| Name | School & Location | Comments |
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| Salinger, JD | Valley Forge Military Academy, Wayne, PA | Apparently, Holden Caulfield's prep school was based on this Pennsylvania campus, near Philadelphia. For more, see the entry on Norman Schartzkopf, below. Salinger's long time lover, Joyce Maynard, went to Exeter. See entries for John Knowles and George Plimpton for more on that school. Salinger also attended a defunct NYC school called McBurney, mentioned earlier in the entry for the Beastie Boys, Henry Winkler, and Ted Koppel (I recommend the entry for Koppel). Others to come through McBurney include actor Richard Thomas, financier Felix Rohaytn, and songwriter Johnny Marx.
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| Salter, James | Horace Mann School, Riverdale, NY | Writer Salter went here, where many others studied. See a comprehensive list of "Horace Mann" notables under entries for Generoso Pope and Bob Rafelson.
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| Savage, Fred | Brentwood School, Los Angeles, CA | Savage attended Brentwood before heading off to Stanford.
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| Scaggs, Boz | St. Mark's School of Texas, Dallas | This 70s rock great attended St. Mark's, as did another notable from the classic rock era, Steve Miller. Other St. Mark's students include at least one of the Wilson Brothers (Owen and Luke) and actor Tommy Lee Jones. Luke Wilson is a 1990 graduate but Owen left and went on to New Mexico Military Institute, class of 1987. |
| Schnabel, Julian | St. Ann's, Brooklyn Heights, NY | Schnabel and other artists favor this unconventional school for their kids. There are no grades nor rankings nor is there much in the way of rigidity. It was originally founded to produce poets for the nation and is described as arty, where many teachers are artists and even gym is referred to as recreational arts. Lola and Stella Schnabel both attended St. Ann's as did the fashion designer Zac Posen, son of painter Stephen Posen, and actress Jennifer Connelly.
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| Schwartzkopf, H. Norman | Lawrenceville, Lawrenceville, NJ; Valley Forge Military Academy, Wayne, PA | General Schwartzkopf, the mastermind behind Desert Storm, attended this New Jersey prep powerhouse, which is mentioned several times on these pages. For more, see the entry for poet James Merrill. Schwartzkopf graduated from Valley Forge, mentioned earlier here in an entry for J.D. Salinger.
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| Scott, Robert Montgomery | Westtown School, Westtown, PA
| This school is mentioned further on in an entry for James Taylor, who also attended Westtown. Scott was heir to the Janney Montgomery Scott fortune. He was the son of Philadelphia socialite Hope Montgomery Scott, on whom Katherine Hepburn's character, Tracy Lord, was based in the film, "The Philadelphia Story." Edgar Scott, the the head of the family, was in banking and railroads. Robert was active in philanthropy, especially for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Such is life in the Main Line.
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| Scott, William Randolph | Woodberry Forest, Woodberry Forest, VA | Actor Scott, who married a duPont, attended Woodberry Forest, where Jonathan Yardley, Marvin Bush, Johnny Mercer, and Jim Hedges went there, too, I'm told. The school was originally the home of President Madison's brother, William. For more, see the entry that follows for Jonathan Yardley.
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| Sebastian, John | Blair Academy, Blairstown, NJ and Notre Dame International School, Rome, Italy | Sebastian is a singer-songwriter known as a founder of the Lovin' Spoonfull and a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Blair is a bucolic New Jersey prep school, which was founded by a railroad titan. It is the official rival of Peddie, also mentioned here, and has an annual Peddie Day. A correspondent of mine lists other beneficiaries of a Blair education as mutual funds titan John Bogle, the late actor-director John Cassavetes, Penthouse founder and publisher Bob Guccione, and gossip columnist Taki. Lesser known Blair graduates include Kennedy White House society band leader Stan Rubin, actor Gerald S. O'Loughlin, General John R. Guthrie, late Congressman Samuel S. Stratton, Eisenhower press spokesperson James Haggerty, media magnate Herbert J. Siegel, and Olympic wrestler Robert B. Weaver. Another interesting tidbit comes from a correspondent who writes to say Sebastian started out at Notre Dame International School in Rome, where several notables went, including Alan Alda's brother, Anthony, Dino de Laurentis' late son, John Paul Getty III, Sarita Choudhury of "Mississippi Masala," and race car driver Eddie Cheever. Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam, son of Jacob Beam, also went there. My correspondent tells me the school closed in 1991, which accounts for the fact that information about it is scant and it does not appear in schools guides.
