When you think of Mensa, the high IQ society, you probably think of Steven Hawking or Marilyn vos Savant. There are, however, some unlikely celebrity names associated with Mensa – a group which requires that members have an IQ within the top two per cent of the population. I have compiled a list of some famous smarties, some more surprising than others. I did my best to verify in more than one source that these were in fact members of Mensa. Sharon Stone, for example, is listed as a Mensa member on many websites, however, she confirmed she is not and has never been a member, as is commonly believed. This list is in no particular order, as not all IQ’s were available.
Probably better known as WCW wrestler Raven, Levy studied criminal justice at the University of Delaware and originally wanted to be a lawyer. He has a reported IQ of 143.
Star of over 250 hardcore adult movies, Carrera has an IQ of 156. Before her successful porn career, at the age of 13 she played piano at Carnegie Hall and later attended Rutgers University.
Jeffrey is a young actor who does a lot of voiceover work. At age 6, he was given an IQ test and tested within the 99th percentile, making him a certified genius.
Actress, and wife of John Malkovich, Headly studied drama in NYC and attended the American College of Switzerland on a scholarship.
Violence-loving high school dropout Quentin Tarantino has an IQ of 160.
Martin majored in Philosophy at Cal State and even considered becoming a professor at one time. His IQ is estimated to be about 142.
Davis went to Sweden on a student exchange program and is now fluent in Swedish. Studied drama at Boston University, plays piano, flute, drums and organ and has an IQ of 140.
An English model and actress, she earned an honors degree in chemical engineering from Leeds University. Her reported IQ is 158.
Rachins played a lawyer on the TV show L.A. Law and Dharma’s hippy father on Dharma and Greg. He enrolled at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, ultimately dropping out, but graduated from Empire State College in 1974.
Beauchamp is a footballer for the Oxford United, and is listed on British Mensa’s fact sheet under “famous members,” however they did not list his IQ.
Fluent in five languages with a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Harvard, Portman pursued graduate studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
A British DJ, actor and television personality, he is best known for his BBC television show Jim’ll Fix It where he made the wishes of members of the public (mainly children) come true and as both the first and last presenter of Top of the Pops. Savile holds an honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) from Leeds University and is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Radiology (FRCR.) In the Mensa entry tests, his IQ was assessed as 149.
Foster graduated as valedictorian from the French-speaking Lycee Francais de Los Angeles, after which she attended Yale and graduated magna cum laude with a degree in literature. Her reported IQ is 132.
Lundgren attended the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. He received a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, in 1982, and the next year was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to MIT. IQ score: 160.
Woods aced his SATs, got into MIT (but dropped out to pursue acting) and has a reported IQ of 180.
Lisa has an IQ of 156 and has been a member of Mensa Springfield since 1999.
Contributor: rushfan
Holy ***** James Woods. I had no idea his IQ was so high. Tarantino as well.
A lot of these people though, you basically stated that they went to and completed college. While this is great and all it doesn’t really mean they’re “super” smart.
My mistake, I didn’t realize they were all on the Mensa list. I didn’t read the top.
Good day.
89. Candlefower, Wow, do you really do all of that in Mensa?!?
Sounds SO cool, but wait a minute… I actually belong to a similar organization, it´s called friendship.
Although it seems that you´re not familiar with the concept I tell you it has to do with joining and gathering instead of segregating and sustaining an elitist and superiority slogan.
The fact that you found my previous comment offensive only confirms what it originally implied but unfortunately you missed to perceive: bragging about your IQ only evidences a desperate need for self assurance and a puny and very weak ego.
For me it´s *****og to dogs being able to stimulate orally their own genitalia, you wouldn´t have to leave home
(originally I thought about this whole sentence to become my nick but found psychosurfer way more Sassy)
So next time try to read in between lines and not to be so Mensa on your comments.
segue: I remember you mentioned that in some other discussion. He also read the dictionary in college, mainly to find obscure words to use in Scrabble. He has written a book about it, and you didn’t.
I used to browse through friends’ encyclop(a)edias when we visited their houses. (I was shy.) I don’t have the concentration span to read an entire dictionary or encyclop(a)edia. I was and am eclectic in my reading and therefore piecemeal in my knowledge. I found out early that the dumbass with specialised knowledge will always beat the top-of-the-class with general knowledge: I was playing football on the school oval with a dumbass classmate when someone started a motorcycle about 50 m away. He said “That’s a [brand of motorcycle]“. Suddenly I felt so inadequate.
em: Yes, I bought that one on Sunday as well. I’m putting it aside for a day or two to read a book about the interaction between language, the brain, human nature and thought. See what I mean about eclectic? (Steven Pinker, again, in case you’re wondering, segue.)
