This is just an observation. As someone who see a lot of theater and has for years I’ve notice a trend to many more actors having gone to college. It used to be very unusual for an actors playbill bio to mention college. It seems like if you wanted to act you just did that after high school. Now it’s the majority that I see. I noticed one of the Tony winners thanked his UMichigan program. Ben Platt went to Columbia ( for a few weeks until he was cast in the Chicago production of Book of Mormon and dropped out)
Even movie actors. For the older generation (50 +) college seemed like something you (mostly) didn’t do. Now it seems more common. The exception being those who started as children . Kristin Stewart, Ryan Gosling etc…
I don’t know what you’re asking or saying. There are no rules or generalities: many actors went to college and pursued non-theater related fields; others did plays and studied drama; still others went into acting right out of high school.
It was just an intersting ( I thought) observation. I’ve been going to theater production for decades. It’s in the last 5-10 years that there has been a huge upswing ( like 4-5x as many) mentions of colleges in playbill bios.
That would match the trend of a greater percentage of high school students heading off to college. And since it a difficult path to “make it” in theater more parents probably college as a fall back.
There are also better online high school options for actors, aspiring pro dancers, and athletes (particularly in sports like tennis and golf where playing it in high school isn’t a factor to being pro) that open the door more easily for college. Laurel Springs is a favorite with those groups, they do a good job ensuring their classes are accredited and make getting into even top colleges easier. Also, home schooling is more accepted/viable path as well than it was 10 years ago. I would think both of those contribute to more attending college - it is easier for them to do so.
My alma mater has a very strong, well-known drama school. From talking to students in that program while I was there, one of the primary benefits is the networking. Of course they all learn to act as well, but being able to make connections with alumni in the industry gives them a huge leg up. If they get a break while in the program though, I believe the typical thing to do is drop out and take advantage of it.
There are some obvious things it reflects: the much higher percentage of all kids who spend at least some time in college, and the expansion of college curriculums to accommodate students interested in the arts. Also, I have read that there is a difference between men and women. Women are aware that their peak acting careers are likely to be shorter than men’s, and that they will need to go into producing and directing in order to sustain careers, and college gives them credibility in doing that. Thus, for a long time, many actresses who are successful as teens have nonetheless gone to college, and usually completed it, while their male equivalents generally don’t. E.g., Jodie Foster, Jennifer Beals, Natalie Portman, Emma Watson, Reece Witherspoon, the Olson twins, Julia Stiles . . . There is also a stronger tradition of college women becoming stars compared to men, at least in America: Katherine Hepburn, Candace Bergen, Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, Mira Sorvino, Lisa Kudrow, Angela Bassett. Elizabeth Banks
This is true for dance, art, and music to some extent- I have especially noticed it in dance since it wasn’t, at one time, considered an academic subject (and some programs emphasize choreography). Of course degree inflation has hit all fields, it seems. Interesting observation from the playbills
One reason for more schooling is that school provides resources, time and sometimes funding to do your art form, in a culture that doesn’t provide much funding. Doctoral programs are a good example of this.
As a parent with a kid majoring in theater (at NYU) I can tell you, that while there is certainly an element of natural talent required… there is really a lot to learn. Some people can make it without training, but for the majority, college theater takes things to a whole other level.
Actors have had a wide range of educational backgrounds even several decades past ranging from no degree to having an elite college degree as this small sampling shows:
James Cagney - Graduated from Stuyvesant HS and briefly attended Columbia University before dropping out after a semester because of his father’s death in the 1918 flu pandemic.
James Earl Jones - Attended UMich initially as a pre-med major before finding it wasn’t for him and ended up graduating as a drama major.
David Niven - Graduated from Stowe British public school and Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Resigned his commission in the British army via telegram while enroute by ship to the US to act in movies.
Vivien Leigh - Graduated from Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Olivia de Havilland - Admitted to Mills College on a full scholarship as she initially planned on becoming an English teacher before director Max Reinhardt encouraged her to pursue acting.
John Wayne - initially attended USC on a football scholarship before a bodysurfing accident caused him to lose the scholarship and forced him to leave. Started his movie career not too long afterwards.
Henry Fonda - Attended UMinnesota briefly before dropping out and started acting not too long afterwards.
James Stewart - Attended and graduated from Princeton as an Architecture major in 1932. Profs were so impressed with his thesis that they encouraged him to continue to the grad level with a fellowship…but he developed a greater interest in drama/acting and the rest is history.
Cobrat, my kids have never heard of some of the actors you listed
Some go for acting, with a future career in mind, and some go to learn other things after living a kind of specialized life as a young actor.
I know a couple who went to Juilliard (Laura Linney, Kevin Spacey), where acting education begins, I believe, by wearing masks, so you cannot use your face but have to use your body, an idea I find fascinating. That’s the reputed top of the conservatory option.
Then there are stars who end up at Ivies for reasons that have nothing to do with acting (Emma Watson, Natalie Portman for example). I suppose that’s the top of the college/university option.
The actors Cobrat listed are hardly an obscure bunch! David Niven is probably the one least likely to be a known factor. In any case, what difference does it make whether someone’s kids have little or no knowledge of film before 1985?