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| Sedgwick, Edie; Sedgwick Family | Groton School, Groton, MA; Cate School, Carpenteria, CA; [Katherine] Branson School, Ross, CA; St. Timothy's, Stevenson, MD | Edie, the famous 60s ubermodel, first boarded at the Katherine Branson School near San Francisco, but didn't return. The school is now co-ed. She also briefly attended St. Timothy's, a secluded girl's school in Maryland known for turning out gentlewomen (such as Sunny von Bulow). The Sedgwick boys were sent to Groton, which is discussed several times on these pages. One relative told writer George Plimpton, "childhood ended . . . when we were sent to Groton." Edie's brothers, Jonathan, Bobby, and Minton, all went to the school, which was founded by a relative from the Peabody side of the family. Edie's parents were married by the rector of Groton and met while her father was at Cate in California, which is near Santa Barbara and is popular with Bostonians. Cate is where David Crosby went to school (mentioned above). The founders of Cate were named Curtis and Katherine Cate. In Plimpton's book on Edie, Katherine Cate is described as a character who had a low, barking voice and who one stood on her head at a party because she was bored. She and Curtis Cate built a school where humor and discipline were balanced.
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| Seeger, Pete | Avon Old Farms, Avon, CT | Singer Seeger's mother's grandfather was the Head at a New York City prep school. Singer himself attended Avon Old Farms, having been enrolled there in 1932 after his parents' separation. He spent three years there before heading for Harvard. Avon is also mentioned in an entry for Brian Leetch.
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| Segal, George | George School, Newtown, PA | Blythe Danner, George Segal, and Stephen Sondheim all went to this Buck's County school. Bill Cosby's kids, too, I think.
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| Shabazz, Ilyasah | Masters School, Dobbs Ferry, NY | Shabazz is the daughter of Malcolm X and attended school at this suburban NY girl's school. You'll find her sister, who went to the UN International School, mentioned in the entry for Yasmine Bleeth, who also went there.
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| Sheedy, Ally | Columbia Grammar and Prep School, NYC, NY | Sheedy graduated in 1980. In an interview, she once said she was unhappy at the school and didn't fit in. She specifically cited cliques at the school as a factor in her departure. CGPS' curriculum is steeped in the arts and multiculturalism, and a number of NYC celebrities have chosen the school for their kids. Herman Melville went there, too.
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| Shields, Brooke | Dwight-Englewood School, Englewood, NJ and the Lenox School (now Lenox-Birch Wathen), NYC | Brooke Shields started out at this school before heading off to study French at Princeton. The school is also where Mira Sorvino went and where Allison Hirschlag of Guiding Light went to school, a correspondent writes. Another correspondent writes me saying Brooke Shields started out at the New Lincoln School (where Toni Ross went), which merged with Lenox after she graduated, then again with Birch Wathen to become Lenox-Birch Wathen, also mentioned under Barbara Walters' entry.
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| Shyamalan, M. Night | Episcopal Academy, Merion and Devon, PA | Spooky director M. Night went to this suburban Philadelphia school, as did architect Robert Venturi. Episcopal, along with Chestnut Hill, is one of several Main Line educational standouts. M. Night was the son of physician parents.
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| Simon, Carly | Riverdale Country Day School, Bronx, NY | Simon went to Riverdale while James Taylor attended Milton. Another product of Riverdale is Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell, the former mayor of Philadelphia and the chair of the 2000 Democratic National Committee. Court pundit Dan Abrams is another former Riverdale student, maybe Jake Paltrow and Chevy Chase, too. Others associated with the school include sports star Calvin Hill, Tim Zagat, news personality Robert Krulwich, former Yankees GM Andy McPhail, and others.
