Print
|
Back
------------------------------------------------------------
Famous High School
Dropouts
Part Two
Shaun Kerry,
M.D.
Diplomate, American Board of Psychiatry
and Neurology
H.G. Wells.......best-selling
British author (dropped out to help family
earn income; later returned and went on to college)
Jim Clark........self-made
billionaire American businessman; founder of
"Netscape"; first Internet billionaire (17, U.S. Navy)
Jimmy Dean..........singer-songwriter-actor; self-made multimillionaire
American businessman; founder of the "Jimmy Dean Foods" brand sausage
business (16, U.S. Merchant Marines; 18, U.S. Air Force)
Andrew Jackson......7th U.S. President; face is pictured on the U.S. twenty dollar bill (13, U.S. Continental Army; orphaned at 14; little formal education; home schooling/life experience; studied law in his late teens and became a lawyer)
Leon Uris..........best-selling American author (Exodus, etc.) (17, U.S.
Marines)
Walter L. Smith.....former
president of Florida A&M University
(equivalency diploma, at age 23)
W. Clement Stone....self-made multimillionaire (some sources indicate
billionaire) American businessman-author; founder of "Success" magazine
(elementary school dropout; later attended high-school night courses and
then some college)
Jack London.......best-selling
American author (dropped out at 14 to work; later gained admission to the University of California; left after
one semester)
Arthur Ernest Morgan....American
flood-control engineer; college president-author; appointed by President Roosevelt to be director of the
Tennessee Valley Authority public works project (left high school after
three years; later attended the University of Colorado for six weeks)
Ray Charles.........singer-pianist; Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame inductee
Cher......Oscar-winning actress-singer
Maurice Chevalier....
Oscar-winning actor-singer; French Legion of Honor
inductee/Medal recipient (note: rank bestowed in 1938
Pierce Brosnan......actor
Ellen Burnstyn......Oscar-winning actress
Raymond Burr.......actor
Sammy Cahn..........
Oscar-winning American songwriter-composer
Michael Caine.......Oscar-winning actor; knighted (United Kingdom: Sir
Michael Caine)
Glen Campbell.......country music star
Daniel Gilbert......Harvard University psychology professor (equivalency
diploma)
Dizzy Gillespie.....musician-composer (received honorary diploma from
high school he attended)
Patrick Henry.......American
Revolutionary War era politician;
Virginia's first governor; famous quote: "Give me liberty, or give me
death!" (little formal education; home schooling/life experience; later
studied on his own and earned a law degree)
Peter Jennings......Canadian-born American television journalist;
evening news anchorman
Ansel Adams.........American wilderness
photographer; photography
book author; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient
Julie Andrews.......Oscar-winning actress-singer
Louis Armstrong.....singer-musician
Brooke Astor........wealthy
American socialite-philanthropist-author;
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient
Pearl Bailey........singer-actress; Presidential Medal of Freedom
recipient
Lucille Ball........actress-comedienne-producer; Presidential Medal of
Freedom recipient
Bill Bartman........self-made billionaire American businessman
Count Basie.........bandleader-pianist
Jack Benny..........
comedian-actor-violinist
Humphrey Bogart.....Oscar-winning actor
Peter Bogdanovich....Oscar-nominated American film director-screenwriter
(The Last Picture Show, Paper Moon, Mask, etc.)
Whoopie Goldberg....Oscar-winning actress-comedienne
Benny Goodman.....bandleader-clarinetist
Lew Grade.........British
film/TV producer (TV: The Avengers, The Saint,
Secret Agent, The Prisoner, The Muppet Show, etc.); knighted (United
Kingdom: Sir Lew Grade)
Philip Emeagwali....supercomputer scientist; one of the pioneers of the
Internet (high-IQ high-school dropout; left school in native Nigeria due
to war conditions and lack of tuition money; continued to study on his
own and earned an equivalency diploma; later won a scholarship to Oregon
College of Education in the United States; transferred after one year to
Oregon State University)
Danny Thomas........actor-producer-humanitarian (actor: Make Room for
Daddy/The Danny Thomas Show; co-producer: The Dick Van Dyke Show, The
Andy Griffith Show, etc.); Congressional Gold Medal recipient
Peter Ustinov.......Oscar-winning actor
Hiram Stevens.......American-born engineering
inventor; knighted (United
Kingdom: Sir Hiram Stevens)
Patrick Stewart.....
actor-writer-producer-director; former captain of the Enterprise on TV's
Star Trek: The Next Generation and in films.
