He returned to school in October 2007 and completed his Ph.D. in astrophysics. He’s also the co-author of a book about the history of the universe.
18. Phil Alvin: The frontman of the rock group The Blasters enjoyed cult success through the 1970s, after which he opted to return to school and finish the education he’d left behind. He studied math and artificial intelligence at UCLA, where he eventually earned a Ph.D.
19. Greg Graffin: Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin is noted for singing with one of the biggest punk rock bands of all time, though he’s anything but a typical rocker. He double-majored at UCLA in geology and anthropology, then got a master’s in geology from UCLA and a Ph.D. from Cornell. His thesis dealt with evolutionary biology, and his academic career is one of the reasons the band’s lyrics are noted for their intelligence.
20. Barret Hansen: Born Barret Hansen, he’s better known as Dr. Demento, the comedic radio host with a penchant for novelty songs and obscure tracks. He’s also noted for helping popularize "Weird Al" Yankovic. He’s got a master’s degree from UCLA in folklore and ethnomusicology to back up his radio credits, too. His tunes might not be your taste, but there’s no denying he knows what he’s talking about.
21. Tom Scholz: Tom Scholz has the distinction of being a world-famous rocker with a remarkably normal private life. He founded the band Boston and achieved crazy levels of success, but before that he earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in mechanical engineering from MIT. He even worked for Polaroid in their design engineering department before hitting it big with the band. Since then, he’s mainly focused on charity work.

Sports

22. Shaquille O’Neal: Shaq played ball at LSU, and though he left early to join the NBA, he returned in 2000 to complete a bachelor’s degree in general studies. But grad school is where he stepped it up, enrolling online in the University of Phoenix and earning his MBA in 2005. Most multi-millionaires get the degree before the wealth, but Shaq’s a rogue like that.
23. Lisa Leslie: Online degrees seem to be popular among basketball players: WNBA star Lisa Leslie, who’d earned her bachelor’s degree playing at the University of Southern California, eventually earned her MBA through the University of Phoenix.
24. Tony LaRussa: Baseball manager Tony LaRussa, currently with the St. Louis Cardinals, is one of the winningest managers of all time, one of only a handful to win pennants with teams in both the National and American Leagues. He also holds a J.D. from Florida State University’s College of Law and was even admitted to the bar, though he’s currently ineligible to practice. Still, a law degree is probably a good thing to have in major league baseball.
25. Dick Enberg: Oh my: Dick Enberg, the legendary sportscaster, got his career started by earning graduate degrees at Indiana University. While there, he earned a master’s and then doctorate in health sciences, which likely came in handy during his decades in the booth.