Thornton Melon

Thornton Melon (formerly Thornton Meloni) is the main protagonist of the 1986 American comedy film Back to School. He is a rich successful businessman, who never went to college, and thus has no education. Thornton is portrayed by the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield.

Childhood
Thornton was born Thornton Meloni, the son of an immigrant tailor from Italy, with the dream to go into his father's business someday. One day, when Thornton brought home his report card to father, who happily opened it, but was disgusted by his son's lackluster grades. When Thornton told his father about how he wanted to go into his business when he grows up, his father nevertheless scolds for his poor grades and tells him that a man has nothing, if he doesn't have an education.

Successful career & Personal life
Despite his father's word and not attending college, Thornton continued with ambition to go into his father's line of work, eventually becoming more successful and turning into wealthy business and making him rich. Some point in his life Thornton became skilled diver, learning to perform a seemingly impossible dive known as the Triple Lindy. changed his last to Melon and married a woman and had a son named Jason. Unfortunately, Thornton's wife at some point died, then he remarried a woman named Vanessa, who was a gold-digger and an adulter and disliked Jason. One day at work after a meeting, he called Jason who was in college at the time and told his father was a member of a fraternity and a member of the school's diving, and told him he could to his and Vanessa's wedding anniversary party.