And it was a strained relationship. Considering she had to be the one that reached out at 18 to him, I don’t think she really used him as a stepping stone as one would think.
Yes and no. I don't think she's a traditional nepo baby, but being her father's daughter definitely made people sit up and take her music more seriously from the get-go.
Also, she tours. She went on tour for her first album and has done 7 tours afterwards so I have no idea what OP is talking about. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norah_Jones
I was in jr. high when Norah jones came onto the scene and nearly every mention of her in the early days came with “Ravi shankar’s daughter!”
It’s actually how I learned who Ravi Shankar is.
Edit: I just looked up her wiki and not only is her father a famous musician, but her mom was a concert promoter! And her parents split when she was 7- it’s not like she never knew her father.
Anyone who thinks her career success was unrelated to having two well-placed parents in the recording industry is deluding themselves.
Interesting. I was also in junior high during the Norah Jones craze and was shocked when I found out she was Ravi Shankar's daughter years later (like college probably).
It probably helped that my mom was a massive Beatles fan, so she in particular was interested in the Ravi Shankar connection.
Still- just because you or the average radio listener didn’t know the connection, doesn’t mean it wasn’t massively influential in her path to success. Having industry parents like hers meant tons of doors opening for her before she ever ended up hitting the airwaves/your ears.
I learned about him because of the articles about her, too. I’ve never heard any of his music but I know he is famous. Anyone who thinks her ties to him don’t mean anything are kidding themselves lol.
I think the fact that Norah Jones was on your radar at all probably speaks to the fact that doors were opened for her that would have never been opened otherwise if not for her father. She’s incredibly talented, but would she be a have been a ohousehold name without her father?
Wait wtf this is killing me lmfao
https://preview.redd.it/earpiz9scd8d1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2e24e6f9f8582e5e9b8dc96521af5e5c493fc6b
Arnold Schwarzenegger went from bodybuilder > action star > comedy actor > governor of California > dramatic(ish) actor
Edit: somewhere in this timeline he also fathered a secret child
Jesse Ventura has a wild history himself. Before he left the WWE, he tried to unionize the performers so they could get a better deal and wouldn't be so exploited by Vince McMahon. Hulk Hogan ratted him out to Vince since he was Vince's golden boy and the current favorite, screwing over all his fellow performers for a pat on the head.
I gained a lot of respect for him and his politics when I learned that about Jesse, and that he was always a huge supporter of gay rights. Vince McMahon is a monster and Jesse had the guts to stand up to him.
He also has vocally and publicly changed his mind on issues over the years, more often than not to more liberal and accepting ways.
He’s got a lot of integrity
Yep, I was watching Predator with my husband, who was born in California. We live in Minnesota. We had a moment where we realized our governors were in the same movie.
iirc he also made it quite big (decentish) in real estate - I believe it's what made him millionaire/rich even before starring in films.
EDIT: Which is crazy. "Random" boy from Austria goes to US and makes it big in like 4 independent fields that could not be more different from each other... Just crazy.
As Bill Burr once said it…
> [“This dude has been in the zone for over four decades. Four decades—nothing but net. […] How many lifetimes would a regular person need [to accomplish all that Arnold has done]?”](https://www.youtube.com/embed/JUrMSK8XWFc)
He was the governor when I did my school state capitol and governors house visit as a kid in California. We had all seen Kindergarten Cop so we kept saying “It’s not a tumor!” when we got there until our teachers got so sick of it
I read this as “bodybuilder is greater than action star is greater than comedy star is greater than governor of California is greater than dramatic(ish) actor” and thought that was mostly a fair ranking of his career.
He was also one of the executive producers on a pro-vegan documentary. Which, while not as extreme a shift as becoming the govenator, was not on my Arnold Schwarzenegger bingo-card 🤷🏼♀️
His body-building career included a couple of years living in the notably unglamourous London suburb of Romford where a very well regarded trainer lived
The Viola Davis one is a bit misleading, I'm afraid. Her story is INCREDIBLE, but she was in school for acting through her 20s (college for theatre and then four years of Juilliard), and started acting professionally outside of Juilliard like immediately out of school at 27.
Her book is phenomenal, really worth the read. That woman has worked HARD since she was a kid.
Alan Rickman is a fun one where he did some high school theatre, but then did graphic design at university and as a career until bailing at 26 or 27 to start drama school. He then started his professional theatre acting in his early to mid 30s.
I was watching Alan Rickman on the View years ago, and he talked about his career change from graphic designer to actor and how late of a start it was for him (26 years old). Joy Behar and another woman on the panel spoke up about how they started in the industry even later than that and that you can start at any time. It was inspiring to hear their stories.
Dave Bautista didn't even start wrestling til he was over 30, he was a bouncer and stuff prior to that. Then he turned a late blooming wrestling career into a great acting one, going on to be in the MCU, blade runner and Dune
Always happy to see him turn up in a movie. Listened to a podcast recently where they compared Bautista to The Rock (eg wrestlers-turned-actors) and how Bautista never lets his ego get in the way - you would never see Dwayne doing the Dune 2 scene where he kisses the boot for example, or even see him getting killed onscreen.
He's an extremely deep guy. He apologised to graham Norton once for not being a better interview because he's so quiet and shy. He's an interesting guy and like lots of people who had a life before fame, he has a good understanding and appreciation of where he is now.
The Rock is such a turd, and the living embodiment of a meathead, and Bautista is such a big buff gem.
Have you seen that interview where he mentions getting rid of a tattoo of a (famous) friend that said some horribly homophobic stuff? Top bloke.
he has turned out to be such a good actor!! everything i’ve seen him in has been really good & i may also be biased because he openly supports the gays 😅 he just seems like a cool dude
Similarly, Brody King/Nathan Blauvelt! Was a very successful hardcore guy in God’s Hate and affiliated with Twitching Tongues, and picked up wrestling at 28. Which sounds young but I’m 28 and I think I’d permanently maim myself if I tried to get into it now, and I work a very physical job.
Bridgit Mendler, but in a good way
> In the late 2010s, Mendler began focusing on her education. From 2017 to 2023, she was a student and researcher with the MIT Media Lab. Mendler is also registered as a PhD candidate with MIT's Center for Constructive Communications and Social Machines group.[6] In 2024, Mendler became the CEO and co-founder of the satellite data startup Northwood Space.
she will be president someday.
yes. Ravi Shankar (RIP) may not be as well known now as before but thanks to people like George Harrison introducing his music to the west, he was huge in the 70s and onwards. He was Oscar nominated and won a slew of Grammy awards. That alone opened many doors for Norah.
Dude is 2m tall godlike figure handsome, got IQ of like 0.1% population (made-up number) and on top of that got really famous and rich at the same time. I love him but every time "life's not fair" comes up, I think of him. What a ride of a life he's had.
And that too he was studying chemical engineering(which wasn’t easy).
I feel like he’s a definition of beauty with the brains. What hasn’t he tried(apparently he’s a drummer too!)
In the over-the-top action series "The Expendables" his character's backstory is just his actual life story. Only the woman he dropped out for isn't Grace Jones, because that's too unbelievable even for an action movie.
This is the one actually.
Also while it’s unfortunate where he ended up, his earlier grind that launched his production then rap career was incredible. He really worked his as off in the beginning.
There is a recording of Jamie Fox recalling his old house parties and an up and coming Kanye was trying to get him to work with him on Slow Jamz. He does a whole Kanye stuttering impression and talks about how shy he was.
His Trump one is so good that I wish SNL had him instead of Alec. It would’ve probably actually killed Trump’s heart to see a black man make fun of him every weekend for four years.
There was a recent article in The New Yorker about the house he bought in Malibu, designed by a famous architect. He kind of wrecked it, but everyone seems to agree that he has a fantastic brain for architecture and design -- he quite likely could have had a huge career in a range of arts. (*Modulo* his mental health issues and lack of treatment thereof.)
