Actors’ relationships with TV jingles are sort of like that old riddle: What walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon and three at dawn? (Or maybe more like how we start in Pampers and end up in Depends.)
Lots of well-known actors wind up paying the rent at the end of their careers doing commercials (think: Orson Welles “We will sell no wine before it’s time”), but just as many, if not more, get their first big breaks doing them, too.
The good news for us is, whether it’s hawking dish soap or expounding on the wonders of Castrol motor oil, these slightly embarrassing moments are never more than a click away.
Lindsay Lohan
Her career may have fizzled in recent years, but there was a time when Lindsay Lohan appeared in just about every commercial calling for a preteen girl with freckles.
Although she initially had little success landing roles, when it came time for an audition for a Duncan Hines commercial, Lohan told her mother that she would quit acting all together if she did not get the job. Her can-do attitude proved effective, and she was hired. She eventually went on to appear in over 60 commercials, including this Jell-O spot with Bill Cosby.
John Travolta
For a brief period in the early seventies, John Travolta seemingly made a living out of singing with men in the shower.
He starred in a pair of athletic-themed commercials, one for Safeguard and the other for Band Aids, which feature his grinning self enjoying a well-deserved rinse with his teammates. BTW: the famous Band Aid tune was penned by none other than Barry Manilow.
Farrah Fawcett
Like countless other starlets, the late Farrah Fawcett was discovered when a Hollywood publicist saw her photo in a magazine and urged her to move to Los Angeles.
It would be many years before she would receive a similar call from Aaron Spelling, producer of Charlie’s Angels. In the meantime, the only work the Texas native could find was in commercials.
And boy did she do plenty, from Ultra Brite Toothpaste to this now classic Noxzema shaving cream spot with Joe Namath.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider