And the most number of Oscar-winning actors/actresses goes to … University of California and Yale!

Much has been written about Hollywood’s acting geniuses, thanks to the paparazzi and audience demand to know about them. We know which movies they previously acted or had been involved in, their artistic influences and unfortunately, maybe far too much about their personal lives.

But one aspect that has mostly gone under the radar are the higher education paths these Hollywood stars took in their younger years. Which university did they go to and which university produced the most Best Actors and Best Actresses at the Academy Awards?

In time for awards season, Times Higher Education recently undertook the task to trace these stars’ academic backgrounds by tracking the Best Actor and Best Actress Oscars over the past 30 years to see where they went to university.

And what they discovered was that University of California and Yale University produced the highest number of Oscar winners, with four winners from each respective university.

Out of the list of 30 actors, the four University of California alumni that have won Academy Awards are: Nicholas Cage (for Leaving Las Vegas in 1996), Michael Douglas (Wall Street, 1988), Gwyneth Paltrow (for Shakespeare in Love in 1999) and Helen Hunt (for As Good As It Gets in 1998).

Whereas the four Yale University alumni were: Meryl Streep (for The Iron Lady in 2012), Frances McDormand (for Fargo in 1997), Jodie Foster (for The Silence Of The Lambs in 1992) and Paul Newman (for The Colour of Money in 1987).

Meryl Streep, who attended both Vassar College and Yale University, won the Best Actress Academy Award in 2012 for The Iron Lady. Image via Reuters/Lucy Nicholson.

Among the patterns picked up from the THE table was the proximity of some of the universities to Hollywood. Apart from the four alumni from the University of California system, there were many Oscar winners who also studied at community colleges across California, with two of the Best Actor winners (Sean Penn and Dustin Hoffman) and one Best Actress (Hilary Swank) attending Santa Monica Community College.

THE also found that, unsurprisingly, the majority of Oscar winners had majored in drama or theater degrees, followed by the second-most popular subject, English literature, as well as art, photography or music. Natalie Portman, who won Best Actress for the film “Black Swan” in 2011, was one of the few to buck the arts trend and chose to study psychology at Harvard University.

Female actresses were also revealed to go to university more than their male counterparts, though a bigger number of them dropped out midway through their studies. Juggling school and stardom could also be the reason why 11 actors and eight actresses of the past 30 years chose to skip university altogether, opting instead for the stages of renowned theater schools or working less glamorous jobs until they got their big break.

But overall, the THE table showed that there were more Oscar winners who opted for the university route as the right stepping stone to their success in the film industry.

Here is the full list of the winners… and the universities they attended:

Best Actors:

Best Actress:

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