Morgan Freeman started acting at age 12 – when he was forced to join his school’s drama program as a punishment. He was hooked. After a short stint in the Air Force where he realized he was more in love with the idea of flying than the actual thing, he moved to Hollywood.
He struggled there, then moved to New York where he had some small successes on Broadway. He also got a hint of his future success doing a 5-year stint on The Electric Company, with Gene Wilder, Rita Moreno & Joan Rivers.
But his first real success would come at age 50. Playing Fast Black in “Street Smart” earned him an Oscar nod and was immediately followed by a second Oscar nom for “Driving Miss Daisy.” In the 28 years since, he’s done more work than men half his age and won the Oscar for Million Dollar Baby, proving it’s never too late to succeed.