14 Famous People who started out as Accountants

You may find this interesting – my list of people who started out life as an accountant or studied it before becoming famous in another field.

I bet you didn’t know that about 1,400 FBI Agents are accountants, including Thomas Pickard, the #2 man in the organisation.

Here’s my list:

Mick Jagger studied accounting and finance at the London School of Economics on a scholarship, before falling in love with music and founding The Rolling Stones.

John D. Rockefeller was an accountant prior to starting Standard Oil and becoming one of the richest men alive at the time.

John Grisham, the writer was previously a lawyer and prior to that an accountant.

Kevin Kennedy, the former Texas Rangers Manager, as a CPA did his players’ tax returns to make extra money when he managed in the minor leagues.

Janet Jackson studied to be an accountant.

Fr. Luca Paciolo wrote the first book on double-entry bookkeeping in 1494. He is frequently referred to as the father of accounting.

J Walter Diemer, an accountant for the Fleer Corporation in the 1920′s, tinkered with gum recipes in his spare time and created a chewy, rubbery substance better known as bubble gum.

J.P. Morgan got his first Wall Street job as a junior accountant. Five years later he founded his own company.

Arthur Blank, owner of the Atlanta Falcons and one of the co-founders of the Home Depot was an accountant.

Bob Newhart, the comedian from The Bob Newhart Show, studied accountancy.

Kenny G. the saxophone player

David Graveney a leading figure in English cricket and former chairman of the England Test selectors, is a chartered accountant.

Ron Moody, the British actor probably best known for playing the part of Fagin in the stage and film versions of Oliver, originally trained to be an accountant.

“Mad” Mike Hoare, the mercenary, was a chartered accountant

Well, there you have it.

If you prefer pictures to words, there’s a great infographic available here.

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Martin Pollins

Managing Director at One Smart Place

Martin Pollins is a Chartered Accountant and MBA with wide experience in corporate finance and business management. He has served on the boards of several companies, including those listed on the London Stock Exchange, AIM and OFEX. He is Chairman and Founder of OneSmartPlace and was a Council member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales from 1988 to 1996. He was managing partner of PRB Martin Pollins, based in Sussex, the first Accountancy firm to advertise on British television.He went on to create and launch the CharterGroup Partnership (the UK’s first Accountancy network) and then LawGroup UK (at the time, one of the largest networks of lawyers in the UK). In recent years, he helped to raise several £millions to fund British films such as The Da Vinci Code, Bridge of San Luis Rey, Head in the Clouds and Merchant of Venice with actors such as Charlize Theron, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, F. Murray Abraham. Kathy Bates, Gabriel Byrne, Geraldine Chaplin, Tom Hanks, Ian McKellen, Audrey Tautou, Penélope Cruz, Steven Berkoff, Lynn Collins, Jeremy Irons, Joseph Fiennes and many more.

He has written over 700 business publications (see Glossaries at https://onesmartplace.com/resources/glossaries/) and is editor of Better Business Focus (see https://onesmartplace.com/resources/better-business-focus-magazine). His Blog, on a wide range of subjects can be found at: https://onesmartplace.com/blog/

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