I don’t think that Hackman is a good example. The OP asked for cases for cases in which the person didn’t go into showbiz until later in life. Hackman had been acting in TV and movies for at least 12 years by the time of The French Connection.
Doris Grau, best known as “Lunch Lady Doris” on The Simpsons, was well into her 60’s when she started playing recurring roles on Cheers, The Tracey Ullman Show, and The Critic. Her first live-action film role was Hattie Rifkin, the head of the Silver Foxes Party in The Distinguished Gentleman. Up until then she was a script supervisor for many decades.
Why are people calling actors in their 30’s and 40’s “old”??? You guys are making my prostate swell prematurely! :wally
Not “old” as in old. The OP title says “relatively late”.
Getting into showbusiness for the first real time at such an age (30s or 40s) would probably be considered pretty “late” - though not “old” (in the conventional sense).
The mellifluous Roscoe Lee Browne made his first film appearance at 37. His big break arguably was his role in the 1972 John Wayne flick *The Cowboys * at age 47.
That reminds me of [url="http://imdb.com/name/nm0930254/"Chino Williams, who was 41 when got his gig on “Baretta” and played the bank guard in Jumpin’ Jack Flash.