20 Actors Who Had To Wait DECADES Before Hitting Big

6. Boris Karloff

Even casual film fans will instantly know Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster in James Whale's indelible 1931 Frankenstein adaptation, but what you probably don't know is that he spent literally decades playing minor bit-parts before the Frankenstein role was his big break.

Karloff began acting with Canadian theatrical touring companies in the early 1910s, and his first screen acting credit was in 1919. 

Over the next 12 years, Karloff played largely insignificant roles in more than 80 films, many of them uncredited, and it wasn't until he was cast as Frankenstein's monster that he gained much industry traction.

This of course became Karloff's signature role, but he also followed it up by playing Imhotep in 1932's The Mummy, and spent the remaining 40 years of his life and career an incredibly in-demand actor in the horror genre in particular. 

But it took all manner of hard graft for him to finally get there.