Stars Who Didn’t Hit Their Stride Until After They Turned 40

Jane Lynch had been in many television series before her career took an upward turn in 2000 when she appeared in Christopher Guest’s send-up of dog shows, “Best in Show.” Lynch’s career continued to climb as the amped-up cheerleading coach Sue Sylvester on the TV series “Glee.” That role landed her the first of her five Emmy Awards. Lynch has also won an Emmy as a comedian on the downside of her career in “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.”

Rugged Irish-born actor Liam Neeson was an amateur boxer and forklift operator before he started performing on the stage in the 1970s and 1980s. His career began to shift into higher gear with films like “Shining Through” and “Deception,” but his breakthrough role was as the Austrian businessman Oskar Schindler, who saved hundreds of Jewish lives during World War I, in “Schindler’s List.” Neeson has gone on to star in the title role of “Michael Collins” and in the “Taken” series, among other things.

Lucille Ball appeared in many films in the 1930s and 1940s, including the Marx Brothers romp “Room Service”, sometimes uncredited. A radio show in which she played a scatterbrained housewife prompted CBS to offer her a similar role in a comedy in the emerging medium of television. She dyed her hair its trademark red and starred with husband Desi Arnaz in “I Love Lucy,” one of television’s earliest hits, which began its run in 1951.

British comedian Ricky Gervais rose to stardom in the U.K. by creating and starring in the original sitcom “The Office,” which first aired when he turned 40. Gervais exported the sitcom to these shores and the show became a hit in the U.S., and won him the first of his two Emmy Awards. More recently, he starred in the Netflix series “After Life,” which he created and wrote.

Billy Bob Thornton had appeared in films such as “Tombstone” and “For the Boys,” but his breakthrough role came as the mentally impaired man with a violent past who returns to his hometown in “Sling Blade.” Thornton also wrote and directed the film, which won him an Oscar for Best Screenplay.

Bob Ross became famous for his wet-on-wet painting technique, in which oil paints are applied on top of one another to create finished paintings in under an hour. His instructional program “The Joy of Painting” debuted in 1983 on public television, attracted millions of viewers, and ran for more than 10 years. Ross connected with his audience because of light humor and easy-going demeanor.

Danny Trejo’s career path has been unlike that of most actors. After serving time in San Quentin, he met a producer of the film “Runaway Train” while he was speaking at a drug rehabilitation event. His tough, tattooed looks and boxing ability eventually landed him a part in the movie. Trejo is regularly cast in Robert Rodriquez’s films as a tough guy or assassin, and spoofed his character in Rodriguez’s Spy Kids movies.

Laverne Cox, a transgender actor, burst into the limelight in 2013 with her groundbreaking role of Sophia Burset in the critically lauded prison series “Orange is the New Black.” She became the first openly transgender actress to be nominated for a Primetime acting Emmy and the first transgender woman to win a Daytime Emmy as an executive producer. Cox recently appeared on the Netflix series “Inventing Anna.”

Melissa McCarthy’s brassy on-screen personality landed her memorable roles in films “Spy,” “The Heat,” and the television show “Mike & Molly.” Her breakthrough year came in 2011. Her role in “Bridesmaids,” a bawdy comedy about competing bridesmaids, earned her the first of her two Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominations. She also won the first of her two Emmy Awards that year for outstanding lead actress in a comedy series in “Mike & Molly.”

Norman Reedus stars as Daryl Dixon in the zombiefest “The Walking Dead,” which began airing in 2010, and it’s that role that has made him a major star. Reedus’s screen debut was in Guillermo Del Toro”s 1997 horror thriller “Mimic” (1997). He’s also been in “American Gangster,” “8MM,” and “Deuces Wild.”

Octavia Spencer has made a career out of playing sweetly willful characters who stand up for themselves. She appeared on TV series such as “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “Ugly Betty,” and “The Big Bang Theory.” In 2011, she played African-American maid Minny Jackson in “The Help,” whose challenges, and those of her colleagues, in the 1960s are written about in a book by an aspiring white writer. Spencer won an Oscar for her performance. Spencer also received Oscar nominations for “Hidden Figures” and “The Shape of Water.”

Peter Dinklage wowed critics with his portrayal of a man born with dwarfism who starts a new life in “The Station Agent” in 2003. But it was his role as Tyrion Lannister in the mammoth hit “Game of Thrones” that propelled him into A-lister status. Dinklage won four Emmys for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series. He currently stars in the Oscar-nominated “Cyrano.”

Classically trained British actor Alan Rickman gained cinema fame in his role as terrorist Hans Gruber in the action blockbuster “Die Hard.” Rickman would go on to play the imperious Professor Snape in the Harry Potter movies and Irish freedom fighter Eamon de Valera in the biopic “Michael Collins.”

Kathy Bates had enjoyed success on Broadway by winning a Tony in 1983 and appeared in television series “China Beach” and “L.A. Law.” But it was the film adaptation of the Stephen King horror novel “Misery” that vaulted Bates into mainstream stardom in 1990, earning her a Best Actress Oscar. Notable film appearances followed, such as “Fried Green Tomatoes,” “Dolores Claiborne,” and “Titanic.”

“Sex and the City,” a series that tapped into the urban zeitgeist of the late 1990s, followed the lives of four New York career women. One of them was the sex-crazy Samantha Jones, played by Kim Catrall. The actress was on the HBO show for all 94 episodes. Before that, Catrall played the object of teenagers’ affections as a teacher in the comedy “Porky’s.”

Bryan Cranston’s first noteworthy role was as the oafish father on the Fox sitcom “Malcolm in the Middle” in 2000. That would be a prelude to his career-defining role as the chemistry teacher turned meth dealer in the acclaimed series “Breaking Bad.” After three Emmy nominations for “Malcolm in the Middle,” Cranston picked up five Emmys for “Breaking Bad.”

