10 Famous People Who Were Expelled From School

If you've got real talent and individual ambition, school might not be the best avenue to success for you. In fact, these businessmen, artists, scientists and actors were so bored with school that they were expelled, but they still made it to the top of their industries. We're not advocating that you talk back to your professors or party in the same reckless ways, but if you're discouraged by your classes, remember that misfits like you do have a place in the world.

1. Percy Bysshe Shelley: Though he died just before his 30th birthday, Percy Bysshe Shelley is still regarded as one of the most profound lyric and Romantic poets in literary history. Born to a privileged political family, Shelleyattended Eton College, where he experimented with heretical and sometimes risque poetry. Shelley went to Oxford after Eton, but was expelled for his scandalous writing, particularly a pamphlet called "The Necessity of Atheism." Shelley refused to apologize for the pamphlet and was not allowed to return to school.
2. William Randolph Hearst: Newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst was one of the most influential and successful men in the country in the late 19th and early 20th century, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and starting the largest newspaper and magazine company in the entire world, and which still exists today, publishing notable titles such as the San Francisco Chronicle, Marie Claire, Esquire,Seventeen and Harper's Bazaar. Born to millionaires, Hearst attended Harvard but was expelled after gifting his professors with chamber pots that had their names painted on the inside.
3. Albert Einstein: Still considered one of the greatest thinkers and scientists in world history, Albert Einstein had a troubling school life. While he was successful in his early education, Einstein was expelled from high school for being rebellious, and was not accepted into Zurich's Federal Institute of Technology on his first try, and failed the entrance exam. After getting his high school diploma at a different school, Einstein returned to FIT and was admitted.
4. Salvador Dali: Always an individualist, artist Salvador Dali was expelled from the Academy of Art in Madrid, which he attended after high school. Disenchanted with many of his professors — who did not challenge Dali enough — Dali was expelled after "disturbing the peace" and criticizing one professor in particular. He said that none of his professors were even qualified to grade him on his exams, and Dali subsequently moved to Paris.
5. Richard Mellon Scaife: Another wealthy newspaper publisher who was expelled from school is Richard Mellon Scaife, who owns thePittsburgh Tribune-Review and frequently funds right-wing causes and campaigns. Theinfluential businessman was kicked out of Yale for his rambunctious, drunken behavior at a party — he rolled a beer keg down some stairs and inadvertently broke another student's leg.
6. R. Buckminster Fuller: Scientist and author — Fuller published over 30 books — designed a car in 1933 that could go 120 miles an hour on half the gas of a standard car. He was expelledtwice from Harvard for partying with a vaudeville troupe and then again for "irresponsibility and lack of interest." By his early 30s, he was bankrupt and turned to drinking after his daughter died, but was saved by a job designing the interior of his favorite cafe in New York City. He was paid in food.
7. Ted Turner: Media magnate Ted Turner was famously ridiculed by his father when he entered into college, choosing to major in Classics. His father wrote him, saying that he was so disappointed, he "almost puked." Turner was ultimately expelled from Brown for being caught in a dorm room with a girl, and he took over his father's billboard business after he committed suicide.
8. Humphrey Bogart: As one of the most iconic actors of all time, Humphrey Bogart is still the epitome of old Hollywood class and cool. But before The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca and The African Queen, Bogart was a privileged young man who got kicked out of school and joined the Merchant Marine. He first attended Trinity School in New York City, and then Phillips Academy in Massachusetts to help him get into Yale. Bogart was expelled from Phillips, though, joined the Marines and ended up managing a stage company and performing in shows himself.
9. Cary Grant: Leading man Cary Grant started his career as a goofy but charming comedian in screwball comedies, but he ended up rivaling Bogart for the most debonair guy in Hollywood. Still a legend, Grant was a jokester in his school days, too, and was even expelled from the Fairfield Grammar School for climbing a wall into the girls' bathrooms with a friend. It was his second time to leave the school — earlier, he ran away to join a comedy troupe but his father dragged him back. After expulsion, he joined the troupe again, and was eventually chosen to go to America to perform on Broadway.
10. Robert Frost: American poet Robert Frost honored the New England countryside — and nature in general — in a modern, philosophical way that's widely accessible and appreciated. He started writing poetry as a young man and attended both Dartmouth and Harvard, though it's rumored that he was expelled from the former for giving a prank haircut to another boy. Supposedly he was kicked out as a zero-tolerance policy on hazing.