Rodney Dangerfield has quite the story as well. He was always trying to do his comedy stuff but it never worked out. But he kept at it. Finally he got his big break - I think he was in his late 50’s and was selling used cars or something at the time.
He was a suit salesman from Bellmore, NY down the road a bit from where I grew up. Unfortunately the most famous person to come from my hometown (Malverne) was Tony Danza.