<p>Too many to list from Northwestern, which blows them all away in terms of quantity! There’s hardly a major prime time show that doesn’t have an NU connection, from McLean Stevenson in MASH to Julia Louis Dreyfus in Seinfeld to David Schwimmer in Friends to Zach Braff in Scrubs, and of course Stephen Colbert.</p>
<p>Brook Shields went to Princeton and Natalie Portman went to Harvard.</p>
<p>Glenn Close went to William & Mary.</p>
<p>Impressive lists for some of these colleges!</p>
<p>Even more theater majors not working in the field. I know for our son, it was more that he wanted to study musical theater–this was what he wanted to be doing NOW, more than long range planning since he doesn’t tend to look far into the future. H’s colleague hired two Tisch grads this year as analyst, administrators for his financial firm. Their presentation skills are terrific. They spent 4 years in NYC auditioning and trying to break into enough opportunities to support them selves after college, and then decided they were tired of being broke and looked for other work. I think it’s impressive that they got the job over many applicants with business, econ, math backgrounds.</p>
<p>University of Southern California has a ton of alums in the entertainment industry, here are some notable actors:</p>
<p>John Wayne - as Marion Morrison, also played on the football team
Forrest Whitaker - admitted to the School of Music to sing, changed to acting.
John Ritter - studied Psychology
Lavar Burton - Theatre
Michael Landon - enrolled on Track scholarship before injury forced him to retire.<br>
Sophia Bush - Didn’t graduate after getting role on One Tree Hill
David Gallagher - kid from Seventh Heaven
Tom Selleck - Played Basketball and majored in Business</p>
<p>This discussion seems to have morphed from its original post. Many of the actors listed subsequently did, indeed, study theatre in college, including most/all of the Carnegie Mellon grads, and I’m willing to bet most of those who attended Northwestern. Both schools have been known for decades as producing successful actors, for both stage and screen.</p>
<p>Back to the original premise of famous actors who did NOT major in acting:</p>
<p>David Duchovny earned an A.B. in English Lit from Princeton and an M.A. (also in English Lit.) from Yale. He was working on his Ph.D. from Yale, but never finished his doctoral thesis, because that’s when he finally got the acting bug!</p>
<p>I doubt whether ANY of those on the Harvard list majored in acting, since to the best of my knowledge Harvard offers drama only as a Secondary Concentration (a minor) and not as a Concentration (major).</p>
<p>Natalie Portman for example, even though she was already pursuing an acting career when she enrolled, earned her degree in Psychology.</p>
<p>Off topic, but responding to earlier post: I thought JFK Jr. went to Brown. Earlier post says he went to Tufts?</p>
<p>B.J. Novak roomed with the brother of one of D’s suitemates when he attended Harvard. Molly Sims went to Vanderbilt, as did Amy Grant and Dierks Bentley.</p>
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<p>That’s likely true but most of the actors on that list had been acting for years prior to college graduation. It’s not unusual for parents to disapprove/discourage/disallow their children to choose drama/theatre as a college major. It’s also not unusual for some successful actors to pursue other majors yet still make a career on stage or on screen. And then there are many more who never go to college at all!</p>
<p>One of the most interesting is Charles S. Dutton who got a G.E.D. while in prison then did his undergrad at Towson University and earning a Master’s Degree in acting from the Yale School of drama.</p>
<p>I don’t know details about everyone on the Harvard list, but Rashida Jones and Mira Sorvino, at least, did not have acting careers prior to college. They were in a cappella groups there (as was Eden Riegel, who’d been a professional actor since she was tiny).</p>
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<p>Peck may very well be the Hollywood leading man w/ the closest thing to near perfect features. If he had Cary Grant’s suaveness - he basically would have been the perfect male.</p>
<p>Anyhow, one has to distinguish btwn those who became successful actors after having gone to college (likely to have been a drama major) and those who went to college after gaining some success (likely to major in something else).</p>
<p>Adding to William & Mary list</p>
<p>Glenn Close majored in anthropology and drama</p>
<p>Steven Culp (Desperate Housewives) majored in English</p>
<p>Scott Glenn (The Right Stuff) majored in English</p>
<p>LInda Lavin (Alice) and broadway and did major in drama</p>
<p>Jon Stewart majored in psychology</p>
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<p>Hanna, my previous comment was not about acting careers, per se. Very few people have acting careers prior to entering college. My point was that many/most of the people being discussed on this thread were involved in some type of performing, whether drama or music, prior to going to college, as well as during their college years. Rashida and Mira are no exception to that. It’s not as though it’s a big stretch that most of these people ended up as actors. Some? Yes, but for most of them, they had been well on their way before they got to college.</p>