10 Celebrity Dropouts Who Went to College Without a High School Diploma

American Mortimer Adler (1902-2001) was a philosopher, editor, and author. He co-founded The Center for the Study of The Great Ideas, and was a long-time editor of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Biographybase.com states this about Adler: "After dropping out of high school at age 14, he worked as a copy boy for the New York Sun. Wanting to become a journalist, he took writing classes at night where he discovered the works of men he would come to call heroes: Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, and others. He went on to study philosophy at Columbia University. Though he failed to complete the necessary physical education requirements for a bachelor's degree, he stayed at the university and eventually was given a teaching position and was awarded a doctorate in philosophy."

Hans Christian Andersen, author of many beloved Danish fairy tales, had a haphazard education, according to Hans Christian Andersen Center. Despite significant gaps in his formal schooling, Andersen passed his entrance exam at Copenhagen University in 1828.

Andersen has often been thought to have been dyslexic, but this is not true according to the center: "Andersen's spelling problems - which are most marked in private jottings, where he did not take pains! - are probably particularly due to the fact that his childhood school attendance was too haphazard and that only at a very late age (as a 17-year-old) did he receive systematic instruction (in the grammar school)."

Image: circa 1950: A statue in Copenhagen harbour based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale of the Little Mermaid. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)

Englishman Orlando Bloom struggled with dyslexia as a child. People's biography of Bloom says this: "After struggling with dyslexia through Canterbury High School, Bloom, 16, drops out and moves to London to join the National Youth Theatre. In 1998, while studying at London's esteemed Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Bloom makes his film debut with a bit part in the Oscar Wilde biopic Wilde. Afterwards, he returns to school to finish up his three-year training."

Image: LOS ANGELES - JAN. 14, 2012: Orlando Bloom at the Cinema For Peace event benefiting J/P Haitian Relief Organization at Montage Hotel in Los Angeles.(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images For J/P Haitian Relief Organization and Cinema For Peace)

It's difficult to imagine that the brilliant Albert Einstein, Nobel Prize-winning and revolutionary physicist, was a high-school dropout. Jennifer Rosenberg, Guide to 20th Century History, writes this about Einstein's education:

"When Einstein was 15 years old, his father's new business had failed and the Einstein family moved to Italy. At first, Albert remained behind in Germany to finish high school, but he was soon unhappy with that arrangement and left school to rejoin his family. Rather than finish high school, Einstein decided to apply directly to the prestigious Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. Although he failed the entrance exam on the first try, he then spent a year studying at a local high school and retook the entrance exam in October 1896 and passed."

Image: Portrait of German-born American physicist Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955), 1946. (Photo by Fred Stein Archive/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

Ole Miss, the University of Mississippi, has this to say about William Faulker: "Back in Oxford, he first engaged in a footloose life, basking in the temporary glory of a war veteran. In 1919, he enrolled at the University of Mississippi in Oxford under a special provision for war veterans, even though he had never graduated from high school. ... After three semesters of study at Ole Miss, he dropped out in November 1920."

Image: US novelist William Faulkner (1897 - 1962). (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Actor Carrie Fisher, who catapulted to fame as Princess Leia in Star Wars, left Beverly Hills High School to act with her mother, Debbie Reynolds. IMDb says that in 1973 she "enrolled at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, which she attended for 18 months."

Internet lists show that Carrie Fisher also attended Sarah Lawrence College.

Image: LOS ANGELES, CA - SEPTEMBER 10, 2011: Debbie Reynolds (L) and Carrie Fisher attend the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. (Photo by Noel Vasquez/Getty Images)

Pick up any fashion mag and you'll see stars of every kind adorned in Alexander McQueen's designs. The famous designer left high school at 16. British Vogue says McQueen "trained on Savile Row at Gieves & Hawkes", and "earned his master's degree in fashion design from London's Central Saint Martins (formerly Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design) in 1992."

McQueen was born in 1970, and died at 40 in 2010.

Image: PARIS - MARCH 10: Fashion designer Alexander McQueen walks down catwalk after his Ready-to-Wear A/W 2009 fashion show during Paris Fashion Week at POPB on March 10, 2009 in Paris, France. (Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)

Billionaire John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (1839-1937) quit high school in 1855 "to take a business course at Folsom Mercantile College," according to The Rockefeller Archives. "He completed the six-month course in three months and, after looking for a job for six weeks, was employed as assistant bookkeeper by Hewitt & Tuttle, a small firm of commission merchants and produce shippers."

That was the end of his formal education. You might recognize Rockefeller as the guy who organized The Standard Oil Company, as well as many other organizations, and is well known for his philanthropy.

Image: 1874: Headshot portrait of American businessman John Davison Rockefeller Sr (1839 - 1937) at age 35. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Who hasn't seen a Norman Rockwell painting they love? According to the Norman Rockwell Museum: "Born in New York City in 1894, Norman Rockwell always wanted to be an artist. At age 14, Rockwell enrolled in art classes at The New York School of Art (formerly The Chase School of Art). Two years later, in 1910, he left high school to study art at The National Academy of Design. He soon transferred to The Art Students League, where he studied with Thomas Fogarty and George Bridgman. Fogarty’s instruction in illustration prepared Rockwell for his first commercial commissions. From Bridgman, Rockwell learned the technical skills on which he relied throughout his long career."

Image: American artist Norman Rockwell (1894 - 1978) looks up while seated at his drawing table, circa 1945. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Author and poet Carl Sandburg quit school after eighth grade, according to his biography at Carl-Sandburg.com: "He quit school following his graduation from eighth grade in 1891 and spent a decade working a variety of jobs. He delivered milk, harvested ice, laid bricks, threshed wheat in Kansas, and shined shoes in Galesburg's Union Hotel before traveling as a hobo in 1897."

At 20, he was accepted at Lombard College. "While at Lombard, Sandburg joined the Poor Writers' Club, an informal literary organization whose members met to read and criticize poetry. Poor Writers' founder, Lombard professor Phillip Green Wright, a talented scholar and political liberal, encouraged the talented young Sandburg."

Image: Portrait of American poet Carl Sandberg (1878 - 1967), 1956. (Photo by Fred Stein Archive/Archive Photos/Getty Images)