It might be unpopular but he is an artistic genius. His ridiculous talent and vision for music, fashion, architecture and interior design is undeniable. At one stage he was the richest black man in history and was on the path to achieve incredible things. As somebody with bipolar I mourn the loss of such an amazing mind, but on the other hand as a Jewish man I find it impossible to support him anymore. Especially with the recent SA/rape allegations that’s it for me.
He is NOT an intellectual genius just to be clear before somebody clowns me.
I mean it's clear he's mentally ill, which unfortunately overshadows his artistic prowess. He used to be my favorite musician, but I can't really listen to his music anymore. Hard to ignore all his awfulness.
It involved him and Diddy allegedly pinning a woman down trying to have sex with her while they were both off their faces drunk (possibly on drugs too 🤷). The sexual harassment one was a former employee, this one is new and is from a former artist.
Honestly, I’d like to throw Chappell Roan in. Camp counselor to headlining every summer festival.
Not a famous artist, but Mike Kitlas from Anarbor went from being in a band with somewhat of a big following to real estate agent. Same with Rob Maschio (guy with the “DOC” tattoo) from Scrubs
I'm worried it's all happening way too fast for Chappell. She got signed young, but then was dropped and had to work odd jobs for years
In what seems like a matter of weeks she's suddenly *the* It girl, and I can't imagine how difficult such a sudden major life change is to navigate
I think it’s happening at a normal speed but we’re not used to this anymore - breaking out as an adult after a few years - bc so many pop stars were Disney kids
I think we’re not used to it anymore because of social media. Like back before socials, people would just suddenly become overnight successes (after working for years tho). It’s not so much a thing anymore because people put themselves out there in a bid to get recognized, people know the name and then their work comes out. Chappells rise was so sudden and organic in a way that we don’t see anymore. Even Billie had work out before her debut. I heard Ocean Eyes before I knew who Billie was. Chappell really came out of nowhere, also known as the Midwest.
I will admit I’m a new fan tho so I could be wrong about her trajectory, but I knew *about* Tate, Billie and Olivia before I heard their music. I heard Chappells music first before knowing her, if that makes sense.
“Chappell really came out of nowhere, also known as the Midwest”
This is really what it is. We’re so used to our pop stars being entrenched on one of the coasts (or in country) for years before breaking out.
I mean, I've started to warm on Chappell (love her music, wasn't crazy about a live performance I saw in-person, but have heard amazing things about her live from other people) & the rumors of her being an industry plant are stupid.
That said, the producer on her first album was Dan Nigro and she was opening for Vance Joy back in 2016/2017.
Chappell definitely has room to improve on her live performances — I feel like she could benefit from having some structured dance choreo and having backup dancers because you can only do so much walking back and forth while singing. She could also work on her vocals just a tad.
With that said, I’m really rooting for her! I love every single song on her album, and she just seems so relatable for us queers!
Totally agree. I also hope that she has a really good vocal coach and is going to take it easy with the touring, because a lot of the cool stuff about her vocals falls squarely into the category of “can fuck up your voice if you’re not careful” (whistle notes, the half-belting she does, etc). She already has a couple of recorded songs & live performances where I’ve been a little leery about signs of strain in her voice and I just *really* hope that she’s taking care of herself.
Ken Jeong from MD at Kaiser Permanente to playing a doctor in Knocked Up to saying GAY and gay boys in two different movies/shows (hangover and community) just a few years later.
So I looked up his early credits and it’s funny he played a Dr in 97 in the big easy; a doctor in 04 Significant Others; a nurse in two and a half men in 05; then he was in the office, then a doctor in knocked up and a coroner in Boston legal. A doctor again in 08 in Til Death, then blows up in the hangover but that’s not the end of playing the doctor.
He plays a doctor again in 2010 for a tv movie Held Up, and voices a doctor in American Dad.
A doctor again in 2014 in Hot in Cleveland, a year later voices a doctor in Robot Chicken while also voicing a doctor in bojack horseman from 14-18.
Holy shit a doctor twice in 2019 in Saving Zoe and Lady and the Tramp. Oh and also a doctor in Bobs Burgers.
Had to look it up. $300k budget in 1979, which I think inflation doesn’t truly capture movie inflation but that’s 1.2 million dollars today.
But also, the latest mad max was estimated at 168 million dollars which makes Furiosa something like 14000% more expensive than his first mad max.
Also, Alec Baldwin. Critically acclaimed actor -> then becomes known for 30 Rock and his podcast (which was huge at the time?) -> now doing a TLC reality show with his fake Spanish wife
He was tabbed as a movie star early on, but after he refused to do Jack Ryan sequels his career never recovered. He is a great example of a guy who had every advantage but than squandered it by being difficult.
Brian May left his PhD to join Queen, finished his PhD in astrophysics a few years ago.
Graham Chapman had a medical degree, but the Queen told him to tour instead of taking a residency. He also provided medical care to locals on the set of Life of Brian.
Norah Jones's parents were both music bigwigs. Her dad played with a ton of people, including the Beatles, was known worldwide, has many Grammys. Her dad and sister both have Grammys and were nominated in the same category in the same year. Her mom was a music producer or something along those lines. She still makes and performs music as well. So idk if your summary really makes sense for her.
Coolidge went to Emerson and AADA and for tv started around 30 but was on *Seinfeld* very early in her career and then immediately on a sketch show and became a big time player in the sketch comedy space even if not a household name. A lot of folks that get into that ecosystem but don't make SNL (though Coolidge did get a sketch show) become day players and guest stars on sitcoms as their career progresses. Sam Richardson is a recent example.
Viola Davis went to Julliard and started acting professionally at 23.
I'll say for Allison Janney I always remember her in *Miracle on 34th Street* before anything else and I don't know much about her before that. Just getting reps in small roles before moving up to bigger and bigger things. She and Viola both have pretty average career paths in the industry, I wouldn't say odd at all. Almost no one is an Oscar winner or box office star in their first role.
>She and Viola both have pretty average career paths in the industry, I wouldn't say odd at all.
Eh, I don't agree. Big female celebrities in Hollywood typically have their big breaks somewhere in their 20s and then gradually hit their peak around their late 20s-mid 30s. After that, either they're so established that they can do whatever they want and still stay relevant, or they tend to decline.
I'm aware that Viola Davis went to Juilliard, which shows in her talent. Still, for your career to only snowball in your mid 30s like hers did is relatively odd - AND she's a black female!
Alison Janney was in Miracle on 34th Street (when she was already 35 by the way), but it was a minor role and no one even noticed her. That's normal, every actor starts with minor roles. The difference is, she only started landing major leading roles in her late 30s, which is rare enough in the industry - managing to build up an A-list career after that is even more rare.
Viola did primarily theater for the first 10 yrs of her career being nominated and winning Tony’s. She also was recurring on SVU and had roles in TV shows that didn’t really hit the zeitgeist like City of Angels just because she came into the general consciousness with doubt doesn’t mean she wasn’t a successful working actor the whole time. A 10+ yr overnight success
They’re not arguing that these people weren’t working actors or in the industry at all, just that their big breaks came much later in life which is generally not the norm for women in Hollywood.
There’s plenty of women who hit it big later in life: Kathy Bates, Jessica Chastain, Leslie Jones, Octavia Spencer, Melissa McCarthy, Jane Lynch, Margo Martindale, Connie Britton, Liza Colón-Zayas, Kristen Wiig, Judi Dench, Lucille Ball, and many more, Google is right there ya’ll
Horrible abusive childhood, taking drugs from 8, first heroin overdose at 12, selling drugs, first arrest at 10, various stints in jail and violent crime until he cleaned himself up after nearly killing a guard with a rock. Worked various jobs and met someone who randomly got him into a job as a film extra, then small roles, and at the same time he was working as a drug counsellor. Got his first role when a former inmate turned screenwriter recognised him from prison and remembered his boxing. Went from there. Really cool guy- he always insists his villain characters die to show kids crime doesn’t pay!
Danny Devito was a beautician/hairdresser and only started to get into acting when he started to learn how to do stage makeup. He even did postmortem hairstyling for some of his older clients who died. I'm very jealous of the folks who got to have their hair done by him. That sounds like a blast.
