Would you trust a heavy metal star to fly your plane? From candymen and beekeepers
to professional watchmakers, these celebrities have turned their hobbies into something more.
Yes, we're aware it's a bit of a stretch to say that celeb Steven Seagal has quietly been
working a regular job as a cop, since the 2009 reality show, Steven Seagal: Lawman, was based
on his unbelievable part-time gig. But Seagal claimed that he'd been doing police work with
the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office for quite a few years, so we're counting it. Regardless,
the show came to a controversial end when Seagal allegedly resigned from the force.
Seagal resurfaced on the law enforcement scene, and with a revived version of the reality show,
a few years later. This time, he was in Arizona as a member of controversial Maricopa County
Sheriff Joe Arpaio's so-called "posse." The group conducted an allegedly dubious raid on a
suspected rooster-fighting ring, which resulted in one arrest and the seizure of 100 chickens
in 2011. So, even if Seagal had been doing great things as a police officer for decades,
some might argue that he almost immediately negated this with his reality TV antics.
Chris Colfer went from being fashionista Kurt Hummel in the musical dramedy series
Glee to writing fictional tales for children that has made him into a bestselling author.
Colfer switched up careers when he became a writer and published his The Land of Stories
six-book series, which follows twins Alex and Conner on magical fairy-tale
adventures. Colfer's series instantly became a No. 1 New York Times Bestseller. Talking
about the inspiration behind his beloved series, Colfer shared at a 2018 BookExpo,
"I loved fairy tales when I was a kid. I asked my mom a million questions about the
stories we read together and finally one day she said, 'Just write your own fairy tale.'"
In 2017, Variety reported that Colfer would be directing and writing the script for a
film adaptation for the first book. He explained,
"Hollywood makes some great stuff, but sometimes they get things wrong,
and one thing that they do that I personally think is wrong is taking
something unique and trying to make it like everything else."
Let's hope Hollywood gets it right!
Paul Rudd doesn't quite need to work a second gig as he's already one of Hollywood's top
actors. He did, however, become co-owner of a candy store in Upstate New York when he,
along with best pals and actors Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Hilarie Burton, saved it from closing.
"We didn't want the store to be anything else than what it was and so we decided
to step in and buy the candy store and that was 2 1/2 years ago now."
Now proud owners of Samuel's Sweet Shop, the stars have something to look forward to when
they need to satisfy their sweet tooth. Not only are they long-time fans of the shop's
unique offerings of candy and coffee, but the celebs are also residents of the Rhinebeck,
New York area. Rudd told the Poughkeepsie Journal that:
"One of the most important things any human can experience is to be part of a community and feel
connected to where you live and to other people who live there, especially in a job like mine."
Although Rudd keeps busy with his many films, fans can sometimes spot him at the counter. He added,
"So to have this place, to come in and just serve coffee for a while and hangout at the
store and hand out candies… to feel a part of the community makes us sane."
John Travolta isn't the only mega star taking off to the skies and flying his own planes. Iron
Maiden's lead singer Bruce Dickinson has been flying planes since the 1990s and has even sat
in the pilot's seat in the band's own jumbo jet, taking them across the world during their tours.
According to Business Jet Traveler, Dickinson had big dreams about becoming a pilot. He explained,
"I was always interested in aviation. [...] We were in Jersey writing an album and Nicko McBrain,
our drummer, decided to learn to fly. Then I was on a family holiday in Florida,
so I tried a lesson. My life changed. Every little boy has a fantasy. My heroes
were U-boat captains, test pilots, astronauts, and fighter pilots."
According to a January 2022 interview with AP News, Dickinson will no longer
be piloting the band's plane for their remaining tours since he'll be nearing
a pilot's retiring age of 65 — however, there is no set age limit for flying private planes.
You would never think to add this to a Red Hot Chili Pepper bassist's resume, but believe it or
not, this rocker is totally into bees. According to TMZ, Flea, whose real name is Michael Balzary,
has been taking care of bees since 2015 and, at that time, had three beehives with over
60,000 bees in each hive. Flea's love for bees also comes with the hope of
helping with the serious decline of bee populations across the world.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization,
the decline in bees would "wipe out" many of the foods we love to eat:
"About two-thirds of the crop plants that feed the world rely on pollination by
insects or other animals to produce healthy fruits and seeds for human consumption."
That means that crops like apples, blueberries, tomatoes, nuts, and even coffee would be heavily
affected if bee colonies continue to collapse. Flea isn't the only celeb that's helping the
environment by rocking a beekeeper suit either. According to Local Hive Honey,
stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Martha Stewart, and Scarlett Johansson are avid beekeepers.
