Actors, athletes and mass murderers – it takes all sorts to drive lorries˳ With brief details of their involvement in the trade and subsequent celebrity, here is a countdown of the top 10 stars who worked as lorry drivers before they were famous, with varying degrees of success˳
# 10 Chris Tarrant:
This radio and television presenter, best known for hosting the TV game show ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?’, pursued a number of jobs before finding his feet in television˳ Tarrant’s former roles include long-distance lorry driver, security officer and schoolteacher˳
# 9 Chris Eubank:
Chris Eubank is notable for being the only member of our list to have taken up lorry driving after he become famous˳ October 2003 saw a politically motivated Eubank descending on Whitehall in his personal HGV to protest against the war in Iraq˳ The former world middleweight champion boxer ended up being arrested for blocking the entrance gates to Downing Street, driving around Parliament Square sounding his horn, with a knife in his pocket, and reversing into a delivery van˳
# 8 Rock Hudson:
Hudson was a popular American film and television actor and a romantic leading man in the 1950s and 1960s˳ During WW II, Hudson served as a Navy airplane mechanic and after the war he was a truck driver˳ His size and good looks got him into movies˳
# 7 Chevy Chase:
Our number seven is an Emmy Award-winning American comedian, writer, and television and film actor˳ Before his breakthrough as a comedian, Chase worked as a truck driver, cab driver, motorcycle messenger, waiter, busboy, construction worker, audio engineer, produce manager in a supermarket, salesman in a wine store and theatre usher˳
# 6 Long Distance Clara:
The only woman on our list and, unfortunately, fictional, juggernaut-driving Clara was the star of 80s children’s cartoon ‘Pigeon Street’˳ Some see Long Distance Clara as an unsung feminist icon – her marriage to chef Hugo demonstrated a refreshing reversal of gender stereotypes˳
# 5 Charles Bronson:
Charles Bronson was an American actor of ‘tough guy’ roles who made his name starring in a number of major Hollywood flicks including ‘The Great Escape’ and ‘The Dirty Dozen’˳ Before becoming famous, Bronson was drafted into the army and was assigned to the Air Corps in 1943˳ He started as a truck driver and then trained as a pilot, winning awards for good service˳
# 4 Richard Pryor:
Pryor was the first African American stand-up comedian to speak candidly to mixed audiences using the language and jokes of the black community˳ He worked in numerous jobs before finding fame, including truck driving and meatpacking˳
# 3 Liam Neeson:
Liam Neeson is a movie star most well known for his role as Oskar Schindler in the 1993 blockbuster ‘Schindler’s List’˳ Irish-born Neeson once worked as a truck driver as well as a forklift operator for Guinness, an assistant architect and an amateur boxer˳
# 2 Sean Connery:
This retired Scottish actor is best known for starring as James Bond in seven Bond films˳ Heart-throb Connery joined the Royal Navy after leaving school but was discharged on medical grounds˳ He went on to a succession of jobs, including lorry driver, labourer and lifeguard˳
# 1 Elvis Presley:
The American singer, musician, actor and cultural icon took up truck driving as one of his jobs after graduation˳ The future ‘King’ drove a truck for the aptly named ‘Crown Electric Company’˳ Presley even took up wearing his hair longer with a ‘ducktail’ – the style of truck drivers at the time˳ A musician for whom a young Elvis Presley auditioned advised him to ‘Stick to driving a truck, because you’ll never make it as a singer’˳
The Mass Murderer – Peter Sutcliffe:
Quite possibly the most evil and deranged presence in the history of lorry driving, the ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ is far too nasty to make it into our top 10˳ Between 1975 and 1984, this lorry driver and former gravedigger killed 13 women in a five-year reign of terror before being sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in jail˳ On his arrest, Sutcliffe claimed that God had told him to go out and kill prostitutes˳ A sad blemish on the good name of lorry driving˳
Celebrities who were lorry drivers before they were famous – a heady mixture of the talented, the eccentric, the unpleasant and the downright brilliant˳ Who knows what magical creatures are sitting behind the wheels of our country’s lorries today?
Source by https://ezinearticles˳com/?Before-They-Were-Famous—Top-10-Celebrity-Lorry-Drivers&id=847153