Comedian Steve Carell’s career-shifting role was as the cringeworthy office manager in the quasi-documentary-style sitcom “The Office,” which ran from 2005 to 2013. Carell had gained notice in the film “Bruce Almighty” in 2003. His subsequent film career also includes “Little Miss Sunshine” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.”

On stage, the big screen, or television, Viola Davis has found success in every venue. Her breakthrough film role was in the 2008 movie “Doubt,” for which she was nominated for an Oscar. She was nominated three years later for “The Help” and in 2016 she won the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for “Fences.”

After appearing on 1970s shows “All in the Family” and “Kojak,” and films such as “All the President’s Men” and “Serpico,” F. Murray Abraham won the Best Actor Oscar for his role as Mozart’s jealous rival Antonio Salieri in “Amadeus” in 1984. Abraham, with 131 acting credits, has been quite busy since his star turn in “Amadeus.” Among his more notable recent appearances was in the long-running series “Homeland.”

Gangster film fans might remember Samuel L. Jackson’s appearance as the ill-fated, small-time crook in “Goodfellas” in 1990. He played a criminal again in “Pulp Fiction” four years later and earned accolades, including an Oscar nominations, for his role as the Bible-quoting hitman Jules Winnfield. An actor with 197 credits, Jackson has frequently collaborated with directors Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee.

Ann Dowd has 107 acting credits, according to IMDb. Her breakthrough role was as the fast-food manager who interrogates an employee falsely accused of stealing moneyin a phone call to the restaurant. Dowd would go on to earn an Emmy nomination for her role in “The Leftovers” and won an Emmy playing Aunt Lydia in the dystopian series “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

Leslie Jones played small parts in movies as an angry customer or office worker before she hit it big as part of the comedy ensemble on “Saturday Night Live.” She also appeared in the all-female version of the reboot of “Ghostbusters” in 2016.

After wowing the judges and the audience on “Britain’s Got Talent” with her robust mezzo-soprano voice, Susan Boyle released her debut album, “I Dreamed a Dream,” in November 2009 and it sold 700,000 copies in the first week. It was the biggest female debut since Billboard Soundscan started keeping track.

Julia Child is famous for mainstreaming French cooking through her first cookbook, published in 1961, just before she turned 50. That led to her popular TV program on public television “The French Chef,” among the first of TV’s cooking shows. Her often high-pitched form of speech was lampooned by Dan Akroyd on the sketch show “Saturday Night Live.”

Bea Arthur was a Tony Award-winning actress in “Mame” before she found fame on television. Did she ever. Arthur played Maude, the quick-to-argue liberal foil for Carroll O’Connor’s conservative Archie Bunker on the show “All in the Family.” That led to her own show, “Maude,” that addressed issues such as abortion and feminism and won her the first of her two Emmys. Later, she starred in the sitcom “Golden Girls.”

Morgan Freeman didn’t get widespread recognition until he was nominated for an Academy Award for the film “Street Smart” (1987) at age 50. A torrent of roles in major movies followed, among them “Amistad,” “The Sum of All Fears,” “Se7en,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “The Shawshank Redemption,” and “Million Dollar Baby,” for which he won an Oscar. Freeman has had a total of five Academy Award nominations

Sometimes called “the first lady of television,” Betty White enjoyed a career that virtually spanned all of television history. After being known as a frequent guest on daytime game shows, White created one of TV’s iconic characters as the jealous and promiscuous television host Sue Ann Nivens on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” White continued her career well into her 90s, appearing on reality shows, “Saturday Night Live,” and sitcoms such as “Hot in Cleveland” and “Golden Girls.”

Most of Christoph Waltz’s television and film work was done in Europe. His role as Col. Hans Landa in the Quentin Tarantino World War II film “Inglorious Bаsterds” won him the first of his two Academy Awards in 2010. He would win again three years later as Dr. King Schultz in “Django Unchained.”

Filmgoers will recall John Mahoney from his appearance in “Moonstruck” in 1987, but he hit his stride at age 53 for his recurring role as the father of two persnickety psychiatrist sons on the comedy “Frasier” in 1993.

Michael Emerson did not get into acting until he was 40 when he graduated from an acting program in Alabama. His breakthrough role as Ben Linus on the ABC mystery drama “Lost” earned him the second of his two Emmy Awards. On the big screen, Emerson has appeared in the grisly horror flick “Saw.”

Joy Behar had been a receptionist, teacher, and stand-up comedian before she became a substitute host for Barbara Walters on the all-woman-hosted issue discussion program “The View” in 1997 at age 55. She resonated with audiences and has remained a fixture on the show.

Martha Stewart began her career as a stockbroker and then switched gears to become a major lifestyle influencer, building a media empire along the way. Besides her publications, she’s been the host of “Martha Stewart Living,” “Martha,” and “Martha Bakes.”

Regis Philbin was probably best known as the sidekick on the talk show “The Joey Bishop Show.” When Philbin was paired with Kathie Lee Gifford on a morning chat show originating in New York City in 1988, the ratings jumped. Philbin would go on to host the game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” which became a hit in 1999.

The master of the one-liners at comedy clubs and casinos and a frequent guest on late-night talk shows, Rodney Dangerfield broke through in motion pictures in the farce “Caddyshack” in 1980. Other comedy successes followed with “Easy Money” and “Back to School.”

Before she won two Emmys for her work as a presidential aide on “The West Wing” and as the droll neighbor on “Desperate Housewives,” Kathryn Joosten was a psychiatric nurse in Chicago.