Before they were famous, they were… electricians!

Many household names worked in the electrical industry before making it big on stage!

In this Article:

A number of famous people trained in the electrical industry before making it big

From sports stars to musicians, scientists to film directors, there’s a host of famous ex-sparkies!

How many of this list did you know about?

George Harrison
Better known as The Beatles’ lead guitarist, George Harrison was an apprentice electrician when he joined The Quarrymen. He worked as an electrician at Liverpool’s famous department store Blacklers, subsequently joking that he was given the boot from that job as he kept blowing things up!

Albert Einstein
Now then. If there’s one person you’d definitely trust to do some complex electrical work, it would be Albert Einstein. And some people in the past had that experience, because he began his career as an apprentice electrician in Germany. Together with his brother, he worked as an Oktoberfest electrician for the family business, Elektrotechnische Fabrik J Einstein & Cie.

Elvis Presley
Before Elvis became the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, he worked a number of odd jobs – one of which was as a truck driver for the Crown Electric Company in Memphis, Tennessee.

He studied an electrical apprenticeship at night, before becoming an apprentice electrician.

Of course, his stage career then took off – although he could have had bigger hits with Jailhouse Shock, Blue Suede Fuse and Circuit Break Hotel.

Alfred Hitchcock
Film director Alfred Hitchcock studied mechanics, electricity, acoustics and navigation at the London County Council School of Marine Engineering and Navigation, and was briefly an apprentice electrician at the Henley Telegraph and Cable Company in London before developing his talents as a creative writer and director were developed.

Rowan Atkinson
Better known as Mr Bean and Blackadder, comedy genius Rowan Atkinson studied to be an electrical engineer at Newcastle University in the UK, earning a bachelor’s degree before achieving a masters’ degree from Oxford – both in electrical engineering. While at Oxford, however, he met aspiring comedy writers Richard Curtis and Howard Goodall, and he pursued a career in comedy – depriving the world of Mr Bean the electrician!

Rod Stewart
Before his singing career, Rod Stewart worked as an electrician’s apprentice, feeding cable into conduit. He had a pretty varied pre-singing career after leaving school at 15, also including screen printing wallpaper (although he is colour blind!) and delivering newspapers after ditching a football career (he didn’t like cleaning the older players’ boots).

He is famously rumoured to have been a gravedigger too – and although that’s an urban legend, he did do a couple of shifts labouring at a cemetery.

Sir Bobby Charlton
One of England’s greatest ever footballers, Bobby Charlton trained as an electrical apprentice during his early footballing days – his mother, Cissie, believing that pinning everything on making it as a football pro was too risky a move. She needn’t have worried, of course, with Bobby starring for Manchester United and England for many years!

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