15 Stars That Became Successful at the Age When Many Finish Their Careers

Trying something new, and getting used to a new routine is not easy when you’re an adult. The older a person is, the harder it is to change something for them. But there are people that take a little more time to search for themselves than others. Some have spent their entire lives, chasing a dream, and others changed their careers dramatically, but the fact still stands: all of them became famous after the age of 40.

Kathryn Joosten

Kathryn Joosten was born in 1939. For a long time, she worked as a nurse in a psychiatric clinic. She started acting in a community theater at 42. At the beginning of the 90s, she was hired as a street performer at Disneyland. A few years later, she moved to Hollywood, where she was invited to play in episodes in different series.

In 2004, she got the part of Karen McCluskey in Desperate Housewives. This role won her 2 Emmy Awards in 2005 and 2008 when the actress was 65 and 68, respectively.

Stellan Skarsgård

This famous Swedish actor played his best roles after the age of 40 when he started working with Lars von Trier. Here are some of these movies and series: The Kingdom, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, Melancholia, Nymphomaniac.

The first Hollywood role of Stellan Skarsgård was a psychologically unstable immigrant in Noon Wine. The actor was 34 at the time. And after working with von Trier, he became famous outside of Scandinavia. And in 1997, he was invited to Good Will Hunting. This is how his career in the US started, and later Stellan had a lot of really big roles in movies and series and got many prestigious awards and nominations.

William H. Macy

William H. Macy didn’t become an actor right away. He studied to become a vet, but dropped out of college and moved to Chicago, where he studied drama under playwright David Mamet. He worked in his troupe, did commercials, and had small roles on TV.

His breakthrough role was Jerry Lundegaard in the Coen Brothers’ Fargo. He was nominated for the Oscar. Later, he had a lot of other popular characters in movies and series. One of the most fan-favorite roles is that of Frank Gallagher in Shameless.

Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison published her first novel when she was 39. Before that, she was raising kids, and worked as an editor and teacher. Her first novel The Bluest Eye wasn’t a big hit.

Her second novel Sula was very successful. She was 42 when she published it. In 1988, Toni Morrison received the Pulitzer Prize for Beloved, and in 1993, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Bob Odenkirk

Since the age of 25, Bob Odenkirk wrote sketches for Saturday Night Live. He met Ben Stiller there, who offered him a job in his show as an actor and writer. And the show won an Emmy for Best Script.

In 2009, at the age of 46, Bob Odenkirk got his breakthrough role. In Breaking Bad, he portrayed a crooked lawyer, Saul Goodman. The viewers like his character so much, that he even got a spin-off series, Better Call Saul, that got him 5 Emmy nominations.

Ken Jeong

Not many people know it, but the guy from The Hangover used to be doctor Ken Jeong. He had been trying to get a role in a comedy film for 20 years, and only succeeded when he was 37. He appeared in Knocked Up, which was a breakthrough in his career.

He became famous worldwide after the role in The Hangover franchise. Now, Ken Jeong is a judge at The Masked Singer and an anchor of I Can See Your Voice.

Lucille Ball

Until the age of 40, Lucille Ball played supporting roles on stage and in movies, and then, together with her husband Desi Arnaz, they created the sitcom I Love Lucy which broke all the records in terms of popularity in the US. Lucille Ball became one of the greatest stars of American television and became worldwide famous. She was nominated for Emmy 13 times and won 5 awards.

Chus Lampreave

Chus Lampreave became a worldwide-known star after she started working with director Pedro Almodovar. She was an artist and worked as an illustrator when she was first invited to a movie. She had some small parts in Spanish movies.

In 1983, at the age of 53, she appeared in an Almodovar movie for the first time and then in 7 others. She usually portrayed funny ladies in thick-rimmed glasses, and she never got lead roles. But she became the most popular supporting actress in Spain, and is referred to as the “Almodóvar girl”.

Michael Emerson

Michael Emerson is a famous actor and winner of 2 Emmy Awards. But he played his first role at the age of 43. And before, he was a freelance artist and got a master’s degree in acting at the age of 40. He was almost 15 years older than most students, but she didn’t care.

Later, he had roles in such movies and series as The Practice, Lost, Saw, Arrow, and others. Now, he plays Leland Townsend in Evil.

Song Kang-ho

Song Kang-ho played in the theater in his country since the age of 24, but he became really famous after he appeared in Snowpiercer in 2013. He was 46 at the time. He solidified his success when he got a part in Parasite, which won Palme d’Or and Oscar in 2019.

In 2020, The New York Times put him in 6th place on the list of 25 best actors of the 21st century. A new film with him, Broker, won Ecumenical Jury Award in Cannes in 2022. Song Kang-ho became the first South Korean actor to win the Best Actor Award at Cannes.

Julia Child

Julia Child was born in 1912. She finished college and worked as a copywriter, but she didn’t enjoy it. She once visited a French cuisine restaurant, and it was a revelation for her. In 1951, she finished the famous Cordon Bleu cooking academy in Paris and started teaching French cuisine to students in the US.

She also wrote cookbooks that quickly became bestsellers. And in 1963, when she was over 50 years old, the first episode of her show The French Chef appeared on television. It was one of the first programs about cooking.

Hugh Bonneville

British actor Hugh Bonneville started his acting career after he finished college, where he studied theology. Then, he finished graduated from Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.

But he only became famous much later, at the age of 46, when he appeared in Downton Abbey. For the role of Robert Crawley, he got many prestigious awards and nominations.

Sharon Osbourne

Sharon met her future husband, famous musician Ozzy Osbourne when she wasn’t even 18 yet. She played a big role in building his career, but she was behind the scenes all this time.

She became famous after the release of The Osbournes on MTV. The show started in 2002 when Sharon was 49. She won an Emmy for it. After that, she wrote several autobiographies and was a tv-anchor.

Eugene Levy

Canadian actor Eugene Levy was born in 1946. Since the beginning of the 70s, he took part in local theater plays and had small movie roles. He became famous around the entire world in 1999, when he played the father of the main character in American Pie and the sequels.

In 2020, the series Schitt’s Creek ended. He didn’t only have the main role there but was also the writer and producer. He won an Emmy for it and many other awards.

Kim Bodnia

Danish actor Kim Bodnia became famous after the role in Pusher in 1996. And people around the world found out who he was when he appeared in The Bridge. It was released in 2011 when the actor was 46. In 2018, he also had a role in a very popular series Killing Eve.

How old were you when you found your calling? Are there people around you that became successful after the age of 40, or changed their careers completely? Tell us about them!