# Artistic breakthrough years **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 18, 2024, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955 "2024-10-18T17:37:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![GailForce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dfb087/32.png) [@GailForce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GailForce)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/41 "2024-10-29T16:07:37Z")
As I recall, Lord Byron said that one of his poems made him famous overnight, but I can’t remember which poem, or which year. Research time! ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/42 "2024-10-29T16:13:56Z")
**Lizzo** was in music for years before people started to take notice. She had been in a couple groups and put out lots of songs before her album _Big Girl Small World_ in 2015, which is when I saw her in Colbert. She put out another album in 2016. Her single “Truth Hurts” came out in 2017, but didn’t get much notice. In **2019** her album _Cuz I Love You_ came out and THEN “Truth Hurts” got big, and then it was go time for Lizzo! She was everywhere from 2019-2023. ---
**Author:** ![GailForce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dfb087/32.png) [@GailForce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GailForce)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/43 "2024-10-29T16:24:53Z")
Byron’s breakthrough year was 1812 with the publication of “Childe Harold.” ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/44 "2024-10-29T16:46:17Z")
Tom Stoppard: 1967 (London premiere of _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead_). ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/45 "2024-10-29T18:03:47Z")
Nick Offerman: 2009 when he was cast in _Parks and Recreation_. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/46 "2024-10-29T21:17:43Z")
> [@GailForce](#): > > Chime in if I’ve left anyone’s pick off the list so far, feel free to chime in to settle years for which we have multiple nominations (who was the more sensational hit, or who had the more successful career), and please nominate a few more years and artists, particularly of the non-musical type. When was Robin Williams’ breakthrough? Meryl Streep’s? Robin Williams: 1978 (the year _Mork & Mindy_ premiered) Meryl Streep: 1979 (release of **Kramer vs. Kramer** ) ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/47 "2024-10-29T21:43:17Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I’ve always considered Herman’s Hermits the most lightweight and vanilla band of the so-called British invasion, Don’t sell them short. They did a couple of great tunes in “Listen People” and “East West.” ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2024, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/48 "2024-10-29T21:55:41Z")
Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t judge a band from which I only know two or three hit singles, though those are all bubblegum. But I thought the same about the Monkees before I bought their box set “Music Box” for peanuts. It opened my eyes/ears and now I can admit that they were much better than their reputation and made a lot of good music. ---
**Author:** ![GailForce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dfb087/32.png) [@GailForce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GailForce)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2024, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/49 "2024-10-30T16:04:31Z")
Thanks for the info about Williams’ TV debut—I’ve got a nitpicky question about which year to place his breakthrough in, not that we’re doing anything here that’s definitive anyway. But If someone like Williams debuts in a new hit show on September 14, 1978 but wins an Emmy for it in 1979, appears on the March 12, 1979 cover of TIME, etc., do we count 1978 as his year or 1979? Based on the reasoning of the Beatles’ breakthrough being 1964, though they had their first hit records in the fall of 1963, I’m inclined to go with the more recent year. While I was looking up Williams’ information in IMDB, I looked up Hoffman’s. That example is even better, since the official release date of The Graduate, the film that turned him instantly from a nobody into a movie star, was December 21, 1967. Obviously, his breakthrough year must have been 1968, when he was nominated for an Academy Award. In my opinion, a “breakthrough” year is when somebody goes from “Who’s he?” (or “who’s she?” or “who are they?”) into a major star. Most people don’t have such years, and there’s no shame in breaking through over a period of three or five years’ good work–in Streep’s case, she’d been a rising star for a year or two before “Kramer vs. Kramer,” having well-reviewed but definitely secondary or tertiary supporting roles in Manhattan, The Deer Hunter, Julia and a few others in previous years. We can quibble about this later, of course–I just want to register my opinion on this as early as I can. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2024, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/50 "2024-10-30T21:32:44Z")
Graham Norton (who I believe is pretty well known in the US) shot to fame in the UK when he did a stint as guest presenter on The Jack Docherty Show. His brief period of filling in earned him a nomination at the 1997 British Comedy Awards as Best Newcomer, up against… Jack Docherty (amongst others). Norton won, and rapidly eclipsed Docherty and pretty much everyone else in the UK chat show world. j ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2024, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/51 "2024-10-31T00:13:38Z")
