Beloved television actor Andy Griffith once taught high school music and drama in North Carolina. Photo credit: Historic Images

Many people are familiar with the beloved television actor Andy Griffith. He starred as the affable sheriff Andy Taylor on the 1960’s series the Andy Griffith Show. Later, he starred as the curmudgeonly lawyer Ben Matlock on the legal drama show Matlock. But did you know that before his career as an actor, Andy Griffith taught high school music and drama?

Andy was born on June 1, 1926, in Mount Airy, Surry County, North Carolina. He was the only child of Carl and Geneva Griffith. Carl was a furniture carpenter, and Geneva was a homemaker. Even as a child, Andy was aware that he lived on “the wrong side of the tracks.” He was a shy and introverted child, but he soon learned how to make his classmates laugh, and that helped him to gain self-confidence.

As a young man, Andy harbored hopes of becoming an opera singer. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Music at the University of North Carolina in 1949. Once he earned his degree, he taught at Goldsboro High School in North Carolina. His career there spanned three years.

Andy, who was so good at so many things, once confessed that he didn’t think he was a very good teacher. “First day, I’d tell the class all I knew, and there was nothing left to say for the rest of the semester,” he once told The New York Times.

To read more about Andy Griffith, consult this obituary published by the New York Times in 2012.

Gene Simmons: Flamboyant musician and make-up wearing, tongue-wagging rocker once taught sixth graders in Spanish Harlem.

Almost everyone has heard of the rock band KISS. But did you know that the band’s vocalist, Gene Simmons, was once an elementary school teacher? This flamboyant make-up wearing, tongue-wagging rocker taught sixth graders in the Spanish Harlem section of New York City.

Gene was born on August 25, 1949, in Tirat Carmel, Israel. At birth, his mother, a Holocaust survivor from Hungary, name him Chaim Witz. When he was eight years old, he immigrated to the United States with his mother. They landed in New York City. His father remained in Israel with his other children. Once he arrived in the United States, Chaim changed his name to Eugene Klein, adopting his mother’s maiden name. 

Upon his high school graduation, Gene attended first Richmond College and then Sullivan County Community College, both located in New York. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Education. A master of languages, Gene speaks Hungarian, Hebrew, Turkish, High German, Japanese, Spanish, and English.

Before he inaugurated his career as a performer, Gene worked a number of odd jobs in New York City. He served as a deli cashier, an office temp, and an assistant to an editor of the fashion magazine Vogue. He also taught sixth graders at PS 75 in Spanish Harlem.

To be honest, Gene’s career as a teacher was very short. “The reason I quit after six months,” the rocker once explained, “is that I discovered the real reason that i became a teacher. It was because I wanted to get up on stage and have people notice me,” he confessed. “I  had to quite because the stage was too small.Forty people wasn’t enough. I wanted forty thousand,” he concluded.

Gene still supports education. Not too long ago he filmed a British reality television show called Rock School in which he formed a rock band from a group of classically-trained children at a  prestigious English boarding school.

To read more about Gene’s career as a rocker, click on this link to A&E Biography.

Jesse Williams, former history teacher and television actor famous for his role on Grey’s Anatomy.

Many excellent classroom teachers also distinguish themselves in the entertainment field. One teacher who has done this is Jesse Williams, a high school history teacher from Philadelphia who is well-known as an actor on Grey’s Anatomy.

Jesse was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 5, 1981. As a child, Jesse attended schools in the Chicago area. As a teenager, he attended Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island, where he graduated in 1998. Jesse’s parents were very interested in the educational field. Not long after Jesse graduated from high school, his parents accepted positions in the public school system.

As a young man, Jesse attended college at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There he majored in African American Studies and Film and Media Arts. After he earned his Bachelor’s degree, Jesse accepted a position teaching American Studies, African Studies, and English in a low-income public charter school.

Jesse’s passion for teaching stemmed from his childhood experiences in the classroom. “I grew up in Chicago in an under-served community, over-crowded classrooms that sometimes had two grades in a classroom,” Jesse once confided. “Then I moved to a suburban area and had a healthy public school experience. I found this incredible chasm between two of the many Americas we have. I got a much better education and resources because of my zip code,” he continued. “I wanted to be part of the solution, so I started working in my community when I was at Temple University,” he said. Jesse’s career as an educator spanned six years.

In 2009, Jesse was cast in the role of Dr. Jackson Avery on the hit television show Grey’s Anatomy. He has also made appearance on Law & Order and Beyond the Break. His feature credits include Brooklyn’s Finest, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, Cabin in the Woods, the Butler, and Band Aid.

As a celebrity, the former teacher has used his influence to improve conditions for African Americans. For this work, Jesse won a BET Humanitarian Award. During his acceptance speech, the former teacher highlighted the evils of racial injustice and cultural appropriation.

To read more about Jesse Williams, read this online article published the Daily Press.