Don't give up the day job

January 10, 2008 1:05 PM

Before they were stars (pre-fame jobs of celebs please)

I work with young job-seekers and I want to come up with what some contemporary celebs did before they became famous. Harrison Ford. for example, is a carpenter by trade. I found a site with lot of celebs, but to be honest, a lot of has-beens, B-stars and no cites. I don't think that "kids today" are going to feel wildly inspired by Dan Akroyd or Benny Hill. Also, most of the listings are overly glamorous, such as "was a model before she was an actor" or "had a bit part in show X".

These kids are in europe, so the celebs should be world famous, but I am also open to regional superstars from non-English speaking countries. There's no age limit, but there's a freshness rating, where celebs like Harrison Ford, Bruce Springsteen etc are timelessly cool. Musicians, athletes, actors, politicians, authors, it's all good!
Ideally, I would love a link to a cite for the factoid too.

posted by Iteki to education (51 comments total)

Julia Roberts worked at an AMC movie theater in the early 80's. I know this because I worked at an AMC movie theater in the late 80's and my manager had been her manager at that theater. I can't find a cite.
posted by kimdog at 1:13 PM on January 10, 2008

Gabriel Byrne was a gravedigger before he got into acting; I don't have a citation for it, but he mentions it in his autobiography and on NPR, IIRC. According to IMDB, he was also "an archaelogist, a schoolteacher, a short-order cook, and a bullfighter."

Another not so glamorous bunch of jobs that's stuck with me (and here it is on IMDB), is that James Spader "bused tables, shoveled manure, and taught yoga" before he got famous.
posted by zebra3 at 1:16 PM on January 10, 2008

Steve Martin worked at Disneyland, at a concession stand I believe.
posted by drjimmy11 at 1:21 PM on January 10, 2008

Clint Eastwood was a gas station attendant, a firefighter, and a ragtime piano player in a bar (from Wikipedia - I could have sworn he was a mechanic, too).

Simon Cowell was in the RAF.

Stephen King was a laundry worker (hence Graveyard Shift and The Mangler), a high school janitor, and a high school teacher.

Chris Rock worked at Red Lobster.

Wayne Coyne from the Flaming Lips worked for eons at Long John Silver's. He was in the band for several years while he was still a regular employee. During this time, IIRC, he was also a not-small pot dealer in OK (according to rumor - if you're reading this, don't sue me for libel, Mr. Coyne!).

I think I heard somewhere that almost all the Buffy writers spent their formative years working fast food. There actually used to be a very good commercial for McDonald's which had celebrities appearing in a montage, each talking about how their careers began flipping burgers at McDonalds.

Wes Craven taught humanities at Clarkson.

John Le Carré worked for MI6 for quite a while, until Kim Philby got him.
posted by Sticherbeast at 1:22 PM on January 10, 2008

NFL Quarterback Kurt Warner was famous for going from bagging groceries to winning the Super Bowl within a period of a few years.
posted by drjimmy11 at 1:22 PM on January 10, 2008

Also, Michael Anderson - the charismatic little person from Twin Peaks and Carnivale - was a computer expert at NASA.
posted by Sticherbeast at 1:23 PM on January 10, 2008

The Clash's Joe Strummer worked as a time as a gravedigger in his pre-music days.
posted by scody at 1:24 PM on January 10, 2008

Sean Connery (according to Wikipedia) worked as a milkman, lorry driver, labourer, coffin polisher and lifeguard.
posted by Paragon at 1:27 PM on January 10, 2008

She's probably too old and/or not internationally famous enough, but before she began her cooking/television career, Julia Child had a distinguish career in the OSS for whom, among other things, she helped develop a shark repellent.
posted by trip and a half at 1:29 PM on January 10, 2008 [1 favorite]

I'd always heard Madonna worked at Dunkin' Donuts.
posted by cosmicbandito at 1:32 PM on January 10, 2008

Julia Louis-Dreyfus was/is an heiress.
posted by wfc123 at 1:35 PM on January 10, 2008

Thanks for these, I gotta say that the Julia Child one has my laughing my ass off! :)
Anyone got anyone more current? Is that Ronaldinho guy still big? Seems like most of todays celebs really did just sponge off their moms till they won some celeb recruitment show.
I don't know... get off my lawn!
posted by Iteki at 1:35 PM on January 10, 2008

Steve Buscemi was a firefighter.
posted by porpoise at 1:43 PM on January 10, 2008

I would google rags to riches stories/compendia, like this.
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 1:44 PM on January 10, 2008

Bryan Adams (ok, not high on your freshness factor, i'll admit) was a dish washer at the Tomahawk in North Vancouver.
posted by cgg at 1:47 PM on January 10, 2008

Oh, Kevin Smith worked as a clerk at the Quick Stop. I don't have a reference, but it's common knowledge for anyone who's heard him talk. He mentions it many times in his books, as well. Even one of his companies is called Quick Stop Entertainment.
posted by cgg at 1:56 PM on January 10, 2008

I knew a girl once whose mom lived in Hollywood. Harrison Ford made a walll of bookshelves for them.
posted by vilcxjo_BLANKA at 2:01 PM on January 10, 2008

From Dishwashing to Donuts, Stars Punched Clocks 'Before They Were Famous'.

