Hi, I'm John Green, welcome to my salon. This is mental_floss video and did you know that Lou Reed of The Velvet Underground became a typist after leaving the band? For two years, he worked at his dad's accounting firm. He credited his mom with convincing him to take typing in high school, a skill that paid off. Anyway, that's the first of many post-fame careers of celebrities and athletes that I'm going to share with you today in this video, sponsored by Geico.  

(Intro)

Arnold Schwarzenegger might be one of the best known examples of a celebrity who had an interesting post-fame career. He took a break from his acting career to become a politician and was elected the governor of California in 2003 during a recall election. He was in office until 2011, but could not follow in the footsteps of another actor turned governor of California, Ronald Reagan, because Arnold Schwarzenegger is not allowed to become the President of the United States due to him being a terminator. Apparently, it's because he was not born in the United States. Also, because he is a terminator.

But another celebrity who ran in that election for governor of California was Gary Coleman of the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. Coleman also spent some of his post-fame career as a shopping mall security guard.

Remember that little kid Chunk from The Goonies? Well, his name is Jeff Cohen and he is now an attorney and the founder of Cohen, Gardner LLP.

Another child star, Frankie Muniz spent a few years race car driving. In 2008, he told People magazine, "I don't wanna sound conceited, but I don't think there has been an actor or celebrity turned race car driver that has made it as high up on the race car circuit as I have, so I don't think there's anyone who can keep up with me, and that's just me being honest." Anyway, more recently he was in Sharknado 3 so that's good.  (Laughs)

Dan Lloyd, the little boy from The Shining went on to work at Wal-Mart and then as a pig farmer and eventually he became a science teacher at a community college.  

Wait, did someone say pig farmer? Time to put a quarter in the staff pork chop party fund.

Another actor turned teacher: Tony Danza. He spent a year teaching at a high school in Philadelphia, although it was for a reality show on A&E.  

Gene Hackman retired as an actor and became a writer. So far, he's written five books, four historical fiction novels and a thriller.

William Hung, who got famous for his bad rendition of Ricky Martin's "She Bangs" during the 2004 season of American Idol never actually made it in the music industry. Eventually, in 2011, he became a technical crime analyst at the LA County Sheriff's department.

Lindsey Lohan's love interest in Mean Girls, Aaron, was played by Jonathan Bennett. He went from that to teaching spin classes in Los Angeles, but apparently, he got tired of being all healthy because now he hosts Cake Wars on The Food Network.

Bill Berry spent 17 years as the drummer for REM. In 1997, he left the band and became a hay farmer in Georgia, although he still sometimes does make appearances with the band, because, you know, sometimes you wanna be a hay farmer, sometimes you want 50,000 people singing along to your lyrics, it all depends on what you're in the mood for.

The original drummer of The Clash, Terry Chimes, also quit music and chose a different career path. He has been a practicing chiropractor for two decades, so if you throw out your back during Jonathan Bennett's spin class, just head on over to the old drummer from The Clash.

The original Red Power Ranger, Austin St. John, became an EMT paramedic and firefighter in Washington D.C.

Peter Weller, aka RoboCop, still acts from time to time, but he also has a PhD in Italian Renaissance art history from UCLA. He got his master's in 2004 and then completed his PhD by 2014.

After acting for almost a decade, including in the film American Graffiti, Harrison Ford quit the business. He was expecting a second baby and decided he wasn't making it in Hollywood so he decided to become a carpenter. But then George Lucas decided to cast him in Star Wars and Ford went back to the world of acting. Then he became this guy.

In the 1980s, when Andy Kaufman was one of the most famous comedians in the United States, he also spent one night a week bussing tables at Jerry's Famous Deli in Studio City, California. He was weird.

All right, let's finish up with some athletes. We all know that former boxer George Foreman is in the grill business, but actually, he almost wasn't. He's claimed that when he first saw the grill, he said, "I'm not interested in toys." The George Foreman grill has since made him millions.

Magic Johnson has a movie theater chain, Magic Johnson Theaters, which he started in the mid-90s and has since been acquired by AMC Theaters. Johnson also had a failed talk show between June and September of 1998.  

It would be pretty cool to have a former NFL player coach your middle school football team, and if you went to Brentwood Middle School in 2015, that would be the case, because their football coach is Mike Williams, who the Detroit Lions drafted in the first round in 2005.  

Adrian Dantley, formerly of the Utah Jazz, was a part-time crossing guard.  According to Dantley, "I just did it for the kids. I didn't wanna sit around the house all day."  

During the NBA lockout of 2011, free agent Delonte West had time off so he took a job at Regency Furniture Showrooms.

Former NFL quarterback Giovanni Carmazzi went on to become a farmer with many goats.

Wrestler Dennis Knight, who was released from the WWE in 2001 is a chef in Tampa, Florida, and then there are a few former athletes who became politicians, like Jesse Ventura, another former professional wrestler who was a mayor and then the governor of Minnesota from 1999-2003. 

Kevin Johnson, who played for both the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Phoenix Suns, went on to be elected mayor of Sacramento, California in 2008, and he was re-elected in 2012, and NFL hall-of-famer Steve Largent was in the US House of Representatives for Oklahoma from 1994-2002.  

Former NBA player Hakeem Olajuwon has become a real estate titan in Houston, Texas, buying and selling buildings, and he's done it all without outside financial help, because he's a practicing Muslim and so doesn't believing in charging or paying interest.

Michelle Kwan won two Olympic medals for figure skating in 1998 and 2002, and then she became a senior advisor in the United States State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

One of the best golfers of all time, Gary Player, spends his retirement designing golf courses. His company has worked on over 350 courses around the world.

And finally, I return to my salon to tell you about another golfer, Arnold Palmer. According to Palmer, he used to drink a combination of lemonade and iced tea and he ordered it at a bar once and a woman heard him order it so she said, I'll have that Arnold Palmer drink, and thus he became a beverage mogul.  

Thanks for watching mental_floss video which is made with the help of all of these nice people. I may need a post-fame career one of these days and I'm counting on you to deliver it to me, so just keep me in mind if you ever come across my resume. Thanks again to Geico for sponsoring today's video a,nd as we say in my hometown, don't forget to be awesome.