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| OJ Simpson | Gulliver Prep, Miami, FL | Gullver is a popular choice for kids of Florida-based celebrities such as Jeb Bush, Gloria Estefan, and now, OJ Simpson, whose kids have attended the school. In January 2005, Miss Sydney was areested for abusing police officers called to Ransom Everglades School to stop a fight that broke out on game night. The opposing team was Gulliver.
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| Simpson, Wallis Warfield | Oldfields School, Glencoe, MD | This Maryland school has a theater named for David Niven and is where "Mrs. Simpson" went before she earned her Windsor title. One of the Husseins went there, too.
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| Sittenfeld, Curtis | Groton School, Groton, MA | Sittenfeld places characters in her book Prep at a school named Ault, loosely or not-so-loosely based on Groton, green jackets and all. And yes, author Sittenfeld went there. She was on the faculty of St. Alban's in Washinton, which appears dozens of times on this site. (Pick a Washington politico and chances are St. Alban's is mentioned.) For more on Groton, see the entry for the Roosevelts.
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| Skakel Family | Brunswick School, Greenwich, CT, and the Elan School, Poland Spring, ME | Ethel went to Sacred Heart, treated above under the section on the Kennedys. Thomas Skakel, the brother of Ethel's notorious relative, Michael, was at Brunswick around 1976. His brother, Michael, was sent to Elan School in 1978. Elan was a very expensive school for troubled children from wealthy families but apparently has gone more mainstream of late. NewYorker writer Jeffrey Toobin called Elan "the 'Lord of the Flies' of the Top-Sider set." One alum of the school said it's a place to "hide your kids if they bothered you." I'm told there is also a Skakel family connection to the Winchendon School in Winchendon, MA, either through a member of the family who went there or a family member on the board.
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| Sobieski, Leelee | Le Lycee Francais de Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA | Jodie Foster also went through this school's bilingual program and was valedictorian. I'm also told Claire Danes went there. She also came out of Dalton in New York (see her entry earlier in these pages).
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| Sondheim, Stephen | George School, Newtown, PA and Fieldston, NYC | Sondheim actually wrote a musical about his Buck's County school, according to an article in Smithsonian magazine. In the musical, called By George, one song goes, "No firearms, no drinking / not even coed winking / all they allow is thinking." Someone wrote to say George has a reputation as a "low-key Quaker school." George Segal went there, as did Blythe Danner. Another correspondent writes that George is also where Bill Cosby's kids went (another person said only Ennis went there) and where Blythe Danner went. Others: actress Donzaleigh Abernathy, the daughter of civil rights icon Ralph Abernathy, also actor Stephen Lang and his son, Dan, and the Berenstain Bears' clan. I got another piece of mail saying Sondheim went to Fieldston for elementary school. Fieldston is associated with J. Robert Oppenheimer, Jeffrey Katzenberg, poet Muriel Rukeyser (1930), and photography pioneer Diane Arbus.
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| Sorvino, Mira | Dwight-Englewood School, Englewood, NJ | Mira Sorvino went to this New Jersey school before heading off to Harvard. Dwight-Englewood is also where Brooke Shields started out before heading off to study French at Princeton. The school is also where Allison Hirschlag of Guiding Light went to school, a correspondent tells me.
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| Spader, James | Phillips Andover Academy, Andover, MA or Brooks School, Andover, MA | I get a lot of mail about Spader and the toss up is between Brooks and Phillips Andover, both in Andover, MA. Apparently his father was an English teacher. That's why we like James' mystique and will do our part to contribute to it.
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| Spears, Britney | Parklane Academy, McComb, Ms | Fragile, fickle, fair Britney attended this school for a while. For a while.
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| Spitzer, Elliot | Horace Mann School, Riverdale, NY | New York legal crusader Spitzer was in the class of 1977 at Horace Man. For a list of others to come through Horace Mann, see entries for Generoso Pope, James Salter, Bob Rafelson, and Roy Cohn.
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| Springsteen, Bruce | New Jersey, where else? | I am a big E Street fan and don't print where celeb kids go to school any more (unless they are famous in their own right). So I'm torn in two, kind of a "Half Man, Half Monkey" thing. So what I'll say is, the days of the Rumson Country Day School benefits are over and the three Spring-teens have moved on. They still go to school in New Jersey, and not far from Asbury Park. That's how it should be. But I won't say which school. Even though I want to. Even though I know which one. A fan's loyalty takes precedence.
