Danny Hajek
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Pez Owen was joyriding in a Cessna airplane when she spotted one down below. A landmark that big would show up on any flight chart — but it wasn't logged. Then she spotted more X's in the distance.
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Don't be fooled by his mild PBS persona; the beloved painter was actually an exacting artist and businessman with — brace yourself — naturally straight hair.
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Long before playing the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Patrick was a house painter in Ohio. Then a near-death boating accident made him realize he needed to pursue his dreams.
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The singer's life has played out like a country song: leaving an abusive father, living in a car, barely scraping by. Her big break came, of all places, at a cafe that was going out of business.
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With his handlebar mustache and deep voice, he's mastered the look. And after years playing sharpshooters in the West — and then a stranger at the bowling alley bar — he's finally happy about it.
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Before the U.S. Open, the Nike and Gatorade sponsorships and the fame, Venus and Serena Williams were taking their first swings on tennis courts in Compton, Calif. It's a source of pride in the city.
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Award-winning aviator Patty Wagstaff tackles the extreme, but she was inspired by a simple takeoff gone wrong. Crawling out of the plane, she looked at her pilot and thought, "I can do a lot better."
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The actor says he got his big break because of a college crush. When she went on an audition, he tagged along, inadvertently starting a career in cologne ads, soap operas — and hit TV shows.
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The comedian and Late, Late Show band leader beatboxes, imitates and impersonates with amazing accuracy. It was a phone call from Conan O'Brien that put Watts' one-man show into the spotlight.
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The comedian once worked in advertising — until he got caught dozing on the job. So, he took his savings and stepped on stage. Still, it was years before he hit his big break: a gig on the Late Show.