I consider myself a Jack of All Trades. Some people, however, go above and beyond this and are just better at life than the rest of us. They're good at everything. To recognize these individuals, I decided to compile a list of people who are accomplished in two completely different fields. Criteria: one’s accomplishments must be in fields that are completely unrelated. Examples: music/ academia, athletics/science, invention/acting, or athletics/politics. Success in two similar fields (e.g. two sports) does not count. Hopefully you learn something interesting...Read More >>
1. Brian May (music/academia/science)
lead guitarist of queen, studied physics at Imperial College of London, graduating with a B.Sc. (Hons) degree in both physics and mathematics and ARCS with Upper Second-Class Honours. Then got a Ph.D degree in astrophysics (A survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud). In 2007, he was appointed Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University. Built his guitar "Red Special" and has used it for 30+ years.
2. Dexter Holland (music/education/adventure)
lead singer of the Offspring, has a bachelor’s degree in Biology and a Masters Degree in Molecular biology both from the University of Southern California. He owns a soviet fighter jet, is a licensed airline transport pilot and has made a solo trip around the world in 10 days. Ran the LA Marathon in 06, also owns his own hot sauce brand. Who knew that he was actually pretty fly for a white guy.
3. Stephan Jenkins (music/education)
lead singer of Third Eye Blind, Valedictorian of his 1987 class at University of California Berkeley with a BA in English Literature. Appartently, he's the kind of guy that Vanessa Carlton would walk 1000 miles to see. Lucky nerd.
4. Danica McKellar (acting/mathematics)
spent 6 years on playing Winnie Cooper on ABC’s The Wonder Years. Author of two NY Times best sellers, Graduated summa cum laude with a degree in Mathematics from UCLA. Coauthored a scientific paper that resulted in the Chayes-McKellar-Winn theorem. She also posed in lingerie for Stuff magazine :) Her attempt to land grittier roles made "the wonder years" a whole lot easier for the 13-17 y.o. male population.
5. Natalie Portman (hottie/acting/education)
this world famous actress has been an A-Lister since she was a child star, also has a psychlogy degree from Harvard and is fluent in Hebrew.
6. Viggo Mortensen (acting/linguistics)
in addition to being a big time Hollywood actor, he is conversational in 7 languages, English, Spanish, Danish, French, Italian, Swedish, and Norwegian.
7. Bill Bradley (athletics/academia/politics)
undergrad at Princeton, NCAA Basketball player of the year 1965, Gold Medalist 1964 Olympic basketball team, Rhodes Scholar, 2 NBA championships with the Knicks, 3 term senator from NJ, Presidential Candidate.
8. Len Elmore (athletics/law)
sportscaster, lawyer, and former NBA player. Played 8 years in the NBA and after attending Harvard law school he works for an international law firm in NY. He's also president of the National Basketball Retired Players Association.
9. David Duchovny (acting/athletics/education)
Princeton undergrad, master’s in English Literature from Yale. Played Center fielder for varsity baseball team at Princeton. Oh and Californication is one of the best shows on television. X-Files didn’t do so poorly either, if my memory serves me correctly.
10. Dean Cain (athletics/acting/education/dating supermodels)
captain of Princeton's varsity volleyball team, free safety on the football team. Dated Brooke Shields (who was a year ahead of him at Princeton), graduated with a BA in History, signed as a free agent with the buffalo bills, but a knee injury in training camp ended his carreer before it began. He also played Clark Kent/Superman and hosts Ripley's Believe It or Not.
11. Govenator Arnold Schwarzeneggar (body building/acting/business/politics)
won Mr. Univers title at age 22. Went on to win Mr. Olympia 7 times. Became an A-List Hollywood action star due to his roles in Conan the Barbarian and the Terminator movies. Elected governor of the great state of California in 2003. He is also a serial entrepreneur and highly successful business man.
12. Myron Rolle (athletics/academia)
According to ESPN he was the #1 high school prospect in the country. Rolle attended Florida State and played safety on the football team. He then was awarded the Rhodes scholarship. He put his NFL career on hold to study Anthropology at Oxford.
13. Sufiah Yusof (mathematics/business/”anatomy”)
gained entry into St. Hilda’s College, Oxford to study mathematics at the age of 13. Also, in addition to being good with numbers, she’s also good with dick. She worked as a callgirl/prostitute under the name Shilpa Lee charging 130 GBP per hour for her services.
14. Myke Hawke (linguistics/consulting/entrepreneurship/sick name)
couldn’t resist this one. American adventurer/television consultant/special operations soldier/author. Rated in 7 languages, English, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, Serb-Croation, French, and Italian. 3rd Degree Black Belt in Aikido. Also has a sweet name.
