14 Celebrities Who Met In College

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13. Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson

Owen Wilson and film director Wes Anderson were roommates at the University of Texas. As a result, they’ve become really good friends and even collaborated on a few projects! They co-wrote three films, Bottle Rocket, Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, which were then directed by Anderson. Of course, Wilson also starred in all of these movies and landed roles in other moves that Anderson directed like The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Darjeeling Limited, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and voiced a character in Fantastic Mr. Fox.

AP

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12. Al Gore and Tommy Lee Jones

This is an interesting duo that would most definitely have been a force to be reckoned with on campus! Hollywood actor Tommy Lee Jones and former Vice President Al Gore both attended Harvard in the late 1960s. Even though they didn’t bunk together, they lived in the same dorm and shared the same group of friends. Gore and Jones remain close friends to this day. In 2001, Jones spoke at the Democratic National Convention to support his old pal and shared some funny stories from their days as college buddies like watching Star Trek together, shooting pool (and tin cans), chasing loose cows and cooking a turkey dinner in tin foil in their shared dorm.

Gregorio Binuya/Everett Collection

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11. Prince William and Kate Middleton

Prince William and Kate Middleton (now known as Duchess Kate) are arguably the most famous college sweethearts! They met in the fall of 2001 during their first year at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. They started dating in 2003, but briefly broke up in 2005 only to reconcile a few months later. They finally tied the knot in a widely publicized ceremony in 2011 and recently announced they are expecting their third child together!

Photo by Rex Features

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10. Carrie Underwood and Zach Swon (of the Swon Brothers)

Country artists Carrie Underwood and Zach Swon of the Swon Brothers were classmates at Oklahoma’s Northeastern State University. Not surprisingly, they both took a country music theater class and even did a show together. In an interview with Taste of Country, Swon said: “The class was so small. It was a night class, and there was probably only eight people in it.” He also said his classmates all had an agreement that a different person would bring dinner each week since the class went through the evening and Underwood’s choice of dinner was pizza! “Carrie worked at a place called Sam and Ella’s Pizza, and it was awesome; it was right there by campus. So…every time it was her turn, that’s what she would bring into the class.”

The Swon Brothers Instagram

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9. Parker Posey and Sherry Stringfield

These two actresses attended State University of New York at Purchase together and were roommates at the time, but Sherry Stringfield was the only one of the two who graduated. Parker Posey dropped out of her drama program to pursue her career as an actress.

Fred Norris/©Hallmark Entertainment/courtesy Everett Collection/Buckner/Variety/REX/Shutterstock

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8. Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman

Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman met at the University of Pennsylvania on their first day on September 6, 1992. “I didn’t meet my husband and think, I’ve met the man I’m going to marry. I was like, ‘He’s cute. I’ll f-ck him, because I’m 18 and in college,” she said in an interview with Allure. Now they own Brownstone Productions together, share two children and have been married for 14 years.

Broadimage/REX Shutterstock

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7. Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hiddleston

British actors Eddie Redmayne and Tom Hiddleston seem like likely friends. They both attended Eton College, an English boarding school, and crossed paths again at the University of Cambridge which is where their friendship really blossomed. They collaborated as students in a school play, but to this day have never shared the screen together. That won’t last for long though because they are both set to voice characters in the upcoming animated film Early Man!

George Pimentel/WireImage

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6. Stanley Tucci and Ving Rhames

Stanley Tucci met Pulp Fiction actor, Ving Rhames while they lived together as students studying at the State University of New York at Purchase. Tucci was even the one who encouraged Rhames to change his name from Irving to Ving!

Jonathan Hordle/REX/Shutterstock/Broadimage/REX

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5. Holly Hunter and Frances McDormand

Now this is a talented duo! Award winning actresses Holly Hunter and Frances McDormand were first friends and later roommates at  Yale. Both drama majors, the two put put their skills to use when they co-starred in the films Raising Arizona and Crazy in Love. After graduation they lived together again in New York City and Los Angeles.

Kristina Bumphrey/StarPix/REX/Shutterstock/David Fisher/REX

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4. Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve

Robin Williams and Superman actor Christopher Reeve were two of only 20 freshman accepted into Juilliard School in 1973. Coincidentally they were paired up as roommates and became fast friends. They even referred to each other as “brothers.” They hadn’t met anyone else at Juilliard when they first met and were among the few students in their classes. Reeve would share his food with Williams when his student loan ran out and Williams stuck by his friend’s side when tragedy struck in 1995 after Reeve was left a quadriplegic following a horse-riding accident. Williams made regular visits to the hospital to support his friend and make him laugh, and became a huge supporter of the Christopher Reeve Foundation. Many people suspected that Williams even paid Reeve’s medical bills. They were close friends up until Reeve passed away in 2004.

Associated Press

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3. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall

The Veep actress met her husband when they were both students at Northwestern University back in the early 1980s. He is also an actor and a writer. They got married in 1987 and have two sons together, Henry and Charles.

Eric Charbonneau/REX/Shutterstock

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2. Samuel L. Jackson and Latanya Richardson

These two are one of the longest-running couples in Hollywood! They met while she was a student at Atlanta’s Spelman College in 1974, and he was a student at the then all-male Morehouse College. They got married in 1980 and now share a daughter together named Zoe Jackson, who works as a freelance film and TV producer. Richardson is lesser known because she stopped working after their daughter was born, but she has held supporting roles in films like Malcolm X, Sleepless in Seattle, When a Man Loves a Woman, The Fighting Temptations and Lone Star.

Rob Latour/REX/Shutterstock

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1. Brooke Shields and Dean Cain

In her memoir There Was a Little Girl, Brooke Shields revealed she and Superman actor, Dean Cain met at Princeton University. According to her, they were “instantly crazy” about each other. They were “always holding hands and trying to find ways to be alone and kiss, but poor guy, I made him wait.” At the time the former child star was “the most celebrated virgin of our time,” so when she lost her virginity to Cain — it was a big deal! In her book she wrote, “I actually kind of tumbled off it [the bed] and started running. I was buck naked streaking down the hallway and running like I had just stolen someone’s wallet.”

Ron Galella, Ltd./WireImage

Katherine G

Katherine is the Managing Editor for Health and Parenting, but she has a soft spot for entertainment. She loves binging shows on Netflix, reality TV is a guilty pleasure, and country music is her go-to playlist. When she's not writing, she's spending time outdoors, especially with her puppy Zoey!