Does anybody remember “The Missing Link” from WWF?
Where can I see the list of the silliest celebrities?
126. astraya: Steven Pinker. I should have known. Steven Pinker is Harvard College Professor and Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. He also taught in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. He conducts research on language and cognition. He writes for publications such as the New York Times, Time, and Slate, and is the author of seven books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, Words and Rules, The Blank Slate, and most recently, The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature.
I got hooked on Pinker back in the 80′s when I was first interested in language and cognition.
He’s really brilliant. I’ve always thought he was incredibly *****y.
you know, every time i see Asia licking protein off her lips I think to myself, man, that chick must be very smart
hey, like what that movie burn after reading said: intelligence is relative. right people?
wentworth miller is another celebrity who’s smart. he’s got a degree in english literature from princeton. it also appears that the guy could sing, as he was a former member of his university’s choir.
I read How the Mind Works about 10 years ago. I bought The Language Instinct last year and we exchanged thoughts about that here. I spotted The Stuff of Thought on Sunday and bought it, and am about 10 pages into it. His introduction says that those last two, plus Words and Rules, form a trio of books about language. There is a blurb for The Blank Slate in the back of the book. I seem to be not so much interested in books about the mind per se (like the first and last of those) and more interesting in books about language or the interaction between language and the mind.
All a bit unnecessary when my lessons last year were at the level of:
I am tall/I am average height/I am short.
I am taller than Eun-ju/I am shorter than Sang-ho
I am (not) the tallest person in the class/I am (not) the shortest person in the class
I’m not surprised with most of them making the list, Dolph Lundgren is a little hard to believe though. Maybe because of his roles in some of his movies.
I’m not surprised with most of them making the list, Dolph Lundgren is a little hard to believe though. Maybe because of his roles in some of his movies.
jfrayer/Cyn
Can’t we just get comment 98 taken off the list of comments altogether? It sickens me, it terrifies me, it makes me unable to pay any more attention to the topic at hand. I assume from previous comments that he originally used Randall’s name? That is despicable. I really think that using another person’s name to post should mean that comment, and all others by the same troll, should be stricken from the list.
I know whoever it was just wanted to get a rise out of people, and I hate to oblige him/her, but I am infuriated. There are too many ultra-right-wing hate-mongers out there who would be more than willing to assassinate a good man rather than see a black man as our president. It is not funny, it is deeply disturbing. I, for one, will be praying the whole day tomorrow that no idiot will take a shot at Obama or his beautiful family.
Sorry to go off on a rant that is off-subject, but I come to this site because of the intelligence and creativity of most of the posters. These idiot trolls are ruining it for me.
Happy Martin Luther King’s Day, everyone. We need to work to keep his dream alive.
Gina
I am a bit surprised that Jodie Foster’s IQ is listed as 132. I think hers must be much higher. (Again, this could be the type of test taken.) To graduate from Yale magna cum laude is very impressive. In reading/seeing interviews with her, she is obviously intelligent, erudite and well-read.
And Dolph Lundgren? Well he does a great job of hiding his intelligence in his acting roles!
Again, sorry about the rant above. It hit a sore spot with me.
135. BooRadley -
the filters should take care of any further attempts to post. as for the comment in question, i’m sorry it upset you but i think there were other comments after it that put it into the proper context.
Cool list. Nice to see I’m still smarter than a few of these people even. 142
Comment 125
Psychosurfer thank you. Thank you for being you and saying what had to be said. Having a high IQ is great but if you don’t have commonsense your just as dumb as the rest of us.
Interesting list, although I was not surprised. Many people in the performance arts are very smart.
The comments, however, are reminding me in a very negative way of my childhood. Identified and tested as high IQ, but not as ADD, I had to endure all sorts of teasing and criticism because I was air headed. Especially my step father would ridicule me endlessly because while I got straight A’s, I could never remember my chores, and was constantly burning dinner.
Many of the comments here just show how little some people know about intelligence and the range of ways it manifests itself.
