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Rediff.com  » Movies » Check out these celebrity dropouts!

Check out these celebrity dropouts!

Last updated on: March 11, 2010 10:22 IST

Image: Johnny Depp
Photographs: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

Hollywood's not about school.

Actors are working class people, and a look up and down the Hollywood A-list shows very varied backgrounds, from all demographics.

It only stands to reason that a bunch of the biggest stars dropped out of school, and here is a look at some really famous names that didn't graduate.

Johnny Depp

The uber-cool Mr Depp dropped out of school when he was 15, a year after his parents divorced, to follow the dream of becoming a rockstar. He tried to backtrack and rejoin school a fortnight later, only to have his principal say he should follow music instead.

While Depp's musical career held limited appeal, the way he has become one of Hollywood's most bankable and critically acclaimed leading men isn't something that can be taught in any school.

Charlize Theron

Image: Charlize Theron
Photographs: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

The product of a very troubled childhood -- a 15 year old Theron saw her mother shoot and kill her drunken father in self defense -- she left her boarding school behind at the age of 16 when she traveled to Milan on a modelling contract.

Ten years later, her performance as the serial killer in Monster netted her the Best Actress award at the Oscars. She is currently working in a sequel to the classic Mad Max films.

Christina Aguilera

Image: Christina Aguilera
Photographs: Daniele la Monaca/Reuters

A child star with a helluva voice, Aguilera was home-schooled till, at the age of 13, she became a part of Disney's television show, The Mickey Mouse Club, where her co-mouseketeers included Britney Spears and Ryan Gosling, all who turned into major stars.

Yet a promising singing career seems to have peaked before reaching its full potential, thanks to the singer's need to show off her Dirrrty side.

Kate Winslet

Image: Kate Winslet
Photographs: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

Winslet was the head girl in her school, but appeared in her first advertisement at the age of 12.

Praised immediately for her natural star quality, Winslet broke through into showbiz at the age of 16 with television roles, and at the age of 17 she auditioned for Peter Jackson's Heavenly Creatures.

The actress got the part, and there's been no looking back, her career peaking last year with the Best Actress Oscar for The Reader.

Drew Barrymore

Image: Drew Barrymore
Photographs: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

Daughter to a family of actors, Barrymore had a nightmarish childhood tormented with much substance abuse. She started working at the age of 11 with a dog food commercial, and ET happened at the age of six.

A smoker from the age of nine, she was indulging in alcohol at the age of 11, marijuana at 12 and cocaine at 13.

Clearly not the kind of behaviour that would win her points at any conventional school, but Hollywood's Hollywood, and Barrymore continues to endure.

Daniel Radcliffe

Image: Daniel Radcliffe
Photographs: Patrick Riviere/Reuters

Sometimes a character finds an actor and there's no looking back.

Radcliffe auditioned for the role of JK Rowling's famed sorcerer Harry Potter when he was 11, and has since starred in each film of the franchise with his co-stars, growing older and more famous.

It's a decision that's left him without a proper education, but Radcliffe seems to be doing more than okay for himself.

Robert De Niro

Image: Robert De Niro
Photographs: Fred Prouser/Reuters

A pretty cinematic childhood, this.

Raised in Manhattan's Little Italy area, De Niro -- nicknamed Bobby Milk because of his pale complexion -- joined a street gang.

Yet the mafia's loss was the movie mob's gain, since the young boy played the cowardly lion in a high school production of Oz, and that kickstarted a love affair with acting.

At the age of 16, he quit high school to pursue acting fulltime, and became one of the greatest American actors of all time.

Jude Law

Image: Jude Law
Photographs: Jens N rgaard Larsen/Reuters

Born to a couple of teachers in South London, Law was a pretty regular student right uptil the age of 15, when he and the arclights discovered each other and he started touring with various companies.

He won great reviews, awards and parts on Broadway, and his breakthrough cinematic part came at the age of 25 with the Oscar Wilde biopic, Wilde.

Law most recently starred in the smash hit Sherlock Holmes where he played Dr Watson.

Demi Moore

Image: Demi Moore
Photographs: Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

Another product of a fractured family, Moore attended a high school in Hollywood with classmates like Anthony Kiedis and Timothy Hutton.

Close friend and actress Natassja Kinski persuaded her to drop out of school at the age of 16, and while Kinski might have the reviews, Moore became a major international star, films like Striptease catapulting her to the top while GI Jane and A Few Good Men proved her range as an actress.

Lindsay Lohan

Image: Lindsay Lohan
Photographs: Danny Moloshok/Reuters

Now infamous as a child star gone wrong, Lohan's career began at the age of three with a modeling contract which led her to endorse brands like Calvin Klein Kids and Pizza Hut.

At 11, she gave up a promising TV show to work on Disney's remake of The Parent Trap, and instantly started up the spiral of success.

She studied only till the 11th grade. Then came films like the great Mean Girls and the successful Herbie: Fully Loaded, and when she came in to act in Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion, it seemed Hollywood had found an ingenue to applaud.

Yet she wasted it all on drugs and scandals, and nowadays is most known for naked magazine shoots. Perhaps this one really should have stayed in school longer.