15 Stars Who Pulled Off Mid-Career Reinventions
Most of show business is just giving you the same old tired offering repackaged to look differently.
photo: WENN
A smart celebrity can apply that same strategy and avoid struggle by flipping to a new hustle. These 15 stars who pulled off mid-career reinventions executed the strategy flawlessly and are still cashing checks now.
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Photo: Fox News screen capture
photo: WENN
Jamie Foxx
For years, Foxx was the funny guy who played Wanda on In Living Color or Jamie King on his own sitcom. But he leveled up with a major way and now has two GRAMMY Awards and two Academy Awards for his work as a serious actor and a musician.
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Tyra Banks
More than just a pretty face and drool-inducing body, Tyra had a hit-or-miss acting career before serious success in the media world in the form of her talk show and America’s Next Top Model.
photo: WENN
Dr. Dre
Dr. Dre went from being in business with Eazy-E, then Suge Knight, then Jimmy Iovine and Tim Cook. That’s quite the upgrade. He doesn’t rap much anymore, but he occasionally produces and pops up as Hip-Hop’s first billionaire. If you really wanted to go there, you could also point out that Dre went from dressing in sequins to being a gangsta.
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Oprah Winfrey
Once upon a time, Oprah was a struggle newscaster in Chicago. Now she’s arguably the queen of American lifestyle media, and she produces movies like Selma.
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LL Cool J
Mr. Smith still gets his rap on. But during the majority of the year, you can catch LL Cool J cashing CBS checks from NCIS: Los Angeles and various award shows.
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Tupac Shakur
‘Pac arguably reinvented himself more than his rumored love interest Madonna. He often vacillated between rapping and acting, and by all accounts, he was plotting a revolutionary turn before tragically being shot in 1996.
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Arnold Schwarzenegger
The Terminator started out as a bodybuilder and briefly enjoyed a run as the Governor of California.
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Sean Combs
Puff changes jobs like he changes names. He’s shifted from an executive to an artist and back again. Somewhere in there he made time to develop a fashion line, hawk alcohol, and act.
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Kim Kardashian
What exactly did Kim do for a living in the first place?
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Michael Strahan
Before he was sitting next to Kelly Ripa every morning, Strahan was throwing around offensive linemen and quarterbacks like rag dolls as a Super Bowl-winning member of the New York Giants.
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George Foreman
He wasn’t GOAT status, but George Forman made history by taking matches with Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson. He became an icon for an entirely different reason when Salton cashed him out for the George Foreman Grill.
photo: WENN
Jim Brown
Legendary running back Jim Brown put his money where his mouth is and fell back from crushing NFL defenders to become an actor and a community activist.
