Even on this thread, Rodney Dangerfield doesn’t get any respect as he didn’t become well known until he appeared as a last minute replacement on the Ed Sullivan show in 1967 when he was 46 and became a movie star in his early 60s. Explaining to the economics professor how the real world works in “Back to School” is one of the all-time revealed truths to the sheltered academicians.
Post 3.
Not a writer, actor or director, but the only one that comes to my mind right now is Susan Boyle.
Dennis Farina was a Chicago cop for 18 years before becoming an actor jn his late 30’s.
Erma Bombeck, who didn’t start writing a household drolleries column for the local weekly paper till she was 37, once did a whole column on people who started a successful career in their late thirties and beyond. One of the people she mentioned was Shirley Temple, who got involved in politics around age 40 and became ambassador to two different countries.
Here’s a list of late bloomers:
Ron Sexsmith - he’s a late bloomer, he’s a slow learner.
(Just a joke - that’s a quotation taken from his latest album. He actually started playing in bars at the age of 17.)
Lewis Black has been active most of his life, but he didn’t become nationally known until he had his first show on Comedy Central in 1998, age 50.
Estelle Harris’s (George Costanza’s mom) first IMDB credit is 1977, when she was almost 50.
/Norman Maclean wrote the Pulitzer Prize nominated “A River Runs Through It” after retirement at the age of 72.
Seasick Steve - born 1941, released his debut album in 2006. He’s done pretty well since then.
Elizabeth Cotten - born 1895, debut album 1958.
The wonderful comic actress Irene Handl (most famous for her films and records with Peter Sellars) only took up acting in her late thirties.
I think she’s at her funniest in *I’m All Right Jack *where she provides great support as the very down to earth, pragmatic wife giving lovely contrast to Sellar’s character’s pomposity.
Wikipedia tells me that R. Lee Ermey was cast in Full Metal Jacket when he was 42 or 43.
FIFTY GOLDANGED POSTS AND YA DON’T MENTION R. LEE ERMEY, YA JACKWAGONS?
Other composers (besides Verdi) who would qualify: Leoš Janáček, César Franck, Elliott Carter, Anton Bruckner