Actors Who Didn't Get Famous Until They Were Older

Morgan Freeman had a few minor movie appearances in the late 1960s, but his first major gig came in 1971, when he joined the cast of the PBS kids show The Electric Company. Freeman appeared in an astonishing 780 episodes over the next seven years, portraying a variety of characters, including Easy Reader, DJ Mel Mounds, and Vincent the Vegetable Vampire. Despite it being a huge part of his early career, Freeman rarely discusses the show.

"[Freeman] hates having done The Electric Company, he never mentions it," producer Joan Ganz Cooney revealed. "It was a very unhappy period in his life and he doesn't want to be associated with a children's show." When you ask Freeman what his real breakthrough role was, he'll tell you it was the Armani-wearing pimp Fast Black in Street Smart in 1987.

"It took a while" to get his career going, he said during an interview for the American Film Institute. "It didn't start 'til '86. I was 49 when I did the movie Street Smart. It didn't have to happen at all—I'm very lucky and very grateful that I had a career. I walk the streets of Los Angeles, and I see people walking the streets now and I think, 'Been there done that.' And you know, just keep tap dancing, 'cause something good will happen."

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