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.
Okay. I wasn’t sure because it was posted with two serious comments about John Travolta and Robert DeNiro.
Ron Howard and Clint Eastwood went from being well-known actors to being primarily known as movie directors.
Ron Howard is more like Rob Reiner than Clint Eastwood - Ron had a nice little television show, but Eastwood was an international star.
she did a radio comedy before tv where she wasn’t too ditzy.
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.
She also co-starred in a Marx Brothers movie (Room Service )and a Three Stooges Short 9Three Little Pigskins) before she became “Queen of the Bs”, so it’s not as if she was a stranger to comedy.
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.
The Fonz now sells reverse mortgages.
That is all.
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?
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. 
- 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
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.
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.
If we’re going historical, it’s probably hard to beat Eric of Pomerania, who was king of the Kalmar Union but was deposed and promptly embarked upon a new career as a pirate.
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
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.
Not to mention that whole Antiques Roadshow gig. 
But, seriously, Mark Wahlberg is also a very committed church-goer (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.