Before they were famous, celebrities had ‘real’ jobs too

You know these titans of entertainment for their acting and singing abilities. Long before they reached stardom, each worked a regular job to pay the bills. Which famous person did which job before becoming a celebrity? Test your knowledge with this quiz.

 

1. What job did Elvis Presley once hold?

A: House painter

B: Truck driver

C: Carpenter

D: Bulldozer operator

2. This early job put John Wayne on the path to becoming a movie legend. What was it?

A: Scriptwriter

B: Makeup artist

C: Set prop mover

D: Audio technician

3. While honing his craft as a crooner, which celebrity singer once delivered newspapers and was a shipyard riveter?

A: Perry Como

B: Bing Crosby

C: Dean Martin

D: Frank Sinatra

4. How did movie star Brad Pitt once pay the bills?

A: Delivering singing telegrams

B: Male stripper

C: Dressing as a chicken

D: Giving interpretive dance lessons

5. What early job did rocker Freddie Mercury hold?

A: Travel agent

B: Baggage handler

C: Pet groomer

D: Manicurist

6. What late-night TV talk show made money in high school as a magician?

A: Johnny Carson

B. Dick Cavett

B: David Letterman

C: Jay Leno

7. Singer Madonna lasted just one week at this job:

A: Hairstylist

B: Waitress

C: Doughnut maker

D: Caterer

Answers:

1: B. Before being crowned the “King of Rock ’n’ Roll,” Elvis drove a truck for the Crown Electric Co. in Memphis, Tenn.

2: C. As a favor to Southern Cal’s football coach (who gave him free game tickets), director John Ford hired the hunky 6-foot-4 inch young man to lug scenery and props around movie sets. That led to him being an extra, then to a few speaking parts, and then … the rest, as they say, is history.

3: D. Ol’ Blue Eyes worked his way out of his Hoboken, N.J., neighborhood while also paying his dues as a singer.

4: C. Though he’s been making moviegoers swoon for more than 30 years, no one recognized him in one role. Pitt donned a chicken costume and waved at passing drivers outside a restaurant.

5: B. Years before belting out “We Will Rock You” as frontman for the supergroup Queen, Mercury labored as an unglamorous luggage handler for British Airways at London’s Heathrow Airport.

6: A. The future king of late-night TV did magic tricks for $3 a show while in high school. He later spoofed himself in his recurring “Carnac the Magnificent” sketches.

7: C. She may have been a 1980s icon as the “Material Girl,” but before that, Madonna made doughnuts at a Dunkin in New York City. She told Howard Stern she was fired for “playing with the jelly squirter machine.” (She was also a hat checker at the Russian Tea Room. Briefly.)

J. Mark Powell is a novelist and former TV journalist. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.