7. Leslie Nielsen - From B-List Dramatic Actor To Worldwide Comic Legend
I grew up simply knowing Leslie Nielsen as the hilariously bone-headed cop Frank Drebin in the Naked Gun franchise, so it was a major surprise to me that he was a prolific straight actor from as early as 1950, most famously starring as Commander J.J. Adams in the classic sci-fi Forbidden Planet. Nielsen's generally straight-faced TV work continued for decades on just about every major TV show going - albeit with the odd film peppered in between - until he landed on Police Squad in 1982, which eventually led to a three-part movie series 6 years later. Nielsen became a household name from the Naked Gun movies, and his career trajectory changed completely overnight; the actor, best known for underrated roles in the likes of Creepshow (in which he plays a murderous psychopath), was now a comic star all over the world, and if you ask 98% of folks on the street, they will associate him almost solely with the Naked Gun franchise.