Embed from Getty Images Harrison Ford is no stranger to hard work. Having moved to Los Angeles in 1964 to pursue an acting career, Ford was disappointed early on by the slew of non-speaking, B-list roles he was given in Hollywood. By his late 20s, Ford was so underemployed as an actor that he decided to take up carpentry instead to support his then-wife and two children.
It wasn’t until two years later that a young George Lucas – himself just starting out in the industry – gave Ford an audition for his first film American Graffiti in 1973. Ford took a chance on the low-budget movie, which ultimately solidified his relationship with the director and secured his role as Han Solo in the legendary Star Wars franchise.
Today, Harrison Ford’s net worth is estimated at $230 million. Carpentry might have seemed like a steadier gig than acting, but we’re glad Ford took one more shot at his dream before giving up!
2. Jewel (Kilcher)
Embed from Getty Images Jewel knows all too well the harsh realities of being unemployed. Growing up, Jewel lived with her Mormon father in a home with no indoor plumbing, helping him make money by singing in bars as a child. Despite receiving a competitive scholarship to study opera in Michigan, Jewel’s money troubles continued for many years.
At 18, Jewel was homeless and living out of her car. She recalls one situation in particular that led her down a dark path:
“I had a job at Computer Warehouse answering phones. My boss took me aside one day and propositioned me and wanted me sleep with him. I wouldn’t, and he wouldn’t give me my paycheck. I couldn’t pay my rent,” she said, “That’s the thing. You don’t have first and last month’s rent when you’re living paycheck to paycheck… And then I kept getting sick and I couldn’t hold a job… and there you go – you’re in a situation that’s very difficult to get out of.”
3. Conan O’Brien
Embed from Getty Images Conan O’Brien took over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno. However when NBC executives wanted to change the timing of the show to start at 12:05 AM, O’Brien refused to be the first host to begin The Tonight Show tomorrow.
O’Brien chose to leave NBC instead. One of the conditions of his contract was that he could not appear on TV for any reason for the next 8 months. He would be forced off the air and unemployed.
Rather than sitting home with nothing to do, O’Brien and associates organized a live performance show calling it the ‘Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour” and took it on the road.
4. J.K. Rowling
Embed from Getty Images JK Rowling is richer than the Queen of England. Currently the U.K.’s richest woman, the first three installments of her Harry Potter series sold over 35 million copies, earning the author over $480 million worldwide. Not bad for a first time author!
Rowling’s own life before Potter had the trappings of a classic hero story. She worked as a secretary before being fired for writing on the job, and lived off of welfare while looking for other work. She famously wrote the opening lines to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone on a coffeehouse napkin; opening lines to a book that would sell for only $4,000 in 1997.
“I had failed on an epic scale,” Rowling said. “An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded and I was a jobless alone parent and as poor as it was possible to be in Britain without being homeless.”
5. Ellen Degeneres
Embed from Getty Images Today with Modern Family a smash hit and Will & Grace having been on the air for over a decade, it’s hard to remember that a nation was once shocked by Ellen Degeneres saying she and the ‘Ellen’ character of her sitcom was gay on April 29, 1997. The show received an Emmy and a Peabody Award, but also received a bomb threat and harsh criticism. ABC began parental advisory warning in front of some episodes and eventually cancelled the show.
Ellen Degeneres was out-of-work, with only another brief, then cancelled series, for over 3 years. She struggled with depression and was the target of late-night jokes and public criticism, occasionally even from the gay community. She was desperately low on money and self-esteem when Andrew Stanton requested her for the voice of Dory in Finding Nemo. Creating Finding Nemo would take three years, during which time Ellen would rebuild her career and launch the TV show, Ellen. Degeneres has observed that Dory’s advice to
‘just keep swimming’
is a fitting mantra for coping with loss.
6. Steve Jobs
Embed from Getty Images Steve Jobs and his business partner, Steve Wozniak, started Apple Computers in Jobs’ garage in 1976. By 1980, Apple was a billion-dollar business and a publicly traded company, but in 1985, Apple ousted its famous founder.
“We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? … So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.”
Jobs could have moved on to work in other fields, as he was widely recognized as a ‘genius creative’, but he decided to stay in tech, founding Pixar Animation Studios and NeXT. He returned as Apple’s CEO in 1997 to play a key role in the development of the iPod, iPhone, and iPad, permanently revolutionizing the industry and cementing his place in history.
7. Susan Boyle
Embed from Getty Images Anyone who has seen Susan Boyle’s dynamite performance on Britain’s Got Talent can’t help but root for her continued success. She shocked the world – and a much-humbled Simon Cowell – with her rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical “Les Miserables”.
