Jean Simmons
Known for: The Happy Ending
Net worth: $12 million
British film star, Jean Simmons, found fame in 1946 starring in a film version of Great Expectations . Her role as young Estella invited rave reviews. It opened doors. After several roles in decent movies, she hit the big one—playing Ophelia in Laurence Olivier’s Hamlet . It earned her an Oscar nomination.
Voted fourth-most popular star in Britain, she became a 1950s Golden Age Hollywood star with King Solomon’s Mines. It scored her an MGM contract. Relocating to L.A., she hooked up with Howard Hughes who acquired her contract. Androcles and the Lion was her first Hollywood production. Hughes could have treated Simmons better. She extricated herself from his contract after a court case. With 20th Century Fox she found leads in box-office hits The Robe and Désirée. She starred with Marlon Brando as Napoleon Bonaparte. Simmons received her second Oscar nomination for The Happy Ending (1969). She’s remembered in Guys and Dolls and Spartacus. The actress struggled with addiction and spoke out publicly to support others. She became a patron of the British drugs and human rights charity. Just days before her 81st birthday in January 2010, Simmons died from lung cancer.
Kevin Bacon
Known for: Footloose
Net worth: $30 million
Kevin Bacon was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. When he was a kid, he wanted to be a pop star. At age 17 he left home for the Big Apple looking to make it there (because if you make it there, you can make it anywhere). As a high school student, he developed a passion for the arts and wanted to become a serious actor. In N.Y.C. he found some theatre gigs and a big role in the slasher horror flick Friday the 13th . Things were picking up. He debuted on Broadway with Sean Penn and Val Kilmer. He played “Chip” in the classic frat house comedy, National Lampoon’s Animal House . Soon, he landed the monster smash hit, Footloose and became a pop star.
He’s starred in JFK, A Few Good Men, Apollo 13, and Mystic River, to name a few blockbusters. He won a Golden Globe Award and a SAG for Taking Chance, an HBO original movie. In 2007 he founded a charitable organization called SIxDegrees.org, based on the trivia game and subsequent meme, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.
John Kapelos
Known for: The Breakfast Club
Net worth: $1.1 million
John Kapelos played Carl, the shady but comical school janitor in The Breakfast Club . It’s not the only John Hughes movie we remember him from. He also appeared in Sixteen Candles and Weird Science .
The 1980s character-actor appeared in 1990s movies as well. One of his best was The Deep End of the Ocean (1999) which received acclaim from Roger Ebert and The New York Times. He starred in Roxanne with Daryl Hannah and Steve Martin and Nothing in Common with Tom Hanks. In television, he’s appeared on Miami Vice, Queer as Folk, Desperate Housewives and The X-Files. Currently, he teaches acting and improv classes at the AIA Studios. He also manages his independent record label, Carpuzi Records.
Morgan Freeman
Known for: Driving Miss Daisy and Shawshank Redemption
Net worth: $200 million
Seated high on the pantheon of Hollywood greats is the revered Morgan Freeman. Immortalized as a film legend in Driving Miss Daisy , his heartwarming performance as Miss Daisy’s gentle chauffeur earned him an Academy Award nomination.
Freeman’s dream was to be an actor. He moved to N.Y.C. to follow it. Working odd jobs and doing some dancing and musical theatre, he gradually made it in showbiz. It took decades of dreaming before he hit it big in 1987 with Street Smart. The acclaim for his role Fast Black was phenomenal, and he considers it his breakthrough part. Some of Freeman’s charity work is dedicated to disaster aid, especially in Grenada after the 2004 hurricane. He’s concerned about environmental issues and raises awareness. One issue is the declining bee problem. Beekeeping is a way he helps give back to help solve the problem.
Lynda Carter
Known for: Wonder Woman
Net worth: $10 million
The Seventies would not have been the Seventies without Wonder Woman. Lynda Carter brought the D.C. Comic title to life playing the first-ever female superhero on TV. Her original performance of the character captivated audiences for three glorious seasons. Advancement for women? Yes! As a mythical enforcer of justice, Wonder Woman was not only beautiful but important too. Secretly known as Diana Prince, Wonder Woman was the embodiment of goodness as well.
Life before Wonder Woman found Lynda Carter struggling to make it in showbiz. Winning Miss World USA helped. Music was her first interest. She toured with a band playing quite a few gigs until she became disenchanted with the idea. She won beauty contests instead. Today she has a multi-million-dollar net worth. Then, however, she had only $25 left in her bank account when she got the call that landed the Wonder Woman role. Carter is a spokesman for irritable bowel syndrome due to her mom’s affliction, a staunch advocate for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a Pro-Choice rights activist for women, a backer for legal equality for LGBT people, and she advocates for alcoholism recovery. She has been sober for 20 years.