I've been to a few movies this summer and I took notice that most 'genius' movie characters are MIT grads. So I did some investigating and compiled this list. It is laboriously entitled: 'Important fictional characters and the institutions which they attended.' But first, here are some of my general observations about how a school's brand is used to portray a fictional character.
Harvard grads are the crème de la crème of either doctors or lawyers.
MIT grads are geniuses in the sciences, or have large amounts of wasted potential.
Princeton grads have rich parents, or ties to politics.
Columbia grads are smart people, but mostly just cool New Yorkers.
Yale grads are rich AND snooty.
Harvard
Thurston Howell, III (Jim Backus, Gilligan's Island)
Major Charles Emerson Winchester III (David Ogden Stiers, MASH) - Medical
Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise, The Firm) - Law
Elle Woods (Reese Witherspoon, Legally Blonde) - Law
Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess, 21) - Medical
Skylar (Minnie Driver, Good Will Hunting)
MIT
David Levinson (Jeff Goldblum, Independence Day)
Will Hunting (Matt Damon, Good Will Hunting)
Dr. Ronald Quincy (Jason Isaacs, Armageddon)
Rockhound (Steve Buscemi, Armageddon)
James Clayton (Colin Farrell, The Recruit)
Dr. Tobias Fünke (David Cross, Arrested Development)
Benjamin Gates (Nicolas Cage, National Treasure)
Dr. Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd, Fantastic Four)
Charlie Eppes (David Krumholz, Numb3rs)
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man)
Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey, 21)
Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess, 21)
Princeton
Charles Logan (Gregory Itzin, 24)
Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin,30 Rock)
Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale, Batman Begins)
Doogie Howser (Neil Patrick Harris, Doogie Howser M.D.)
Sondra Huxtable and Elvin Tiideaux (Sabrina LeBeauf, Geoffry Owens, The Cosby Show)
Uncle Phil (James Avery, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air)
Mary Jensen (Cameron Diaz, There’s Something About Mary)
Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe,The West Wing)
Charlie Eppes, Larry Fleinhardt (David Krumholz, Peter MacNicol ,Numb3rs)
Joel Goodson (Risky Business, Tom Cruise) gets accepted to Princeton
Charles (Scot Baio, Charles in Charge) gets accepted as a Princeton grad student
In Family Ties Mallory's (Justine Bateman) French language tutor and ex-boyfriend Jeff went to Princeton after graduating Harding High. Mallory broke up with him when she saw him kissing another woman while visiting him on campus. She got so upset and inadvertently ruined Alex's (Michael J. Fox) interview.
Columbia
Alex Hitchinson (Will Smith, Hitch)
Eric Richman (Mike Vogel, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants)
Meadow Mariangela Soprano (Jamie-Lynn Sigler, The Sopranos)
Stanley Goodspeed (Nicholas Cage, The Rock)
Will Truman, Grace Adler (Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Will & Grace)
Jessie Spano (Elizabeth Berkley, Saved by the Bell)
Carol Seaver (Tracy Gold, Growing Pains)
Dr. Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox, Lost) (Fox is also a Columbia alumnus)
William Forrester (Sean Connery) bears a likeness to J.D. Salinger, a Columbia alumnus.
Yale
Rory Gilmore, Richard Gilmore (Alexis Bledel, Edward Herrmann, Gilmore Girls)
Niles Crane (David Hyde Pierce, Frasier)
Sideshow Bob, Montgomery Burns (The Simpsons)
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4 comments:
Have you made a hypothesis on what all this means? I'm pretty sure that since that annoying fast talking girl from the Gilmore Girl's goes to Yale, that must be the best, because she's so witty.
I must say Mark, well done. This is a very insightful blog with a glint of New York Times crossword trivia to it. I'm impressed with your originality. Did you mention any pseudo gambling Carnegie Melon masters students by chance? Or Harvard med salesman wannabees?
Will Hunting is not an MIT grad, sad to say. He just washed their floors. I'll have to investigate the others to see if there are any more bogus claims. You should be absolutely ashamed of yourself.
Indeed, Will Hunting is not an MIT grad, and Bruce Wayne never graduated from Princeton for that matter either. That's why the list bears the word 'attended' in the title. I like to think of 'attended' as a very loose term i.e. graduated, researched, bought a hat at the campus store etc.
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