Some people don't like to believe that Hollywood's biggest stars also have brains. For example,
there's rock band Queen's lead guitarist Brian May, who some might not know is also
an astrophysicist. According to Queen's website, May holds a PhD in astrophysics,
which he obtained in 2007 after years of putting his studies aside to rock out with
the late Freddie Mercury. Deciding to go back to school to finish what
he started back in the '70s, he shared on the Kevin O'Sullivan Show in 2020,
"In a way, it was unfinished business. I always had a passion for astronomy right alongside the
passion for music. There was always that kind of yearning feeling. 'Wouldn't it be nice...'"
May got to work with NASA's space missions to reveal the farthest object ever seen from Earth.
"It's NASA, ladies and gentlemen, taking us out into the very edges of the solar system."
He shared the discovery on Instagram in 2019, writing in part,
"Ultima Thule is by far the oldest known and most unspoilt relic of the early solar
system — that same solar system that was born so that you and I could be born!"
Steve Buscemi might be known to fans as a TV and film star,
but his first job before making it in Hollywood was working as a New York City firefighter.
Although he isn't fighting fires or saving lives today, he did put his uniform back on after the
terror attacks on 9/11. After the attacks, he traveled to New York and worked alongside
hundreds of New York City firefighters as they searched for survivors. Buscemi said at the time,
"It was a privilege to be able to do it. It was great to connect with the firehouse I used
to work with and with some of the guys I worked alongside. And it was enormously helpful for me
because while I was working, I didn't really think about it as much, feel it as much."
The Brotherhood of Fire Facebook page commended Buscemi for working "12-hour
shifts" for many days after the attacks as firefighters were
"digging and sifting through the rubble of the World Trade Center."
Thrash metal and watchmaking don't necessarily go hand in hand,
but for former Anthrax guitarist Dan Spitz, they have more in common than
you think. The musician left the group in 1995 to pursue his studies in watchmaking,
and this master craftsman is considered one of the best in the watchmaking industry. In a
2012 interview with Hodinkee, Spitz shared that leaving his band behind was "a long process,"
with playing guitar and going on tour becoming, quote, "mundane and more like a job." He added,
"At the end of the day, I just needed a break. I have extreme OCD, I do things
either full-on or full-off, and I like to do things that others have not done before."
Music and watchmaking are one in the same for Spitz, as he told Hodinkee,
"It's so similar it's not even funny. Learning to play a heavy
metal guitar is a never-ending skill. It is painful to learn. That's what's
cool about it. Same for watchmaking — it's an unending skill to learn."
Spitz did return to Anthrax in 2005 for a reunion,
but his passion for watchmaking appears to outweigh his love for making music.
Ali MacGraw's rise to fame came when she won the Golden Globe for new star
of the year for her role in the 1969 film Goodbye, Columbus. Things would
only go up from there when she starred in the beloved romantic film Love Story,
which won her a Golden Globe for best actress in 1971. However, after only starring in a
few more films and a couple of television series, MacGraw left Hollywood for good.
"I was never around, ever in my life, that level of being looked at."
In 2017, MacGraw shared with AARP that acting was never really her thing. She said,
"I was never trained as an actress. It was frightening for me,
every single solitary breathing second. I had some sort of pop-star energy,
but I had no qualifications. I was never comfortable."
Instead, MacGraw found other passions in life and became a devoted yogi. In 1994,
she released her yoga video called Ali MacGraw:
Yoga Mind & Body. Ali also spends her time advocating for animal rights, telling AARP,
"I have to restrain myself from bringing home any more strays."
BokHee An is a familiar face on Grey's Anatomy. Although she hasn't had many lines over the course
of the series, she does her job as a scrub nurse at Seattle Grace Hospital very well,
and that's probably because she is a real-life nurse, too. According to Metro,
BokHee An, who also goes by an Americanized name as Kathy C. An, is actually a surgical nurse who,
like her character, works directly with doctors to give them assistance during procedures. In fact,
the cast of Grey's Anatomy watched An work in real life so that they
could get a better understanding of their own roles in the show.
Ellen Pompeo, who stars as protagonist Meredith Grey, praised her co-star in May 2022:
"What's extraordinary about BokHee is not only her commitment to 18 seasons of 'Grey's Anatomy'
and counting, but also her first profession that got her the gig on 'Grey's.' BokHee is
responsible for helping the surgeons at St. John's [hospital] save the lives of hundreds of people."
Bustle also reported that An has since retired from being a nurse,
but continues to play one on screen.