There is a funny misconception about celebrities. As far as movie stars go, we usually we perceive them and associate them to the characters they play on the screen. However we look at them, mostly we don’t really know a whole lot about their true personality. This post will look into their intellect and how smart they actually are. We will only be looking at the IQ levels or other significant factors in order to determine how smart they are.
These may include achievements from elite schools or awards which are hard to achieve. Of course there are some people smarter than these celebrities, but we’re looking at the average human being and compare the IQ levels to these. Although some of these may not surprise you, others are actually very unheard of for most.
Why We Care So Much?
It’s quite funny that we care so much about the insights of a celebrity. Technically chances are we are never going to speak to them face to face let alone become friends and hang out. However we still care a great deal to find out as much as possible about celebrities and discuss our new findings with out friends.
This can probably be explained due to the fact that we like to find out that they have a side we can relate to. It’s quite normal to wish to have a similar glamorous lifestyle such as movie stars. But if all we see is them wearing fancy clothes and going to events we will never be invited to, that dream of becoming one, seems unimaginable. When we find traits and hear of things celebrities have in common is just seems a little more achievable.
How To Measure Intelligence?
Of course you can argue and say that someone is smarter than another person just as much as you could argue that one color looks nicer than another. However, being smart is not as much of a subjective thing as you might think and there are ways of measuring someones intellect.
The most obvious way to do so, would be to perform an IQ test. Anyone with an IQ from 90-109 is normal or average. Anything above 119 is of very superior knowledge and above 140 would be genius or near genius level. Then again there are other ways of knowing someone is smart. Things such as being bi- or multilingual, having reached certain academic achievements and so on.
The List Of Celebrities
Our conducted list isn’t really in any particular order. There are tons of other smart celebrities worth mentioning but the ones listed have a quite remarkable impact on their achievements and a lot of which seem very unexpected. For instance you’ll find certain goofy comedians to be above average and holding several skills and degrees you would never expect to see from their characters on TV.
Having said that, we shouldn’t forget that the characters these actors play are just characters and serve to entertain us. Obviously this means that we’re just looking at a fictional person that doesn’t corresponds to their real life.
10. Dolph Lundgren
This giant man with rock solid muscles and memorable action movies is not just a scary face with a lot of muscle. The Swedish actor may come across as a brainless bag of muscles, such as in “Rocky IV”, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Lundgren is actually a master of chemical engineering, which he graduated from in the university of Sydney. This is just one of many academic achievements this genius has received. He is also part of the MENSA group and he actually is extremely humble about all of his achievements.
9. Geena Davis
Geena Davis may not have produced any blockbusters or memorable films in the last few years, but her movie history speaks for itself. In iconic films such as “Thelma and Louise” and the ever so great “Beetlejuice” she definitely knows how to deliver a great film through her acting skills.
What fewer people know about her, is that she’s also very talented in terms of education. She speaks fluent Swedish, is famed for her Gender studies and most remarkably is part of the MENSA group. This means her IQ is above average and she actually has an IQ of 140!
8. John Cleese
He is one of the greatest British comedians and changed the comedy world with his famous Monty Python acts. He actually studied in Cambridge and received his degree there. The degree was in law which is a real tough degree to actually accomplish and takes many years.
During is studies is where he befriended one of the other 6 members of his Monty Python comedy group, Graham Chapman. A lot of the early stages of their hilarious acts were actually performed within the comedy club in Cambridge and is sure has paid out well for them!
7. Rowan Atkinson
This actor is best known for his comedic character Mr. Bean. The British goofball who somehow doesn’t seem to get anything done right and has a huge heart for his Teddy Bear, brought smiles across the globe. This particular individual actually has a masters degree in Electrical engineering from Oxford University.
To achieve a degree from Oxford is one thing but acquiring a masters degree in a field which is rather complex and requires strong knowledge of maths is another. It is for that reason that we had to include him. The contrast between his TV characters and real life is very strong and almost hard to believe!
6. Lisa Kudrow
Most of you may know her by the name of Phoebe from friends. Her character is world known as the crazy goofy friend. Although most people are probably fully aware that she doesn’t actually behave that way in reality, fewer know she is actually quite the brain!
Unlike her ditsy character, Lisa actually worked for 8 years in a medical staff, specializing on headaches. Her dad was part of the medical staff so you can imagine she learned a lot from him, as her brother is also a neurologist. It’s quite funny to see such a huge contrast to the character of friends on her real life.
5. Brian May
Brian May, may be one of the greatest guitarists a rock band has ever seen. With so many legendary songs produced by Queen and the numerous guitar solos we are all aware of, this man has hands that could burn the guitar through his skills. Besides being the lead guitarist to one of the greatest bands, he has also managed to receive a PHD degree in Astrophysics from the imperial college of London.
Because of his fascination with the universe and space in general he co-authored a lot of books related to these subjects. He also contributed as a science team collaborator at NASA.
4. Conan O’Brien
Although Conan has been in the comedy sector for much longer than we can imagine, he’s still making us laugh today. To be able to crack hilarious jokes, you may have to be a bit smart and witty. As it turns out, Conan is also a graduate from Harvard and he wrote a thesis called: Literary Progeria in the works of Flannery O’Connor and William Faulkner”.
He is a literature and history graduate and won some awards for his work as a writer. His short story “To burry the living” won national awards
3. Natalie Portman
As beautiful as she may look from the outside, this stunning actress has more to offer than just great looks and an amazing acting performance. Nathalie Portman actually speaks fluent hebrew and a psychology graduate from Harvard University! Now obviously that is already a great achievement.
During her studies she contributed to a paper with the title: “Frontal Lobe Activation During Object Permanence: Data From Near-Infrared Spectroscopy” and yes, we’re not quite sure what exactly that means either. The title alone shows that she has a brain powerful enough to come up with well researched information no one understands.
2. Jodie Foster
Jodie Foster entered the world of acting at a very young age and performed amazingly in the movie “Taxi Driver”. But her vast acting career which feature some of the most iconic films known to cinematography, isn’t the only thing that makes this woman so special. She speaks fluent french and more remarkably learned to read at the age of three.
It doesn’t come to a surprise that she was often labelled as a gifted child. Although her french is fluent, she actually speaks several other European languages to a certain degree. She also graduated from Yale University although she was already famous as a well established actress.
1. James Woods
The brilliant actor James Woods has a history and long list of very iconic and noteworthy performances on the big screen. He also makes a few guest appearances as himself on shows such as “Family Guy” and “Entourage”. Usually his characters are on the bad side and they tend to be rather hated than loved.
However the convincing roles he plays are therefore a sign of good acting skills. His intelligence has been amazing people since his very early years. He achieved a perfect score on his verbal part in his SAT’s, enrolled in an Algebra course in UCLA whilst still being in High School and studied political science at MIT. Pretty impressive list right? But in case you need some more convincing, he also has an IQ above 180! Now that’s impressive!
For more celebrity related reviews have a look at these facts about celebs. You might be surprised!