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| Stanwyck, Barbara | Culver Academy, Culver, Indiana | Stanwyck's son, Dion, was sent off to Culver. Stanwyck, in one biography, was said to have had little contact with her son during their lifetime. See entry for Koch, William. Other Culver grads: Hal Holbrook, George M. Steinbrenner, Lowell P. Weicker, Gene Siskel, Michael Huffington, and playwright Josh Logan. Roddy McDowell would have graduated, one supposes, had he not been expelled. George Foreman picked the school for his son, George IV.
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| Sternhagen, Frances | The Madeira School, McLean, VA | Actress Sternagen joins Stockard Channing and Katherine Graham in the list of fair flowers to come out of this exclusive Washington, D.C. girls School. For more on Madeira, check out the entry for Jean Harris, the schools former headmistrss and, unfortunately, a murderess.
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| Stevenson, Parker | Brooks, North Andover, MA | The Big One was then known as Richard Parker and was a member of the class of 1971. For more on Brooks, see the Forbes and Eggleston entries.
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| Stewart, Fred Mustard | The Gunnery, Washington, CT; Lawrenceville, Lawrenceville, NJ | Author/playwright Fred Mustard Stewart, who scripted The Mephisto Walz, attended The Gunnery, favored by the Ford Family, but graduated from Lawrenceville, mentioned many times throughout these pages, including below in an entry for Brandon Tartikoff. Stewart was a prolific writer in film and television and popular fiction, often focusing on sagas and family dramas.
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| Stewart, Jimmy | Mercersburg Academy, Mercersburg, PA | Stewart went to Mercersburg Academy. Others to come through Mercersberg are Academy Award winner Benicio del Toro and the British-born "Orbit" gum girl, Vanessa Branch, who worked on nearby farm.
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| Stiller, Ben | Calhoun School, NYC, NY | Comedian Stiller went to Calhoun, I'm told, which is also where playwright Wendy Wasserstein went. This West-side school is described as being far more laid back and less socially oriented (i.e., competitive) than its other NYC counterparts. Lynne Loring, an actress married to Roy Thiness, also came out of Calhoun, as did film honcho Toby Emmerich ('81). Another correspondent writes that Ben Taylor, who is the son of James Taylor and Carly Simon, also went to Calhoun.
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| Stone, Oliver | Trinity School, NYC, NY and the Hill School, Pottstown, PA | Other notable Trinity alums, include Truman Capote, Humphrey Bogart, and athlete Jim Fixx. The school, which has been called the "Princeton of boarding schools," [though amusingly it is not a boarding school] was also the school of Nation editor Katrina Vanden Heuvel, John McEnroe and Sophie B. Hawkins. Note: I hear Stone left Trinity early and also attended the [then] all boys Hill School, where James Michener taught. Others who attended Hill were General George S. Patton (who also went to Fessenden), the Hunt Brothers of Texas (the family supports the school), Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, James Baker (and son), former Sen. William Proxmire, Roger Horchow, Sandy Warner III, Norman Pearlstein, Lew Lehrman, members of the Hutton family, and actor Harry Hamlin. Hill is also where writer Tobias Wolff was accepted after living with an abusive stepfather in the Pacific Northwest. He was later expelled. His story is chronicled in the Leonardo DiCaprio-Robert DeNiro film, "This Boys Life." Several schools are mentioned in the film, including Bill Gates' alma mater, Lakeside, where Wolff, as played by DiCaprio, takes the SAT.
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| Tartt, Donna | Kirk Academy, Grenada, MS | Novelist Tartt, who features prep schools in her books, attende dthis southern school. Tartt's father was a local politician.
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| Tartikoff, Brandon | Lawrenceville, Lawrenceville, NJ | The late NBC television head went to Lawrenceville, which is mentioned frequently on these pages. For more, start with Albee, Forbes, Haywood, Hearst, Lewis, Merrill, and others.
