11 Famous Actors You Didn't Know Are Geniuses

NailTamie Temmuz 27, 2022

Did you know a surprising number of actors are actually true geniuses? The normal range for an IQ test is between 70 and 130, but there are many in Hollywood who have scored beyond that. Here’s a list of eleven celebrities who are actually card-carrying mental giants.

11. Sharon Stone

I.Q. 154
She’s best known as an Academy and Golden Globe award-nominated actress, notably playing the beautiful femme fatale in the movie Basic Instinct, but her mental skills are even more impressive. She won a scholarship to attend Edinboro University at only 15, where she studied creative writing and fine arts. She dropped out to become a model, but went back to earn an honorary degree.

10. Sylvester Stallone

I.Q. 160
He’s known for his brawn as the muscle-bound heroes Rambo and Rocky Balboa. But he doesn't get much credit as the writer of his titular first hit movie. Multiple sources say he’s been tested at 160 I.Q., so while he’s not splitting atoms, the fact he’s managed to keep a successful career into his sixties shows he’s no musclehead.

9. Quentin Tarantino

I.Q. 160
Tarantino is an acclaimed writer and director of movies such as Reservoir Dogs and Django Unchained. He also has a 160 I.Q., the same as famed physicist Stephen Hawking. Unfortunately, we’ll never know what kind of academic heights he could have reached, because he dropped out in ninth grade to pursue a movie career. It’s too bad he didn’t pay more attention in school, because he’s a notoriously bad speller.

8. Natalie Portman

I.Q. 140
She's known best as the beautiful Padme Amidala from Star Wars, but she has the brains to back it up. She was an honor roll student since elementary school, is fluent in five languages, earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Harvard, and pursued graduate studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

7. Mayim Bialik

I.Q. 149
As a kid, she played the title character on NBC's Blossom, and plays genius scientist Amy Farrah Fowler on The Big Bang Theory. But in real life, she really is a scientist whose brilliant mind earned her a Ph.D. in neuroscience.

4. Geena Davis

I.Q. 140
She’s an award-winning actress in movies like Thelma and Louise and A League of Their Own. She's also a genius member of Mensa. She's a musician who plays the piano, flute, and pipe organ. Davis was also an exchange student in Sweden, and earned a bachelor's degree in drama from Boston University. She also mastered archery to the point where she went to the Olympic Games in 1999, just two years after she first took up the sport.

3. Jodie Foster

I.Q. 132
At three years old, she was an actor in various commercials, but by then she'd also taught herself to read. While she dazzled audiences as a troubled prostitute in Taxi Driver and an FBI agent in The Silence of the Lambs, she became fluent in French and attended Yale University.

2. Steve Martin

I.Q. 142
Martin is known for his absurdist comedy and roles in movies like The Jerk and Roxanne, but he’s also a member of Mensa. He majored in philosophy at California State University, and planned to become a college professor before his career in comedy took off. He’s written plays, movies, pieces for the New Yorker, and a novella Shopgirl which was turned into a movie. He’s also a musician who plays the piano and banjo.

1. Dolph Lundgren