Before They Were Famous - Top 10 Celebrity Truck Drivers.

Celebrity First Jobs.
posted by ericb at 2:02 PM on January 10, 2008 [1 favorite]

Brad Pitt handed out coupons while wearing a chicken suit when he worked for El Pollo Loco.

Whoopi Goldberg worked as a make-up artist at a funeral parlor.

Russell Crowe was a bingo caller.

Liam Neeson drove a forklift at the Guinness brewery in Belfast.
posted by Oriole Adams at 2:04 PM on January 10, 2008

It's kind of a case of going from one cool job to another but Masi Oka (Hiro on Heroes) was a programmer for ILM. And Grant from Mythbusters worked there too...
posted by stefnet at 2:12 PM on January 10, 2008

Quentin Tarantino worked in a video rental store. Robert Rodriguez was a medical test subject, though that was primarily a way for him to get free time to write a movie and money to fund it.
posted by squarehead at 2:12 PM on January 10, 2008

Peter Falk was an efficiency expert.

Owen Wilson was a pool cleaner.

Ray Liotta worked at a cemetary too, here it is on IMDB.

James Gandolfini was a bartender and a bouncer.
posted by zebra3 at 2:16 PM on January 10, 2008

Steve Martin worked at the Magic Shop on Main St at Disneyland and now hosts the movie about the early history of the park...pretty cool :)


Teller from Penn and Teller was a High School Latin teacher.


I seem to remember reading that Steve Buscemi was at his old firehouse on 9/11 and hopped on and worked the site.

MC Hammer was a Yeoman in the US Navy.
posted by legotech at 2:19 PM on January 10, 2008

Kevin Wasserman, the lead guitarist of The Offspring, was a school custodian.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 2:23 PM on January 10, 2008

Sting was an art teacher

Ricky Wilson, the lead singer of the Kaiser Chiefs was a college lecturer
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 2:31 PM on January 10, 2008

Moby was a dishwasher.
posted by Sonic_Molson at 2:44 PM on January 10, 2008

Yes . . . there's a sweet piece by Steve Martin in a recent New Yorker about his early career as an entertainer.

To be clear, by "sweet piece," I mean this, not something more salacious, though the abstract does mention his interactions with a Stormie in the front seat of a car.
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 3:01 PM on January 10, 2008

steve malkmus (from indie band pavement) was a art museum guard. i don't know if he's famous enough but i always liked that as a pre-celebrity job
posted by jcruelty at 3:13 PM on January 10, 2008

Cindy Crawford was discovered while detasseling corn.
My father also swears that she worked at his cookie store the one semester she went to college. (That one probably isn't true, though)
posted by Eddie Mars at 3:26 PM on January 10, 2008

Courtney Love was a teenage stripper at Mary's Club.
posted by peep at 3:39 PM on January 10, 2008

Eddie Money was an NYPD typist.
posted by kirkaracha at 3:39 PM on January 10, 2008

Off the top of my head: Neil Tennant - Pet Shop Boys - used to be an editor for a number of magazines, Smash Hits being one. Cameron Crowe off course worked (well, still does from time to time) for Rolling Stone. Bob Geldof wrote about music for The Georgia Straight. Marliyn Manson submitted a number of articles to 25th Parallel. And Bob Stanley (hey, St Etienne used to be huge!) was a music journalist, as well.

...now guess what I do for a living! :)
posted by soundofsuburbia at 3:47 PM on January 10, 2008

Bruce Willis was (my parent's favorite) bartender.
posted by thebrokenmuse at 3:55 PM on January 10, 2008

Steve Carrell was a mailman and planned on attending law school (he didn't).
posted by Ndwright at 3:57 PM on January 10, 2008

The Japanese guy on "Heroes" is named "Hiro"?

Why does that not surprise me...
posted by wfc123 at 4:00 PM on January 10, 2008

Elvis Costello: "To support himself, he worked a number of office jobs, most famously at the Elizabeth Arden cosmetics firm--immortalised in the lyrics of "I'm Not Angry" as the "vanity factory"--where he worked as a data entry clerk."
posted by gimonca at 4:20 PM on January 10, 2008

One of the DVD extras for Season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer has the writers and some of the cast (not Sarah Michelle Gellar/Buffy, but the actors who play Zander, Willow, and Dawn) talking about where they worked before they were with Buffy. Most of them worked in fast food, retail jobs, and so on. It's on Disc 4 (in the US, at least), in the featurette called "Buffy Goes to Work"...if you can get this clip it's very good.
posted by anaelith at 4:24 PM on January 10, 2008

Oh, another one: a friend of mine who used to work at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in LA says that Beck used to work at the museum book store in the late '80s or early '90s, before he hit it big.

Also, fun fact just gleaned from one of today's obituaries regarding Sir Edmund Hillary,the man who (with Tenzing Norgay) first scaled Everest: for many years, he worked as a beekeeper in order to support his little mountain climbing hobby.
posted by scody at 4:35 PM on January 10, 2008

>Harrison Ford. for example, is a carpenter by trade.