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| Taylor, James and the Taylor clan | Milton Academy, Milton, MA; Westtown School, Westtown, PA | Ah, the Taylors. I have learned that James and brother Livingston both went to Taylor. James also went to Milton, where TS Eliot writer Toure, and several Kennedys were educated. Writer Stephen King is a benefactor of Milton. Like Reese Witherspoon's father and Glenn Close's father, Taylor's father was a physician who at one time headed the medical school of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Taylor left both Westttown and Milton without graduating. Another Milton tidbit: the school is also the alma mater of William Lobkowicz, a descendant of and heir to Czech royalty, who tried to reclaim his family's fortune, which consists of land, castles, and priceless, but confiscated, treasures. The Lobkowicz-Roudnice family's rule ended with the entry of the Nazis and the Soviets into Czechoslovakia. Before that, they were among Europe's most prominent families. Predictably, William studied European History at Milton and later at Harvard. The family has recently seen the return of nine of its castles. One, Nelahozeves Castle, near Prague, is a museum.
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| Temple, Shirley | Harvard-Westlake School, No. Hollywood, CA | Temple enrolled here as a teenager in an attempt to live a normal life after her childhood career started to fade. Other attendees included Mindy Cohn from "Facts of Life"( who was discovered here), Bridget Fonda, Elizabeth Montgomery (from "Bewitched") Tori Spelling, Candice Bergen, Myrna Loy, June Lockhart (from "Lost in Space" and "Lassie"), and astronaut Sally Ride.
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| Thomas, Marlo | Marymount High School, Los Angeles, CA | Danny Thomas sent his daughter to Marymount, a Catholic school.
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| Thurman, Uma | Northfield Mount Hermon School, Northfield, MA | Uma is the daughter of renowned Tibetan scholar Robert Thurman. Uma attended Northfield Mt. Herman, where Natalie Cole went. The school is famous for its strong liberal tradition and is popular with successful African-Americans because of its history as a racially tolerant prep school. Other individuals with a connection to Northfield Mount Herman include Laura Linny and scholar Edward Said. Robert Thurman graduated from Phillips Exeter.
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| Tisch Family | Gunnery School, Washington, CT | Someone wrote to say there are strong ties between the Tisch family and this New England school, and the 15,000-volume library is named for them. Another person to come through the Gunnery was Major League baseball player Joe Lahoud, who sent his son there, too. The Gunnery is also mentioned early in an entry for the Ford family. Edsel Ford is a graduate.
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| Toure | Milton Academy, Milton, MA | Cultural writer Toure went to Milton, which is also associated with James Taylor, T.S. Eliot, the Kennedys, and Dominick Dunne. Toure writes in a review of the book, "Restless Virgins," that he "graduated a virgin." For more on Milton, see the entries for Dunne, Eliot, the Kennedys, and James Taylor.
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| Towne, Robert | Chadwick School, Palos Verdes Peninsula, CA | Chadwick is popular with the "horse" crowd. Liza Minelli, Brandon Lee, and Mike Lookinland (of "Brady Bunch") also attended Chadwick. The school is also famous having been immortalized in "Mommie Dearest" as the school where little Christina was sent, with unhappy results.
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| Travers, Mary | Little Red Schoolhouse/Eliz. Irwin HS, NYC, NY | Travers is the "Mary" of Peter, Paul, and Mary. Irwin-LRS has always been associated with the Left, and one write-up said a typical field trip at the school is "to a steel mining town." The school is also famous as the alma mater of Weatherman radical Kathy Boudin.
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| Trudeau, Gary | St. Paul's, Concord, NH | A correspondent tells me that Trudeau went to St. Paul's, which is also mentioned here in the entry for John Kerry. Trudeau was a few years behind Kerry, I'm told, both here and at Yale. During the 1970s, Trudeau poked fun at Kerry in his strip "Doonesbury." For more on St. Paul's and its alums, see Kerry's entry. Kerry also attended Fessenden, where his fellow Senator Ted Kennedy was a student for a year or two. "Fessy" where Howard Hughes and General Patton went to school.
