I am putting together an article that lists famous actors who didn't take any formal training in acting before they ended up acting in films. I have listed 6 actors so far, and I am building up the list one entry per day.

Please have a look. I hope you enjoy reading it. Read the article at [Actors who never went to an acting school](http://sathyaish.net/writing/ActingSchool.aspx)

Today's entry:

When she told him she hadn't understood his question, he asked again, "You're a model, aren't you?" He gave her his business card and requested that she think it over and that if she decides to become a model, she should ask her parents to give him a call.

Read the whole thing at: [Actors who never went to an acting school](http://sathyaish.net/writing/ActingSchool.aspx#cameronDiaz)


Keep watching this article for the next day's entry.

From India, Ghaziabad
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Thank you for the post. Just a small observation. Somebody told me during one of my training programs that I quote everything from a Western point of view, such as authors, videos, and events, etc. From that day onwards, I started exploring Indian equivalents.

Similarly, all your actors are from the West. We do have plenty of actors like Raj Kapoor, Kamal Haasan, Shivaji Ganeshan, Rajinikanth, Sunil Dutt, and many others who never attended any acting schools. The same applies to directors, singers, and so on.

I would suggest that you also explore some Indian counterparts. Perhaps you should be able to link it with its relevance to HR, training, learning, etc. That will be a real challenge for you.

Best wishes.

From India, Bengaluru
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Great views, Rakesh. Sadly, what you're saying has very little to do with the profession of acting and more to do with a human instinctual behavior called greed. Every one of us is corruptible, and when we are put in a position of power and wealth, we have a threshold level of resistance towards these tendencies that can be compromised.

Thank you, Mr. Sundaram. I do have a list of Indian actors as well and will be putting them up as well. However, in the Indian context, things change for two reasons:

1) Almost the entire Bollywood film industry never learned acting from anywhere. Those that did go to acting schools like the National School of Drama (NSD) are the exceptions.

2) The technique in Bollywood varies significantly from Hollywood. Hollywood acting requires a lot of preparation, art, skill, and talent. Hollywood scripts get written 2 years to 8 years, sometimes even earlier than the film being shot. Actors are given scripts and signed on months and even years before the filming. They go into year-long sabbaticals to prepare for their roles, etc.

In Bollywood (and I am talking out of experience, I am an actor and have done a fair bit of work here or there and am shooting for my first Bollywood film in December this year), most actors are called on the spot and asked to just do the thing they are supposed to do without being told about the story or sometimes even the context. It is more like "imitation" than acting.

From India, Ghaziabad
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This is a unique post that Satyaish has made. If I may add, Amitabh Bachchan, during his time, there were three gold medalists from the Pune Institute, which is the premier institute for films in India - Vijay Arora, Anil Dhawan, and Navin Nischal. None of the three could make any significant headway, but Bachchan rose to be the Superstar of the Millennium and is still going strong. Subhash Ghai was also from the Pune Institute as an actor but became successful as a producer/director, which was his true working identity. There is a book by a vocational psychologist by the name "Working Identity." Bachchan himself said, "The secret of success lies in knowing what you want to do correctly at an early stage."

There are also several business examples who never went to Business school or dropped out - Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Dhirubhai Ambani, Sunil Mittal, etc. Though neither Bill Gates nor Jack Welch is an MBA, both have employed them on a grand scale. I once witnessed how the chairman gave six promotions to a promising individual in one year whereas three others from the same MBA institute got only one promotion. Success in practical life is more dependent on innate attributes apart from intelligence - emotional intelligence, personality traits, adaptability, and being the right person at the right place at the right time. The last is a little dicey, but the others can be detected more by training than by teaching, which only tests analytical ability, which is only one component of the overall managerial ability. Marcus Buckingham has also used the examples of actors to explain misfit in business roles - Paul Newman and Robert Redford had started shooting for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" but reversed roles when they were not fitting, and the movie was successful. Many well-qualified people prove to be misfits in real life in the actual situation, which is why there are sites like Career Change Advice - Get A New Career You Love | Careershifters.org. Only trainers can prevent and rectify such situations and lead to productivity and happiness in individuals and organizations.

From India, New Delhi
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Liked the concept of "Working identity".

I think some part of it is an art which you are either born with or not. The other part is technique, which you can obviously learn in school or through experience.

It's an age-old debate - you will see hugely successful actors (businessmen) who never went to acting schools (B-schools) and vice versa. Unfortunately, it never concludes.

From India, Delhi
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Wonderful ideas, Hiren50. I am going to link to your post at the bottom of that article on my website when I have completed this article with about 25 odd entries that I've planned for. This should take about 2 months' time.

Thank you very much for sharing your ideas.

From India, Ghaziabad
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Here's another actor added into this list. The first film that she auditioned for was "Endless Love." She didn't get the part; it went to Brooke Shields. By 1981-82, her acting career began to heat up, and people started recognizing her.

