# Surprising Career Arcs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 2, 2012, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958 "2012-07-02T02:08:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/61 "2012-07-03T22:46:07Z")
The person who immediately came to mind to me is Scarlett Johansson. She had the supporting role in _Ghost World_ which starred Thora Birch, but we all know whose career took off from there. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/62 "2012-07-03T22:49:58Z")
> [@JustinC](#): > > Yep, or rather just a one-liner I remember. Maybe I should’ve added a smilie but I thought as I was using a character’s name it wasn’t required. Okay. I wasn’t sure because it was posted with two serious comments about John Travolta and Robert DeNiro. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/63 "2012-07-03T22:51:35Z")
Ron Howard and Clint Eastwood went from being well-known actors to being primarily known as movie directors. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/64 "2012-07-03T23:00:38Z")
Ron Howard is more like Rob Reiner than Clint Eastwood - Ron had a nice little television show, but Eastwood was an international star. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2012, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/65 "2012-07-03T23:22:09Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Lucile Ball went from serious movie roles to being the prat-falling ditz of TV fame. she did a radio comedy before tv where she wasn’t too ditzy. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/66 "2012-07-04T00:45:24Z")
JohnGalt - Similarly, after having the supporting role in “Girl, Interrupted” Angelina Jolie got an Oscar & a mega-career. Wynona Ryder found that film’s starring role to be one of the last, if not the last, of her major roles. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/67 "2012-07-04T00:45:42Z")
> [@johnpost](#): > > she did a radio comedy before tv where she wasn’t too ditzy. She also co-starred in a Marx Brothers movie ( **Room Service** )and a Three Stooges Short 9 **Three Little Pigskins** ) before she became “Queen of the Bs”, so it’s not as if she was a stranger to comedy. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/68 "2012-07-04T01:05:35Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](#): > > Ron Howard is more like Rob Reiner than Clint Eastwood - Ron had a nice little television show, but Eastwood was an international star. Well two huge television shows. Admittedly he was had a supporting role on the first one but was the star of the second one. His career arc was not surprising though. He very early on decided he wanted to be a director. IIRC early on he used his name and fame as an actor to get Roger Corman to give him his first film directing job. It was his goal from a very young age and he worked to become that. Eastwood took a different arc. ---
**Author:** ![MyFactCheckBounced](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MyFactCheckBounced](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFactCheckBounced)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/69 "2012-07-04T01:27:06Z")
The Fonz now sells reverse mortgages. That is all. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/70 "2012-07-04T05:48:23Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > [Some folks are NOT surprised!](http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/liam-neeson-youre-fucked.jpg) I laughed out loud, thanks. How about **Sofia Coppola** , going from nearly universal scorn at her acting when she was pushed into a huge movie (I blame Winona Ryder, not Sofia) to respected (depending on who you ask) Oscar-nominated director and Oscar-winning screenwriter. Robert Downey Jr. seems to be a poster boy for this topic. From teen promise to Oscar nominee to mind-bogglingly Total Fuckup to Huge Superstar. Who knew back in the late '90’s that Downey would not only still be alive but be the stable megastar he is? ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2012, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/71 "2012-07-04T15:12:23Z")
> [@Snooooopy](#): > > Liam Neeson’s new side career as grizzled action badass is an eyebrow-raiser. Who knew he’d be so suited to the task? More to the point his wife was killed in a tragic accident and now he plays guys who rescue their wives and/or family from some awful thing or another. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2012, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/72 "2012-07-05T04:54:53Z")
[Peter Sellers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Sellers): - child vaudeville performer (Windmill theatre) - backstage worker in theatre - private detective - drummer - RAF Airman during war - variety theatre - British radio comedy star (Ray’s a Laugh, Goon Show) - British film star (The Ladykillers, I’m All Right Jack and The Mouse That Roared) - mostly light drama/comedies - International film star (Lolita, Dr Strangelove) - drama/black comedy - International film star (Pink Panther) - farce - International film star (Being There) - adult comedy/drama ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2012, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/73 "2012-07-05T05:47:53Z")
Jackie Earle Haley: child actor best known for BAD NEWS BEARS, the right age to play second-banana when a twentysomething Dennis Quaid or Tom Cruise needs to excel in the leading-man “teen” role. He brings his pal along on an audition that works out a heck of a lot better for ol’ Johnny Depp. He eventually finds himself doing sitcom work and animation voice-overs and decides to call it a day. A decade and change goes by; as he puts it, \*“I was just working – driving a limousine and delivering pizzas. I was a security officer for a while. I was a furniture refinisher for a while – hated it. I just didn’t have the arms for it. I also hooked up with this videographer and started to crew for him. I would run sound, I learned how to grip. I even learned how to be a cameraman, all the time trying to get my own corporate video thing going.” \* And in his mid-40s he gets back into acting, and right off the bat his portrayal of a pedophile gets him an Oscar nomination, and suddenly he’s playing a costumed superhero and signing a multi-picture deal to star as Freddy Krueger. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2012, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/74 "2012-07-05T13:23:38Z")