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| Trump Family | Various schools | Donald and Ivana sent their daughter to Chapin, an all-girl school described as "very high-society." She graduated from Choate, however. [Another Chapin-Choate connection is in the Hearst family. One Hearst girl went to Chapin, then switched to Choate Rosemary.] A classmate of Ivanka's at Choate was Peter Jennings' son, I'm told, and the school is mentioned on these pages in entries for the Kennedy family, Robert Chambers, Glenn Close, James Dickey, Edward Albee, Michael Douglas, and Paul Giamatti. Donald, Jr. went to the George School in Newtown, PA. Eric Trump graduated from the Hill School ('02), mentioned in depth here in an entry for Oliver Stone. Someone said Eric went to Trinity at one point, but several correspondents confirmed he is a graduate of Hill and also attended St. David's in New York, but not Trinity. Father Donald went to Kew-Forest (where Hank Azaria and Gideon Yago of MTV both went) and to the New York Military Academy, where bandleader Les Brown went.
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| Turner, Ted | McCallie School, Chattanooga, TN | Turner is an alum of McCallie, which has a fabulous sports complex and its own Taco Bell. Watergate star Howard Baker also came through McCallie. Other alums include Carroll Campbell, William Brock, Pat Robertson, Jon Meacham, and Olan Mills.
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| Tyler, Liv | York Prep, NYC, NY | Tyler and Kelly Rector Klein (Calvin's ex) are graduates of the school, which offers horseback riding in the city. It is located near Lincoln Center. Andew Rockefeller Kluge also went there. York was the school on which a reality show about rich kids was based.
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| Van Der Beek, James | Cheshire Academy, Cheshire, CT | Dawson's Creek star Van Der Beek went to Cheshire. The school is the alma mater of writer Robert Ludlom and banking titan JP Morgan.
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| Vanderbilt, Gloria | Dalton, NYC, NY | Vanderbilt's son attended Dalton before his tragic death. The school is also mentioned here under Bernstein, Danes, Hiss, and Walters. Julliard faculty member and noted actress Marian Seldes went to Dalton. For more on the school, see the entry for Leonard Bernstein.
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| Vaughn, Mo | Trinity Pawling School, Pawling, NY | Baseball great Vaughn graduated from Trinity Pawling (Class of 1986) where he was known as Maurice and played varsity football, basketball, and baseball. Other mail places him at some point at Kent, mentioned here earlier in a section on the Bacon Brothers, but someone just wrote to say he played once at a Kent-Trinity-Pawling game, during which he managed to hit several balls into the river across the street from the field. Great story. Actor John Agar, a leading mean in the golden age of film and for a time Shirley Temple's husband, went to the Pawling School, which later became the "Pawling" part of Trinity Pawling School. Others to pass through Trinity-Pawling: Henry Dupont IV, Frank Morgan from the Wizard of Oz, and Edward R. Murrow.
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| Venturi, Robert | Episcopal Academy, Merion and Devon, PA | Architect Venturi went to this suburban Philadelphia school and did early design work there. For more on Episcopal Academy, see the entry for film director M. Night Shymalan.
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| Von Bulow, Sunny | Chapin, NYC, NY; St. Timothy's, Stevenson, MD | Sunny went to the tony Chapin School in New York. Chapin is mentioned earlier on these pages in the section on the Trump family. Ivanka went there, as did at least one Hearst girl. Perhaps more interesting is the fact that Sunny's husband Claus' mistress Alexandria Isles attended Chapin and another school of Sunny's: St. Timothy's in Stevenson, Maryland, were Edie Sedgwick went.
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| Wainwright, Rufus and Wainwright, Loudon | Millbrook School, Millbrook, NY | The singing Wainwrights, elder and younger, came through Millbrook's halls, complete with its own zoo. For more on Millbrook, see the entries for William F. Buckley, Jr. and the Johnson family.
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| Walken, Christopher | Professional Children's School, NYC, NY | Walken attended this famous school, which is also the alma mater of countless celebrities, including Scarlett Johansson, Kate Luckinbill, Sarah Michelle Gellar ("Buffy"), Ally Hillfiger (Tommy's daughter), Mischa Barton of "O.C.," Jamie Gleicher of MTV's "Rich Girls." Other alums and graduates include Tara Reid, Jena Malone, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Julia Stiles, Jordana Brewster, Gaby Hoffman, the Culkin kids, Vanessa Carlton, Rickie Lake, Phoebe Cates, Adam Arkin, Milton Berle, Sidney Lumet, Yo-Yo Ma, and violinist Midori. Walken said Gypsy Rose Lee handed out diplomas at his graduation.
