Al Pacino grew up in New York City, acting in underground theatre groups as a teenager and attending the High School of the Performing Arts. After flunking most of his classes, the future "The Godfather" star dropped out at the age of 17.
Bill Cosby - Despite his reputation for being an education advocate, Cosby never actually finished high school. He left school early to get a job and ultimately joined the Navy. He later completed his GED and even got a degree from Temple University.
After growing up in East Harlem and the Bronx, Pacino moved at age 19 to Greenwich Village, where he studied acting at the Herbert Berghof Studio and appeared in many Off-Broadway and out-of-town productions, including Hello, Out There (1963) and Why Is a Crooked Letter (1966).
Brando attended Libertyville High School, excelling at sports and drama, but failing in every other subject. Consequently, he was held back for a year, and with his history of misbehaving, he was expelled in 1941. Brando was sent by his father to Shattuck Military Academy, where his father had himself studied.
Al Pacino's AWKWARD Best Picture Announcement Divides the Internet | 2024 Oscars
Did Daniel Radcliffe finish high school?
Daniel Radcliffe
And I know I wouldn't have been if I had stayed in school because, before I did Potter, my confidence had been more or less destroyed by a couple of teachers. So I had it all restored by the people who taught me on the films,” Radcliffe told Parade in 2009 of dropping out.
Travolta, who was the youngest of six children, developed a childhood interest in performing that was nurtured by his mother, an actress and drama teacher. With his parents' approval, he dropped out of high school at age 16 to pursue an acting career.
Jim Carrey dropped out of school not to pursue acting, but to help support his family financially. Wayans dropped out as a freshman to follow his older brother to Los Angeles. He later became the star of his brother's hit sketch-comedy show, In Living Color.
Harry attended Wilmslow High School in Cheshire, U.K., but as fans of the “Sign Of The Times” singer know, he auditioned for The X Factor at the age of 16. After he made it through and One Direction was formed, the singer unfortunately never went back to finish school.
He studied acting at HB Studio and Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio. De Niro also studied with Stella Adler, of the Stella Adler Conservatory, where he was exposed to the techniques of the Stanislavski system.
Al Pacino grew up in New York City, acting in underground theatre groups as a teenager and attending the High School of the Performing Arts. After flunking most of his classes, the future "The Godfather" star dropped out at the age of 17.
In addition to the two dozen billionaires who have only a high school degree, there are three billionaires who never even got a diploma: former hairdresser and founder of OGX hair care products Todd Christopher, cable TV pioneer Alan Gerry and Dole Foods' David Murdock.
While praised as a curious student that came up with creative solutions for the problems he was presented with, Einstein didn't achieve high grades. But did Albert Einstein dropout of high school? He did! He found the work unchallenging and his teachers too rigid, so he decided to drop out at the age of 15.
Who is the most famous high school dropout? Lindsay Lohan tops our list. Lohan started acting at an early age, starring in films like “Freaky Friday” and “The Parent Trap.” Though she couldn't attend a traditional high school, Lohan later received her high school equivalency through home schooling.
Originally known as Shawn Carter, Jay-Z never graduated from high school. That didn't stop the multi-Grammy Award-winning hip-hop artist from becoming a successful entrepreneur.
He finally settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey with his mother and her new husband. While in high school, Tom wanted to become a priest but pretty soon he developed an interest in acting and abandoned his plans of becoming a priest, dropped out of school, and at age 18 headed for New York and a possible acting career.
After a few years Downey went to live with his father and began attending Santa Monica High School, but dropped out in 1982. At the age of 17 he moved back to New York to pursue an acting career full-time.
He achieved A grades in the three AS level exams that he took in 2006, but decided to take a break from education and did not attend university. Part of his reasoning was he already knew he wanted to be an actor and screenwriter, and it would be difficult to have a normal college experience.
He developed an idiosyncratic accent because, as a child, he thought having a Canadian accent did not sound "tough". He began to model his accent on that of Marlon Brando. Gosling dropped out of high school at age 17 to focus on his acting career.
Drew was emancipated when she was only 14 years old and didn't earn her high school diploma. Drew invited three Drew Barrymore Show viewers to create “Drew & Ru's Back-to-School Crew”. The first adult learner earning her GED credential alongside Drew is Anissa a 50-year-old from Florida.
Whoopi Goldberg in her youth struggled with learning; labeled “dumb” and “lazy” she became a high school dropout at the age of 17. With low self-esteem, she became involved in drugs. Yet remarkably she overcame all this to have the most amazing career as an actress, comedian, television host and author.