Kemmons Wilson.......self-made multimillionaire American businessman;
founder of the "Holiday Inn" hotel chain
Kjell Inge Rokke.....self-made billionaire Norwegian businessman
David Puttnam.......Oscar-winning British film
producer (Chariots of
Fire, Midnight Express, etc.); knighted (United Kingdom: Sir David
Puttnam)
Anthony Quinn.......Oscar-winning actor
Julie London.......
singer-actress
Sophia Loren.......Oscar-winning actress; best-selling Italian-born
author; former model (elementary school dropout)
Joe Louis..........boxer; Congressional Gold Medal recipient
Roy Rogers..........actor-singer-guitarist
Walter Nash.......New Zealand Prime Minister
1957-1960; knighted (United
Kingdom: Sir Walter Nash)
Olivia Newton-John....
singer-actress; British-born Australian author
Rosa Parks.........U.S. civil rights activist-pioneer; Presidential
Medal of Freedom recipient; Congressional Gold Medal recipient
Mary Pickford......Oscar-winning actress; early Hollywood pioneer;
co-founder of "United Artists Corporation" (little formal education [six
months]; home schooling/life experience)
Sydney Poitier.....Oscar-winning actor (elementary school dropout)
Frederick "Freddy" Laker....
self-made multimillionaire British
businessman; airline entrepreneur; knighted (United Kingdom: Sir
Frederick [or Freddy] Laker)
Tommy Lasorda......
baseball team manager; National Baseball Hall of Fame
inductee
David Lean.........Oscar-winning British film director (Lawrence of
Arabia, Dr.Zhivago, etc.); knighted (United Kingdom: Sir David Lean)
Anton van Leeuwenhoek....Dutch microscope maker; world's first
microbiologist; discoverer of bacteria, blood cells, and sperm cells)
Richard Branson.....self-made billionaire British businessman; founder
of "Virgin Atlantic Airways," "Virgin Records," etc.; knighted (United
Kingdom: Sir Richard Branson)
Isaac Merrit Singer....American sewing
machine inventor; self-made
multimillionaire founder of "Singer Industries," "I.M. Singer and
Company," etc. (elementary school dropout)
Alfred E. Smith.....New
York Governor; 1928 Democratic U.S. Presidential
candidate (elementary school dropout)
Charles Chaplin.....Oscar-winning actor-writer-director-producer;
knighted (United Kingdom: Sir Charles [or Charlie] Chaplin) (elementary
school dropout)
Sean Connery........Oscar-winning actor; knighted (United Kingdom: Sir
Sean Connery)
Jack Kent Cooke.....self-made billionaire Canadian-born American media
businessman
Noel Coward.........Oscar-winning
actor-director-producer-playwright-composer; knighted (United Kingdom:
Sir Noel Coward) (elementary school dropout)
Joan Crawford.......
Oscar-winning actress; former dancer
Charles E. Culpeper....self-made multimillionaire American businessman;
early 1900s' owner and head of "The Coca Cola Bottling Company"
Robert De Niro......Oscar-winning actor-producer; knighted (France:
Chevalier [Knight] of the Legion of Honor; Chevalier [or Chev.] Robert
De Niro)
Gerard Depardieu....Oscar-nominated actor; knighted (France: Chevalier
[or Chev.] Gerard Depardieu) (elementary school dropout)
Richard Desmond.....self-made billionaire British publisher
Thomas Dolby........
musician-composer; music producer
Joe Lewis........self-made billionaire British businessman
Carl Lindner.......self-made
billionaire American businessman
John Llewellyn.....U.S. Labor leader pioneer; for 40 years until his
retirement, president of the United Mine Workers' Union
Marcus Loew........self-made multimillionaire American businessman;
early Hollywood pioneer; founder of the "Loews" movie-theater chain;
co-founder of "MGM" studios (elementary school dropout)
Mary Lyon.........American
women's education pioneer; early American
teacher; founder of Mount Holyoke College (America's first women's
college)
Sonny Bono...........singer-songwriter-actor;
U.S. Congressman
(California U.S. Representative)
Duke Ellington......Oscar-nominated American composer-bandleader;
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient
Ella Fitzgerald.....singer; Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient
Aretha Franklin....singer; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee
Horace Greeley....
American newspaper publisher-editor; U.S. Congressman;
1872 U.S. Presidential candidate; co-founder of the Republican party in
the United States
Thomas Haffa......self-made double-digit billionaire German media
businessman
J.R. Simplot.......self-made billionaire American agricultural
businessman
Robert Maxwell.....self-made billionaire British publisher
Rod McKuen.........best-selling American poet (elementary school
dropout)
Source:
www.lists.Hollywood.com