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Before the glory

Before climbing their Hollywood ladder, these famous celebrities worked menial jobs to earn a livelihood. From serving donuts, to working as a door-to-door salesman - they've literally done it all

Before the glory
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Madonna

After she moved to New York and before rising to stardom, Madonna, the American singer and songwriter initially supported herself with a number of different jobs. Her most famous and definitely most mundane, was behind the counter at a Dunkin’ Donuts. According to one story, she was fired for hosing down a surprised customer who asked for a donut with jelly.

George Clooney

At the age of 16, George Clooney, the Ocean's Eleven actor, tried out for a Major League Baseball team. However, he didn’t make it. Instead, he went to college, quit and then proceeded to take on a wide array of work before lighting up the small and big screen. In his struggling days he took on a lot of mundane jobs like that of a shoe salesman and a door-to-door product selling salesman.

Jennifer Aniston

Before Jennifer Aniston achieved success in Hollywood and became a household name with TV show F.R.I.E.N.D.S., she worked as a telemarketer. She lasted a week or two there before understandably quitting. Apart from that, at various points Jennifer also worked as a receptionist, a waitress, and a bike messenger.

Brad Pitt

Can you imagine Brad Pitt in a chicken suit. The star had to actually dress up in one and hand out flyers to attract customers to El Pollo Loco, an independent chain of restaurant in the USA to earn some cash in his younger days after he dropped out of Missouri's journalism school to pursue an acting career. He probably still managed to look sexy doing it. He also once chauffeured strippers in a limo as a part-time job. He once told People magazine, "My job was to drive them to bachelor parties and things. I'd pick them up, and at the gig I'd collect the money, play the bad Prince tapes and catch the girls' clothes."

Julia Roberts

What we wouldn't give to have Julia Roberts, the Pretty Woman actress serve us a sweet treat! In fact America's sweetheart once worked as scooper at Baskin Robbins before becoming a multi-million dollar-earning movie star. But she's not the only famous face to have worked there; former US President Barack Obama and Eric Dane, the Grey's Anatomy star all once had jobs at 31 Flavors.

Rachel McAdams

The Notebook actress Rachel McAdams spent three of her teenage years taking orders at McDonald's. She says, "It was a great place to work, but I had a little bit of an OCD thing with hand washing and just didn't have time. I was not a great employee; I broke the orange juice machine one day."

Megan Fox

Not just Brad, Megan also had a full costumed job. The star once worked for a smoothie shop in Florida and had to wear a full-on banana costume. Recently, when she appeared on Ellen, she admitted it was the only real job she's ever had. As a joke, Ellen Degeneres, the chat show host, then had a man dressed up as the fruity snack come and scare Megan from behind

Gwen Stefani

The Hollaback Girl used to work at Dairy Queen and as luck would have it , it proved to be pretty instrumental in her road to success as Gwen's band, No Doubt, was formed by her fellow Dairy Queen employees John Spence and Eric Stefani (her older brother) while scrubbing floors and serving up ice cream there.

Patrick Dempsey

Playing a super successful doctor on Grey's Anatomy, Patrick was clearly good with his hands, but apparently that's a skill he had long before he made it big. The former ‘80s heartthrob was once an avid juggler”he even won a national juggling competition when he was in high school. The best part: Dempsey's rare skill got him a part on the ABC show Overnight Success where he juggled and danced his way to the top.

Beyoncé

Beyoncé worked several different gigs before landing her dream job. While the future pop star was growing up, her mom Tina owned a salon, so the aspiring singer picked up extra cash sweeping up hair. And when she wasn't sweeping, she was singing; she also candidly spoke about her childhood job in her HBO documentary, Life Is But a Dream.

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The Goan Network
Published Jan 27, 2017, 12:00 AM IST
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Donate to educate

Bookworm, Goa is all set to hold it's annual Jumble Sale 2017 on February 12 at Campal Indoor Stadium. The organisation is acception donations for the same and one can donate and new and used-but-almost-new stuff in usable connection like toys and games, music, movies, clothes, accessories, kitchen and household items, stationary, plants, furniture, book and magazines, shoes, bags, electric appliances and packaged food items. You can also volunteer to cook a dish and…

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