Many people suspect, but few know, that many movie stars, before becoming stars, spent a long time searching for themselves, trying their hand at acting and wandering in completely different directions. Some polished coffins, others worked as hairdressers, endorsed jeans, and some even sold illegal substances. In this article, we'll tell you about five star actors with pasts that are hard to believe.
1. Sean Connery
Few people know that the beloved James Bond tried a variety of professions before landing a role in film. Born to a working-class family and a cleaning woman, Sean Connery's first job would likely be as a milkman. He left school at 14, and at 16, he joined the Royal Navy, where he took courses in furniture polishing, which led to a stint as a coffin polisher. Looking for work, Sean found a job at the Royal Theatre, and at the age of 21, he took up bodybuilding, even entering the Mr. Universe bodybuilding competition, where he placed third. Besides bodybuilding, Sean also played football for various Scottish teams. Ultimately, Connery chose acting, and within a few years, the world recognized him as the spy James Bond. The role made him a favorite among women, and at 59, Sean became the oldest actor to be named a sex symbol by People magazine. Ten years later, the same publication named him the sexiest man of the 20th century.
2. Danny DeVito
American actor, producer, and director Danny DeVito was also a modest man in his youth, by any measure. After finishing school, he enrolled in a hairdressing academy and then began working in his father's barber shop. He was inspired to pursue acting by the fact that the Nicholson family co-owned the shop. Hearing that Jack Nicholson had become an actor, Danny went to the theater to see one of Jack's films and was so impressed by what he saw that he decided to become an actor himself. However, his path to film wasn't a bed of roses. He spent two years in Hollywood, auditioning constantly but getting no roles. During this time, he learned makeup and even worked as a security guard. In the early 1970s, he began appearing in B-movies, in the most minor roles, and he wasn't always even credited. However, his breakthrough came with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, in which DeVito collaborated with an old acquaintance. The film starred Jack Nicholson. After this film, critics began to praise the diminutive actor for his charisma, paving the way for him to break into big-time cinema.
3. Mickey Rourke
Although Mickey Rourke was passionate about acting from childhood and participated in theater productions while still in school, his path to film was long and quite interesting. Mickey was born into an ordinary family, but his parents didn't get along, and soon his mother and children moved to a poor and crime-ridden Miami suburb. His mother remarried, marrying a brutal police officer with whom Mickey (real name Philip, by the way) didn't get along, which pushed him toward a street lifestyle. His social circle became filled with gangsters, prostitutes, and pimps, and he earned his living performing low-skilled manual labor, such as digging canals for utility lines. Soon, the low-paying lifestyle became tiresome, and Mickey began dealing drugs. He was forced to quit when he was involved in a shootout. Afterward, the future actor borrowed a 400$ from his sister and flew to New York, where he enrolled in acting school. To pay for his studies, Rourke again worked whatever he could: as a street vendor, a pool cleaner, and even a bouncer at a transvestite bar. He landed his first role as an extra when Spielberg spotted him. Within a few years, Mickey Rourke had become world-famous, and at the height of his fame in the late 1980s, he was one of the highest-paid actors in Hollywood. Then, alcohol problems, a debauched lifestyle, and botched plastic surgery brought him down from the sky, but that's another story.
4. Danny Trejo
Mickey Rourke's path was arduous, and his criminal exploits seem like kindergarten pranks compared to the turbulent past of Mexican-American actor Danny Trejo. His relatives apparently had a "positive" influence on him, as they committed petty street crimes with their uncle from childhood. He was repeatedly prosecuted as a juvenile delinquent. As he grew older, his crimes became increasingly serious, and even then, the future actor was heavily addicted to heroin. He eventually landed a 12-year prison sentence for robbery and drug use. In prison, Danny underwent rehabilitation and overcame his drug addiction, becoming the Pennsylvania boxing champion in both lightweight and middleweight divisions. The future actor stumbled into film by chance: a crew member asked Danny to help him "get off the game," and as it turned out, the screenwriter of that film had served time in prison with Danny. Trejo was invited to work as a boxing trainer for actors, and soon he was offered his first role in a serious film.
5. Jason Statham
British actor Jason Statham's rise to fame may not have been as dramatic, but his entry into film was a result of a confluence of circumstances. Since childhood, Jason had been involved in various sports, including diving for over 12 years. He never became a sports star, so he had to sell perfume and jewelry to earn money. In the late 1990s, Statham lucked out and was offered the opportunity to become the face of a denim brand. The owner of the company Jason was promoting was the producer of Guy Ritchie's debut film, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, and it was he who suggested Statham for one of the lead roles.
These are the unusual roads that people take to achieve fame.