> [@GailForce](#): > > Denzel Washington’s? I don’t think Denzel had a breakthrough year. By 1992 or so he was a major movie star, but at that point he had been in the public eye for a decade, both on TV (_St. Elsewhere_) and in various movies. He was one of those actors who was always respected, his fame growing gradually, organically from one year to the next. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2024, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/52 "2024-10-31T00:30:42Z")
> [@GailForce](#): > > Dylan 1963 is a good example. He got a rave review from the NY Times in 1961, but that was his break but not any kind of breakthrough, and then he put out his first album but he wrote only two songs on it. In 1963, his Freewheelin’ album was released with many now-classics on it, and he was the talk of the–well, everywhere. I was thinking 1965 for Dylan, not to minimize what he did in 1963. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2024, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/53 "2024-10-31T01:56:36Z")
Guns N Roses had a break though year in 1988 when their album _Appetite for Destruction_ went to Number One on Billboard charts… ---
**Author:** ![GailForce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/dfb087/32.png) [@GailForce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GailForce)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2024, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/54 "2024-10-31T15:44:16Z")
As we get closer to exhausting the list of true breakthrough years and artists, we naturally begin to expand the definitions. I don’t think we’re quite there yet, but I’ve noticed the last few nominations (including my own—I agree that Denzel‘s fame was more gradual than it was sudden, as was Bogart’s) are pretty sketchy. Not that my own personal experience is any kind of authority, but I honestly have not even heard of one nominee (Nick Offerman) to this day, much less bowed down to him as a mega-superstar. No doubt, this is a personal limitation of my own, rather than a belittling of Mr. Offerman’s stardom, but I do need to wonder if my ignorance speaks to the limits of his universal fame. Maybe there are years in which simply no one has had a breakthrough to stardom? Probably so. I’m thinking that unless there is a loud chorus rebutting me, and claiming “Are you crazy? Everybody knows who Nick Offerman is!”, I’ll be inclined to categorize him as a TV star (?) but not as someone who is known throughout the world and has gone on to dominate his field (which I assume is acting?). May I hear from the chorus? Do you all recognize Nick Offerman as a giant who broke through to fame in the year 2009? ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2024, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/55 "2024-10-31T19:34:10Z")
Heh - Looking back I just realized that 1996 is Norton, and for 1997 I just proposed …Norton (Graham). I just wish that had been deliberate. j ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2024, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/56 "2024-10-31T20:34:51Z")
John Denver had a rocky start (no pun intended). His first solo album was only moderately successful. RCA told him, “We need an album with _hits_.” But his second album did even more poorly. And his third album was mostly covers, and was the worst of the three. RCA noticed a downhill trend and told him, “If you’re next album is not a hit, we’re dropping you.” His fourth album, _Poems, Prayers & Promises_, was released in 1971 and contained the song, “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” So 1971 for John Denver. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2024, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/57 "2024-10-31T21:18:26Z")
This is beginning to look too Brit-centric but… In my memory, Idris Elba went from generally unknown to star almost with his first appearance as Stringer Bell in The Wire (in 2002). j ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2024, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/58 "2024-10-31T21:55:02Z")
Samuel L. Jackson had been a respected but largely obscure character actor for a while - and then he walked in and stole _Pulp Fiction_ from a whole bunch of much bigger stars and became a Hollywood icon basically overnight. 1994 was DEFINITELY his year. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2024, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/59 "2024-10-31T22:07:05Z")
Morgan Freeman had been a working actor, on TV, film, and stage since the mid-1960s, but he didn’t break through until the late '80s. One could argue that his breakthrough year was either 1987 (in which he had his first Academy Award nomination, for _Street Smart_), or 1989, in which he had starring roles in _Driving Miss Daisy_ (for which he received his second Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actor), _Glory_, and _Lean on Me_. Either way, he didn’t really break through as a star until he was in his 50s. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2024, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955/60 "2024-10-31T22:16:41Z")
Mary Martin in 1938. She was a complete unknown when she sung “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” on Broadway and immediately became one of their biggest stars. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/artistic-breakthrough-years/1008955.md?page=4)