Being famous is hard. All those people shoving stuff in your face and asking you to sign it, wanting selfies with you, riding around on yachts, big ass yachts, millions of dollars. Torture. You know what’s also torture? Graduate school. And yet, several famous faces have faced down post-graduate work just like they faced down a feverish mob: with a smile and good pen. These are a few celebs who just so happen to have doctorates.
Bill Cosby
Everyone’s favorite TV dad in the ’80s got his Ph.D. in Education in 1976. Not only is he charming and full of paternal insight, he’s sort of an expert on the education system. Perhaps Ghost Dad was a thinly-veiled educational tool?
Shaquille O’Neal
In 2012, this beloved retired NBA star received a doctorate in education from Barry University in Miami Shores, Fla. This athletic giant earned his first degree at Louisiana State University in 2000, completed his MBA through the University of Phoenix, and — get this — now he’s considering law school.
James Franco
Everyone’s favorite actor, poet, novelist, artist and teacher has apparently decided he’s not busy enough. Word has it he has been enrolled at Columbia for fiction writing, Warren Wilson College for poetry, the Rhode Island School of Design and Yale for a Ph.D. in English. Sheez. This guy is either some kinda overachiever on a celebrity level, or he’s secretly investigating the merits of degrees in the humanities. Or perhaps he’s just stupid rich and likes stupid challenges.
Dolph Lundgren
Yeah, the same dude who fights Rocky in Rocky IV! That muscly guy from all those ’80s movies is one smart cookie. He got his master’s degree in chemical engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, then he got a Fulbright scholarship and completed his Ph.D. at MIT (WTF!). It bears mentioning that he didn’t get a degree in acting. Ahem.
Brian May
The big-haired Brit who swung his ax for Queen actually has a Ph.D in Astronomy. After climbing to fame as a rock star, May decided to instead study the stars (see what I did there?). His thesis was on zodiacal dust clouds.