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| Walters, Barbara | Dalton, NYC, NY, Lenox-Birch Wathen School, NYC, NY | Her daughter attended Dalton, which is also mentioned here under entries for Bernstein, Danes, Hiss, Lennon, Seldes, Vanderbilt and others. Barbara Walters went to Birch-Wathen before it became Lenox-Birch Wathen (see the entry for Brooke Shields if you're confused).
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| Wasserstein, Wendy | Calhoun School, NYC, NY | The late great playwright Wasserstein went to this West-side school, described as being far more laid back and less socially oriented (i.e., competitive) than its other NYC counterparts. For more on Calhoun, see the entry above for Ben Stiller.
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| Watson, Tom | The Pembroke Hill School, Kansas City, MO | Golf legend Watson attended this school, a correspondent writes, and the prep school is where another sports legend was educated: Kareem Rush of the LA Lakers. See the entry for Vincent Price for more information on Missouri prep standouts.
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| Weaver, Signourney | Ethel Walker School, Simsbury, CT and Spence School, NYC, NY | Weaver attended the all-girl Ethel Walker School, which is where F. Scott and Zelda sent their daughter Scottie in the 1930s. But Weaver chose Spence, another all girls school, for her kids. (See separate "Spence School" notation under Paltrow, Gwyneth.) Like many schools, Ethel Walker is known for its horse riding program.
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| Webber, Chris | Detroit Country Day School, Beverly Hills, MI | Basketball legend Webber attended this school, a correspondent writes, and must have looked sweet in the school's uniform. Fellow roundball standout Shane Battier went there, as well. Other celebs either attending or graduating from Detroit Country Day School (DCDS) include Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, actor Courtney Vance, and Robin Williams (who is more associated with Juilliard).
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| Weitz, Paul | Collegiate School, New York, NY | American Pie creator Paul Weitz attended this NYC school where David Duchovny and at least one Kennedy were students. Weitz is the son of fashion designer John Weitz and actress Susan Kohner. He addresses life at the school in his play, "Privilege."
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| Weld, William | Loomis Chaffee School, Windsor, CT and Middlesex School, Concord, MA | Weld was the governor of Massachusetts and was picked for Ambassador to Mexico. Other Loomis Chaffee alums include George Schultz, John D. Rockefeller III, and Henry R. Kravis. Other Middlesex alums include political figures Bill Richardson, Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., Christian Herter, and Joseph Gray. Middlesex, a correspondent writes, is popular with several notable families, including the Bass, Kravis, Warburg, Forbes, and Saltonstall families. Apparently, Faye Dunaway sent her son there: model Liam O'Neill.
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| Williams, Treat | Kent School, Kent, CT | A correspondent writes me saying Treat Williams went to Kent in the 1960s, which is one of several schools attended by Dominick Dunne's children (see separate entry). The Episcopal school is also where Ted Danson went, also in the 1960s, before heading off to Stanford. Other Kent notables include Carter Administration official Cyrus Vance, the philosopher John Rawls (Class of '43), Bobby Farrelly [one half of the comedy-writing team], Moses Farrow (Mia's son), "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, and Prince Carl-Philip Bernadotte of Sweden. (The other Farrelly, I'm told, went to Andover.) Kent should not be confused, however, with the South Kent School, in South Kent, CT, where Gordon Clapp of NYPD Blue went. Another Kent note: William H. Armstrong, who wrote "Sounder," taught at the school for more than 50 years.
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| Wilson, Carnie | Oakwood School, North Hollywood | Carnie faired well in Spanish and English but added in an Us magazine article that she got "an F in everything else."
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| Wilson, Luke and Owen | St. Mark's School of Texas, Dallas and New Mexico Military Institute | Luke and Owen Wilson went to St. Mark's, a prestigious Dallas boys' school. Luke is a 1990 graduate. Owen left after a cheating incident, was branded a mischief-maker, and went on to graduate from New Mexico Military Institute, class of 1987. Tommy Lee Jones is another famous graduate of St. Mark's.
