20 Historical Figures Who Completely Changed Careers

Before becoming a leading ambassador for French cuisine on American television, this culinary icon spent her early years working for the U.S. government during World War II. She handled top-secret documents and helped develop a shark repellent for the Office of Strategic Services. It wasn’t until she moved to Paris that she enrolled in a cooking school and discovered her true calling.

Did you know that one of the most prolific painters in history didn’t pick up a paintbrush until he was in his late twenties? Before becoming an artist, Vincent van Gogh was a missionary and sold art at a gallery. He failed miserably at both of these endeavors, which led him to turn to painting.

Anna Mary Robertson Moses was a farmer, housekeeper, and mother for nearly seventy years. She didn’t take up painting until her arthritis prevented her from using a needle for embroidery. Her pastoral illustrations became famous overnight.

It wasn’t until he was sixty that Colonel Sanders found his true calling in the kitchen. Before founding Kentucky Fried Chicken, Sanders had been a farmhand, a railroad worker, a blacksmith, and many other things besides. It wasn’t until later in life that he began selling chicken from a small roadside shack.

Many people are unaware that Darwin initially began his university studies in theology. In his youth, his father had steered him toward a career as a pastor. He later took part in a prestigious scientific expedition aboard the HMS Beagle, which changed his life forever.

Before Jorge Mario Bergoglio became pope of the Catholic Church, he led a much more tumultuous life. While he was a college student, he worked as a bouncer at a bar and as a chemistry lab technician. His conflict-resolution skills have undoubtedly served him well at the Vatican.

You probably know her as the undisputed queen of luxury bridal fashion. But her early career was spent on ice rinks and in magazine newsrooms. It wasn’t until she was forty that she decided to design her first wedding dress, thus launching a massive global fashion empire.

At the height of his career with the Chicago Bulls, the greatest basketball player of all time surprised sports fans by retiring to pursue a career in minor league baseball. Driven by his late father’s dream, he signed a contract with the Chicago White Sox organization. He eventually returned to the NBA, but that brief detour remains a fascinating chapter in sports history.

This much-loved Hollywood actor and director didn’t jump straight into the entertainment industry after graduating from high school. Instead, he enrolled in a cosmetology school. It was during his classes there that he discovered a passion for the stage, and the world gained a comedy legend.

That heavenly voice that has thrilled stadiums around the world was once confined to the quiet, stuffy offices of a private law firm. He spent an entire year working as a public defender. He finally turned his back on the legal profession when a famous Italian rock star discovered his incredible demo.

The designer behind this minimalist, structured Italian fashion style had originally planned to spend his life in a doctor’s white coat. He studied medicine for three years. It was then that his first job in retail sparked a deep passion for aesthetics within him, which completely revolutionized the world of luxury fashion.

This Oscar-winning actor held a series of low-profile jobs before being entrusted with a movie script. He enlisted in the United States Marine Corps at the age of sixteen. His classmates at the Pasadena Playhouse had, in fact, voted him “least likely to succeed,” which makes his brilliant acting career the perfect example of a comeback story.

Even though he had landed a few small roles as a young man, this Hollywood stalwart wasn’t earning enough to support his growing family. Instead of giving up, he taught himself carpentry using books he found at the library. In fact, it was while he was installing a door at George Lucas’s house that the director asked him to read a few lines.

Long before he was sworn in as the 40th president of the United States, he was already a familiar voice on radio stations across the Midwest. He spent his early twenties calling baseball and American football games. It’s easy to see how that experience in the spotlight prepared him for the world stage par excellence.

He began his career as an Austrian with an impressive physique, winning the Mr. Olympia title seven times. He then leveraged his imposing physique to become one of the highest-paid action movie stars. Just when everyone thought his career was over, he successfully entered politics and served two full terms as governor of California.

This hilarious actor, known for his zany roles in comedies, spent years treating real patients in a hospital setting. He earned his medical degree and practiced as an internist in California while simultaneously pursuing a career in comedy. He still holds his medical license, just in case.

After making history by becoming the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, this military pilot decided that space was not his final frontier. He left NASA and the military to enter the business world, before venturing into the chaotic world of American politics.

Before making audiences laugh on television shows, he was a formidable linebacker in the National Football League. At the end of his football career, he moved to Los Angeles with no acting experience and worked as a security guard. His incredible sense of comic timing took him from behind the security lines to in front of the camera.

The beloved host of the cooking show “Barefoot Contessa” once dealt with topics far more serious than the recipe for the perfect roast chicken. In the 1970s, she worked at the White House Office of Management and Budget. It was then a risky venture into the retail sector that allowed her to escape the daily grind of politics and build a massive culinary brand.

As the legendary lead guitarist of the rock band Queen, he spent decades performing in sold-out stadiums and composing iconic musical anthems. What many fans don’t know is that he was actually studying interstellar dust and was finishing his degree in physics when the band rose to fame. The rest is history.