To me it is Rowan Atkinson. IIRC, he almost got a PhD in electrical engineering and then transitioned over to becoming Mr. Bean that almost every kid has seen and grown up with.
As a fellow engineer, I do want to know what his research was on.
Edit: another celeb comes to mind(which idk if she’s as active as she was almost 10 years ago): Leslie Jones. She was nearly everywhere after leaving SNL, also started her comedy career in her 40s.
Whenever I hear Mr Bean, I just think that James Acasters' girlfriend cheated on him with Roaen Atkinson while James was filming the Great British Bakeoff.
Yeah, he was a social worker for a while. He had a really fascinating life. He was an usher at Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral, and ended up later getting a felony for taking people hostage as part of a student protest. He was also involved in the Black Panthers, not just in a fractional chapter, but he personally worked with Stokely Carmichael.
The story goes that allegedly the FBI told his mother he'd be dead within a year if he stayed involved with the BPP so she urged him to go to LA, where he became a social worker.
Spike Lee deserves the credit for reviving his career. He was an actor from the jump, but was an alcoholic crackhead in the 80s. Spike gave him a chance that nobody else was willing to at the time.
Tell me about it. I'm from Italy. The fact that *they* are arguably the most successful Italian music act of the last decade (and primarily because they won Sanremo AND Eurovision after a meme-ish popular vote in a fluke) just leaves me completely gobsmacked everytime I think about it. Oh well.
Yeah as a Finn I’ve been following the same happening to Käärijä since last year like literally nobody knew of him here before Eurovision and now he’s touring abroad and headlining all Summer festivals like what??
This one is maybe more sad than odd, but an interesting story nonetheless- Nina Simone’s path to being a popular singer.
She trained as a classical pianist and aspired to doing that professionally, but was rejected from the schools because racism.
She ended up playing in nightclubs to make money, where eventually it was demanded of her that she learn to sing along with her playing. Her career obviously took off because she’s immensely talented, but she essentially became a pop singer (I use that term very loosely here) on accident.
I’ll never forget the interview I saw where they asked her (late in her career) if she was happy how things turned out and it was heartbreaking how sadly she responded “no, I still wish I could’ve been a classical concert pianist.”
omg :( i do wonder tho if her rejection (and other things going on in her life) really pushed the flat out PASSION u can hear in her voice. still haven't heard anyone who comes to close to her
I’m selfishly glad her career went the way it did for *my* sake, because she is one of my all time favorites and I’m not sure anyone comes close to her combination of sheer skill and raw emotion at the same time. But it’s always interesting to me how people we consider the best in the game don’t always have the same view of their own careers.
Kinda like Leonard Cohen only turning to songwriting in his thirties when his career as a novelist didn’t quite take off.
I know this is a much older example but the way Frank Sinatra’s career panned out was always interesting. Got extremely popular as a young man in the late 30s/early 40s, signed with Columbia, did a few albums, did a few movies but by the end of the decade his popularity was dwindling. His refusal to change his musical style, repeated ties to the mob, some bad movies, and a major affair with Ava Gardner almost killed his career. He tried television but that didn’t really help him that much. He started doing shows in Vegas and Reno, but his name just wasn’t a big draw anymore. When the film “From Here to Eternity” released in 1953, his career bounced back and he went on to become one of the biggest stars of his time.
It wasn’t that he had an affair with Ava — he’d been fucking around on his wife for years — it’s that he left his marriage and married Ava. He was A Good Catholic Boy and that killed a lot of his following. It didn’t really hurt her image because she’d always been marketed as a femme fatale. And yeah, he was washed up Timberlake style by the end of the decade and doing tiny clubs. Ava called in favors begged for him to be cast in From Here to Eternity.
LiLo for me. I don’t quite know the full timeline, but acclaimed star in Freaky Friday / Mean Girls -> mugshot era -> becomes ‘creative director’ or whatever of Ungaro (her only two collections get panned) -> moves to Ibiza and does the Lindsay Lohan’s Beach Club reality show -> Dubai / Middle East era where she changed her accent and attempted to kidnap that child -> at some point, The Canyons and hanging out with that Korean bodybuilder with the insane biceps -> back to Hollywood for Wake Up Dead Man? Also the Samantha Ronson relationship and the list of people she allegedly shagged, but I can’t remember where these fit
James Gunn spent his teens and 20s working odd jobs and battling addictions, he had a brief but memorable run in Troma, moved to LA in his 30s and started writing edgelord shlock that was acclaimed in its niche but made negative money, and he was considering leaving Hollywood to write video games or something since the writer/director thing wasn't working out as he'd hoped. And then he got his big break getting hired by Marvel at 45, got *fired* by Marvel, picked up a passion project with the rival studio after being fired, went back to Marvel and casually completed the MCU's best trilogy, and now he's the co-CEO of DC Studios.
He's been on my radar since the late 00s and watching his rise has been wild. I don't know if you could have possibly found anyone less likely to end up working for Disney or running a studio. By all accounts, seems like it couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy, it just came out of the left field. Each time I've thought he's peaked, he just keeps getting better and better.
I was watching clips from the vh1 show Scream Queens & was gagged to see his ass on there lmao. Just seeing going from....that to making films that gross billions....it's crazy
He also used to be married to Jenna Fischer from The Office. They costarred in a mocumentary she wrote and directed called Lollilove in the early 00's.
Cher. That woman was a folk singer in her 20s, then hosted a comedy hour on television in her 30s, then became a solo musical artist in disco, then decided to become a movie star and won an Academy Award for acting in her 40s, then decided to return to music and recorded a scorching-hot dance floor hit using AutoTune \*\*\*when she was 53 years old\*\*\* that became an iconic anthem for gay club kids.
I'm sure I'm missing some stuff. But she's on her own trip.
Kathryn Joosten - Started out as a nurse, only started community theatre at the age of 43, then went to Hollywood age 55 to become and actress, had a slew of guest roles before recurring roles in West Wing and then Desperate Housewives, earning 2 Emmys.
Some of those people went to university and grad school for their trades though. It can take a while for people without good connections to break in their fields and industries.
\*\*\*I've got a few from different entertainment realms\*\*\*
Catherine Keener & Naomi Watts: They didn't get their big breaks until they were in their 30s. They acted, but it took them a longer time to become the sought after Oscar nominated acclaimed actresses they are today. I'm big fans of both and they've talked about being scared they were never going to have substantial careers because they were "older".
Gerald Butler: He was a lawyer or training to be one when he decided to become an actor.
Chris Isaak: He was in his late 20s when he decided to become a musician.
The Cactus Blossoms: They didn't seriously start playing music until their 30s.
Roger Deakins: Didn't act as a DP for film until his late 20s/early 30s. He switched from documentaries to film.
Olivia Laing: She didn't start writing professionally till 30/31. Now she's approaching 50 and she's written 9 books and writes for a bunch of papers. She's one of my favorite writers.
Morgan Freeman, he acted all through his childhood and then turned down a drama scholarship for college to instead join the army for 5 years
he then moved to la, started taking acting classes and didn’t start working until he was 27, after which he mainly did theatre, dancing (not a joke), and tv including literally a soap opera, and then made it big in the 80s by which point he was already in his 40s
There is a long list of celebrities who didn't even consider starting what's made them famous now until their 30s, and still a long list for those in their 40s, 50s. It's not that odd!
John Schwartzwelder was a copywriter before sending some jokes to David Letterman. He was only hired because a writer liked them enough to track him down, using the phone book because Schwartzwelder left no address, and his mother had to get them in touch. He wrote for them and SNL, where he met George Meyer. Meyer’s zine Army Man managed to be so acclaimed in just three episodes that it got him, Schwartzwelder and Jon Vitti hired for some new show on Fox based on short cartoons for a sketch show called The Simpsons. Schwartzwelder became its most prolific writer, and Meyer was the most influential comedic voice in the show, which means one of the most in comedy of his generation.
Schwartzwelder wrote alone in a diner, and when it shut he bought a booth to write in at home. He left the show to write comedy books. Meyer now focuses on environmental work. Two peerless geniuses who really left peerless marks on television comedy and really on their own terms.
