That was my immediate thought, though I would caveat it as "IQ likely has a statistically significant effect on achieving the top successes of any field and the

That was my immediate thought, though I would caveat it as "IQ likely has a statistically significant effect on achieving the top successes of any field and therefore we'd expect the top 0.5% to have a higher than average IQ." Otherwise, it seems like a strange dismissal. For one, the roles that an actor plays, and even the persona they have in public don't necessarily match their private persona where their intelligence might be more evident. For two, while luck and other personality factors surely play a significant role, it would make sense that IQ would be a differentiator amongst any group with similar characteristics. So among good-looking talented actors/actresses with similar demographics, I'd expect IQ to correlate at least somewhat with their success. It seems odd to think otherwise.