Given the extensive levels of physical training, diet regimen and conditioning that bodybuilders are required to undertake, as well as the competitive element, we feel like it's appropriate to call bodybuilding a sport. By doing so, we're able to include the trailblazer Chris Dickerson (not to be confused with the baseball player of the same name) in this list.
Dickerson is an interesting man in many ways. As well as being a bodybuilder, he's also an accomplished opera singer. His career was full of firsts; he was the first African American Mr. America winner in the American Athletic Union's bodybuilding competition in 1968, and when he came out in the 1970s he became the first openly gay winner of the IFBB Mr. Olympia contest, although it took him until 1982 to claim the prize after a couple of second-place finishes. Although he's almost 80, he still trains to this day, and offers advice to younger bodybuilders who write to him.
Most of your favorite celebrities either studied acting in college or went straight from high school into a life of the arts. But, hey, not all of them. Some celebrities actually have advanced college degrees.
Turns out Mayim Bialik is just as much of a genius as the one she plays on The Big Bang Theory. She earned her Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of California, Los Angeles, focusing on obsessive compulsive disorder among people with Prader-Willi syndrome, a rare condition in which the hypothalamus malfunctions.
Little known fact: Natalie Portman skipped the premiere of Star Wars: Phantom Menace because she was studying for her high school exams. She had two papers published in scientific journals while she was still in high school, and graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in Psychology.
Before he was looking for answers on X-Files, David Duchovny was just trying to find the answers for English finals at Princeton University90. David graduated from Princeton in 1982 with a B.A in English. He continued to feed his love of literature by receiving a master’s degree in English Literature at Yale University. David was an excellent writer and poet. His work consistently received praise by his fellow classmates and teachers at Yale. His writing was even nominated for a college prize by the Academy of American Poets.
Sigourney Weaver graduated from Stanford University in 1971 with a bachelor’s in Literature. It was while studying at Stanford that Sigourney realized her true passion in life was to become an actress. Shortly after graduation, she attended Yale for their well-known drama program. She would go on to receive a master’s in Acting from Yale University and become friends with fellow famous actress Meryl Streep.
Meryl Streep is considered one of the most successful actresses of all time. She is also one of the most highly educated. Before collecting an array of Oscars, Meryl collected diplomas. She graduated from Vassar College with a B.A. in 1971. Meryl has a habit of being unsatisfied with impressive accomplishments as her acting career has shown, so she attended Yale University and earned a master’s degree in Acting.