Items15The creator’s order
  1. 1Julia ChildJulia ChildJulia Child had worked in advertising and wartime intelligence and could barely cook when she enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris in 1949, at thirty-seven. Twelve years of work with her co-authors produced Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961), and The French Chef (1963), which she began at…0i
  2. 2Phyllis DillerPhyllis DillerPhyllis Diller was a mother of five and a copywriter when she made her stand-up debut at the Purple Onion in San Francisco in 1955, at thirty-seven. Her fright-wig look, cackle and jokes about her imaginary husband Fang made her one of the first women to headline as a solo comic, and she toured and…0i
  3. 3Ruth WestheimerRuth WestheimerBorn 4 Jun 1928Ruth Westheimer survived the Holocaust as a child refugee, trained as a sniper in pre-state Israel and earned a doctorate in education before her first broadcast. Her late-night radio show Sexually Speaking began in New York in 1980, when she was fifty-two, and her frank, cheerful advice made Dr.…0i
  4. 4Kathryn JoostenKathryn JoostenBorn 20 Dec 1939Kathryn Joosten was a psychiatric nurse who took up acting in community theatre at forty-two, then moved to Los Angeles in her mid-fifties to try for screen work. She became familiar as Mrs Landingham in The West Wing and won two Emmys as Karen McCluskey in Desperate Housewives, a whole career…0i
  5. 5Jane FondaJane FondaBorn 21 Dec 1937Jane Fonda was already a two-time Oscar winner when she opened a workout studio in Beverly Hills in 1979 and, at forty-four, released Jane Fonda's Workout (1982). It became the best-selling home video of its time and launched a fitness business of videos, books and records that ran alongside her…0i
  6. 6Danny TrejoDanny TrejoBorn 16 May 1944Danny Trejo spent much of his youth in California prisons, got sober and became a drug counsellor. Visiting the set of Runaway Train (1985) to support a client, he was spotted and cast at forty, and he has since appeared in hundreds of films and series, from Heat to Robert Rodriguez's Machete,…0i
  7. 7Sharon JonesSharon JonesBorn 4 May 1956Sharon Jones sang backing vocals for years without a solo contract, working as a corrections officer at Rikers Island and an armoured-car guard. She made her first record at forty and fronted Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, whose raw, live-sounding soul albums earned a Grammy nomination and helped…0i
  8. 8Judy SheindlinJudy SheindlinBorn 21 Oct 1942Judy Sheindlin spent more than two decades as a prosecutor and family court judge in New York before Judge Judy began in 1996, when she was fifty-three. Her brisk, no-nonsense manner made it one of the most-watched daytime shows in American television for twenty-five seasons, and she continued with…0i
  9. 9Charles Bradley (singer)Charles Bradley (singer)Born 5 Nov 1948Charles Bradley worked as a cook and handyman for decades and was performing as a James Brown tribute act in his fifties when Daptone Records heard him. His debut album No Time for Dreaming came out in 2011, when he was sixty-two, and two more acclaimed albums and the documentary Charles Bradley:…0i
  10. 10Tim GunnTim GunnBorn 29 Jul 1953Tim Gunn spent decades as a teacher and administrator at Parsons School of Design before Project Runway (2004) put him on camera at fifty-one. His courteous mentoring and catchphrase advice to make it work made him a television personality in his own right, with his own series, books and later the…0i