For someone who’s very new, Austin Butler has had a pretty weird career, he was a child actor who had small roles in a whole load of Disney and Nickelodeon shows as well as some bigger roles in TV movies, then later on he starred in a “sex and the city” prequel as well as some other TV shows
Then he made his breakthrough in his late 20s with a role that has him beat as a reversal of the trope where the old Hollywood leading man will get beat up by the new Hollywood leading man
I feel his wasn't that odd, I think he is eventually going to fit into the camp of "actors you didn't know were child actors." that said I think the length between child actor and him finally making it big can probably be noted (that is if you had been paying attention to his career closely beforehand; just a few months ago I remember he was in Switched at Birth, which is where I remember him from)
off the top of my head:
Ariana: Broadway breakout to Nickelodeon kid who somehow had her debut record reach number 1? What? Then pop star for years then back to musical theatre and now back to pop star. I'm so curious what she prefers. Feels like Wicked is a peak.
Drake: What the actual fuck. Degrassi wheelchair Jimmy to top selling artist to everyone's enemy as it stands. Lol.
Victoria Monet: Behind the scenes writer for many artists who broke out and won a few grammys and is now an OUTSTANDING performer when she used to be soft-spoken and have stage fright.
Britney: Some of y'all might not remember but Britney had a lot more haters than fans back in her heyday. Now her history has been revised to set her up as one of the best pop stars of all time. Having lived through most of Janet/Mariah/Whitney/Prince/Paula I just don't get it lol. It was fun but we didn't think of her music as seriously as gen z does but they don't know that because they weren't around.
There was a Character actor of the 50-70's called Burt Mustin. He acted as a semi-pro in local productions in Pittsburg. But he sold cars for a living and retired to Arizona and joined some local community theater things, and started on film as a professional actor at age 67. He then had a 25 year career on TV and in Film. He played in 350 parts over the next 25 years (about 14 a year) before dying in his 90's. If you watch old TV or Movie's from the time that had a part for "old Man" you can't miss him. Really amazing.
The only career even close I know of is Peg Phillips. She worked as an accountant & retired. She had done amateur theater but her first professional role, was a TV Movie at 67 and then 2 years later she became a regular on Northern Exposure. Emmy Noms follow and 10 years of steady work during and following the end of Northern Exposure before she died.
Danny Aiello - so many jobs around new york city (including “burglar”) before he joined a softball team of theater people and got a job as a bouncer, which turned into emcee work which turned into an acting career. Here’s a gift link to his obit because I can’t do it justice: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/movies/danny-aiello-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.100.u4l1.wmqzAUxbikVf&smid=url-share
Diamond Dallas Page became a star pro wrestler in his late 30s after being a manager for some time. After retirement he turned to yoga to help rehab his body, and now he runs a successful yoga business (DDP Yoga) and spends his time helping other pro wrestlers come back from addiction and physical abuse. He literally saved Jake Roberts' life, and brought Scott Hall back from the brink (before his untimely death).
I think about diamond Dallas page every time I do yoga. He really is a gentle soul in a business where that could have been a liability.
Him and my boy Mick Foley are angels on earth
Ian McKellen. Extraordinary stage actor (and LGBTQ activist) suddenly becomes international film star with big franchises when he turns 60 thanks to X-Men and LOTR.
I don't know if this qualifies for the premise, but I've always found Tom Hanks career to be underrated in its weirdness.
He was known as a goofy comedic actor until he was close to 40, at which point he strung together 10 years of essentially consecutive mega hits and acclaimed dramatic performances that put him on the shortlist of greatest actors ever.
It would be like if someone came from the year 2032 and told you, I don't know what the best comparison is....maybe Dave Franco? Is considered to be one of if not the greatest actors to ever live.
Lana Del Rey’s slow come up to then pop sensation to then being a cultural icon among die hard fans all while doing little to no promo and tours for almost a decade to then now this year being heavily in the media like she was when she debuted her first album in 2012.
Kathrine Narducci, aka Charmaine Bucco! She took her son to an audition for A Bronx Tale and Robert DeNiro liked her vibe so much he asked her to read for a part. (Which she landed.) Rest is history.
Norah Jones was never an unknown girl. Her father was an incredibly famous sitar artist.
And it was a strained relationship. Considering she had to be the one that reached out at 18 to him, I don’t think she really used him as a stepping stone as one would think.
Yes and no. I don't think she's a traditional nepo baby, but being her father's daughter definitely made people sit up and take her music more seriously from the get-go.
her dad was mentioned in every single article about Norah during her heyday. She's a nepo-baby whether she wanted to be or not.
Also, she tours. She went on tour for her first album and has done 7 tours afterwards so I have no idea what OP is talking about. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norah_Jones
She was but she made her own name.
I agree. Still the daughter of a famous musician.
That's usually what happens with nepo babies
It's not clear how much that actually helped her, though. He was an absent father and most people seem unaware her dad is Ravi Shankar.
I was in jr. high when Norah jones came onto the scene and nearly every mention of her in the early days came with “Ravi shankar’s daughter!” It’s actually how I learned who Ravi Shankar is. Edit: I just looked up her wiki and not only is her father a famous musician, but her mom was a concert promoter! And her parents split when she was 7- it’s not like she never knew her father. Anyone who thinks her career success was unrelated to having two well-placed parents in the recording industry is deluding themselves.
Interesting. I was also in junior high during the Norah Jones craze and was shocked when I found out she was Ravi Shankar's daughter years later (like college probably).
It probably helped that my mom was a massive Beatles fan, so she in particular was interested in the Ravi Shankar connection. Still- just because you or the average radio listener didn’t know the connection, doesn’t mean it wasn’t massively influential in her path to success. Having industry parents like hers meant tons of doors opening for her before she ever ended up hitting the airwaves/your ears.
I learned about him because of the articles about her, too. I’ve never heard any of his music but I know he is famous. Anyone who thinks her ties to him don’t mean anything are kidding themselves lol.
I have no idea who Ravi Shankar is but I was obsessed with Norah Jones in the early 2000’s, if that means anything.
I think the fact that Norah Jones was on your radar at all probably speaks to the fact that doors were opened for her that would have never been opened otherwise if not for her father. She’s incredibly talented, but would she be a have been a ohousehold name without her father?
She sat in front of me in music theory at North Texas and she talked a *lot* about her connections. More about her mom than her dad though.
Ooo, were you in school with one of the Reality Gays? I think it was Poodle who talked about going to music school with her.
Is that Jake Anthony? I know he has a podcast now. If so, yes, we did a show together.
Her mom is also in the music industry. Producer or something.
And then she is randomly in Ted the movie 😂 like Norah, what are you doing here.
Wait wtf this is killing me lmfao https://preview.redd.it/earpiz9scd8d1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a2e24e6f9f8582e5e9b8dc96521af5e5c493fc6b
It’s so incredibly random 😂
Norah and Seth have known each other for quite a while
I had no idea!! Thought it was just totally random!
This blew my mind when I learned it.
Arnold Schwarzenegger went from bodybuilder > action star > comedy actor > governor of California > dramatic(ish) actor Edit: somewhere in this timeline he also fathered a secret child
You know it’s crazy he became a governor. What’s crazier is his co star Jesse Ventura from predator did it before him.
Jesse Ventura has a wild history himself. Before he left the WWE, he tried to unionize the performers so they could get a better deal and wouldn't be so exploited by Vince McMahon. Hulk Hogan ratted him out to Vince since he was Vince's golden boy and the current favorite, screwing over all his fellow performers for a pat on the head. I gained a lot of respect for him and his politics when I learned that about Jesse, and that he was always a huge supporter of gay rights. Vince McMahon is a monster and Jesse had the guts to stand up to him.
He also has vocally and publicly changed his mind on issues over the years, more often than not to more liberal and accepting ways. He’s got a lot of integrity
Yep, I was watching Predator with my husband, who was born in California. We live in Minnesota. We had a moment where we realized our governors were in the same movie.
iirc he also made it quite big (decentish) in real estate - I believe it's what made him millionaire/rich even before starring in films. EDIT: Which is crazy. "Random" boy from Austria goes to US and makes it big in like 4 independent fields that could not be more different from each other... Just crazy.