He’s not primarily noted as an actor (although he was one), but the career of Sam Houston had one heckuva arc. I learned about it from Michener’s dual bio of him and Santa Ana, _The Eagle and the Raven_: 1.) Shop clerk in his family’s store. Hated it so: 2.) Ran away and joined the Vherokee Indians, living as a member of the tribe and learning fluent Cherokee 3.) Returned home. Started running a schoolhouse, in which he kept just barely ahead of his students. He was considered a good teacher, because he was bigger than his students and could keep them in line 4.) Also an actor on the local stage at this time 5.)Joined the army in the War of 1812, rose to level of Lieutenant 6.) Having become good friends with Andrew Jackson, became his agent to the Cherokee. Became eneny with John C. Calhoun, and resigned 7.)Passed the bar and became a lawyer in Tennessede 8.) Became a member of the House of Re[presentatives, representing Tennessee 9.) Became Governor of Tennessee. After a spectacular break-up of his marriage (under circumstances still not completely discloced), he resigned 10.) Went back to living with the Cherokee and became a well-known drunkard. Was interviewed by Alexis de Toqueville. At this time his common-law wife was a Cherokee woman named Tianna Rogers, who he lsater married (although still married to his Tennessee wife). Their eventual descendant is the humorist Will Rogers 11.)Goes to Washington DC to complain about injustrices to the Cherokee. Gets into a very public brawl with Congressman William Stanbery of Ohio and beats him with his hickory cane. Is put on trial and has Francis Scott Key (!) as his attorney 12.) Converts to Catholicism so that he can own land in Mexican province of Coahuila y Texas. Goes to Texas without Tianna, who elects to stay in Oklahoma 13.) Becomes involved in Texas independence movement, becomes Major General in Texas Army. 14.) When Texas declare independence, become Commander in chief of Texas army. 15.) Captures Santa Ana at the Battle of San Jacinto, effectively wuinning the war 16.) twice elected Governor of the independent Republic of Texas 17.) After the annexation of Texas, becomes its Senator 18.) elected governor of the state of Texas 19.) Refused to take the Oath of Loyalty to the Confederacy. Also refused offer of troops from Lincoln to keep Texas Unionist, and so was ejected from office. He was wounded a gazillion times it seems, once with an arrow to the groin that he insisted be yanked out (!), then returned to the fight. A pretty awesome and idiosyncratic individual. ---
**Author:** ![Telperion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telperion/32/509_2.png) [@Telperion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperion)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2012, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/75 "2012-07-05T17:13:59Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > He’s not primarily noted as an actor (although he was one), but the career of Sam Houston had one heckuva arc. If we’re going historical, it’s probably hard to beat [Eric of Pomerania](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_of_Pomerania), who was king of the Kalmar Union but was deposed and promptly embarked upon a new career as a pirate. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/76 "2012-07-06T12:52:20Z")
No mention of Arnold Schwarzenegger? Born in Austrian as the son of a Nazi. A Mr. Universe champion bodybuilder who could barely speak English. Starts off in some absurd Hercules film. Becomes the most prominant action film star ever. Then gets elected governor of California as a Republican. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/77 "2012-07-06T13:32:13Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > No mention of Arnold Schwarzenegger? > > Born in Austrian as the son of a Nazi. A Mr. Universe champion bodybuilder who could barely speak English. Starts off in some absurd Hercules film. Becomes the most prominant action film star ever. Then gets elected governor of California as a Republican. And marries a Kennedy ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/78 "2012-07-06T16:09:31Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > No mention of Arnold Schwarzenegger? > > Born in Austrian as the son of a Nazi. A Mr. Universe champion bodybuilder who could barely speak English. Starts off in some absurd Hercules film. Becomes the most prominant action film star ever. Then gets elected governor of California as a Republican. And then in 2014 (after it was revealed that bin Laden was killed, not by a bullet but by Ahhhnold’s fist) got elected First Badass-In-Chief. Whose sole job is to get dropped into foreign trouble spots and get feuding world leaders in headlocks until they sign treaties. The only elected official with his own bandolier and clever catchphrases. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/79 "2012-07-06T16:50:38Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > Marky Mark Wahlberg. From a life of juvenile crime (including taking some guys eye out) - to rapper - to underwear model - to a very busy actor. What are the odds??? Not to mention that whole [Antiques Roadshow gig](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/host.html). 😉 But, seriously, Mark Wa **h** lberg is also a [very committed church-goer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Wahlberg) (scroll down; this was one of the only non-Christian websites I could find). ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2012, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958/80 "2012-07-06T17:18:43Z")
> [@lorene](#): > > Not to mention that whole [Antiques Roadshow gig](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/host.html). 😉 > But, seriously, Mark Wa **h** lberg is also a [very committed church-goer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Wahlberg) (scroll down; this was one of the only non-Christian websites I could find). Ahh, another customer for the t-shirt I’ve long planned to make for myself: “Imagine how huge an asshole I’d be without Jesus”. Man, why do stars not get some f’ing Anger Management counseling? Maybe _before_ they hit someone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surprising-career-arcs/626958.md?page=5)