15. Dot Richardson (medicine/athletics)
Gold Medal softball 1996 Olympics/Orthopedic surgeon, UCLA 4 years, Masters degree from Adelphi Universisty, University of Louisville M.D. 1993, Took a year off her 5 year residency at USC to compete in the 1996 Olympics.
16. Prakazrel Samuel Michel aka Pras(entertainment/education)
Rapper, actor, film producer. Graduated from Yale with a double major in psychology and philosophy. Wrote hit “Ghetto Superstar,” member hip-hop trio The Fugees.
17. Ben Stein (entertainment/comedy/economics/acting)
Majored in econonomics at Columbia University; valedictorian of Yale Law School (selected by peers); Hosted Win Ben Stein’s Money. Speechwriter for multiple US Presidents.
18. Al Franken (comedy/education/writing/politics)
graduated cum laude from Harvard with a degree in political science. One of the original writers on SNL. Nominated for 7 Emmy awards, won 3. As an author: Franken has written 5 NY Times Best Selling books, 3 of which have hit #1 on the list. He had a nationally broadcasted radio show for 3 years. In 2008, he was elected as a United States Senator from Minnesota.
19. Britton Chance (Science/athletics)
Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry and biophysics as well as physical chemistry and radiological physics at UPenn school of Medicine; BA, MA, and PhD in Phisical Chemistry from UPenn. 2nd PhD at Cambridge in Biology/Physiology. D.Sc. from Cambridge. National Medal of Science 1974; In athletics: Gold Medal 5.5 metre class Sailing 1952Helsinki Olympics.
20. Paul Newman (business/acting/philanthropy/car racing)
2nd overall in 24 Hour LeMans, won his class in 1979, Several National championships in Sports Car Club of American road racing, his teams also won several championships in open wheel IndyCar racing. As an actor: Academy Award winner, 3 Golden Globes, A BAFTA award, and an Emmy award etc. As a philanthropist/entrepreneur: his company, Newman’s Own, has donated $260 million to charity.
21. James Blake (athletics/education/writing)
former world #4 ranked tennis player (presently #24), spent 2 years at Harvard, broke his neck when he hit the net post after turning pro, staged a comeback, wrote a book about it that became a NY Times Best seller.
22. Chuck Connors (athletics/acting)
played professional baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Cubs. Played Professional basketball for the Boston Celtics. Also starred in the 1950s hit TV series The Rifleman.
23. Eddie Eagan (Athletics/Law)
Eagan is the only person to have won a gold medal at both the Summer Olympic games and the Winter Olympic games. He won gold in Men’s light-heavyweight boxing at the 1920 games in Antwerp. He also won gold in 1932 in the four-man bobsleigh in Lake Placid. Eagan also studied law at Harvard University and later at the University of Oxford.
24. Li Ning (athletics/business)
Chinese gymnast who won 3 gold, two silver and 1 bronze at the 1984 games in Los Angeles. He was inducted into the International Gymnastics Hall of Fame in 2000. Li also started (and serves as chairman of) athletic apparel company Li Ning Company Ltd, which posted revenues of $892 million in FY 2008. He also lit the Olympic Torch at the 2008 Beijing Games.
25. Lionel Conacher (athletics/politics)
inductee to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame; Hockey: Won 2 Stanley Cups, 2 time NHL All-Star; Boxing: won the 1920 Canadian amateur light heavyweight boxing title; Lacrosse: inducted into the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1965; Wrestling: undefeated (27-0) as a pro wrestler in Canada and the United States. He also played professional baseball in Canada. In addition to his athletic achievements, Conacher was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and the Canadian House of Commons.
Honorable Mentions:
Stone Phillips (athletics/education/broadcasting) quarterback of Yale University football team; graduated with a degree in philosophy. 20/20 Correspondent. Anchor of Dateline NBC.
Theo Epstein – (mgmt/education) honorable mention due to age, GM of the Red Sox, degree in American Studies from Yale, J.D. from the University of San Diego
Ken Jeong-(entertainment/education) Comedian, PhD
Dale Begg-(athletics/business)Smith (not enough information) Gold medal skier and spyware company founder
Matt Damon- (education/entertainment) Harvard drop-out/screen writer. Also, Jason effing Bourne.
Hon Mention Multi-sport athletes:
Dave Logan-drafted in 3 sports
Dave Winfield-ditto
Deon Sanders
Bo Jackson
Charlie Ward
Jim Brown
John Lynch- drafted by the Marlins and Bucs. Already in the MLB Hall of Fame for throwing out the first pitch of the Marlin’s organization…
Jim Thorpe
Babe Zaharias
Danny Ainge
Ron Reed
Clara Hughs Olympic medalist in speed skating and cycling
Denis Compton- played for football Arsenal F.C. and was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
badass.
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