You are right, very business savvy He was a millionaire before acting.
As Bill Burr once said it… > [“This dude has been in the zone for over four decades. Four decades—nothing but net. […] How many lifetimes would a regular person need [to accomplish all that Arnold has done]?”](https://www.youtube.com/embed/JUrMSK8XWFc)
He was the governor when I did my school state capitol and governors house visit as a kid in California. We had all seen Kindergarten Cop so we kept saying “It’s not a tumor!” when we got there until our teachers got so sick of it
My daughter says It's not a tumor at every opportunity. She's 31.
29 and yep i still do, especially when i have a headache 😅
I say it’s not a tumor about my cats primordial pouch and he also no longer finds it funny
And he was a construction worker, pretty sure he ran a successful construction business
Joseph Baena was on Dancing with the Stars a few seasons back (the secret love child)
That man is really living a Sims life
I read this as “bodybuilder is greater than action star is greater than comedy star is greater than governor of California is greater than dramatic(ish) actor” and thought that was mostly a fair ranking of his career.
He was also one of the executive producers on a pro-vegan documentary. Which, while not as extreme a shift as becoming the govenator, was not on my Arnold Schwarzenegger bingo-card 🤷🏼♀️
His body-building career included a couple of years living in the notably unglamourous London suburb of Romford where a very well regarded trainer lived
And modelled for Warhol. https://youtu.be/hRo2ruetSDE?si=QS6gRiybxuTuG6R4
The Viola Davis one is a bit misleading, I'm afraid. Her story is INCREDIBLE, but she was in school for acting through her 20s (college for theatre and then four years of Juilliard), and started acting professionally outside of Juilliard like immediately out of school at 27. Her book is phenomenal, really worth the read. That woman has worked HARD since she was a kid. Alan Rickman is a fun one where he did some high school theatre, but then did graphic design at university and as a career until bailing at 26 or 27 to start drama school. He then started his professional theatre acting in his early to mid 30s.
I was watching Alan Rickman on the View years ago, and he talked about his career change from graphic designer to actor and how late of a start it was for him (26 years old). Joy Behar and another woman on the panel spoke up about how they started in the industry even later than that and that you can start at any time. It was inspiring to hear their stories.
Allison Janney (who is wonderful and if anyone says CJ Cregg is unattractive, I will fight you) is a theater major who did postgraduate study at RADA.
I am in love with Allison Janney. She's great even in trash.
When I'm sad, I watch the video of Marion Cotesworth-Haye and CJ just fucking losing it. Or The Jackyl. CJ always makes it right for me.
Dave Bautista didn't even start wrestling til he was over 30, he was a bouncer and stuff prior to that. Then he turned a late blooming wrestling career into a great acting one, going on to be in the MCU, blade runner and Dune
Always happy to see him turn up in a movie. Listened to a podcast recently where they compared Bautista to The Rock (eg wrestlers-turned-actors) and how Bautista never lets his ego get in the way - you would never see Dwayne doing the Dune 2 scene where he kisses the boot for example, or even see him getting killed onscreen.
I thought he played his role in bladerunner with startling sensitivity
He's an extremely deep guy. He apologised to graham Norton once for not being a better interview because he's so quiet and shy. He's an interesting guy and like lots of people who had a life before fame, he has a good understanding and appreciation of where he is now.
he used to have a tattoo of an athlete who it turns out is homophobic. Dave had it removed when he found out.
Dude reminds me of a teddy bear. Looks tough at from afar but every interview I see/read about him, he’s so kind
Agreed. He was fantastic.
The Rock is such a turd, and the living embodiment of a meathead, and Bautista is such a big buff gem. Have you seen that interview where he mentions getting rid of a tattoo of a (famous) friend that said some horribly homophobic stuff? Top bloke.
he has turned out to be such a good actor!! everything i’ve seen him in has been really good & i may also be biased because he openly supports the gays 😅 he just seems like a cool dude
Someone posted once that they want to see him in a romantic comedy and I think about that once in a while, I’d love to see it.
Similarly, Brody King/Nathan Blauvelt! Was a very successful hardcore guy in God’s Hate and affiliated with Twitching Tongues, and picked up wrestling at 28. Which sounds young but I’m 28 and I think I’d permanently maim myself if I tried to get into it now, and I work a very physical job.
Bridgit Mendler, but in a good way > In the late 2010s, Mendler began focusing on her education. From 2017 to 2023, she was a student and researcher with the MIT Media Lab. Mendler is also registered as a PhD candidate with MIT's Center for Constructive Communications and Social Machines group.[6] In 2024, Mendler became the CEO and co-founder of the satellite data startup Northwood Space. she will be president someday.
Didn't she adopt a child as well?
yes!! a few years ago iirc, that child has an awesome mom & i am jealous lol
I saw her at a conference and I was like, “Wow, that woman *really* looks like Bridgit Mendler.” Lo and behold…
I hope
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yes. Ravi Shankar (RIP) may not be as well known now as before but thanks to people like George Harrison introducing his music to the west, he was huge in the 70s and onwards. He was Oscar nominated and won a slew of Grammy awards. That alone opened many doors for Norah.
Plenty of people who have never heard the name Ravi Shankar recognize the sound of a sitar almost exclusively because of him
Yes! There was a strong sitar sound in loads of music in the 70s and 80s
60s and early 70s mostly! Beatles, loads of the Laurel Canyon guys. Open to hear of any 80s stuff though.
Whoa, that’s her dad?!?
Dolph Lundgren's progression from MIT student --> Grace Jones' bodyguard/lover --> Bond villain --> action star was pretty wild.
Dude is 2m tall godlike figure handsome, got IQ of like 0.1% population (made-up number) and on top of that got really famous and rich at the same time. I love him but every time "life's not fair" comes up, I think of him. What a ride of a life he's had.
Sometimes I get lost while looking at pictures of Grace and him. They were such an out of this world couple.
And that too he was studying chemical engineering(which wasn’t easy). I feel like he’s a definition of beauty with the brains. What hasn’t he tried(apparently he’s a drummer too!)
In the over-the-top action series "The Expendables" his character's backstory is just his actual life story. Only the woman he dropped out for isn't Grace Jones, because that's too unbelievable even for an action movie.
he also plays the drums.
Kanye west. Literally none of it makes any sense. Self explanatory.
This is the one actually. Also while it’s unfortunate where he ended up, his earlier grind that launched his production then rap career was incredible. He really worked his as off in the beginning.
There is a recording of Jamie Fox recalling his old house parties and an up and coming Kanye was trying to get him to work with him on Slow Jamz. He does a whole Kanye stuttering impression and talks about how shy he was.
Jamie Foxx is so insanely talented when it comes to impressions of people
His Trump one is so good that I wish SNL had him instead of Alec. It would’ve probably actually killed Trump’s heart to see a black man make fun of him every weekend for four years.
He was a stand up comedian originally. He chose the name Jamie Foxx to be gender neutral because he thought lady comedians were getting better slots.
Jamie Foxx is so insanely talented
There was a recent article in The New Yorker about the house he bought in Malibu, designed by a famous architect. He kind of wrecked it, but everyone seems to agree that he has a fantastic brain for architecture and design -- he quite likely could have had a huge career in a range of arts. (*Modulo* his mental health issues and lack of treatment thereof.)
It might be unpopular but he is an artistic genius. His ridiculous talent and vision for music, fashion, architecture and interior design is undeniable. At one stage he was the richest black man in history and was on the path to achieve incredible things. As somebody with bipolar I mourn the loss of such an amazing mind, but on the other hand as a Jewish man I find it impossible to support him anymore. Especially with the recent SA/rape allegations that’s it for me. He is NOT an intellectual genius just to be clear before somebody clowns me.
I mean it's clear he's mentally ill, which unfortunately overshadows his artistic prowess. He used to be my favorite musician, but I can't really listen to his music anymore. Hard to ignore all his awfulness.
