31 celebrities who found fame later in life (2024)

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Tiffany Haddish was 37 when she starred in "Girls Trip."

Haddish spent years struggling in the Los Angeles comedy scene — even spending some time homeless — before she landed roles in shows like "If Loving You Is Wrong" and "The Carmichael Show." But it wasn't until 2017 that she received a slew of awards and multiple magazine covers because of her role as Dina in "Girls Trip."

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Samuel L. Jackson was in his 40s when he became an A-list movie star.

Jackson had a background in social activism before turning to acting in the 1970s and 1980s, mostly getting small roles in theater and in movies. His career started blowing up when he worked with Spike Lee, first in "School Daze" and then "Do the Right Thing."

In 1991, when he was 43, Jackson got serious critical attention for playing "Gator" in Lee's "Jungle Fever" and then leaped to the A-list with "Pulp Fiction" in 1994.

Now he's made more money at the box office than any other actor alive, according to Business Insider.

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Julia Child was 49 before she changed cooking in America.

Child worked as a chef (and a World War II spy) for years before publishing, withSimone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in 1961.

Reviews hailed it as a masterpiece and it became a bestseller, changing the way Americans cooked at home. Child was a reliable presence on television for the rest of her life and published more cooking books and memoirs.

Joy Behar was 55 before she started as a host on "The View."

Behar was a high school English teacher before she became a receptionist and then producer in various roles on NBC. In 1997, she became one of the original hosts for "The View" on ABC and has been on it, with a few breaks, ever since.

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Ang Lee was a stay-at-home dad before becoming one of the most important directors in the world at 41.

Lee attended a master's in film production from New York University, where he was Spike Lee's classmate and had an award-winning thesis film, but he put it all aside for six years to stay at home and take care of his two children while his wife, a molecular biologist, advanced her career.

But in 1990, a couple of screenplays he wrote got the attention of a Taiwanese production company and he made his feature debut, "Pushing Hands," in 1992. It was an immediate critical success, and Lee spent several years making movies in Taiwan before directing "Sense and Sensibility" for an American studio in 1995, at the age of 41.

From there, Lee became an Oscar darling and one of the world's most accomplished directors with films like "Brokeback Mountain" and "Life of Pi."

James Gandolfini played Tony Soprano when he was 38 years old.

Gandolfini had notable roles in "Crimson Tide" and "True Romance," but his breakout role — the one that defined his career — came in 1999, when he played Tony Soprano in the HBO show "The Sopranos."

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Kathryn Joosten was 70 when she started starring in "The West Wing."

Joosten worked as apsychiatric nurse for years before joining her community theater at 42 years old.

From there, she worked her way into Hollywood and landed the role ofDolores Landingham in NBC's "The West Wing" in 1999. Between 2005 and 2008, Joosten had a recurring role in "Desperate Housewives," for which she won two Emmys.

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Judi Dench became famous around the world when she was 60.

Dench, like many other actors, had a fruitful theater career for decades before launching onto the big screen.

In her case, it was playing "M" in the 1995 James Bond film "GoldenEye," a role she continued to play until 2015's "Spectre." She's since received seven Oscar nominations and won once.

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Bryan Cranston was 44 when he starred in "Malcolm in the Middle."

Before he was Walter White in "Breaking Bad," Cranston played the affable dad on Fox's "Malcolm in the Middle," his breakthrough role. He was 44 when he took it on in 2000, after bouncing around different television roles, including doing English voice dubbing for "Power Rangers." (The Blue Power Ranger, Billy Cranston, was named after him, and Cranston played the godlike Zordon in the 2017 "Power Rangers" film.)

Lucille Ball was 40 when she first starred in "I Love Lucy."

One of the most important women in the history of TV, Ball didn't achieve widespread success until CBS' "I Love Lucy" in 1951, when she was 40 years old. From there, she starred in four spinoff sitcoms and ran her own TV production company.

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Melissa McCarthy was 41 when she had her Oscar-nominated role in "Bridesmaids."

McCarthy is ubiquitous today, but she had decades of smaller TV and movie roles before her role in "Bridesmaids" and CBS' "Mike & Molly," which both received positive reviews and significant awards attention.

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"The Hurt Locker" made Jeremy Renner famous at 38.

Renner played various parts in mostly independent movies before playing the central character in "The Hurt Locker," which got him an Oscar nomination for best actor in 2010.

Since then, he's starred in bigger movies like "The Town" and "American Hustle," as well as playing Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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Ricky Gervais tried to be a pop star before creating "The Office" at 40.

The British version of "The Office" started in 2001, around the same time Gervais had a talk show, "Meet Ricky Gervais."

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"The Office" also brought Steve Carell to fame, at 43.

Carell was a familiar face as a correspondent on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" and bit parts in comedy films like "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy." But the US version of "The Office," which aired on NBC, really made Carell a household name.

From there, he's had the lead role in multiple comedies and received a best actor Oscar nomination for starring in the 2014 drama "Foxcatcher."

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And Jenna Fischer was 31 when she played Pam on US version of "The Office."

Jessica Chastain's breakout year happened when she was 34.

The Julliard-trained actress gained worldwide fame in 2011, when she gained critical acclaim for performances in "Take Shelter," "The Tree of Life," and "The Help," for which she received an Oscar nomination.