Read the whole thing at Actors who never went to an acting school

From India, Ghaziabad
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Thank you for liking the post. I'll keep adding more actors to this list and keep bringing you more and more interesting content on a regular basis. If you like my posts, please do share them on your Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter walls as well. It'll help me spread the word. Thank you very much once again.

To share my post on your wall, just copy and paste the link (for example Actors who never went to an acting school) on your Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter wall. Alternatively, you may click the green button at the top-right edge of the screen when you visit my website. See the picture below. http://sathyaish.net/share2.jpg

Some pages also have a 'Share this' button. Clicking this button will also share the web page on your Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter wall. See the picture below. http://sathyaish.net/share.jpg

From India, Ghaziabad
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Here's another actor added to the list of famous actors who never went to an acting school. You'll be surprised at this one and the many more yet to come. Keep reading...

His mother remarried, and during this time that Tom was in New York, his stepfather gave him $900 to help him out while Tom waited tables and did other odd jobs while also auditioning regularly for parts, both big and small. Within 6 months, he landed himself a movie called Taps. Initially, he had only 3 lines in the movie, but they liked him so much that they kept increasing his part. He is the first actor ever whose 5 movies in a row grossed more than $100 million each. By the 1990s, he was one of the highest-paid actors in the world.

Read the whole thing at Famous Actors Who Never Went to an Acting School.

From India, Ghaziabad
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Here's another addition to the list:

Their new condition forced all of them to work as security guards and janitors at Titan Wheels, a local tire factory in Scarborough, a grimly industrial area of Toronto. He was, until then, a straight-A student. On his 16th birthday, he dropped out of school to work full-time and support his family. Gulping together the salival bitterness of a battered pride and smiting grief, his father took him to a local comedy club to perform as a stand-up comic. His career had many ups and downs, and he lost several roles along the way. His story would probably make for a good 2-hour talk. He went through severe depression in the 1980s.

Read the whole thing at Famous Actors Who Never Went to an Acting School

From India, Ghaziabad
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Here's another actor added to this list. You're going to be surprised with this one. :-)

I recall vividly. It was 1993. I had just completed my 12th standard. That evening, we were watching television in our one-room rented house. I saw a man's face, unknown to me at the time. He must've said a few other things in that interview, none of which I remember, but these words stayed with me. They made me remember his face. I didn't know why, back then.

Read the whole thing at Famous Actors Who Never Went to an Acting School: Famous Actors Who Never Went to an Acting School

From India, Ghaziabad
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Satyaish, what is the purpose of posting something like this in an HR forum? To my mind, it is to see whether the acting schools are able to produce high-quality actors (human resource/talent) or not. I would say that some of the best and most successful actors are not from acting schools. This reminds me of what former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan (current politician) used to say in his heyday - "Pakistan has produced talented cricketers despite the system and not because of it, as we have no proper domestic structure like our Ranji Trophy, etc."

I read in a book on CEOs how only 2% of the people make it to the top as CEOs when judged on the right parameters. Whether in business or acting schools, the issue is whether the talented individuals are coming because of the institute or their innate ability, taking out which is, incidentally, the purpose of education. I have a blog by the name "Make Your Passion Your Profession" - Make Your Passion Your Profession (Work Prisoners and Students), which reveals how people qualified for one field are super successful in another field depending upon their true interests and strengths. The education system, to my mind, is outdated, which was brought out quite well by the famous movie "Three Idiots". Only training or skills-based education and not teaching can bring out real innate potential and people's true working identity. That is putting things in an HR perspective.

From India, New Delhi
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You are quite right, Hiren50. Quite right about both the purpose of this posting here and also about your views on education. We share common views. I have made quite a number of posts about the same thing, a recent one of them being this: <link no longer exists - removed> as well as my remarks on learning on this page Acting
From India, Ghaziabad
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Roughly around the time that the previous actor I have mentioned in this list, a Gujarati, was in the making, synchronously, two oceans across the globe, in another part of the world, destiny the sculptor, was effecting its purposeful strokes into shaping another fine actor. This one too a Gujarati, preparing him, as it were, to be chosen to bring to life on the big screen, the living portrait of perhaps the most famous Gujarati ever to have lived.

Famous Actors Who Never Went to an Acting School

From India, Ghaziabad
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In the last year, I have auditioned for and lost several parts in television advertisements and films. That’s something I understand is a part of the journey of being an actor and so I don’t get the least bit affected by it anymore.
In September 2012, I auditioned for a part in a mainstream, and reportedly low-budget, Hindi cinema (also known as a Bollywood) film. I am not going to reveal names because that’s just not going to be good sense on my part.
Read the whole account at: How I almost got a part in a Bollywood film

From India, Ghaziabad
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