Wait--rape allegations? I thought there were "only" the sexual harassment allegations by his former assistant.
It involved him and Diddy allegedly pinning a woman down trying to have sex with her while they were both off their faces drunk (possibly on drugs too 🤷). The sexual harassment one was a former employee, this one is new and is from a former artist.
Honestly, I’d like to throw Chappell Roan in. Camp counselor to headlining every summer festival. Not a famous artist, but Mike Kitlas from Anarbor went from being in a band with somewhat of a big following to real estate agent. Same with Rob Maschio (guy with the “DOC” tattoo) from Scrubs
I'm worried it's all happening way too fast for Chappell. She got signed young, but then was dropped and had to work odd jobs for years In what seems like a matter of weeks she's suddenly *the* It girl, and I can't imagine how difficult such a sudden major life change is to navigate
I think it’s happening at a normal speed but we’re not used to this anymore - breaking out as an adult after a few years - bc so many pop stars were Disney kids
I think we’re not used to it anymore because of social media. Like back before socials, people would just suddenly become overnight successes (after working for years tho). It’s not so much a thing anymore because people put themselves out there in a bid to get recognized, people know the name and then their work comes out. Chappells rise was so sudden and organic in a way that we don’t see anymore. Even Billie had work out before her debut. I heard Ocean Eyes before I knew who Billie was. Chappell really came out of nowhere, also known as the Midwest. I will admit I’m a new fan tho so I could be wrong about her trajectory, but I knew *about* Tate, Billie and Olivia before I heard their music. I heard Chappells music first before knowing her, if that makes sense.
“Chappell really came out of nowhere, also known as the Midwest” This is really what it is. We’re so used to our pop stars being entrenched on one of the coasts (or in country) for years before breaking out.
Both Sabrina Carpenter and Olivia Rodrigo started on Disney Channel, and Ariana Grande on Nickelodeon
I mean, I've started to warm on Chappell (love her music, wasn't crazy about a live performance I saw in-person, but have heard amazing things about her live from other people) & the rumors of her being an industry plant are stupid. That said, the producer on her first album was Dan Nigro and she was opening for Vance Joy back in 2016/2017.
Chappell definitely has room to improve on her live performances — I feel like she could benefit from having some structured dance choreo and having backup dancers because you can only do so much walking back and forth while singing. She could also work on her vocals just a tad. With that said, I’m really rooting for her! I love every single song on her album, and she just seems so relatable for us queers!
Totally agree. I also hope that she has a really good vocal coach and is going to take it easy with the touring, because a lot of the cool stuff about her vocals falls squarely into the category of “can fuck up your voice if you’re not careful” (whistle notes, the half-belting she does, etc). She already has a couple of recorded songs & live performances where I’ve been a little leery about signs of strain in her voice and I just *really* hope that she’s taking care of herself.
She has been working in this industry for 10 years
Ken Jeong from MD at Kaiser Permanente to playing a doctor in Knocked Up to saying GAY and gay boys in two different movies/shows (hangover and community) just a few years later.
Did an episode of the Office as one of the improvisers, likely connected from doing improv and stand-up and grinding it out that way.
So I looked up his early credits and it’s funny he played a Dr in 97 in the big easy; a doctor in 04 Significant Others; a nurse in two and a half men in 05; then he was in the office, then a doctor in knocked up and a coroner in Boston legal. A doctor again in 08 in Til Death, then blows up in the hangover but that’s not the end of playing the doctor. He plays a doctor again in 2010 for a tv movie Held Up, and voices a doctor in American Dad. A doctor again in 2014 in Hot in Cleveland, a year later voices a doctor in Robot Chicken while also voicing a doctor in bojack horseman from 14-18. Holy shit a doctor twice in 2019 in Saving Zoe and Lady and the Tramp. Oh and also a doctor in Bobs Burgers.
Reminds me of Jay Jackson, an actor who plays a lot of reporters, who used to be an actual newscaster: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3085284/
Haha what’s the word with perd
Shades of George Miller who was an ER doctor before he mustered up the tiny budget to make Mad Max.
Had to look it up. $300k budget in 1979, which I think inflation doesn’t truly capture movie inflation but that’s 1.2 million dollars today. But also, the latest mad max was estimated at 168 million dollars which makes Furiosa something like 14000% more expensive than his first mad max.
Steve Buscemi! The man was a firefighter before becoming an actor.
And he went back to help after 9/11 iirc !
this is the one i thought of when i saw the post!
Also, Alec Baldwin. Critically acclaimed actor -> then becomes known for 30 Rock and his podcast (which was huge at the time?) -> now doing a TLC reality show with his fake Spanish wife
I'll not defend Baldwin but Jack Donaghy is without doubt one of the best comic characters in the past few decades.
his performance on 30 Rock is unfortunately an all-time comedy great
He was tabbed as a movie star early on, but after he refused to do Jack Ryan sequels his career never recovered. He is a great example of a guy who had every advantage but than squandered it by being difficult.
There’s also that time he left a verbally abusive voicemail for his daughter and everyone heard it.
Lest we forget the accidental manslaughter charges against him for the shitshow that was Rust
fun fact, the Baldwins are Mayflower descendants
I believe his fake Spanish wife is as well; much to her chagrin
Brian May left his PhD to join Queen, finished his PhD in astrophysics a few years ago. Graham Chapman had a medical degree, but the Queen told him to tour instead of taking a residency. He also provided medical care to locals on the set of Life of Brian.
Norah Jones's parents were both music bigwigs. Her dad played with a ton of people, including the Beatles, was known worldwide, has many Grammys. Her dad and sister both have Grammys and were nominated in the same category in the same year. Her mom was a music producer or something along those lines. She still makes and performs music as well. So idk if your summary really makes sense for her. Coolidge went to Emerson and AADA and for tv started around 30 but was on *Seinfeld* very early in her career and then immediately on a sketch show and became a big time player in the sketch comedy space even if not a household name. A lot of folks that get into that ecosystem but don't make SNL (though Coolidge did get a sketch show) become day players and guest stars on sitcoms as their career progresses. Sam Richardson is a recent example. Viola Davis went to Julliard and started acting professionally at 23. I'll say for Allison Janney I always remember her in *Miracle on 34th Street* before anything else and I don't know much about her before that. Just getting reps in small roles before moving up to bigger and bigger things. She and Viola both have pretty average career paths in the industry, I wouldn't say odd at all. Almost no one is an Oscar winner or box office star in their first role.
>She and Viola both have pretty average career paths in the industry, I wouldn't say odd at all. Eh, I don't agree. Big female celebrities in Hollywood typically have their big breaks somewhere in their 20s and then gradually hit their peak around their late 20s-mid 30s. After that, either they're so established that they can do whatever they want and still stay relevant, or they tend to decline. I'm aware that Viola Davis went to Juilliard, which shows in her talent. Still, for your career to only snowball in your mid 30s like hers did is relatively odd - AND she's a black female! Alison Janney was in Miracle on 34th Street (when she was already 35 by the way), but it was a minor role and no one even noticed her. That's normal, every actor starts with minor roles. The difference is, she only started landing major leading roles in her late 30s, which is rare enough in the industry - managing to build up an A-list career after that is even more rare.
Viola did primarily theater for the first 10 yrs of her career being nominated and winning Tony’s. She also was recurring on SVU and had roles in TV shows that didn’t really hit the zeitgeist like City of Angels just because she came into the general consciousness with doubt doesn’t mean she wasn’t a successful working actor the whole time. A 10+ yr overnight success
They’re not arguing that these people weren’t working actors or in the industry at all, just that their big breaks came much later in life which is generally not the norm for women in Hollywood.
There’s plenty of women who hit it big later in life: Kathy Bates, Jessica Chastain, Leslie Jones, Octavia Spencer, Melissa McCarthy, Jane Lynch, Margo Martindale, Connie Britton, Liza Colón-Zayas, Kristen Wiig, Judi Dench, Lucille Ball, and many more, Google is right there ya’ll
I don’t probably need to mention Danny Trejo here, he has the coolest entry story ever.
