From the Department of Missed Opportunities: Gene Kelly, attorney?
This morning's mail brought a flyer announcing "Pitt's Gene Kelly Centennial Celebration," an evening of film and memories hosted by Patricia Ward Kelly, the widow of the "Singin' in the Rain" star, Pittsburgh native, and University of Pittsburgh alum.
Everyone here knows that Gene Kelly graduated from Pitt. What we didn't all know was this (according to the flyer):
"Kelly enrolled in Pitt's School of Law but left soon after to concentrate on teaching dance."
The rest, as the saying goes, is history.
Help me out: What other notables dallied, formally, with law school before opting out, pre-degree, and pursuing (and achieving) the careers for which they became best known?
Michael,
Great question. Tangential point here--taking a fictional character--wasn't Rick Blaine in Casablanca a former criminal defense lawyer from New York? I dimly recall that Rennard Strickland wrote about this detail, which was left out of the movie.
Posted by: Alfred Brophy | October 23, 2012 at 11:50 AM
Paul Simon--"A nation turns its lonely eyes to you Joe DiMaggio"-- briefly attended Brooklyn Law School
Posted by: Bill Reynolds | October 23, 2012 at 12:45 PM
Cole Porter did a year at Harvard law before dropping out (so that he could later help set the standard of the time for summary judgment).
Posted by: David | October 23, 2012 at 12:52 PM
Karl Marx and Ted Bundy? (At least that's what I've often heard said.)
Posted by: John Steele | October 23, 2012 at 01:17 PM
A few more. Henry James, Harper Lee, Seymour Hersh, Theodore Roosevelt, Louis Menand. Gabriel García Márquez dropped out in-not from-Columbia. I would especially like to have seen Márquez cross borders to give emanations and penumbras their due.
Posted by: cpm | October 23, 2012 at 03:04 PM
The great jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman had been accepted to Yale Law School but deferred. His father was also a fine sax player (Dewey Redman) and the story I've always heard is that his mother told him that he could take one year after graduating from Harvard undergrad to pursue music. He obviously never returned to the law track.
Posted by: Richard Paschal | October 23, 2012 at 04:38 PM
Long ago I collected the names of law dropouts (as distinguished by the subset of law school dropouts). I have since forgotten many. Some additional ones are Robert Schumann, Federico Fellini, and more recently, comedian Dmitri Martin. Bernie Kosar also took a course or two at Case Western before concluding that this football thing would work out.
Posted by: Bob Strassfeld | October 23, 2012 at 07:04 PM
Two more: Ray Manzarek of the Doors and Kathy Boudin, who was a first year law student at Case Western.
Posted by: Bob Strassfeld | October 23, 2012 at 07:09 PM
I'm not sure if he graduated, but Peter Garrett, former lead singer of the Australian band Midnight Oil. Garrett entered politics when the band broke up and is now education minister.
BTW, I linked to this post on Prawfs and CoOp; we'll see if that readership comes up with anything.
Posted by: Howard Wasserman | October 23, 2012 at 07:53 PM
Benjamin Cardozo
Posted by: Lawrence Cunningham | October 24, 2012 at 07:30 AM
Diane Sawyer, Bernie Madoff, and Bill Walton. Walton is probably more famous for his legendary surprise appearance at a Harvard law class discussing his contract. If anyone has the details, they would be worth sharing.
Posted by: Bob Power | October 24, 2012 at 12:54 PM
Carly Fiorina attended UCLA for a semester.
Posted by: Nancy | October 24, 2012 at 08:49 PM
Paul Cezanne
Posted by: Larry Ross | October 25, 2012 at 09:00 AM
Savannah Guthrie, co-host of The Today Show, J.D. from Georgetown. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savannah_Guthrie).
Also, see Mental Floss's "30 Famous People With Law Degrees" (http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/127470)
Posted by: JBS | October 25, 2012 at 11:07 AM
I just saw that your post-discusses those that opted out. My whole post has NOTHING to do with that- apologies!
Posted by: JBS | October 25, 2012 at 11:09 AM
Legendary anchorman Bill Kurtis has a JD from UCLA.
Posted by: Spencer Waller | October 25, 2012 at 12:09 PM
Savannah Guthrie (who actually practiced law for a while) and legendary anchorman Bill Kurtis (who, apparently, did not) aren't law school dropouts.
Posted by: Mike Madison | October 25, 2012 at 12:25 PM
Justice Robert Jackson
Posted by: Bill Reynolds | October 25, 2012 at 04:00 PM
I don't know if you were looking for people who dropped out before getting a degree but practiced law. That seems like a very different category of people. It was common practice for would be lawyers to do a little bit of law school in addition to an apprenticeship, or to attend just enough law school to begin a practice. Clarence Darrow, for instance, if my memory is correct, attended Michigan for a year before starting his law practice. Many of his contemporaries similarly abandoned law school but not the law.
Posted by: Bob Strassfeld | October 25, 2012 at 05:12 PM
If Gene Kelly had done to law school,would he have been Suing in the Rain?
Posted by: Orin Kerr | October 25, 2012 at 06:31 PM