Jared Leto won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role in “Dallas Buyers Club.” Ken Cuccinelli is the former Republican Attorney General of Virginia. Duff Goldman is the star of the hit Food Network show Ace of Cakes and the owner of Charm City Cakes. All of these idols went to Longfellow. 

Longfellow in the ’80s must have been an interesting place. The best-known alumnus, Jared Leto, graduated 8th grade in 1984. His first big acting gig was the popular ’90s TV show, “My So-Called Life,” where he played one of Claire Danes’ love interests. He then went on to act in movies such as; Suicide Squad, Requiem for a Dream, Dallas Buyers Club, and more. He is also the lead singer of the band Thirty Seconds to Mars. 

Ken Cuccinelli would have been at Longfellow a few years ahead of Leto, in the early ’80s, after which he went on to graduate from a private high school in DC. He has made quite a name for himself in the world of politics. He is currently holding two important positions in the Trump administration: Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security and Acting Principal Deputy Director of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. He was even the Republican nominee for Governor of Virginia in the 2013 election.

Duff Goldman would have followed Leto by a few years, attending Longfellow in the mid to late ’80s. If his Wikipedia page is accurate, he showed an interest in cooking at an early age.  

“When he was four, his mother caught him in her kitchen wielding a meat cleaver and watching food personality Chef Tillman,” the page described. 

His famous bakery, Charm City Cakes, specializes in the unusual. Their website describes the early days of the business.  

“Duff and his intrepid team of cake decorators churned out cakes the world had never seen before: cakes with sound, cakes with smoke, cakes with motorized moving components, life-sized baby elephant cakes–no cake was too crazy to tackle.”

These fantastic cakes caught the interest of The Food Network and led to his success as the host of Ace of Cakes. Goldman is also a graffiti artist, a metal sculptor, and a musician.

These amazing alumni are an inspiration to current Longfellow students. Who knows what the current class of Longfellow will bring to the world.