But Boyle’s life before Talent was anything but a dream for the middle-aged singer. She attended a government training program right out of high school and worked for a short time as a trainee cook, but ultimately quit to take care of her mother. Boyle pursued her singing career halfheartedly for several years, winning a few small competitions and recording covers of “Cry Me A River”, “Killing Me Softly”, and “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”, which received critical acclaim.
It wasn’t until Boyle’s mother insisted that she enter Britain’s Got Talent that the then-unemployed 48-year-old really broke onto the scene. She decided to pursue her dream of becoming a professional singer, and today her estimated net worth is above $20 million.
8. Michael J. Fox
Embed from Getty Images When Michael J Fox came to Los Angeles (from Canada) at the age of 17, he immediately worked on a Disney movie and appeared in episodes of Family and Lou Grant, before landing a full-time role on Palmerstown U.S.A.. However, when the Screen Actors Guild went on strike in 1980 and Palmerstown was cancelled, Fox was out of work. Worse, he was in the United States on a work visa and only able to work legally as an actor.
No longer a fresh face and rising star, Fox said he began to ‘reek of desperation’ as unpaid bills piled up. His parents sent him a bit of money and suggested he return to Canada. Knowing that the blue collar jobs in his hometown favored the large and strong, Fox couldn’t imagine committing to doing them long-term. However, needing to eat, Fox began selling off his belongings – including a sectional sofa that he sold one section at a time.
By the time Fox got an offer to star as Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties he was negotiating from a phone booth (his phone service had been cut off) and wishing he had $1.99 to buy a meal at the fast food restaurant next door. His strong comedy skills made him an instant hit in Family Ties and he was later requested for the role in Back to the Future. The rest is history.
9. Mika Brzezinski
Embed from Getty Images Mika Brzezinski is a mainstay in American political news. Her position as co-host of Morning Joe has been tumultuous as of late thanks to President Trump, but her career is going strong.
That wasn’t always the case for Brzezinski, who, after working in TV news for over 15 years, was unexpectedly let go from her position as a correspondent at CBS in 2006. “Unemployment had battered my spirit, but it hadn’t won the war over my will to work,” admitted Brzezinski. “I knew firsthand the hopelessness and anxiety that goes with unemployment. There were weeks I couldn’t muster the energy to look for a job. It was the most frustrating, difficult, and debilitating time of my life.”
She ultimately settled for a gig as a freelance MSNBC reporter at a tenth of her previous salary, but it was better than spiraling further into a depression. According to Brzezinski, “I was flailing and searching for answers to how to deal with my emotional state and how to simply go about landing a job.”
10. Joan Rivers
Embed from Getty Images On May 15th,1987, Joan Rivers received a call from Fox executive, Peter Dekom. She was being fired from the The Late Show Starring Joan Rivers. Fired? They had only been on the air six months. The show was profitable. Their ratings were rising. Fired?
Rivers knew instantly how hard getting her next job would be. People would assume River’s show had failed, so who would want to hire her? Rivers decision a year earlier to leave NBC had angered rival and former mentor Johnny Carson. She was virtually blacklisted in Hollywood. She contacted everyone she knew: agents, producers, but “could not get a job.”
Then on August 13th, 1987, Rivers’ husband, Edgar Rosenberg, committed suicide. Her collaborator, best friend and husband was gone.
Rivers continued to persevere. She was able to get booked doing stand-up comedy a few times later that year. And the next year in 1988, Rivers appeared in Neil Simon’s, Broadway Bound.
Rivers would go on to have an award-winning daytime talk show. In accepting her Emmy, her voice shook with emotion as she spoke about the time when she ‘couldn’t get a job’. She said it was actually Edgar who had taught her, “You can turn things around” and she wished he was there to see that they were back!
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About the Authors: Chloe Rose Stuart-Ulin is a Canadian/American writer and editor based in Montréal. Her work on tech, finance and society has appeared in CBC, Maisonneuve, Quartz, The Tyee, Lift&Co, Lilith Magazine and Ha’aretz. Read more of what she writes on ChloeRoseWrites.com or follow her on Twitter at @chloerosewrites
Anne Emerick is a programmer by day/author by night who has shared a life long passion for comeback stories. To hear more stories of both ordinary people (as well as two of these celebrities) who were out-of-work and how they returned to earning a living, along with practical tips for your own career comeback, check out:Out-of-Work to Making Money, 21 Comeback Stories Every Job Hunter Should Hear
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