Movie stars, prominent scientists, famous musicians and sporting legends are not ready made. There is an astonishing number of household names that were skilled labourers before they went on to success in their respective fields. Here we have compiled a list of some of the most notable former plumbers.

1. people who
used to be
plumbers

2. Michael Caine has won two Oscars and appeared in
more than 115 movies during his distinguished career,
but the lovable cockney was once a plumber’s assistant
and was hoping to secure an apprenticeship in the trade
after completing two years of national service during
the 1950s. Caine’s blue-collar experience was short-
lived, though, as he left the job to become an assistant
stage manager at a theatre in Sussex. It was here that
the youngster found his love for acting after performing
a small walk-on role in a play.
Caine is now one of the biggest names in Hollywood,
but he admitted that his first nine years as an actor were
“brutal” before he finally enjoyed breakthrough success
with British film Zulu in 1964. Major roles in The
Ipcress File, Alfie and The Italian Job soon followed.
His greatest critical success came later in his career as
he won two Academy Awards for his work in Hannah
and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules. Caine was
knighted by Her Majesty the Queen for his services
to cinema in 2000, and he has continued to feature in
numerous blockbusters, including The Dark Knight
Trilogy and Interstellar.
Michael Caine

3. Ozzy Osbourne is now known as the “Godfather of
Heavy Metal”, but it could have all been very different
for the English singer and songwriter, due to the fact
that he started out as a plumber’s apprentice after
leaving school at 15. Osbourne had several blue-collar
jobs during his teenage years, but he got his big break
in music after spending six weeks in prison for robbing
a clothes shop. His father refused to pay the fine to
teach Osbourne a lesson, and it appeared to work as the
youngster changed his ways and joined a band called
Earth in the late 1960s.
The group changed their name to Black Sabbath soon
after. Lead vocalist Osbourne helped to transform the
music scene during the 1970s with a succession of rock
hits that defined the early years of heavy metal. The
Birmingham-born frontman was eventually fired in
1979 after falling out with his band members, but he has
since enjoyed a successful solo career with the release of
11 studio albums. Tensions with his former bandmates
eased in the late 1990s and he returned to Black Sabbath
to record the album 13 in 2013.
Ozzy Osbourne

4. Conor McGregor has enjoyed a meteoric rise in the
world of mixed martial arts during the last decade
and made history after becoming the first UFC fighter
ever to hold titles in two different weight divisions
at the same time in 2016. However, he is another big
name with a working-class background: the 29-year-
old started out as a plumber’s apprentice in his home
city of Dublin during his late teenage years.
McGregor began his MMA training while working
nine-to-five and fighting at the weekends, but he
turned his back on the trade to take up the sport full-
time in 2008. He quickly made a name for himself in
the local scene with a series of impressive wins, which
led to the UFC signing the Irishman on a multi-fight
contract in 2013. McGregor has since become a huge
pay-per-view draw and boasts an overall record of 21
wins from 24 fights. His most notable victories include
a 13-second knockout of José Aldo in UFC 194 and
the defeat of Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205. McGregor’s
popularity has transcended the sport, as he is likely
to earn around £125 million from the high-profile
boxing match with Floyd Mayweather in Las Vegas.
Conor McGregor

5. Bob Hoskins is another famous movie star with a
plumbing past. Like Caine, his career didn’t take off
until he was in his 30s and the majority of his youth was
spent looking for work and bouncing from one manual
labour job to the next: “I was an apprentice plumber
once, burnt the boot of the bloke I was with,” Hoskins
said during an interview with Empire magazine. “I was
on a ladder, and he was fixing a pipe up in the ceiling. I
got a blowlamp and set fire to his boot! That was the end
of the trade for me.”
Hoskins got his first major TV role in 1975, but it
was his performances in British gangster films The
Long Good Friday and Mona Lisa where he portrayed
intimidating yet vulnerable characters that showcased
his unique range and skill as an actor. His most
memorable role is arguably as a private investigator in
the live action animated hybrid Who Framed Roger
Rabbit in 1988. He then returned to being a plumber, but
this time as iconic video game character Super Mario in
the Super Mario Bros movie. However, he later admitted
that it was one of his least enjoyable roles.
Bob Hoskins

6. Okay, we might be cheating a bit with this one, but the
famous theoretical physicist once revealed that if he
had a chance to go back to his youth and select a new
career path, he would have chosen to fit and repair
pipes and other water supply apparatus as a day job. “If
I would be a young man again and had to decide how to
make my living, I would not try to become a scientist
or scholar or teacher,” Einstein said. “I would rather
choose to be a plumber or a peddler in hope to find that
modest degree of independence still available under
present circumstances.”
Einstein is arguably the world’s most famous scientist
and he developed one of the two pillars of modern
physics — the theory of relativity. He was born in
Germany in 1879 and completed his first scientific
paper in 1901 after earning a degree in physics.
Einstein published four papers soon after that,
including the first outlines of his theory of relativity.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Physics in
1922 for his services to the branch of natural science
and later immigrated to the US after Adolf Hitler came
to power in his homeland.
Albert Einstein