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Being famous for making people laugh, shredding a guitar, or playing an idiot on television doesn’t exactly scream academic overachiever. But plenty of celebrities have résumés that look like they belong to entirely different people. Some earned advanced degrees before fame took over, while others became experts in subjects that have almost nothing to do with their careers. There are rock stars with PhDs, actors who could have become scientists, and entertainers who built surprisingly sophisticated business empires behind the scenes. Redditors recently shared famous people whose intelligence tends to get overlooked, and some of their answers make a pretty convincing case. Apparently, becoming wildly successful in one field wasn’t enough for these 15 people.
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Slash Is Seriously Into Paleontology
The Guns N’ Roses guitarist reportedly keeps up with paleontology research, has relationships with scientists in the field, and has supported museums and research. One Redditor even recalled their museum-volunteer father spending six hours discussing dinosaurs and geology with Slash during a private tour.
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Kris Kristofferson Was a Rhodes Scholar
Long before becoming a country music legend, Kristofferson studied English literature at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He was also an Army officer and helicopter pilot before ultimately choosing music.
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Dolph Lundgren Has a Master’s in Chemical Engineering
The action star’s résumé could have gone in a very different direction. Lundgren earned a master’s degree in chemical engineering and received a Fulbright scholarship to study at MIT before acting took over.
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Brian May Has a PhD in Astrophysics
Queen’s guitarist didn’t just write some extremely elaborate rock songs. May earned a PhD in astrophysics, making his interest in the stars considerably more literal than you might expect from a rock legend.
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Kesha Nearly Took a Very Different Path
Kesha’s party-girl image hid a seriously academic teenager. According to the Reddit discussion, she earned a near-perfect SAT score, was offered a scholarship to Barnard, and even snuck into college lectures while still in school.
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Dolly Parton Knew Exactly What Her Songs Were Worth
Parton maintained control of her publishing rights and famously refused to let Elvis Presley record “I Will Always Love You” when his team wanted part of the publishing. Decades later, Whitney Houston’s version proved just how valuable that decision was.
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Weird Al Was a 16-Year-Old Valedictorian
Weird Al Yankovic’s goofy career disguises a pretty impressive academic background. He skipped grades, graduated from high school as valedictorian at just 16, and went on to study architecture. The Reddit thread singled out his early graduation as evidence that the comedy musician is much sharper than his persona suggests.
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Tom Morello Graduated From Harvard
Before becoming the guitarist for Rage Against the Machine, Morello studied political science at Harvard. He graduated with honors, which makes his decades of politically charged songwriting considerably less surprising.
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Ken Jeong Was Literally a Doctor
Jeong may be best known for playing completely unhinged characters, but his previous career couldn’t have been more serious. Before acting full time, he earned a medical degree and worked as a physician. Reddit’s summary was wonderfully straightforward: “He’s a doctor”.
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Lisa Kudrow Worked in Scientific Research
Before Phoebe Buffay, Kudrow earned a degree in psychobiology from Vassar College. She then spent years working alongside her physician father on medical research before pursuing acting.
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Retta Was on the Pre-Med Track at Duke
The Parks and Recreation star attended Duke University as a pre-med student and later worked as a chemist. One Redditor was particularly surprised to discover just how good the comedian apparently is at math.
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Hedy Lamarr Helped Pioneer Frequency-Hopping Technology
Lamarr wasn’t only one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. During World War II, she co-developed a frequency-hopping communication system intended to prevent signals from being jammed, technology that later became important to modern wireless communications.
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Flavor Flav Is a Serious Musician
The giant clocks and “Yeah, boy!” persona can overshadow how musically talented Flavor Flav actually is. Redditors pointed out that he’s proficient on numerous instruments, with Chuck D reportedly joking that without Flav, Public Enemy wouldn’t have any musicians.
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Peter Weller Earned a PhD in Art History
Apparently RoboCop knows quite a bit about Renaissance art. Peter Weller earned a PhD in Italian Renaissance art history and has even taught courses on the subject, giving him one of Hollywood’s more unexpected academic side careers.
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Cheech Marin Built a Major Art Collection
Cheech Marin’s stoner-comedy persona doesn’t exactly hint at his other great passion. He’s spent decades building a major collection of Chicano art, much of which is now housed at a museum and cultural center bearing his name.
The post 15 Famous Figures Who Are Way Smarter Than You Might Believe appeared first on Den of Geek.
