Late to the party
Many celebrities had to wait decades for big breaks, whether they were film actors, painters, or other celebrity figures. From current household names to those who have since passed on, finding fame later in life just shows that you don’t have to be young to find your passion.
Alan Rickman
Actor Alan Rickman, best known for playing Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1998), got his big break a decade earlier in Die Hard when he played terrorist leader, Hans. At the time, Rickman was 42. Unfortunately, Alan would die at the early age of 69 after a battle with cancer.
Bob Ross
Bob Ross was 42 years old when PBS launched his show, The Joy of Painting. Having spent 20 years in the US Air Force (joining when he was 18), Ross’ love of painting began in the military and the sales from his work allowed him to retire after 20 years in the Forces. Having launched the show, he quickly became a national treasure.
Stan Lee
Stan Lee was the creator of Marvel Comics, having founded the company when he was 39 years old. Lee’s graphic design career began when he was 17, but he was something of a pencil-pusher for over 20 years before launching Marvel.
Kathryn Joosten
Kathryn Joosten was 59 when she took the role of Mrs. Landingham in The West Wing but spent the previous 17 years of her life as a small-time theatre actor, but was a psychiatric nurse before pursuing acting at 42.
Kristin Dos Santos, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson may have starred in over 100 movies since his breakthrough with Pulp Fiction in 1994, but Jackson arrived on the Hollywood stage at the age of 46, however played in multiple smaller movies and was even mentored by Morgan Freeman.
Harrison Ford
While your thirties might not be ‘late’ to find the thing you’re supposed to do, Harrison Ford was 33 before he was cast in Star Wars, playing the iconic Han Solo. Ford would go on to star in all of the franchise’s films and became the lead in Indiana Jones.
Morgan Freeman
Like Bob Ross, Morgan Freeman joined the military and spent four years in the United States Air Force from 1955 to 1959. However, after several years starring in small roles, he would star in Street Smart at 50, alongside Christover Reeves, bringing him to acting prominence with larger American audiences.
Steve Carrell
Before The Office began in 2005, Steve Carrell would star in children’s acting theatre and was a part of Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show from 1999 to 2005. He’s now a prominent comedy-film actor.
Christoph Waltz
Christoph Waltz is an Austrian-German actor who began his career as an operatically-trained vocalist and stage actor in Germany. He had a few small roles in American, British and European television series, but his American film breakthrough came at 53 in Inglorious Basterds in 2009.
Masha Kuvshinova, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
Colonel Sanders
The iconic owner of Kentucky Fried Chicken was 62 when he opened his first franchise and crafted the recipe for the original KFC. In his earlier years, he was a fireman, steam engine stoker, insurance salesman and practiced law. Despite opening his first roadside chicken restaurant in the 1930s, he would only perfect his fried chicken recipe in 1952.
Liam Neeson
Liam Neeson did not receive his first major acting role until he was 40, despite being in the acting sphere since he was 25. Luckily, his first major role was Schindler’s List, widely considered one of the greatest films ever.
J.K Rowling
J.K Rowling was 32 when she wrote Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Before writing Harry Potter, Joanne Rowling may have been one of the ultimate author-rags-to-riches stories.
Danny Trejo
Danny Trejo’s early life was plagued by petty crime and his struggles with drug addiction. However, a director gave Trejo his first role in the film, Runaway Train at the age of 41, forever changing his life’s trajectory.
Dr. Ken Jeong
Alongside The Hangover, Dr. Ken Jeong is best known for his role in the 2007 comedy Knocked Up at the age of 38, however he began his professional life as a doctor and later a stand-up comedian.
Walt Disney Television, Flickr
Viola Davis
Although Viola Davis was no stranger to acting, having gained small acclaim before her 2008 role in Doubt when she was 43. Davis’ role was small, but earned her an Oscar nomination.
Billy Bob Thornton
Sling Blade was Billy Bob Thornton’s first major role at the age of 41. Before succeeding as an actor, Thornton managed fast food restaurants and had numerous telemarketing jobs before the release of Sling Blade in 1996.
Jon Hamm
Jon Hamm’s 2007 role in Mad Men secured his position as a serious actor, at the age of 38. Before Mad Men, Hamm had a few smaller roles, but had a job as a waiter for much of 1990s.
Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester ‘Sly’ Stallone had a hard life before finding fame with Rocky at the age of 30. Despite loving acting and being trained as an actor, Stallone found himself out of work and even homeless at one point. After achieving huge success with Rocky in 1976, he would never look back, going on to star in numerous franchised action films like the Rambo series.
James Gandolfini
Before becoming the heavy-set Italian gangster in The Sopranos, the 38-year-old Gandolfini had enjoyed a small-time career in Broadway and a 1989 NYU student film titled Eddy. Before the 1999 The Sopranos, Gandolfini starred in similar roles in 1993 and 1994 and the 1995 submarine action film with Denzel Washington, Crimson Tide.
Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, Picryl
Jessica Chastain
Jessica Chastain’s acting career began in 2004, when she starred in several smaller film roles, having graduated from the internationally-acclaimed Julliard school. However, it wasn’t until 2011, when alongside Viola Davis, the 34-year-old Chastain starred in the comedy The Help that she would become famous. She would go on to star in the action/drama thriller Zero Dark Thirty in 2012.
