The College Dropouts
Hall of Fame

You don't have to go to college to be a success. Even if you go for awhile, you don't have to graduate to be a success. Here are just a few of the people who have become famous and/or successful without graduating from college and/or high school.

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Don LaFontaine, voice-over artist who narrated more than 350,000 commercials, thousands of TV promos, and more than 5,000 movie trailers. After graduating from high school and serving in the Army, he went into business as a voice-over artist. He never attended college.

Peter La Haye, Sr., inventor of plastic replacement lenses for cataract patients, owner of La Haye Laboratories and Neoptx. Dropped out of high school.

Frederick “Freddy” Laker, billionaire airline entrepreneur. Dropped out of high school.

Sharmen Lane, millionaire mortgage wholesaler, life coach, motivational speaker. A high-school dropout.

Cathy Lanier, Chief of Police of Washington, DC. A 14-year-old pregnant high school dropout.

Angela Lansbury, Tony and Golden Globe award-winning actress. She was contracted by MGM while still a teenager and nominated for an Academy Award for her first film, Gaslight, in 1944. Her Broadway stage work earned her four Tony Awards in sixteen years for Mame, Dear World, Gypsy, and Sweeney Todd. But she never won an Emmy for her work on the Murder, She Wrote television series. She also won six Golden Globes and was nominated for 18 Emmys and 3 Academy Awards. She never
attended college.

Ring Lardner, sportswriter and short story writer. Began his career as a teenager writing for the South Bend Tribune. He continued writing for many other newspapers, eventually landing a nationally syndicated column for the Chicago Tribune.

Tommy Lasorda, baseball manager. Dropped out of high school.

Ralph Lauren, billionaire fashion designer, founder of Polo. Left the City College of New York business school (Baruch College) to design ties for Beau Brummel.

Avril Lavigne, singer, songwriter, actress, fashion designer. Dropped out of high school.

Peter Lawford, actor. Never finished high school.

David Lean, Oscar-winning director. Dropped out of high school.

Stan Lee, comics creator, Marvel Comics (Spiderman, The Hulk, X-Men, The Fantastic Four). Started working when he was still in high school. Never attended college.

Anna-Lou “Annie” Leibovitz, portrait photographer, cover photographer for Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone magazines. Attended the San Francisco Art Institute, but apparently did not graduate. As she has said, “I was very lucky, in working for these magazines, to learn by doing, but I always regretted not having a formal education. I had to teach myself.”

Tia Leoni, actress. Dropped out of Sarah Lawrence College as a 20-year-old to model and act.

James Leprino, billionaire, Leprino Foods. Joined family business at the age of 18. Turned business into the world's largest mozzarella producer.

Doris Lessing, novelist. At the age of 14, she chose to end her formal schooling. She then worked as a nanny, telephone operator, office worker, stenographer, and journalist. Her first novel was published when she was 31. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007.

Jerry Lewis, comedian, actor, singer, humanitarian. High school dropout.

Joe Lewis, billionaire businessman. Dropped out of high school.

Juliette Lewis, actress, singer, musician. At the age of 14, she left her parents and went to live with actress Karen Black, a family friend. She then dropped out of high school.

Rush Limbaugh, multi-millionaire media mogul, the most popular radio talk show host ever. Dropped out of college after being required to take ballroom dancing.

Abraham Lincoln, lawyer, U.S. president. Finished barely a year of formal schooling. He self-taught himself trigonometry (for his work as a surveyor) and read Blackstone on his own to become a lawyer.

Charles Lindbergh, aviator. Quit the University of Wisconsin after two years to learn how to fly an airplane.

Carl Lindner, billionaire investor, founder of United Dairy Farmers. Dropped out of high school at the age of 14 to deliver milk for the family store during the Depression.

John Llewellyn, labor leader, president of the United Mine Workers. Dropped out of high school.

Hank Locklin, country singer. Never attended college.

Marcus Loew, multimillionaire founder of Loews movie theaters, co-founder of MGM movie studio. Dropped out of elementary school.

Lindsay Lohan, actress. Never finished high school.

Jack London, bestselling novelist. Dropped out of high school to work. Later was admitted to the University of California but left after one semester.

Julie London, singer, actress. Dropped out of high school.

Sophia Loren, Oscar-winning actress, author, model. Dropped out of elementary school.

Joe Louis, boxer. Dropped out of high school.

Nat Love, member of the National Cowboys of Color Hall of Fame, known as Deadwood Dick, one of the first American cowboys to write his autobiography. Born into slavery. After being emancipated, he won a horse in a raffle and headed west to become a cowboy.

Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazilian president. With a fifth grade education only, he shined shoes on the streets of Sao Paulo as a kid but later became a steelworker union leader.

Barbara Lynch, chef, owner of a $10 million group of restaurants in Boston. Dropped out of high school to be a runner for local bookies. Later worked for celebrity chef Todd English. “I started my first business venture in high school, placing bets for some of my teachers with bookies in Southie.... I never did homework. I was failing everything. Senior year, they said I would have to go to summer school. There was no way I was doing that, so I dropped out.”

Mary Lyon, education pioneer, teacher, founder of Mount Holyoke College (America's first women's college). Dropped out of high school. Started teaching at the age of 17.

Dropouts with last names starting with M

Drop out of school before your mind rots from our mediocre educational system. — Frank Zappa, musician, liner notes from the Freak Out album