Notable Alumni of Bennington College
Bennington College, a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont, has a rich history of producing influential figures in various fields. Founded in 1932 as a women's college and becoming co-educational in 1969, Bennington has always emphasized a unique educational approach, fostering creativity, critical thinking, and a capacity for independent work. Bennington students graduate with a capacity to get it done, to put themselves out there, to find a novel solution. They are able to thrive in a world without givens. They can start from a blank page, and end up with a finished project. The proof is in the outsized impact our alumni have on the world’s stage. This article highlights some of the college's most notable alumni, showcasing their diverse achievements and contributions to society.
Actors and Filmmakers
Bennington College has a strong reputation in the performing arts, and many of its alumni have achieved recognition in film, television, and theater. The college's emphasis on visual arts and drama has nurtured the talents of many successful actors and filmmakers.
Peter Dinklage: Perhaps one of the most recognizable Bennington alumni, Peter Dinklage is an American actor best known for his role as Tyrion Lannister in the HBO television series Game of Thrones. His portrayal earned him a record four Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, as well as a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Dinklage, who has a common form of dwarfism known as achondroplasia, has also used his platform to raise awareness about dwarfism.
Justin Theroux: An actor and filmmaker, Justin Theroux graduated from Bennington College with a Bachelor of Arts in drama fiction and visual arts in 1993. He has gained recognition for his work with director David Lynch in films like Mulholland Drive and Inland Empire. Theroux has also appeared in a wide range of films, including American Psycho, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, and The Girl on the Train.
Holland Taylor: Holland Taylor is an accomplished American actress known for her roles across film and television. She won a Primetime Emmy Award for her role as Judge Roberta Kittleson on ABC's The Practice and received multiple Emmy nominations for her portrayal of Evelyn Harper on Two and a Half Men. Holland, an actress known for roles across film and television, studied theater at Bennington College. She graduated in 1964 when it was still a women's college.
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Alan Arkin: Alan Wolf Arkin was an American actor, filmmaker and musician. In a career spanning seven decades, he received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Tony Award as well as nominations for six Emmy Awards. He studied at Bennington College in 1955.
Tim Daly: James Timothy Daly is an American actor best known for his role as Joe Hackett on the NBC sitcom Wings and his recurring role as drug-addicted screenwriter J.T. Dolan on The Sopranos. Daly also starred as Pete Wilder on the ABC medical drama Private Practice. He has a bachelor's degree from Bennington College.
Anne Ramsey: Anne Ramsey-Mobley was an American actress best known for her film roles as Mama Fratelli in The Goonies and as Mrs. Lift in Throw Momma from the Train.
Richard Deacon: Richard Lewis Deacon was an American television and motion picture actor, best known for playing supporting roles in television shows such as The Dick Van Dyke Show, Leave It to Beaver, and The Jack Benny Program, along with minor roles in films such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.
Alley Mills: Allison Mills, also known as Alley Bean, is an American actress, known for her roles on television.
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Betty Aberlin: Betty Aberlin is an American actress, poet, and writer. She is best known for playing Lady Aberlin on the children's television series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, a role she played for the entirety of the show's 33-year run.
Writers and Authors
Bennington College has fostered a vibrant literary community, producing numerous accomplished writers, novelists, and poets. The college's emphasis on independent study and creative expression has allowed aspiring writers to hone their craft and develop unique voices.
Bret Easton Ellis: Bret Easton Ellis is an American author and screenwriter, one of the literary Brat Pack. His novels commonly share recurring characters. Ellis graduated from Bennington College. He is a self-proclaimed satirist whose trademark technique as a writer is the expression of extreme acts and opinions in an affectless style.
Donna Tartt: Donna Louise Tartt is an American novelist and essayist. She wrote the novels The Secret History, The Little Friend, and The Goldfinch, which was adapted into a film. She was included in Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People" list.
Michael Pollan: Michael Kevin Pollan is an American journalist who is a professor and the first Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer at Harvard University. Pollan is best known for his books that explore the socio-cultural impacts of food, such as The Botany of Desire and The Omnivore's Dilemma.
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Andrea Dworkin: Andrea Rita Dworkin was an American radical feminist writer and activist best known for her analysis of pornography.
Jonathan Lethem: Jonathan Allen Lethem is an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. His first novel, Gun, with Occasional Music, a genre work that mixed elements of science fiction and detective fiction, was published in 1994. In 1999, Lethem published Motherless Brooklyn, a National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novel that achieved mainstream success.
