20 Actors Who Had To Wait DECADES Before Hitting Big

16. Viola Davis

Viola Davis can bring an enormous amount of gravitas to even the most thankless of paycheck roles, and if you need to cast someone to convey strength and power, there are few better options.

Davis turned many, many heads with her astonishing performance in 2008's Doubt, which despite its brevity proved so magnetic that she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.

Since then she's received three additional nominations for her turns in The Help, Fences, and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, while racking up a bevy of credits in both buzzy prestige projects and more mainstream fare like the Suicide Squad movies.

But by the time Doubt came out, Davis was already in her forties and had been working at her craft for a full two decades, even winning a Tony award in 2001 for her performance in King Hedley II.

Yet once Doubt was released and the entire world finally knew who Davis was, she ascended to genuine GOAT status in basically record time.