鴉PieFedWhat are some lesser known (former) careers or jobs of famous people?
submitted by neidu3@sh.itjust.works edited
Title. I just think ot would be fun if a journalist interviewed, for example, a famous musician, but instead of questions regarding their latest album, the interview was all about that year where they worked as a plumber.
Rodney Dangerfield sold aluminum siding in North New Jersey.
Julia Roberts worked at Baskin & Robbins.
Hedy Lamarr is a more interesting person than you could ever imagine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr
*Reads opening summary*
"Okay, mhmmm, interesting life and career as an actress..."
*Reads just below that*
"WHAT that's cool"
It was a cool idea - unfortunately the US Navy decided not to use it because they felt the required gears, motors and circuitry (in the age of vacuum tubes) would add too much weight and complexity to a torpedo, and they were concerned about reliability. So the idea remained on paper, with no prototypes ever being built. In the late 1950s, when transistor technology was replacing vacuum tubes, radio engineers at Phillips Corp (if I remember right) made the concept practical. Some people's version of all this is to credit Lamarr for inventing WiFi or even the Internet, and that the navy wouldn't listen to her because she was a woman until a corporations stole her idea - placing her in the mythical realm of Nikola Tesla.
Hedy Lamarr is absolutely awesome, enjoy the Wikipedia rabbit hole.
There's even a headcrab named after her.
Hedly!
Steve Buscemi was a firefighter in NYC and assisted on 9/11.
That's such a weird story - he happened to be in NYC on 9/11 and saw the news, so he reported to his former firehouse and they had him suit up.
I might as well give some examples:
Hugh Jackman - PE teacher (someone link that interview clip, please?)
Harrison Ford - Carpenter
Maynard James Keenan - also a carpenter, coincidentally
Bob Ross - air force sergeant
Stephen King - English teacher
Harrison Ford met George Lucas when he installed a door in the studio office.
Jack White was an upholsterer through the nineties. He still does it, so not exactly former, but a small fact I found really interesting.
This is probably well known to many, but Steve Martin was a professional musician, magician and TV series writer before more commonly being known as a standup comic, actor, comedian, and later, film writer. Not to mention:
As a teenager Steve Martin worked in a magic shop in Disneyland.
Never letting the audience climax truly an edgy comedian.
Bob Newhart started as an accountant until he tried his hand at standup. Not that hard to believe actually.
Tom Lehrer - sort of a Weird Al of the early 1960s, who wrote all kinds of satirical songs - was a university math professor.