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Jane Lynch was 49 when she achieved mainstream success with "Glee."

Lynch spent 15 years acting in Chicago's theaters before she started going after TV and movie roles.

Her first big role was in the 2000 comedy "Best in Show," which then led her to small, scene-stealing parts in virtually every comedy of the decade before she played the cheerleading coach on Fox's "Glee" in 2009.

Kristen Wiig was 33 before she became a cast member on "Saturday Night Live."

Wiig's early career involved a lot of improvisational acting and random comedy gigs before she started writing for "Saturday Night Live" on NBC in 2005 at 32. The next year, she became a full cast member and received four Emmy nominations during her tenure on the show.

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J.K. Rowling was 32 and had a round of rejections before "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was published.

Rowling's first "Harry Potter" book was published in a small, 500-copy print run in 1997 after it was rejected by other publishers. She had been a single motherliving off welfare and dealing with depressionwhen she finally had her breakthrough.

It sold millions of copies, and the rest is history.

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"Inglourious Basterds" gave Christoph Waltz his Oscar-winning role at 53.

Waltz had small roles io German and British television for decades before Quentin Tarantino cast him as a Nazi villain in his 2009 World War II epic.

He won an Oscar and every other major award that season, and has been a consistent screen presence since, including another Oscar-winning role in 2013's "Django Unchained."

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Ken Jeong was a doctor before becoming a comedy star at the age of 40.

Jeong received a medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and practiced as a physician before getting into stand-up comedy and acting.

By 2009, he was a breakout star in "The Hangover" and on the NBC sitcom "Community," and has since stopped working as a doctor to focus on his acting career.

Leslie Jones was 47 when she became a cast member for "Saturday Night Live."

Jones spent years in the standup comedy circuit before NBC cast her in its marquee comedy show after an open audition. She still appears on the series in addition to taking roles in comedies like "Top Five" and "Ghostbusters."

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Morgan Freeman's breakout year happened when he was 52.

Freeman had been toiling with mixed success as an actor for years before 1989, when he became famous for his roles in "Glory" and "Driving Miss Daisy," the latter of which earned him an Oscar nomination for best actor.

He won the supporting actor category in 2005, for his performance in "Million Dollar Baby."

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Kumail Nanjiani started playing Dinesh in "Silicon Valley" when he was 36.

Nanjiani had a variety of roles on comedy TV shows and movies before starring on the HBO show, which he's still a part of.

He also made the semi-autobiographical movie "The Big Sick," about his early days in comedy and the time he met his wife, Emily V. Gordon, for which he received a best screenplay Oscar nomination.

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Toni Morrison published her breakout novel "The Bluest Eye" when she was 39.

Before Morrison became one of America's most celebrated novelists, she worked as an editor shepherding the books of black writers to print and shaping the canon with anthologies of works by black authors.

In 1970, when she was 39 years old, she published a work of her own. "The Bluest Eye" circulated through academia and established her name as an author.

Her third one, "Song of Solomon," won the Pulitzer Prize, and Morrison received the Nobel Prize in Literature after publishing "Beloved" in 1987.

Alan Rickman was 42 when he became famous for "Die Hard."

Rickman has had so many great roles for so long that it's hard to believe he wasn't always famous. But he was 42 when he playedHans Gruber in 1988's "Die Hard," having been in mostly theater roles before then.

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Susan Boyle was 47 when she found viral fame.

Boyle was a professionally trained yet flailing singer, using up her savings to pay for produced demos to send to record companies and talent shows.

In 2009, she appeared on "Britain's Got Talent" and blew everyone away with her rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" from the musical "Les Misérables."

Boyle became a viral succession and has released seven albums since, all of them bestsellers in the United Kingdom.

Liam Neeson was 41 when he starred in "Schindler's List."

Neeson gained arthouse acclaim for well-reviewed but little-seen movies like "The Mission" in the 1980s, but he didn't become famous until Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List" in 1993. From there, he's had roles in blockbusters like " Star Wars: Episode I" and "Batman Begins" as well as thrillers like "Taken" and "The Grey."

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Ted Danson became famous at 35 for "Cheers."

Danson bounced around different soap operas and commercials in the 1970s and early 1980s before landing the role ofSam Malone on NBC's "Cheers" in 1982. He's since become a television staple in shows like "Curb Your Enthusiasm" on HBO and "The Good Place" on NBC.

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Octavia Spencer is an experienced actress, but she didn't break out until she was 39 in "The Help."

Spencer has been a reliably great screen presence for a long time, in everything from 2002's "Spider-Man" to the 2008 Will Smith movie "Seven Pounds."

But it wasn't until 2011 when she received more attention for her role in "The Help," which got her a supporting actress Oscar. She's received two more since then, for "Hidden Figures" and "The Shape of Water."

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"Doubt" put everyone's eyes on Viola Davis when she was 43.

Viola Davis had a meandering path to Hollywood. She received a master's degree from Julliard when she was 28, then had successes in the theater world for years.

But she didn't become a star until 2008, when she went toe-to-toe with Meryl Streep andPhilip Seymour Hoffman in "Doubt," which earned her a supporting actress Oscar nomination.

She was then nominated for best actress for "The Help," won in 2017 for her performance in "Fences," and she earned an Emmy for ABC's "How to Get Away With Murder."