Judith Jones: Judith Jones was an American writer and editor, best known for having rescued The Diary of Anne Frank from the reject pile. Jones also championed Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
Jenny Boully: Jenny Boully is the author of seven books, most recently, Betwixt-and-Between: Essays on the Writing Life.
Safiya Sinclair: Safiya Sinclair was born and raised in Montego Bay, Jamaica. She is the author of Cannibal, winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Metcalf Award, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry, the Phillis Wheatley Book Award, and the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry.
Don Belton: Don Belton was born August 7, 1956 in Philadelphia. He received his B.A. from Bennington in 1981.
Reginald Shepherd: Reginald Shepherd was an American poet and teacher.
Political and Social Activists
Bennington College has a history of encouraging its students to engage with social and political issues. Many alumni have gone on to become influential figures in politics, activism, and human rights.
Betty Ford: Elizabeth Anne Ford was first lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977, as the wife of President Gerald Ford. As first lady, she was active in social policy, and set a precedent as a politically active presidential spouse.
Farahnaz Pahlavi: Farahnaz Pahlavi is the oldest daughter of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi by his third wife, Farah Diba.
Yasmin Aga Khan: Princess Yasmin Aga Khan is a Swiss-born American philanthropist known for raising public awareness of Alzheimer's disease.
Judith Butler: Judith Pamela Butler is an American feminist philosopher and gender studies scholar whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory.
Kay Crawford Murray: Kay was valedictorian of Pittsburgh's Schenely High School, class of 1952. She graduated from Bennington College in 1956 with degree in psychology and earned an MA in Psychology from Columbia University Teacher's College. Murray served on the Board of Trustees of Bennington College from 1970 to 1977.
Anne Forrester: Anne Forrester was born in Philadelphia and graduated from Bennington in 1963. She was appointed to the ambassadorship of Mali in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter and was one of the first African American women to hold the post.
Gay J. McDougall: Reginald F. Gay J. Gay Johnson McDougall is an international human rights and racial justice lawyer. She studied social science at Bennington College. McDougall served as the first United Nations Independent Expert on Minority Issues from 2005 to 2011. In 1999, McDougall was a recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” Award. In 2015, the Government of South Africa bestowed on her the Order of O.R. Tambo Award for her contributions to ending apartheid.
Peggy King Jorde: Peggy King Jorde was born in Albany, Georgia. She studied architecture and theater design at Bennington and graduated in 1980.
Hildegard Peplau: Hildegard E. Peplau was an American nurse and the first published nursing theorist since Florence Nightingale.
Artists and Designers
Bennington College's commitment to fostering creativity extends to the visual arts and design. The college has produced numerous successful artists, sculptors, and designers who have made significant contributions to the art world.
Helen Frankenthaler: Helen Frankenthaler was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting.
Sally Mann: Sally Mann is an American photographer known for making large format black and white photographs of people and places in her immediate surroundings: her children, husband, and rural landscapes, as well as self-portraits.
Tom Sachs: Tom Sachs is an American contemporary artist who lives and works in New York City.
Sheila Miyoshi Jager: Sheila Miyoshi Jager is an American historian.
Maren Hassinger: Born Maren Louise Jenkins, Hassinger grew up in Los Angeles. She enrolled at Bennington in 1965, originally intending to study dance but instead she studied sculpture with Isaac Witkin and drawing with Pat Adams. She graduated in 1969 with B.A. in Sculpture.
Kevin Alter: Kevin Alter is Founder of the award-winning firm Alter Studio architects, and Wm. S. Marvin Hall of Fame for Design Excellence inductee.
Cosmo Whyte: Cosmo Whyte was born in St. Andrew, Jamaica in 1982.
Other Notable Alumni
In addition to the individuals mentioned above, Bennington College has produced notable alumni in a variety of other fields.
Michael Brooks: Michael Jamal Brooks was an American talk show host, writer, left-wing political commentator, and comedian.
Joan Hinton: Joan Hinton was a nuclear physicist and one of the few women scientists who worked for the Manhattan Project.
Jennifer Mieres: Jennifer Mieres, MD, is one of the leading experts and patient advocates in the fields of cardiovascular disease in women. A graduated from Bennington College in 1982.
Kiran Desai: Kiran Desai is an Indian author. Her novel The Inheritance of Loss won the 2006 Man Booker Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Fiction Award.
Melissa Rosenberg: Melissa Anne Rosenberg is an American television writer, television producer, and screenwriter. She has worked in both film and television and has won a Peabody Award.
Brix Smith: Brix Smith is an American singer and guitarist, best known as the lead guitarist and a major songwriter for the English post-punk band the Fall during two stints in the band.
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