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| Winkler, Henry | McBurney School, NY, NY | Henry Winkler attended and graduated from McBurney School in New York City, as did Ted Koppel and JD Salinger. I've had some mail that said Winkler went to Horace Mann but the McBurney faction won out. For more on McBurney, see the entry for JD Salinger.
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| Witherspoon, Reese | Harpeth Hall, Nashville, TN | Harpeth is a girls prep school located in Nashville, TN. Like Glenn Close's dad, Witherspoon's father was a physician. (Humphrey Bogart's dad was also a physician who sent his son to a prep school: Andover.) Other Harpeth alumnae include Minnie Pearl and Amy Grant. Witherspoon is related, I'm told, to the Princeton University Witherspoons.
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| Wolf, Tobias | Hill School, Pottstown, PA | Hill is where writer Tobias Wolff was accepted after living with an abusive stepfather in the Pacific Northwest. He was later expelled. His story is chronicled in the Leonardo DiCaprio-Robert DeNiro film, "This Boys Life." Several schools are mentioned in the film, including Bill Gates' alma mater, Lakeside, where Wolff, as played by DiCaprio, takes the SAT. For more info about Hill, which is mentioned several times on these pages, see for example the entry for Oliver Stone.
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| Wolfe, Tom | St. Christopher's, Richmond, VA | The dapper dandy Tom Wolfe graduated from this southern prep school with ties to the Episcopal Church.
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| Wyatt, Jane | The Chapin School, New York, NY | Actress Wyatt, famous for "Father Knows Best" and "Lost Horizon," attended Chapin. She's from old New York money--the van Rensselaers--and sent her kids to Portsmouth Priory. For more on Chapin, see the entry for the Trumps (Ivanka in particular).
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| Wyle, Noah | Thacher School, Ojai, California | Wyle attended Thacher, a school whose program centers around the care of horses. Other Thacher alums were Howard Hughes, Thornton Wilder, and actor Jonathan Tucker. California farming magnate Jim Boswell is also associated with Thacher. A biography of Boswell indicates the school was a feeder for Yale and was rather outdoorsy (perhaps because of the horse program). Boswell's uncle was known as "The Colonel."
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| Wylie, Andrew | St. Paul's School, Concord, NH | Book agent Wylie and Sen. John Kerry went to St. Paul's as did many others. For more, see John Kerry's entry.
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| Yardley, Jonathan | Woodberry Forest, Woodberry Forest, VA, and Groton, Groton, MA | Writer Yardley attended a number of schools. He started out at Tuxedo Park Country Day School, located in Tuxedo Park, New York , where his father was head, then attended school in the public school system of Chatham, VA, when his father was rector of Chatham Hall, an all-girls school located there, where Georgia O'Keefe went. (A building there is named after him.) Yardley then went to Woodberry Forest followed by Groton, which he referred to as a "chilly, stultifying place that encouraged conformity." Note: Woodberry Forest nearly merged with Chatham Hall. Woodberry Forest is where William Randolph Scott, Marvin Bush, Johnny Mercer, and Jim Hedges went, I'm told. The school was originally the home of President Madison's brother, William. Groton is where Sam Waterston and Alexandra Paul went.
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| Young, Dey | Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School, Bloomfield Hills, MI | Dey Young is an actress who is the younger sister of actress Leigh-Taylor Young. She went to this Michigan arts powerhouse, which was largely designed by the noted architect Saarenien. Crabrook is an historic landmark noted for arts and for hockey. It has been called "one of the greatest campuses ever." A correspondent tells me that Love Boat captain Gavin MacLeod has a Cranbrook faculty connection in his family. Actress Selma Blair also went to Cranbrook as did theater powerhouse Eric Nederlander.
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| Young, Sean | Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen, MI | Other Interlochen alums are Selma Blair, Sufjan Stevens, Meredith Baxter, Linda Hunt, and Jewel, each mentioned above, also Tom Hulce (briefly).
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| Zane, Billy | Francis W. Parker School, Chicago, IL and TASIS in Lugano, Switzerland | Actor Zane ("Titanic") went to this Chicago prep school, which is where Darryl Hannah and several other celebrities went. For more on the school, see her entry. Someone wrote to say Zane also went to TASIS, a prestigious Swiss boarding school.
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