6 Iconic Film Directors Who Decided That School Just Wasn't For Them

Film directors are basically the elite of Hollywood. They're at the top of the ladder when it comes to stardom, and most of the time, it's for a good reason. After all, they're in charge of creating the one thing that practically everyone is interested in: movies.

It would probably surprise you to learn that some of the top directors in Hollywood never went to film school. In fact, many of them didn't even finish high school. Their stories just go to show that success isn't always built on education, but it's always built on hard work.

Wes Craven

Can you believe that the man behind Scream, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Hills Have Eyes, and tons of other horror films never went to film school?!

However, Craven did earn an undergraduate degree in English and psychology from Wheaton College as well as a Master's degree in philosophy and writing from Johns Hopkins University. He even taught at a few colleges and high schools.

So how did Craven get his start in the film industry?

While he was teaching, he bought a used 16mm film camera and started making short movies. Shortly afterward, he left teaching to join a post-production film company as a sound editor.

From there, he became a pornographic film director and made many X-rated movies under pseudonyms. Sooner or later, his adult film career transitioned into one filled with iconic horror movies!

Steven Spielberg

It's hard to believe that the director behind groundbreaking films like Jurassic Park, E.T., Indiana Jones, Saving Private Ryan, and about a million more is a university reject.

Due to mediocre grades in high school, Spielberg was rejected from the University of Southern California three times.

However, the school awarded Spielberg with an honorary degree in 1994, and he became a trustee in 1996.

"Since 1980, I've been trying to be associated with this school," joked the director. "I eventually had to buy my way in."

Quentin Tarantino

When he was just 14 years old, the director behind Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs, and Inglorious Basterds wrote one of his earliest works, a screenplay called Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit. When he was 15, his mother grounded him for shoplifting the novel The Switch from a Kmart. H was only allowed to leave the house to attend the Torrance Community Theater, where he acted in plays.

By age 16, Tarantino had dropped out of high school.

He got a job as an usher at an adult film theater called the Pussycat Theatre after lying about his age. He later met film producer Lawrence Bender at a Hollywood party, who encouraged young Tarantino to write a screenplay. This led him to write his first movie, My Best Friend's Birthday, which formed the basis for 1993's True Romance.

James Cameron

The visionary behind films like Titanic, Avatar, and The Terminator first dropped out of high school when he was 17 years old. He later went back and graduated, and he then attended a community college to study physics. After switching to English, he then dropped out and began a number of odd jobs — including driving a truck!

It was during this time that Cameron began teaching himself about special effects.

He quit his job as a truck driver to pursue a career in film after seeing Star Wars. After reading Syd Field's book Screenplay, he realized that integrating science and art into film was possible. This led him to write his first screenplay, Xenogenesis.

Stanley Kubrick

The genius behind The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, and Eyes Wide Shut never really had a thing for school. Kubrick was a mediocre student with a poor attendance record, as he constantly skipped class to watch double-feature films. He graduated from high school, but his poor grades and the influx of returning WWII soldiers didn't permit him to enroll at a college.

In 1946, Kubrick got a job as an apprentice photographer for Look.

G. Warren Schloat, another of the magazine's photographers at the time, implied that Kubrick didn't have the personality to make it as a Hollywood director. "Stanley was a quiet fellow. He didn't say much. He was thin, skinny, and kind of poor — like we all were."

However, Kubrick quickly became noticed for his inspiring storytelling through photographs, and he eventually transitioned to film.

Keenen Ivory Wayans

The man behind Scary Movie and White Chicks attended Tuskegee University on an engineering scholarship but was constantly entertaining his college friends with made-up stories and skits about life in New York. Just one semester before graduation, Wayans chose to drop out of school to focus on comedy.

While doing an improv show in New York, Wayans met actor Robert Townsend, who helped him get his first real start in the comedy business.