I meant to say above, that while I WAS ADD, they did not identify that, so many people in my life did not understand how such a “smart” girl could mess up so often. It was a comfort to finally learn why I had such trouble focusing.
soooo surprised to not see Janeane Garofalo….i mean, personally i thought she thought she was at least as smart as Dolph “I vill break you” Lundgren.
I kind of love when a post is about intelligence or special skills (I am speaking broadly of blogs, now), and all the comments have to chime in with their own scores, ever so nonchalant. #95. greg was an especially amusing one, since he is apparently the smartest and most humble man to ever live. I can’t pass judgment, because everyone likes their ego stroked, and that is understandable. I just think it is funny, especially when people start knocking the tests. After all, if you think it’s inaccurate, why bother taking the test in the first place? If you think your score is inaccurate, why bother announcing it? As for knocking Mensa: what’s wrong with wanting to socialize with like minded people? What would you recommend as the most reliable means for an intelligent person to be guaranteed an intelligent conversation? If you can have auto clubs and fan clubs and booster clubs and boyscouts and 4H (those farm dwelling elitist bastards…), why can’t smart people have a smart people club without drawing fire?
the guitarist from the queen band has a Phd in astrophysics.
He should really be in here
em -
If someone lived by the bible for a year, he would end up on death-row.
And I seriously doubt that Geena Davis is fluent in Swedish – she may be able to make herself understood, but as for being able to discuss just about anything ? No, I don’t think so. The same goes for Portman.
wit aboot steven hawkin man?
137. notherguitar, thank you for combining both.
138. suzi, I empathize so much with what you just stated. Although I could understand every concept and pass the exams without opening a book, I could never organize myself into the discipline required to be a top notch student (which my parents always longed for).
As a member of Mensa, I have an IQ of 340.
Wow, really? I do? No one here knows me so I can say whatever I want. That’s what I think of the people on here who claim high IQs… what is the point of telling everyone what your IQ is??
Btw, I think this was a very interesting list. Some I knew, some I didn’t, I was especially surprised by Dolph Lundgren.
Also, since you aren’t required to register, isn’t there a slight chance that someone else with your name is commenting?
flibbertigibbit(141) – LOL! I grew up on a farm and did not join 4H for that very reason…elitists!
So long as ‘membership’ does not define us, we are yet human. I take pride in my ability to think for myself and to contemplate both the meaning of life and of my navel – sometimes in the same breath.
I find that I enjoy watching the smarter and more capable actors and actresses in general, not necessarily because they have high IQ’s, but because they bring more to the characters they play/portray. As others have said above, talent, aptitude, perseverance, and plain old hard work can do more for anyone than an arbitrary number on a piece of paper.
Yeah but most of them are total “ding a lings”
These “IQs” have to be made up.
How many people in the world have taken a REAL IQ test? Not many. And I doubt these people would have taken the time and effort to go through it.
And these IQs of 160 or 180? That is just bogus.
I have no doubt that many of these people are intelligent human beings. The numbers are just fiction though.
You can have the highest IQ in the world without possessing a lick of common sense.
109: Rushfan, maybe you are right within the respect that you never made that claim. However, it all has to do with definition. You say “super smart” as if IQ is solid. It’s not. I highly advise you to look up the theories of Gardner and Steinberg (You obviously have Spearman here, and nobody really regards the theories of Thurstone as reputable). But, as I said, this comes from a person who is pro g, but I would write “15 celebreties who scored suprisingly high on a WAIS” as opposed to making the claim that they were “Super smart”. Maybe I so need to lighten up. But, I do promise you my IQ is in fact 188, but, as I said, I don’t like to brag about it, as IQ is not a set in stone thing, just a score on a WAIS or Stanford-Binet. If I had a test on bodily-Kinesthetic “intelligence” I would be considered an idiot.
149 Correct. I happen to be a person who has been administered a real WAIS in the city by mcCormack, a great psychologist. I got this test when very young because of problems I was having in school. Back then, my IQ was 231, as many young kids can easily have an IQ over 200 due to the equation. My recent IQ is 188.
114 Segue, I actually agree with you. I just cited the two as examples. I would have appreciated it if you would have read my previous post, which stated that IQ is not the only way to mneasure intellect. Creativity is one, and I specifically cited musical intelligence w/ Elton John. I actually agreed with you, and I would appreciate it if you read my previous posts before attacking me.
