7. Quentin Tarantino
This wildly popular director dropped out at age 16 to take acting classes supported by his job as an usher in an adult movie theater.
He lost interest with acting but his next job in a video rental store fueled the obsession with cinema that made him famous.
When people ask him about his formal education or lack of it, he simply replies: “When people ask me if I went to film school, I tell them, ‘no, I went to films'”