20 Celebrities Who Never Finished High School

(Reuters)

By some accounts, Marlon Brando was expelled from his first high school for riding a motorcycle through the halls. Whatever the reason, he didn't graduate from Libertyville Township High, and shortly after his father placed him in military school, he got expelled. (Reuters)

At 17, Pacino dropped out of NYC's High School of the Performing Arts (the school that inspired the movie "Fame") to pursue his career. (Reuters)

Rogen left high school at 16 to star in "Freaks and Geeks," on which he played high school student Ken Miller. (Reuters)

Eminem never made it past the ninth grade, which he was set to repeat for a third time due to his unexcused absences. (Reuters)

At 16, Downey dropped out of Santa Monica High School and headed back to his hometown of New York City to pursue acting. (Reuters)

De Niro stopped attending high school in 1960, opting instead to study acting at the Stella Adler Conservatory. He took night classes for a while, but he still never graduated. (Reuters)

Sheen was only a few weeks shy of graduating from Santa Monica High School when he was expelled for poor grades and attendance. (Reuters)

Bündchen stopped her schooling at age 14 after a scout from Elite Model Management spotted her at a mall food court and convinced her to make modeling her career. (Reuters)

Jim Carrey dropped out of school on his 16th birthday, and "immediately" went to a comedy club. (Reuters)

Despite not graduating high school and not being on the reunion committee's "stinking mailing list," Roseanne was invited to her high school reunion by a caller on "Larry King Live." (Reuters)

The director left school at 15, or somewhere "towards the beginning of ninth grade" in order to take acting classes and do community theater. (Reuters)

The billionaire quit boarding school when he was 16 to start a youth-culture magazine, ironically titled "Student." (Reuters)

Travolta left his New Jersey high school to study acting, singing and dancing in NYC. Ironically, at 21, he got his big break when he was chosen to star as a high school student in "Welcome Back, Kotter." (Reuters)

The celebrity chef left school at 14 to become an apprentice with a hotel chef in Austria. (Reuters)

Walt Disney hated high school so much that he sent a letter to his principal telling him how "disgusted" he was by it. He left by the age of 16, then tried to enlist in the Navy (he was rejected because of his age) before forging his enlistment documents and joining the Red Cross Ambulance Corps. (Reuters)

Nicolas Cage, then known as Nicolas Coppola, dropped out of Beverly Hills High at 16. (Reuters)

Marilyn Monroe, or Norma Jeane Baker as she was known at the time, entered Van Nuys High School in 1941. Less than two years later, she left school altogether to marry her first husband. (Reuters)

Gosling dropped out of school at 17 and moved from Canada to Los Angeles to pursue acting. (Reuters)

Depp left high school around 15, then tried to return a few weeks later only to be told to "run with" his dream of being a musician by his school's dean. (Reuters)

The actress dropped out of South Pasadena High School after teachers constantly complained of her incessant talking. (Reuters)