We (I) think of actors as being talented or not, funny or not, etc. but I don't usually think of them as going to college. What did they study? Well it seems that it wasn't always acting. I'll bet there's lots of other examples besides those listed in this article. Biology Degrees and PhDs: Actors Who Are Smarter Than You Think | Digg Topnews
It seems that nearly half of all interpreters I have worked with were not really interpreters, rather, really dancers or actors or singers or artists or writers, but just can't find a way to make any real money with their real jobs.
Agreed. I also noticed how poorly that article was written. Even though "PHD" is part of title of the article, not one person mentioned actually obtained one! Also, a number of the actors attended college but did not graduate (e.g. Brad Pitt). Are there any real journalists out there any more?
OK, so who's our current leader? Would you believe Dolph Lungren? 8 Celebrities You Didn't Know Were Geeks | Cracked.com
No doubt you're right. When I was considering a doctorate years ago I did considerable research including talking with professors and administrators at the local AACSB schools. Some echoed these comments I found online regarding NCU: Don't want to go off topic here but how do you counter this?
I remember reading a paper a few years ago about Marriage choices between actors. The paper sought to find out if spouse education mattered in the long-term success of the marriage. Oh....took me a while, but I found the link to the paper here it is: There's some very interesting graphs (surprising too) in the appendix. http://mit.econ.au.dk/vip_htm/gbruze/New%20evidence%20on%20sorting.pdf It's a scholarly paper and might be considered "research" so it will not be as interesting to read as say, a Yahoo news article or something from HuffPo or Fox.
Of course there's Mayim Bialik (Blossom on the same, Amy on The Big Bang Theory), Ph.D. in neuroscience, UCLA, 2008. Danica McKellar (Winnie on The Wonder Years) "just" has a bachelor's, but a nice second career writing popular math books, particularly targeted to girls.
Ashley Judd earned an MPA through a mid-career program at Harvard's Kennedy School. Not Hollywood-type, but sportscaster Dick Enberg earned a Ph.D. at Indiana University.
Shaquille O'Neil (not "Hollywood," unless you are crazy enough to count Kazaam, but I assume that you meant A-Listers in general, which he certainly is.) has an MBA. Yep. An MBA.
I take all celebrity advice very seriously. They are the best of the best and are experts in all things political, financial, and social.
Update! He defended his Capstone Project for an Ed.D., in Leadership in Education with a specialization in Human Resource Development, at Barry University in South Florida this month. Unimpressed take from Miami New Times.
I'm looking forward to reading this capstone project - it certainly makes sense to me... plenty of leadership styles out there and depending on the situation, a little humor can get people motivated a lot easier than the serious in-your-face request. Good for him!