Celebrities Odd Jobs Before They Became Famous

Odd jobs also known as summer jobs in the United States, is working at a series of unrelated or unspecialized jobs, often of a low-paying or a person who does boring or unpleasant work for little money. Some famous celebrities worked odd jobs before they became famous actors. 

1) Sylvester Stallone 

Sylvester Gardenzio “Sly” Stallone is an American actor, screenwriter, producer, and director. well known for his Hollywood action roles, such as the role of boxer Rocky Balboa, the lead character of the Rocky seven film series from 1976 to 2015, and from 1982 to 2008’s four Rambo film series playing the role as soldier John Rambo, and from 2010 to 2014’s The Expendables films as Team Leader Barney Ross. Most of the 14 films in all three franchises, Stallone wrote or is a co-writer and directed many of the films. In 1970, Stallone starred his first starring role in the film The Party at Kitty and Stud’s, a soft core pornography, and was paid for two days work, US$200. He explained that out of desperation, he had done the pornography film, after being evicted from his apartment and became homeless for many days. Stallone also revealed that he slept in the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City for three weeks before he saw a casting notice for the film.

2) Brad Pitt

William Bradley “Brad” Pitt  is an American actor and producer. In 1982, Pitt enrolled in the University of Missouri, after graduating from high school, majoring in journalism with a focus on advertising. Pitt did not feel ready to settle down and two weeks before his graduation, he moved to Los Angeles, since he loved films,and took acting lessons. Pitt worked odd jobs, while taking his acting lessons, he delivered refrigerators, driving limousine and drove exotic dancers around and danced around for El Pollo Loco wearing a chicken suit.

3) Johnny Depp

John Christopher “Johnny” Depp II is an American actor, producer, and musician. Depp began playing guitar at age 12, with the gift of a guitar from his mother. He began playing in different kinds garage bands (a pop music style, a raw and energetic variety of rock and roll that became popular in the mid-1960s). Depp married Lori Anne Allison, the sister of his band’s bass player and singer on December 20, 1983. Lori Anne worked as a makeup artist while Depp worked a variety of odd jobs, such as telemarketer for pens during their marriage. Lori Anne, then, introduced Depp to actor Nicolas Cage, who advised Depp to pursue an acting career. Depp and his wife divorced in 1985.

3) Ashton Kutcher

Christopher Ashton Kutcher  is an American actor, producer, investor and former model. In August 1996, Kutcher enrolled at the University of Iowa, where he planned to take his major, biochemical engineering, because of his desire to find cure for his twin brother’s heart ailment. Kutcher has an older sister named Tausha and a fraternal twin brother, Michael, who had a heart transplant when they were young children. Michael Kutcher  also has cerebral palsy, and is a spokesperson for the advocacy organization Reaching for the Stars. Ashton Kucther’s home life become increasingly stressful when Michael has cardiomyopathy. At college, Kutcher was evicted of his apartment for being too loud and wild. To earn money for his tuition, Kutcher worked summer job during his college for the General Mills plant in the cereal department, in Cedar Rapids, and sometimes sold his blood. While in college at the University of Iowa, Kutcher was approached by a model scout at a bar.

4) Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie Pitt  is an American actress, filmmaker, and humanitarian. Jolie felt isolated when she attended Beverly Hills High School, among the children of some of the area’s affluent families, because her mother’s modest income. Jolie who was extremely thin and was wearing glasses and braces, was teased by other students. Jolie’s attempts at modeling, was a failure. Jolie to an alternative school, Moreno High School, wearing all-black clothing, going out moshing, and living with her live-in boyfriend, experimenting with knife play. At age 16, the relationship ended, and Jolie dropped out of her acting classes and study embalming taking at-home courses and was aspired to become a funeral director.

5) George Clooney

George Timothy Clooney is an American actor, screenwriter, producer, director, and activist. Clooney said, he earned all As and a B in school, in Augusta High School where he attended, and was an enthusiastic player for baseball and basketball. In 1977, Clooney tried out to play professional baseball with the Cincinnati Reds, but failed to pass the player cuts for the first round, and was not offered a contract. George Clooney worked odd jobs and earned money by working in a constructions, cutting tobacco, selling women’s shoes, insurance door-to-door and stocking shelves.

6) Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford is an American actor and film producer, became famous for his starring roles in the original Star Wars epic space film trilogy as Han Solo, and the lead character of the Indiana Jones film series as Dr. Henry Walton “Indiana” Jones, Jr. often shortened to Indy. Harrison Ford was active in the Boy Scouts of America,  achieving Life Scout, its second-highest rank. Ford worked as a counselor for the Reptile Study merit badge at Napowan Adventure Base Scout camp. Director Steven Spielberg decided to depict the young Indiana Jones as a Life Scout in the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade film. In 1960, Ford graduated from Maine Esat High School in 1960, and was the first student voice broadcast on WMTH (first high school radio stations in the United States) his high school’s new radio station, and became first sportscaster during his senior year from 1959 to 1960. Ford also took a drama class to get over his shyness, in the final quarter of his senior year, because of his fascination in acting and called himself a late bloomer. Harrison Ford moved to Los Angeles, California to apply for a job in radio voice overs, but did not get it, but stayed in California. Ford eventually signed a $150 a week contract with the New Talent program of Columbia Pictures, and played bit roles in the films. In 1966, Ford first known part in the film Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round, was an uncredited role as a bellhop. Ford became a self-taught professional carpenter, to support his then-wife and two small sons, because he was unhappy with the roles being offered to him. Ford became a stagehand for the popular rock band The Doors, while working as carpenter. Ford also built a sun deck for actress Sally Kellerman and a recording studio for Brazilian band leader Sérgio Mendes. 

7) Rod Stewart

Roderick David “Rod” Stewart  is a British rock singer-songwriter. Stewart’s father retired at age 65, from the building trade, and purchased a newsagent’s shop when Stewart was in his early teens, and the family lived over the shop. Rod Stewart’s favorite hobby was railway modelling ( is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modeled at a reduced scale). Stewart worked as a newspaper delivery boy in the family shop. At age 15, Stewart left school and worked briefly as a silk screen printer. Stewart worked as a laborer for Highgate Cemetery for a short time, and also worked as a fence erector and sign writer in a North Finchley funeral parlor. 

8) Jennifer Aniston

Jennifer Joanna Aniston is an American actress, producer, and businesswoman. Aniston worked with different part-time jobs such as telemarketer, waitress and bike messenger, and also worked in Off-Broadway productions (is a production of a play, musical or multi-act theatrical entertainment that appears in such a venue), such as For Dear Life and Dancing on Checker’s Grave.

9) Hugh Grant 

Hugh John Mungo Grant is an English actor and film producer, and best known for his role as Charles in the Richard Curtis’ scripted 1994 film, Four Weddings and a Funeral. Grant has variety of odd jobs, such as, he wrote book reviews, worked at Fulham Football Club as assistant groundsman, tried his hand at tutoring, wrote comedy sketches for TV shows,  and was hired as writer and produce radio commercials for products such as Mighty White bread and Red Stripe lager by Talkback Productions, and later made his debut in 1982 as Hughie Grant in the Oxford-finance film, Privileged.

10) Halle Berry

Halle Maria Berry born Maria Halle Berry, is an American actress, film producer, and former fashion model. Halle Berry moved to New York City in 1989, to pursue her acting ambitions. Berry ran out of money and had to live briefly in a homeless shelter while living in New York. Her situation then improved in the later part of 1989, when Berry was cast in the short-lived ABC television series Living Dolls as model Emily Franklin, which was shot in New York and was a spin-off of the hit series Who’s the Boss? Halle Berry was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and lapsed into a coma, during the taping of Living Dolls.

11) Sean Connery

Sir Thomas Sean Connery is a retired Scottish actor and producer. Before becoming a great actor, his first job was as a milkman in Edinburgh with St. Cuthbert’s Co-operative Society. Connery acquired two tattoos when he joined the Royal Navy, and was later discharged from the navy on medical reasons, because of a duodenal ulcer, a condition affecting most of the family’s males generations. After his discharge from the navy, Connery, returned to the co-op, then worked as a lorry driver, a lifeguard at Portobello swimming baths, a laborer, an artist’s model (who poses for any visual artists) for the Edinburgh College of Art, and after a suggestion by former Mr. Scotland, Archie Brennan, he worked as a coffin polisher. As an artist’s model, he was paid 15 shillings an hour.