posted
One of the greatest things about being a kid is that you really think you're going to do everything. Whenever you see a famous actor, writer, musician, sports star, or anyone else that has become well-known, somewhere in the back of your mind you think that you can do it too. But as you grow up, you start noticing, little by little, that you're falling behind. By the time you're 20 you may realize that Eddie Murphy was a famous comedian and Jackie Chan was a famous actor by the time they were your age. By your mid-20s the list of such people grows significantly. I remember how shocked I was to hear that The Red Baron died when he was 26. Citizen Kane, considered by many to be the best movie of all time, was written, directed, and starred in my someone in his mid 20s. And now, coming up on 30, I have to face the fact that practically everyone that has ever become famous has done it by my age.
Not that I'm really obsessed with fame. I honestly don't care. But it does give me a feeling of mortality to realize that some options really have passed me by. Now when I watch a movie, listen to an album, or read a book, I have to concede that I'm never going to be on the screen, playing the instrument, or holding the pen. Not only has everyone I can think of who is famous made it by my age, but most of them have done the best work of their lives by that time.
Am I wrong? Can anyone think of a famous person who was unknown when he or she was 30? Am I the only one who's a little bit disturbed by this?
According to this bio, Pat did not star in his first movie until he was 35. Before that, he had a regular job he must of quit in his mid 30s to try a stint in stand-up comedy.
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posted
I'd wager that the vast majority of famous people became famous after age 30. This is true for virtually all politicians, most truly famous businessmen, many great thinkers, many famous authors, most big time directors, etc.
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posted
Janecek. Didn't start composing until he was after 40. I want to be a famous writer some how. Just not the type that gets followed in supermarkets. Have to do something about that.
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Good point about the businessmen and politicians. But I really think most directors and writers who are famous now had some reasonable degree of fame before they were 30. Very interesting exceptions I'm hearing, but I still think 30 is a few standard deviations right of center from the bell-shaped curve. I don't have any hard evidence, but every list I can come up with is very heavily weighted in favor of pre-30s success.
Other than that, I haven't heard much about my second question. Does anyone ever think about this? Does anyone here want to be successful in one of these media-type artistic/performance fields? Even in the back of your mind? Am I alone in being disturbed by turning 30 under these conditions?
posted
This reminds me of one of my favorite Tom Lehrer quotes:
quote:It is a sobering thought ... that when Mozart was my age he had been dead for two years.
That said, I'd much rather be well known within a subculture than be truly famous. Like Victor Kee or Dennis Ritchie.
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posted
God didn't get truly famous until he was quite old, (well, famous to us Humans.) though some believe he did his best work right from the begining.
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posted
What freaks me out is that at my age my mom was already married, had several kids, and divorced. I am getting ready for my first kid. Why do I seem to be so much slower on these life experiences?
I don't want fame, I want accomplishments. I just get too easily side-tracked by entertainment.
posted
Any one who married at eighteen freaks me out, because I'm eighteen and I'm not planning on marriage anytime soon.
There's nothing wrong with that...I'm just in a completely different mind set to those people! I simply cannot imagine it!
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I like your schedule! I did the bad poetry and short stories. I have two more chapters until I finish my first novel, though; that's ten years ahead of schedule!
I've also written some good short stories and good poetry, though I still think I have about ten years before I really hit full stride with those.
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posted
HarrisonFord was pretty much unknown (and a has-been making his living as a carpenter to the extent that he was known) until he did StarWars at the age of 35.
While SharonStone worked in the business, it wasn't until she was 32 that the public found her particularly memorable: mostly as "that chick who tried to kill Schwartzenagger in TotalRecall". She was 34 before BasicInstinct made her famous as SharonStone.
RayKroc was an unknown who had run a few of his businesses into the ground before he purchased a small hamburger business when he was 52, and turned it into McDonalds.
KaryMullis was known mostly to acquaintances as a surfer who spent a lot of time hanging around coffee bars. Until at age 38or39, when he discovered the PolymeraseChainReaction making genetic engineering practical; which was so groundbreakingly important that he received the NobelPrize.
RobertPirsig had an errrmmm...interestinglife but was pretty anonymous until his Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance rocketed him to fame at the age of 45.
posted
Bill Gates became famous when he was reasonably young. Do you want to end up like him? He's a total creep who has bassackward ideas about software.
I guess, on the same note, Linus Torvalds was only about 25 when he became famous for writing the Linux kernel. He's one of the subversive heroes of the Open Source community. Apparently a thinktank funded by Microsoft is claiming that he didn't actually write it, bu apparently they just made up a lot of the research. Linus had a great reply to their slanderous claims, though.
