 His father, Eugene C. Pratt, was an actor and musician, turned tobacco company executive and political activist, turned self-employed businessman and farmer.James Norwood Pratt was educated at R.J. Reynolds High School, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and in Europe.While at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he enrolled in its Honors Program, infamously named the "Suicide 50" given the extreme obstacles enrollees faced in the program.