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Ten actors with unexpected careers outside of Hollywood

1. Steve Buscemi: Fireman

When Steve Buscemi was just eighteen years old, he took the FDNY civil-service exam. He worked for four years on Engine Co. 55 in Little Italy, Manhattan, one of the busiest units of the FDNY. Even though Buscemi would go on to have a prosperous career as an actor, screenwriter, and director, he was prepared to return to action when the time came. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Buscemi went back to work for Engine Co. 55, where he and other firefighters put in 12-hour hours and searched through debris for survivors.

2. Hugh Jackman, a teacher of physical education

Could you picture Wolverine instructing you in physical education as a child? This was a reality for the students at Uppingham School in England in the late 1980s. Hugh Jackman taught physical education for a year during which he made it a point to commit his pupils’ knowledge to memory. He even knew one of the boys he had trained in 2013, since the boy was being interviewed by a reporter at the Zurich Film Festival. One more of Jackman’s atypical roles? Clowning done professionally. Jackman was not particularly good at magic, but he would go to children’s birthday parties as Coco the Clown.

3. Danny DeVito: Cosmetologist
   Occasionally, one finds themselves entering the family business; Danny DeVito did this after graduating from high school and working as a hairstylist at his sister’s salon. The star of Always Sunny in Philadelphia even claims that the role helped him meet people who might become his future love interest. As soon as I entered the door, I realized that my sister would always be my source of debt. DeVito joked to BBC’s Colin Paterson, “Because there were forty girls in there, all my age, all wanting to be hairdressers.” Before funerals, DeVito even groomed the hair of her deceased clients.
4. Whoopi Goldberg: Beautician with a Morgue
   Whoopi Goldberg is familiar with the pre-funeral beautifying procedure, much like Danny DeVito. Having obtained her license as a beautician, she made the decision to put her talents to use by applying cosmetics to the dead in a morgue. She admitted to Oprah’s Master Class in 2015 that her job was difficult. “There are some qualities that you must possess. And to make someone deserving of a wonderful farewell, you have to love them.” Before turning her career into a full-time job as an entertainment, the Ghost actress had held positions as a bank teller and bricklayer.
5. Christopher Walken: Master of the Lion
   It’s not often that one can add “lion tamer” to one’s resume. Christopher Walken, an actor, surprisingly enough, can. He got the job when he was just 16 years old. “I used to work in the circus as a child. One Terrell Jacobs was the owner of the traveling circus. In 2012, he disclosed to Vanity Fair that “it was just one big tent, and he was a lion tamer.” “There would always be one lion left after his act, and I would go in and make tricks out of him.” It’s surely a story worth telling, even though it may not have been as safe as, say, waiting tables or bagging groceries.
6. Harrison Ford: Carpenter
   Harrison Ford’s employment as a carpenter is the starting point of his now-famous tale of how he was cast as Han Solo in Star Wars. In actuality, his aptitude for carpentry was what made him stand out for the position. Ford told Cheat Sheet, “I was working as a carpenter on an elaborate portico entrance to Francis Ford Coppola’s offices when George walked in with Richard Dreyfuss to begin the first of the interviews for Star Wars.” “That struck a chord with George in some way, and ultimately I became Han Solo.”
7. The massage therapist Nicole Kidman
   Although Nicole Kidman never intended to become a massage therapist, she did pick up the technique as a teenager in order to help her mother throughout her mother’s radiation treatment for breast cancer. She said to Byrdie, “I know, people are shocked by that [that I’m a trained masseuse].” “It’s an interesting story because my mother, who was 45 at the time, was diagnosed with breast cancer. We couldn’t afford for her to receive massages after her radiation and chemotherapy, so when I was 17, I completed a course and became a masseuse.” Eventually, Kidman began working as a freelance masseuse, going from person to person’s home. She claims that even though her acting job now occupies most of her time, she still enjoys giving massages to her loved ones.
8. Ken Jeong: Licensed Physician Ken Jeong has shown himself to be a dynamic comedic actor on shows like The Hangover and Community, but he is capable of much more. Although he dabbled in performing during his college years, he pursued pre-medicine and graduated from the UNC School of Medicine in 1995 with an M.D. He began practicing medicine at a Woodland Hills, California, Kaiser Permanente facility in 1998. He worked as a stand-up comedy at night and as a physician during the course of several years. He stopped practicing by 2006 in order to focus on his acting career. However, he is still licensed to practice medicine in California, and he has even been known to help with medical crises that arise on set.
9. Jon Hamm teaches drama at a high school.
   Jon Hamm taught theater at John Burroughs High School in St. Louis, Missouri, before he rose to fame as Don Draper in the television series Mad Men. Unbelievably, actor Ellie Kemper was one of his students. Later, the two would share a screen appearance in The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Even though Hamm is quite busy these days performing, he remembers his time as a teacher with nostalgia. “I consider teaching to be among the world’s finest professions, and I was fortunate enough to work in it for a year,” Hamm stated in an interview with NBC’s Sunday Today. “And I might still go back to it, without a doubt.”
10. Wanda Sykes, an expert in government procurement

Wanda Sykes is a comedian and actor who is well-known for making people laugh, although she had a very serious profession before. She spent five years in Washington, D.C., working for the NSA before relocating to New York to follow her ambitions in the entertainment business. She worked as a government procurement specialist at the time, purchasing everything from office supplies to equipment that monitors privacy breach. She talked about her encounter with Stephen Colbert on The Late Show, even making a joke about how the NSA was watching him at the time.