Gray in the beard

It happens that fame overtakes a person almost on the threshold of kindergarten, but early popularity does not promise a sparkling career at all (sorry, Britney). For others, fame comes at the retirement age and guarantees eternal life in art. For example, we learned and fell in love with the guys from the list below when they were well over thirty, and some were over fifty. It's interesting to see what they did in their youth and what they looked like.

(8 photos in total)

Morgan Freeman. The youngest of five children of a hairdresser, Freeman was distinguished by his love of the stage in his school years. However, the path to success turned out to be a long one: only in the 70s, when the actor was already thirty-odd, he got the role that made him famous in the States — in the children's TV show Electric Company. Freeman's finest hour came when Clint Eastwood's western Unforgiven was released in 1992. If the actor had lived in Russia, he would have already been about to retire: the film was released when Freeman was 55. Now the actor is over seventy, he is actively filming and, despite his advanced age, continues to give newspaper reporters reasons for gossip. Last year it got to the point that Freeman, who has four official marriages on his account, was suspected of having an affair with his own 26-year-old granddaughter (though not his own, but from his first wife).

Gene Hackman. The most popular American actor beat Freeman and won an Oscar for the role of Billy the Kid in Unforgiven. Hackman's large collection of awards includes another Academy Award – for the film "The French Messenger", as well as enough Golden Globes and BAFTA awards. However, Hackman's path to cinema also started late. At 16, Hackman dropped out of school and, having credited himself with a couple of years, went to serve in the Marines, then managed to study journalism and television production. Hackman entered the acting school in Pasadena, California, at almost thirty, along with Dustin Hoffman, and both of them were considered the least promising students of the course. In recent years, Hackman, who is now over 80, has become interested in writing and has published several novels, the duration of which falls on the war of the North and the South and the Great Depression.

Michael Douglas. Despite his famous father, Michael had to work hard to break through to the screen. The first really successful role went to Michael in the TV series "Streets of San Francisco". Over time, Douglas's projects became more and more incendiary: in 1992, when the actor was already 48, he played in "Basic Instinct". In 2010, it became known that the actor has laryngeal cancer. Nevertheless, in the spring of this year, the film "Behind the Candelabra" participated in the main Cannes competition, where Douglas played the legendary American showman, pianist and gay Liberace. And in the near future, the comedy "Starpertsy" will be released on the screens, where Freeman and De Niro became Douglas' partners.

Clint Eastwood. Unlike his colleagues, Eastwood decided on his profession quite early and did not turn anywhere from the chosen path. However, the star of spaghetti westerns managed to surprise everyone with success as a film director. Despite the fact that all 30-odd films made by Eastwood were commercially successful, the main film awards were awarded to those that he shot after sixty. In 2005, Eastwood received another Oscar — for "Baby in a Million" and thus became the oldest director to win this award.