20/12/2023
What is an example of a person practically falling into a movie career and becoming famous(with no prior experience)?
There are lots of great answers to this question, so it feels a bit unnecessary to add one more. However, I’m going to do it because I love this story.
There was this guy who was very nerdy in the 1930s. He loved bookkeeping and was quite happy working in offices. In fact, he was a terrific accountant. World War II came along and he enlisted, serving out his time NOT in the “actor’s division” in Hollywood but as an ordinary soldier. Then, at the end of the war, he mustered out of the US Navy along with everyone else and returned to his accounting practice. However, this time he opened up his own office and worked for well-heeled people in Los Angeles.
And there the story might have ended, but one day the fellow got some bad news from his doctor. A childhood accident had deprived him of the sight in one eye, and the doctor told him he was straining his remaining eye too much. If he continued working long hours as an accountant, he’d go blind.
Well, the poor fellow had no interest in doing anything else and no aptitude, either. Certainly, he would never be able to find another career that paid as well as his accounting gig.
So, he moped around for a while, at loose ends. He talked to one of his clients about his problem, and the man offered him a job. It wasn’t much of a job, and he had no training in the field, but he figured, well, why not.
The client was Jack Warner. The audiences loved the accountant and he went on to a spectacular career as a character actor playing heavies and ornery western parts. From what I have heard, he was a hell of a nice guy, too.
Oh, one last thing. Late in his career, after he had been in films for decades, someone asked Jack Elam if he’d rather still be an accountant. “In a heartbeat,” he replied.
Read more>>> http://tinyurl.com/3stam498