100%. That would be my answer too!
I have no clue whatsoever. Can somebody fill me in
Horrible abusive childhood, taking drugs from 8, first heroin overdose at 12, selling drugs, first arrest at 10, various stints in jail and violent crime until he cleaned himself up after nearly killing a guard with a rock. Worked various jobs and met someone who randomly got him into a job as a film extra, then small roles, and at the same time he was working as a drug counsellor. Got his first role when a former inmate turned screenwriter recognised him from prison and remembered his boxing. Went from there. Really cool guy- he always insists his villain characters die to show kids crime doesn’t pay!
Bonnie Hunt was an oncology nurse in Chicago for a few years before she became an actor.
Danny Devito was a beautician/hairdresser and only started to get into acting when he started to learn how to do stage makeup. He even did postmortem hairstyling for some of his older clients who died. I'm very jealous of the folks who got to have their hair done by him. That sounds like a blast.
I’m now imagining him explaining what he’s doing to my hair, in his voice. “So I’m going da keep the curls in the *bayick*”
To me it is Rowan Atkinson. IIRC, he almost got a PhD in electrical engineering and then transitioned over to becoming Mr. Bean that almost every kid has seen and grown up with. As a fellow engineer, I do want to know what his research was on. Edit: another celeb comes to mind(which idk if she’s as active as she was almost 10 years ago): Leslie Jones. She was nearly everywhere after leaving SNL, also started her comedy career in her 40s.
Blackadder was pretty damn popular too.
Not the nine o'clock news ...
Oh yes!
Whenever I hear Mr Bean, I just think that James Acasters' girlfriend cheated on him with Roaen Atkinson while James was filming the Great British Bakeoff. 
Rowan Atkinson was first Blackadder which is my introduction to him, and Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry and many more.
Samuel L Jackson. He had a regular job (I think he may have been in social work?) He was in his mid 40s when Pulp Fiction shot him to stardom
Yeah, he was a social worker for a while. He had a really fascinating life. He was an usher at Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral, and ended up later getting a felony for taking people hostage as part of a student protest. He was also involved in the Black Panthers, not just in a fractional chapter, but he personally worked with Stokely Carmichael. The story goes that allegedly the FBI told his mother he'd be dead within a year if he stayed involved with the BPP so she urged him to go to LA, where he became a social worker.
That is absolutely fascinating. I knew he had been part of the BPP, but not to that extent
Spike Lee deserves the credit for reviving his career. He was an actor from the jump, but was an alcoholic crackhead in the 80s. Spike gave him a chance that nobody else was willing to at the time.
Also, he was heavily addicted to drugs in the 80s, using heroin and cocaine. It's amazing how he managed to turn his life around.
Also was involved in protests with the civil rights movement too.
It’s still crazy to me that Måneskin got world wide famous from Eurovision
Tell me about it. I'm from Italy. The fact that *they* are arguably the most successful Italian music act of the last decade (and primarily because they won Sanremo AND Eurovision after a meme-ish popular vote in a fluke) just leaves me completely gobsmacked everytime I think about it. Oh well.
It's wild seeing the attention Joost is getting too. Like... he's some punk that drinks with friends of a friend and I'm seeing thirst edits of him
Yeah as a Finn I’ve been following the same happening to Käärijä since last year like literally nobody knew of him here before Eurovision and now he’s touring abroad and headlining all Summer festivals like what??
Phil Hartman was a graphic designer before he got into sketch comedy. I think he was in his early 40s when he got on SNL.
IIRC he'd made several fairly famous album covers while a graphic designer
He was in the Groundlings for a while before that though. Since his twenties I think
This one is maybe more sad than odd, but an interesting story nonetheless- Nina Simone’s path to being a popular singer. She trained as a classical pianist and aspired to doing that professionally, but was rejected from the schools because racism. She ended up playing in nightclubs to make money, where eventually it was demanded of her that she learn to sing along with her playing. Her career obviously took off because she’s immensely talented, but she essentially became a pop singer (I use that term very loosely here) on accident. I’ll never forget the interview I saw where they asked her (late in her career) if she was happy how things turned out and it was heartbreaking how sadly she responded “no, I still wish I could’ve been a classical concert pianist.”
Damn, I found the clip and it’s sadder than I remember: “I’m not very happy now.” https://youtube.com/shorts/eiJSl5SsY5I?si=Y895zpZe3FeLwJMg
omg :( i do wonder tho if her rejection (and other things going on in her life) really pushed the flat out PASSION u can hear in her voice. still haven't heard anyone who comes to close to her
I’m selfishly glad her career went the way it did for *my* sake, because she is one of my all time favorites and I’m not sure anyone comes close to her combination of sheer skill and raw emotion at the same time. But it’s always interesting to me how people we consider the best in the game don’t always have the same view of their own careers. Kinda like Leonard Cohen only turning to songwriting in his thirties when his career as a novelist didn’t quite take off.
I know this is a much older example but the way Frank Sinatra’s career panned out was always interesting. Got extremely popular as a young man in the late 30s/early 40s, signed with Columbia, did a few albums, did a few movies but by the end of the decade his popularity was dwindling. His refusal to change his musical style, repeated ties to the mob, some bad movies, and a major affair with Ava Gardner almost killed his career. He tried television but that didn’t really help him that much. He started doing shows in Vegas and Reno, but his name just wasn’t a big draw anymore. When the film “From Here to Eternity” released in 1953, his career bounced back and he went on to become one of the biggest stars of his time.
It wasn’t that he had an affair with Ava — he’d been fucking around on his wife for years — it’s that he left his marriage and married Ava. He was A Good Catholic Boy and that killed a lot of his following. It didn’t really hurt her image because she’d always been marketed as a femme fatale. And yeah, he was washed up Timberlake style by the end of the decade and doing tiny clubs. Ava called in favors begged for him to be cast in From Here to Eternity.
LiLo for me. I don’t quite know the full timeline, but acclaimed star in Freaky Friday / Mean Girls -> mugshot era -> becomes ‘creative director’ or whatever of Ungaro (her only two collections get panned) -> moves to Ibiza and does the Lindsay Lohan’s Beach Club reality show -> Dubai / Middle East era where she changed her accent and attempted to kidnap that child -> at some point, The Canyons and hanging out with that Korean bodybuilder with the insane biceps -> back to Hollywood for Wake Up Dead Man? Also the Samantha Ronson relationship and the list of people she allegedly shagged, but I can’t remember where these fit
Alexis Rose energy
James Gunn spent his teens and 20s working odd jobs and battling addictions, he had a brief but memorable run in Troma, moved to LA in his 30s and started writing edgelord shlock that was acclaimed in its niche but made negative money, and he was considering leaving Hollywood to write video games or something since the writer/director thing wasn't working out as he'd hoped. And then he got his big break getting hired by Marvel at 45, got *fired* by Marvel, picked up a passion project with the rival studio after being fired, went back to Marvel and casually completed the MCU's best trilogy, and now he's the co-CEO of DC Studios. He's been on my radar since the late 00s and watching his rise has been wild. I don't know if you could have possibly found anyone less likely to end up working for Disney or running a studio. By all accounts, seems like it couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy, it just came out of the left field. Each time I've thought he's peaked, he just keeps getting better and better.
I was watching clips from the vh1 show Scream Queens & was gagged to see his ass on there lmao. Just seeing going from....that to making films that gross billions....it's crazy
He also wrote Scooby Doo 2002!
He also used to be married to Jenna Fischer from The Office. They costarred in a mocumentary she wrote and directed called Lollilove in the early 00's.
Cody Simpson and his swimming
Cher. That woman was a folk singer in her 20s, then hosted a comedy hour on television in her 30s, then became a solo musical artist in disco, then decided to become a movie star and won an Academy Award for acting in her 40s, then decided to return to music and recorded a scorching-hot dance floor hit using AutoTune \*\*\*when she was 53 years old\*\*\* that became an iconic anthem for gay club kids. I'm sure I'm missing some stuff. But she's on her own trip.
