Famous high school drop outs -- LiveWire Teen Forums

� 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)

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