12. Al Gore Jr. and Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones is an actor of distinction, having played diverse roles in film and television, including his breakout role in the afternoon soap opera One Life to Live. A graduate of Harvard University, where he played football on the undefeated 1968 team, Jones is a Texan by birth and by choice, residing there when not working. He is an avid fan and player of polo, as well as a fan of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs. He is also one of two men whom author Erich Segal used as the basis for the character Oliver in his novel Love Story, later made into a film starring Ryan O’Neal. The other man Segal used was Jones’s roommate at Harvard, Al Gore Jr.
Tight-Lipped College Days
Gore, the son of a Tennessee senator and the scion of a political dynasty, was close friends with Jones at Harvard, and the pair were later joined by actor John Lithgow (despite it being widely reported they were roommates, as in sharing a dorm room, they were not). Gore of course rose to the office of Vice President of the United States, while Jones and Lithgow both have had successful careers in entertainment. All three have remained notoriously tight-lipped about their days as college companions. Jones introduced Gore at the 2000 Democratic National Convention when Gore became the nominee for that year’s election, which remains hotly debated over its legality, but tales of the pair’s adventures in Cambridge are still mostly in the realm of speculation.