It's a good point. But Hugh starred in an Australian TV series when he was 27. Naomi Watts had been in a pile of movies before she was 30. Certainly more than anyone else on this board has been in.
And just for the record, as I said in my first post, I have no desire to be famous. I really think I'd hate to do the things these people do. The only thing that disturbs me is that certain paths of my life are inexorably closed. Whenever I saw someone famous, I've spent all of my life thinking, somewhere in the back of my mind, "I'm sure I could do that if I wanted to." Now I'm at the age where I have to concede that no matter how much I want to, or even how much natural talent I may or may not have, I can't do that. I'm happy with the choices I've made in my life, but those choices have closed doors for me that I'll never be able to open. It's a new feeling that's strange and, although I can't explain why, a little disturbing.
posted
I want to be famous for being really, really old. The worlds longest recorded marriage was 84 years. I that would take me living to 104, but I want to shoot for 120. I have the genes, but I don't know if my husband does. Three of my grandparents lived past 90 and one is still going. He only had one that made it into her 80's.
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posted
Most of my relatives have lived to be over 100 (my aunt calls it the longevity curse). So I figure at age 43 here, I'm not even halfway through my life yet (barring accident). So I still have time to become rich (or famous)
posted
No, Kwea, there really *are* things that close off to you as you age. Service Academies close their doors on you at 22. Record companies will be very hard pressed to consider a pop star over 28. Professional sports, too, is unlikely to give you a shot too far out of college. Military Service requires a waiver past age 35, as does starting a career as a commerical pilot. The FBI won't accept anyone after their 37th birthday.
There are many things that, if you aren't going down the path by a certain age, you aren't going to get there.
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posted
This week a milestone was reached in Professional Baseball. There have been only slightly more than a dozen perfect games pitched. This week one was pitched by a forty year old.
Please, feel free to correct the details on the numbers in this post, cause I ain't no baseball fan.
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quote: Bill Gates became famous when he was reasonably young. Do you want to end up like him? He's a total creep who has bassackward ideas about software.
Yes I do. But then, after I'm fabulously wealthy, I'll see the light, become a happy person, and live the rest of my life happy *and* wealthy. Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
Dan, you are correct... However, Mr. Big Unit has been pitching for a LONG time. He didn't start as a forty year old.
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Hey, Stargate, whatever you have to tell yourself so being unknown and poor doesn't seem so bad, eh? Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Facing the reality of aging can be disconcerting. I am at the middle school I attended, and as students are asking me to sign their yearbooks, I keep thinking...where did the time go? I don't feel particularly smarter, wiser, or older. I just feel like I have a slower metabolism and won’t accomplish some of the things I wanted to accomplish. Many people die before they are 29; if I had died two or three years ago, I wonder what my point would have been. I do appreciate the general happiness surrounding me—but still...
My whole life is a collection of memories and “now-sensations” which become memories as soon as they is identified. I don’t FEEL older, and since I am not consciously thinking about and reviewing all my memories, I seldom feel the age of experience. As I look around and see the expectations these students have for life, and I realize they have more opportunities then me (mostly because I have already made my choices at their age), I too also feel unsettled. I realize my mortality.
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posted
I agree with you Sgate, but being rich and famous != unhappy, alone, broken, and living a lie. You made being famous sound so bleak you were begging for someone to take a jab at you. Begging.
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posted
I don't see this thread as being about rich and famous.
I see it as being about productive.
We all set goals in our lives. These goals could lead to fame and fortune, or they could lead to family and friends, to helping many people in some signifigant way, to leaving ones mark on the world, even if we know that mark will fade, for the echoes of that mark will live on. Yet life passes on and our goals remain unfulfilled.
Do not despair.
Even if you never wrote that poem that could bring the world to tears, or told that joke that brought laughter to millions, the little things you do affect others, and your existance ripples out on the river of humanity in ways you will never know.
posted
Hey aspectre - I thought I'd take the opportunity to brag. I daily associate with people who used to have Pirsig over for dinner parties. They're my professors, of course, but I still like being so close to fame.
I also grew up next door to Robert Zubrin (the Mars guy).
See, my plan is to gain purpose in life by being as closely associated with famous people as possible, hoping the star dust rubs off.
Of course, if you think you need the real stuff, perhaps you'll find it consoling to know that Billy Ray Cyrus never picked up a guitar until he was 25. Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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