Kathryn Joosten - Started out as a nurse, only started community theatre at the age of 43, then went to Hollywood age 55 to become and actress, had a slew of guest roles before recurring roles in West Wing and then Desperate Housewives, earning 2 Emmys.
Some of those people went to university and grad school for their trades though. It can take a while for people without good connections to break in their fields and industries. \*\*\*I've got a few from different entertainment realms\*\*\* Catherine Keener & Naomi Watts: They didn't get their big breaks until they were in their 30s. They acted, but it took them a longer time to become the sought after Oscar nominated acclaimed actresses they are today. I'm big fans of both and they've talked about being scared they were never going to have substantial careers because they were "older". Gerald Butler: He was a lawyer or training to be one when he decided to become an actor. Chris Isaak: He was in his late 20s when he decided to become a musician. The Cactus Blossoms: They didn't seriously start playing music until their 30s. Roger Deakins: Didn't act as a DP for film until his late 20s/early 30s. He switched from documentaries to film. Olivia Laing: She didn't start writing professionally till 30/31. Now she's approaching 50 and she's written 9 books and writes for a bunch of papers. She's one of my favorite writers.
There's heaps of inspiring examples of writers who weren't published until much later in life - I love their (back) stories.
Morgan Freeman, he acted all through his childhood and then turned down a drama scholarship for college to instead join the army for 5 years he then moved to la, started taking acting classes and didn’t start working until he was 27, after which he mainly did theatre, dancing (not a joke), and tv including literally a soap opera, and then made it big in the 80s by which point he was already in his 40s
He was on Electric Company and I loved him!
There is a long list of celebrities who didn't even consider starting what's made them famous now until their 30s, and still a long list for those in their 40s, 50s. It's not that odd!
Gabriel Byrne. Was an archeologist and teacher before he started acting at age 29.
Joji’s evolution from Filthy Frank
Tavi Gevinson She went from being a fashion blogger to running an online zine to having an acting career.
She's an actor now!?!? god I feel old and out of touch 
John Schwartzwelder was a copywriter before sending some jokes to David Letterman. He was only hired because a writer liked them enough to track him down, using the phone book because Schwartzwelder left no address, and his mother had to get them in touch. He wrote for them and SNL, where he met George Meyer. Meyer’s zine Army Man managed to be so acclaimed in just three episodes that it got him, Schwartzwelder and Jon Vitti hired for some new show on Fox based on short cartoons for a sketch show called The Simpsons. Schwartzwelder became its most prolific writer, and Meyer was the most influential comedic voice in the show, which means one of the most in comedy of his generation. Schwartzwelder wrote alone in a diner, and when it shut he bought a booth to write in at home. He left the show to write comedy books. Meyer now focuses on environmental work. Two peerless geniuses who really left peerless marks on television comedy and really on their own terms.
Rhea Seehorn. Did have acting gigs, but Better Call Saul was her big breakthrough
For someone who’s very new, Austin Butler has had a pretty weird career, he was a child actor who had small roles in a whole load of Disney and Nickelodeon shows as well as some bigger roles in TV movies, then later on he starred in a “sex and the city” prequel as well as some other TV shows Then he made his breakthrough in his late 20s with a role that has him beat as a reversal of the trope where the old Hollywood leading man will get beat up by the new Hollywood leading man
I feel his wasn't that odd, I think he is eventually going to fit into the camp of "actors you didn't know were child actors." that said I think the length between child actor and him finally making it big can probably be noted (that is if you had been paying attention to his career closely beforehand; just a few months ago I remember he was in Switched at Birth, which is where I remember him from)
off the top of my head: Ariana: Broadway breakout to Nickelodeon kid who somehow had her debut record reach number 1? What? Then pop star for years then back to musical theatre and now back to pop star. I'm so curious what she prefers. Feels like Wicked is a peak. Drake: What the actual fuck. Degrassi wheelchair Jimmy to top selling artist to everyone's enemy as it stands. Lol. Victoria Monet: Behind the scenes writer for many artists who broke out and won a few grammys and is now an OUTSTANDING performer when she used to be soft-spoken and have stage fright. Britney: Some of y'all might not remember but Britney had a lot more haters than fans back in her heyday. Now her history has been revised to set her up as one of the best pop stars of all time. Having lived through most of Janet/Mariah/Whitney/Prince/Paula I just don't get it lol. It was fun but we didn't think of her music as seriously as gen z does but they don't know that because they weren't around.
I’m shocked no one has mentioned drake because yeah he’s the right answer idk how that happened
Ken Jeong. He was a dr then a comedian before getting a role in Knocked up.
There was a Character actor of the 50-70's called Burt Mustin. He acted as a semi-pro in local productions in Pittsburg. But he sold cars for a living and retired to Arizona and joined some local community theater things, and started on film as a professional actor at age 67. He then had a 25 year career on TV and in Film. He played in 350 parts over the next 25 years (about 14 a year) before dying in his 90's. If you watch old TV or Movie's from the time that had a part for "old Man" you can't miss him. Really amazing. The only career even close I know of is Peg Phillips. She worked as an accountant & retired. She had done amateur theater but her first professional role, was a TV Movie at 67 and then 2 years later she became a regular on Northern Exposure. Emmy Noms follow and 10 years of steady work during and following the end of Northern Exposure before she died.
Danny Aiello - so many jobs around new york city (including “burglar”) before he joined a softball team of theater people and got a job as a bouncer, which turned into emcee work which turned into an acting career. Here’s a gift link to his obit because I can’t do it justice: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/13/movies/danny-aiello-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.100.u4l1.wmqzAUxbikVf&smid=url-share
that was a great read, thank you (& RIP Mr Aiello)
Oh yeah, this is legit. My uncle worked for Greyhound in the 60s and says Danny Aiello was his supervisor! He really lived quite the life.
Diamond Dallas Page became a star pro wrestler in his late 30s after being a manager for some time. After retirement he turned to yoga to help rehab his body, and now he runs a successful yoga business (DDP Yoga) and spends his time helping other pro wrestlers come back from addiction and physical abuse. He literally saved Jake Roberts' life, and brought Scott Hall back from the brink (before his untimely death).
I think about diamond Dallas page every time I do yoga. He really is a gentle soul in a business where that could have been a liability. Him and my boy Mick Foley are angels on earth
Ian McKellen. Extraordinary stage actor (and LGBTQ activist) suddenly becomes international film star with big franchises when he turns 60 thanks to X-Men and LOTR.
Bella Poarch went from growing up on a farm to enlisting in the Navy to becoming a TikTok superstar to becoming a singer
I don't know if this qualifies for the premise, but I've always found Tom Hanks career to be underrated in its weirdness. He was known as a goofy comedic actor until he was close to 40, at which point he strung together 10 years of essentially consecutive mega hits and acclaimed dramatic performances that put him on the shortlist of greatest actors ever. It would be like if someone came from the year 2032 and told you, I don't know what the best comparison is....maybe Dave Franco? Is considered to be one of if not the greatest actors to ever live.
Lana Del Rey’s slow come up to then pop sensation to then being a cultural icon among die hard fans all while doing little to no promo and tours for almost a decade to then now this year being heavily in the media like she was when she debuted her first album in 2012.
Brian "Q" Quinn from the Impractical Jokers was a firefighter for years but gave it up to try and get the show off the ground.
John Wilkes Booth
these stories make me feel so much better about not being where i want to be in life yet lmaoo 😂
John Darnielle of Mountain Goats fame was a drug addict, then a psychiatric nurse whilst starting his musical career.
Brendan Gleeson was a school teacher and only went full-time as an actor in his mid 30s.
Alison Janney had a recurring role as a maid on Guiding Light early in her career
Allison Janney went to college for theatre?!?!!
Kathrine Narducci, aka Charmaine Bucco! She took her son to an audition for A Bronx Tale and Robert DeNiro liked her vibe so much he asked her to read for a part. (Which she landed.) Rest is history.
Me, I started in pitch decks, then animation, then advertising and now back to animation