You know what meta-derail I'd like to get into?

Harrison Ford actually does some carpentry in the movie "Witness".

I wonder how many films there are where the stars do their old jobs on-screen? Perhaps we'd have to leave out waiter/waitress, because that would probably go about 50%.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 4:42 PM on January 10, 2008

Well, maybe not world famous unless they get US tv reruns but Alan Ruck (from Spin City and many movie character roles) was a clerk at the Lands' End retail store. I know this because I was a clerk there at the same time.
posted by nax at 5:00 PM on January 10, 2008

Gowan was a school teacher. So was Bob Pollard.
posted by dobbs at 5:15 PM on January 10, 2008

I think Gene Simmons was as well, now that I think about it.
posted by dobbs at 5:15 PM on January 10, 2008

Steve Malkmus and James McNew (the second and current bassist for Yo La Tengo) both worked as parking lot attendants in Charlottesville, VA. Harold Ramis was a caddy (I think). Adam Sandler definitely was. That's all I've got, sadly.
posted by thecaddy at 7:13 PM on January 10, 2008

Michelle Pfeiffer was a grocery store clerk in Malibu.

Frank Black/Black Francis of the Pixies once said the worst job he ever had was cleaning the drains at a grocery store butcher's dept.

Glen Phillips from Toad the Wet Sprocket was a barista at a local coffee house.
posted by cali at 8:17 PM on January 10, 2008

After college, Jon Stewart held numerous jobs, including: contingency planner for the New Jersey Department of Human Services, contract administrator for City University of New York, puppeteer for children with disabilities, construction worker, caterer, busboy, shelf stocker at Woolworth’s, and bartender at a local blue-collar bar, the Franklin Corner Tavern. He also worked for a time as a breath-tester at an inflatable plastic water-toy factory.

Princess Di taught kindergarten (although she had enough of a pedigree that she was a childhood playmate of the royal family).

Johnny Depp dropped out of high school to become a musician. Through his wife (sister of a bandmate, natch) he met Nicolas Cage, who told him to try acting. When you consider that he started acting as a way to make money, you have an idea how successful his first career was. (He supported himself by gas station and construction jobs, and once they moved to LA, most of the band worked at a telemarketing call center.)
posted by dhartung at 9:40 PM on January 10, 2008

Asha Gill, who hosts Lonely Planet Six Degrees (and is super famous in Eastern Europe of all places), was doing a degree in Quantity Surveying before going into the media. It was an internship that finally made her quit (she objected to wearing skirts, or something like that). I know this because I'm friends with her, but I believe there are articles about her that mention this.

Darren Hayes was teaching kindergarden, and Clay Aiken was in special education.

Lene Nystrom from Aqua worked as a Norwegian Vanna White of sorts and was in a showboat, and I think she actually enlisted in the army for a short while.
posted by divabat at 2:19 AM on January 11, 2008 [1 favorite]

John Rzeznik was a laundromat attendant when I first met them. He was in college with the stated goal of becoming a child psychologist. A few years later he sold hot dogs from a cart downtown. Robby Takac worked at Trackmaster (a recording studio) engineering and doing vocal work.
posted by jdfan at 7:15 AM on January 11, 2008

Radiohead's Thom Yorke sold suits.
posted by Windigo at 7:47 AM on January 11, 2008

Queen's Brian May was an astrophysicist.
posted by goo at 7:49 AM on January 11, 2008

Oh yeah, Mark Ruffalo was a bartender too.
posted by zebra3 at 8:15 AM on January 11, 2008

According to Wikipedia, Nicholas Brendon, aka Xander from Buffy, "tried his hand at a variety of other jobs including being a plumber's assistant, veterinarian, janitor, day care counselor, waiter, and a production assistant for the television show Dave's World." Most importantly, however, is the fact that he had taken up acting to cure his stuttering problem, and that his acting career was spottily pursued until he lucked into some role on some pilot on some network which no one had ever heard of. It lead to many years on television, a continuing career, and a lifelong cult fascination. He also works for the Stuttering Foundation of America, and according to my actor-type friends, he's in some of the speech manuals, if only as an example of how dramatically speech lessons can help one's problems. I'm a Buffy fan and a former stutterer, so I can relate to that...

Even though it doesn't quite answer your question, I'll mention that Greg Graffin and Brett Gurewitz remain in the (IMHO rather excellent) seminal punk band Bad Religion, while also teaching biology at UCLA and running one of the most successful independent labels ever, respectively. File these facts alongside how they started their little band when they were teenagers.

Weirdly enough on the Bad Religion angle: Gore Verbinski, director of The Ring, The Weather Man, and the Pirates movies, started out directing their videos, and once played in a band with Brett Gurewitz.

I mention all this stuff not only because I'm a Bad Religion fan (and hey, a Gore Verbinski fan), but also because it shows that surrounding yourself with successful, driven people is a recipe for success. That, and you can pursue multiple dreams.
posted by Sticherbeast at 7:20 PM on January 11, 2008