Martha Stewart
Before becoming a legendary cookbook writer, Martha Stewart was a stockbroker on Wall Street and ran her own catering business. Her first book, Entertaining was released in 1982 when Stewart was 41.
Donald and Doris Fisher
Donald and Doris Fisher might be described as serial entrepreneurs, as in the 1960s, Donald Fisher was renovating hotels and even purchased his own the Capitol Park Hotel in California, in which he leased space to Levi Strauss. Donald and Doris would notice that Levi’s and a number of other jean companies would only carry certain sizes. The Gap was born in 1972, offering jeans in all sizes. Donald Fisher was 41.
Gene Hackman
The biographical film about America’s most infamous criminal couple was Gene Hackman’s breakthrough role at the age of 37. Before Bonnie and Clyde, Hackman was a USMC Radio Operator for five years and had a number of very small roles in inconsequential films.
Featureflash Photo Agency, Shutterstock
Tim Allen
A 22-year-old Tim Allen was a stand-up comedian for many years prior to his debut film in 1988 Tropical Snow at the age of 33, but his major breakout role was in 1991 at the age of 38.
MavsFan28, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons
Michael Emerson
The bespectacled Emmy-award winning actor began his career as a off-Broadway theatre actor in 1997, but didn’t make his film debut till September of 2001 as serial killer, William Hinks in The Practice. Emerson was 47 at the time.
Genevieve, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Kathy Bates
Kathy Bates had to wait until she was 42 for her first major acting role in Misery, the creepy 1990 drama about an obsessive nurse, played by Bates, who takes on the role of caregiver to a severely disabled man following a car crash. Bates won an Academy Award for Misery.
Jeremy Renner
Kathryn Bigelow’s nail-biting war drama, The Hurt Locker paved the way for Jeremy Renner’s acting career to go from strength to strength. Then 38, Renner took on the role in 2008 and has since go on to star in The Avengers and The Bourne Legacy.
Eva Rinaldi, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
Jackson Pollock
Known for his abstract expressionism, Jackson Pollock’s art world stardom didn’t begin until he made a LIFE Magazine four-page spread in 1949 when he 38.
Susan Boyle
Susan Boyle shocked the world with her audition on the British talent show, Britain’s Got Talent. The unbelievably-talented opera singer was 47 at the time of her audition which immediately propelled her to operatic stardom. Her debut album I Dreamed a Dream, is one of the best-selling albums of the 21st century.
Judi Dench
Judi Dench was 61(!) when she took over the role of M (Bond’s Boss) in GoldenEye (1995). Despite being an established theatre actress (the woman can recite Shakespeare effortlessly), it wasn’t until GoldenEye and the following Bond films (she reprised the role until 2015) that Dench would go on to receive national and international acclaim. She is now recognised as a pillar of modern British acting.
Melissa McCarthy
You may know Melissa McCarthy from her time in SNL, but she got her first big break in Bridesmaids at 41 having starred for decades in smaller TV roles.
Red Carpet Report on Mingle Media TV, Flickr
Ricky Gervais
Before Ricky Gervais created The Office (UK) at 40 years old, he had tried to become a pop star (and was semi-successful at it!), and had also worked in radio and sketch comedy.
Jane Lynch
Jane Lynch was 49 when Glee became a sensation in the musical/TV world. This launched Lynch into the American national television spotlight, having spent 15+ years as a theatre actress.
Leslie Jones
Before becoming a cast member on Saturday Night Live, Leslie Jones had spent many years in the standup-comedy circuit, playing in small and medium-sized venues. However, NBC saw something in the then-47-year-old and cast her to star in SNL. This has since led Jones to larger film roles such as the Ghostbusters remake.
Kumail Nanjiani
Kumail Nanjiani was 36 years old when he starred in Silicon Valley, the sitcom about a computer programmer’s quest to make it big in the tech world. Before Silicon Valley, Nanjani had many smaller roles in comedy television and movies.
Toni Morrison
Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, was written in 1970 when she was 39. At the time, Morrison had been working as a book editor, shaping the writings of other African-American authors. Her third novel, Song of Solomon, would win her a Nobel Prize. She would also receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the United States’ highest civilian honour) in 2012 from Barack Obama.
West Point - The U.S. Military Academy, Flickr
Claude Monet
Claude Monet had painted for much of his life, but it was only following his wife’s death and subsequently painting Impressions Sunrise that his work would begin to be recognized. It would take him another few years to establish his style. Like most artists’ Monet only became world-renowned after his death.
Leonard Cohen
Of course, Leonard Cohen’s name needs no introduction, but that wasn’t the case when he released Hallelujah, his second album at 50. It came 17 years after his debut album, released when Cohen was already 34. Before becoming a musical titan and icon, Cohen was a failed fiction writer.
Bryan Cranston
Bryan Cranston, best known for his role in Breaking Bad at the age of 52, he received his first break-out role in Malcolm in the Middle at the age of 44. Cranston’s role in Breaking Bad was his first role that garnered international acclaim.
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