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 short, fun quiz.
1. What job did Elvis Presley once hold?
A: House painter
B: Truck driver
C: Carpenter
D: Bulldozer operator
Answer: B. Before being crowned the “King of Rock ’n’ Roll,” Elvis drove a truck for the Crown Electric Co. in Memphis, Tenn.
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
Answer: 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 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. 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
Answer: D. Ol’ Blue Eyes worked his way out of his Hoboken, N.J., neighborhood while also paying his dues as a singer.
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
Answer: 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. What early job did rocker Freddie Mercury hold?
A: Travel agent
B: Baggage handler
C: Pet Groomer
D: Manicurist
Answer: 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. 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
Answer: 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. Singer Madonna lasted just one week at this job:
A: Hairstylist
B: Waitress
C: Doughnut maker
D: Caterer
Answer: 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, former TV journalist and diehard history buff.
