Lets say you have a celebrity couple. Lets call them David and Victoria. David is a promising young footballer (the real kind) while Victoria is a member of one of the most famous international bands in the world. In a couple of years David is now regarded as one of the best players in the world, while Victoria’s band has split though she is still famous and successful. 5 years after they met David is more famous.
As you can probably tell David and Victoria are the Beckhams. When they got together in 1996, David was barely in the Manchester United First Team and Posh was well…Posh Spice*. After 1998 he was for several years one of the best footballers in the world and she struggled as a singer, though lately as he nears the end of his career, hers is picking up again.
I want you to name couples where the less prominent partner independently achieved success and fame at a similar level to the other after they got together. Eclipse is not necessary, but independent is. So Hilary Clinton does not count, sans Bill she would not have achieved anything resembling what she did.
So we have one , the Beckhams. Anyone else.
*OTH does anyone who was a teenager (like me) at that actually admit to having ever bought a spice girls record?
I’d say William H Macy was more famous then Felicity Huffman before they married. Maybe not by much, but I knew him pre-1997, never heard of her until Desperate Housewives.
My friends and adopted parents William Bayer and Paula Wolfert.
For years, Bill was the breadwinner and award-winning author for his numerous crime novels . Bill’s books are still translated into French and he has a bigger following there while barely noticed here in states (although one of his characters, Janek, was made into a television show).
All that time, Paula toiled away at a few little cookbooks which mostly went out of print but with the rise of the online foodie community with blogging and Twitter, Paula’s books are seeing a new renaissance of re-prints as she is now considered one of the elder stateman grande dames of the culinary world.
Tom Cruise was a bigger star (at least in the US) than Nicole Kidman when the married. Her career really took off but his really didn’t falter (his image did take a hit after the Oprah couch jumping) so I’m not sure if that fits the OP premise.
Sean Penn and Madonna (unless the OP means to limit this to couples who are still together). When they got married, although Penn had had some acting success, Madonna was much the bigger star. Penn’s multiple Oscar nominations came much later.
For anyone who doesn’t know, this is the general premise of the movie(s) A Star is Born- up and coming marries established star and then eclipses him.
Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna have a new reality show. I haven’t seen it but it’s similar to this: Lisa was by far the lesser known when they married and now he’s largely forgotten (hasn’t done much of note since leaving L.A. Law, a show not that popular in reruns) while she’s gone onto a busy career as a TV host.
When John Derek married Mary Cathleen Collins he was a famous actor/director (though not particularly renowned for his acting talent and perhaps more famous for having been married to Ursula Andress and Linda Evans) and she was a totally unknown teenager. A few years later as Bo Derek she was a world famous superstar and he was “that guy from 10 Commandments she married who’s like way older than her dad”.
When Nick Lachey married Jessica Simpson his reps tried to convince him to have her sign a pre-nup since he was coming out of 98 Degrees and a moderate millionaire and she was just a rising starlet. That prenup, which didn’t come to pass, would have cost him dearly since by the time they divorced his career was, to put it nicely, not exactly sizzling and she had earned tens of millions of dollars.
There is a joke about the Clinton’s stopping at a gas station in Arkansas, and Bill wondering what would have happened if Hillary had married someone like the pump jockey instead of him. Hillary’s response was that the pump jockey would be President, and Bill would be pumping gas.
Actually, that was a line in West Wing when Jed Bartlet was trying to write a toast for Abigail’s birthday, he comments that she could have chosen another guy during their courtship and her response was that HE would have ended up being president…
Must be a noticeable difference in success and fame at the time the couple got together.
Must have achieved success independently, i.e through work of their own, although using contacts of the other partner is fine.
Must have done in during the subsistence of the relationship, people who are no longer together are ok if the initial success came during the relationship.
There is no need to have eclipsed the other partner though cases where this happened are acceptable.
I think it might not quite fit the OP’s criteria, but I suggest Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey. Jessica had become a professional singer before meeting Nick, but the group he was in, 98 Degrees, had achieved some degree of success while she was still up-and-coming as a pop artist. When they met (she was an opening act for a 98 Degrees/Ricky Martin tour), she was just starting out on a major label, while 98 Degrees had already established a degree of success in the pop market. They achieved parity for a bit-- in fact, I’d argue that her initial bout of popularity was due to her connection with 98 Degrees, which is where I think my suggestion could fail the OP-- but then Nick and Jessica decided to put their marriage on display for an MTV reality show.
98 Degrees was fading as a group, and Jessica was a minor success, never was able to hit Christina/Britney/Justin levels… but the show launched Jessica into “celebrity” status, famous for being Jessica Simpson, rather than famous for her music career. Nick got eclipsed pretty damn quickly; he was portrayed on the show as being smarter than Jessica, but rather boring… not the exciting person that makes for a good celebrity. Today, Jessica’s a household name, while Nick has faded from the spotlight. Jessica seemed like she was on a fast track to Willa-Ford-ville before the show… she’s been a Britney-level celebrity ever since. For this, I’d argue that this case could fit the OP’s request; Jessica did achieve some success through her association with Nick, but her establishment as a “star,” even if a somewhat trashy one, has been pretty much independent of him.
Sharon and Ozzy, I don’t think Sharon was at all famous (as far as the general public is concerned…I’m guessing she was still a big name in the music industry) until The Osbourne’s hit the airwaves. At the moment, I’d go out on a limb and say that she’s more famous then Ozzy.
They never married, but… Aaron Sorkin, hotshot writer/director, was for quite a while involved with actress/singer Kristin Chenoweth. His career has held steady, though a drug arrest briefly derailed it a few years back. She starred on Broadway in Wicked and has been in continual demand as a character actress in movies and television, although it would be hard to point to a film or television role that knocked it out of the park for her (The West Wing? Glee? Not quite). Still, she’s a lot likelier to get recognized walking down the street than he is and is arguably the more famous of the two.
Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon. She hit it big first, but I’d have to say he has by this point eclipsed her.
I had never heard of Tom Arnold before he married Roseanne Barr. He certainly became more famous after he married her, and probably even more so after they split up, though it’s debatable whether his success ever eclipsed hers.
Some film theorist believe A Star is Born is based on the Frank Fay/Barbara Stanwyck marriage.
The Audrey Hepburn/Mel Ferrer marriage is sometimes cited as another case of this. Although its arguable if Mel Ferrer was ever a bigger star than Hepburn anywhere other than in his own head.
Demi and Bruce. She was no. 1 box office star and highest paid actress. He has gone on to great financial success making strings of movies. She got enough power to chose her own projects. She sucked at it. She blew up her career.
I think it did. After Roseanne went off the air, she essentially retired (guest shots on Third Rock, voice acting for cartoons about farm animals, not much else) while Tom headlined around 80 incredibly crappy films, starred in two TV shows and guest starred in about 20 other series. Slight edge goes to Tom. Of course, her semi-retirement was by choice; his won’t be.