149 UmmmNo. How many people take an IQ test? Depends which country you live in. Kids at American school all got IQ tested (not sure if the SATs there are still IQ tests or have moved to aptitude tests). Kids in UK used to have theirs assessed too, when they all had to take the 11+ test for grammar school (but there are not many of those left now). However UK kids were not told it was an IQ test and they didn’t/still don’t have access to their scores, unlike in USA.
The high numbers are not bogus. They can’t be achieved on the tests Mensa offers as all Mensa needs to know is whether someone is in the top 2% – so anything above 148 in the test with a standard deviation of 24, gets you in (or 132 on one of the other tests that has a SD of 12).
As Greg has explained, his IQ assessment came from a psychologist when he was a child That’s really the only way to get very high IQs assessed and it’s often used for little kids as their educational needs can’t be met unless you have some idea of their level. An adult taking the Mensa tests in UK won’t get higher than 162 – but their IQ could be considerably higher.
great list.
Judging from the comments there isn’t a definitive or universally acceptable standard for measuring smartness.
And yea really not impressed with the people posting their IQ scores. Pointless without proof. And even then, who cares really? You can be just as informative without disclosing numbers.
greg ~ I bet you’re tons of fun at parties. Point of fact, I didn’t submit this list with it’s current title, but even if I had, it’s just a fun, light-hearted list meant to amuse and entertain.
Oh, and UmmmNo, these people are members of a high IQ society, hence they have taken IQ tests to get in. Geesh.
Greg, quit embarrassing yourself.
This username say’s he doesn’t like to brag, yet he’s mentioned his IQ multiple times without provocation. Not to mention he’s operating under the assumption that we actually believe him, when really we know nothing beyond ur username. Once again, stop embarrassing yourself…
@ Suzi
If your lack of attentiveness was attributed to some neurobehavioral disorder, then obviously the comments weren’t directed towards you.
153. greg: I obviously did read your post, otherwise how could I have replied to it point by point?
I guess being a super genius does not necessarily mean one pays attention to detail. heehee
tee hee hee, JayArr.
Didn’t read all the comments, but look up Danica McKellar, from the Wonder Years – math genius.
Brain and brain! What is brain?!
Lisa Kudrow should be up there too, and Danika McKellar[sic].
what about danica mckellar from the wonder years? she published a paper in britian’s journal of physics
sorry, didnt see the other posts about danica…
AHA! But IQ is nothing without EQ (Emotional Quotient) and a healthy dose of good old common sense!
Several people have mentioned Brian May and his PhD, which is well-attested. I just saw reference on Another Site to Charlie Watts getting a PhD in physics, but I can’t find any other reference to it, and it strikes me as highly suspicious. Anyone know, or know that it ain’t so?
hahaha Jimmy Savile!!
Asia Carrera- Yeah! Beauty and Brains! What a great combination!
Now, somebody need make list of 150 Surprisingly Super Idiot Celebrities…
Amazingly, no matter how high someones I.Q. is, they will always step out in front of a train and not understand why they got hit. in other words….lacking common sense.
172 Fartknocker. Suggest you reread what you’ve just written – it doesn’t make any sense.
So all people with high IQs step out in front of trains? Are they dead when they think that? How many high IQ people do you know who have stepped out in front of trains compared to low IQers? Are you saying low IQers ‘know’ why they got hit in those circumstances but higher IQ people don’t …?
I think it’s you who’s got sloppy logic …
“People who brag about their IQs are complete losers.”
-Steven Hawkins
Would all the people who pretend to have IQs of 188 please step in front of a train so we can test Candlefower’s theory?
Great list! It interesting to see a Pro Wrestler and a Adult movie actress in this list. This shows that we never judge a book by it’s cover.
175 segue. The theory’s not mine – it’s Fartnocker’s. (S)he’s obviously not into critical thinking…
176 Fury 2.0 Good plan …:-)
177. Candlefower:…The theory’s not mine – it’s Fartnocker’s. (S)he’s obviously not into critical thinking…
****
You know, I knew that when I typed your name. I truly have no excuse except the usual “fingers and brain separately engaged”.
So a *****star has a high IQ. Oftentimes high intelligence is tied in with ***** addiction, since oftentimes high intelligence can be tied in with all kinds of mental “fun.” Not every person who is smart is going to look, or even play, the part. We choose our paths and whether or not we use what is given to us.
lol…I was laughing so loud!! “Mensa” is also a word in Spanish andit means “stupid” lol