Celebrity Cab Drivers: Fact and Fiction
Even the rich and famous stars of Hollywood were once mere mortals like the rest of us, earning a living at menial jobs. They've worked at burger joints, they've folded clothes on the retail floor, and they've even driven cabs. Some stars were real-life cab drivers before their careers took off, and others only played them in films. Which is which?
Jamie Foxx: Fiction
Fox played a cabbie in the 2004 movie Collateral. Tom Cruise was his client. In real life, Foxx was a shoe salesman before he ever became an actor, but he never drove a cab.
Larry David: Fact
Larry David drove a taxi early in his career. In fact, his neighbor across the hall at the time was Kenny Kramer, who helped inspire the character of Kramer on Seinfeld. He also made money driving a limousene for a while -- not that there's anything wrong with it.
Jimmy Smits: Fact
The actor helped to transport people throughout New York City as a cab driver. He took the night shift so that he could act in Off-Broadway productions during the day. His stint as a cab driver was a short one, though, because after a few months on that job he received the pilot script for L.A. Law. He was cast as Victor Sifuentes for five seasons.
Robert De Niro: Fiction.
Although he delivered a much-acclaimed performance in Taxi Driver in 1976, De Niro never held that occupation in real life.
David Mamet: Fact
Mamet says that his time as a cabbie in Chicago was "on-the-job training" for his eventual writing career. Mamet -- an acclaimed playwright, author, screenwriter, and film director -- is known for writing dialogue that is so distinct in its style that it's referred to as Mamet speak. He believes that he gained the ability to write dialogue because of his childhood, saying, "In my family, in the days prior to television, we liked to while away the evenings by making ourselves miserable, based solely on our ability to speak the language viciously. That's probably where my ability was honed."
Danny DeVito: Fiction
Though he is beloved for his role as Louie De Palma on the television show Taxi from 1978-1983, DeVito was not drawing from any real-life experience in the profession.