Stars Who Struggled Before Making It Big

Jon Hamm

Before he was Mad Men‘s main man Don Draper, actor Jon Hamm struggled a lot throughout his life. He lost both his parents by his twenties and after enrolling in college, he became clinically depressed and would spend days in bed. As he struggled through that, he moved to Los Angeles in the early ’90s to pursue acting, but gigs didn’t come so easily, as many aspiring actors come to find out.

Barely scraping by, he became a drama teacher to teens while working as a set decorator for soft-core pornography. He also was a dishwasher in a local Greek restaurant, a job that he says got him out of bed. He says he’s been a waiter for almost as long as he’s been acting, but Hamm is a true testament to the idea that you got to start somewhere!