Today he's one of the highest-grossing actors of all time, but Samuel L. Jackson spent almost two decades in theater and small film parts. Things turned around after he got sober in the early 1990s.
His role as a man struggling with addiction in Jungle Fever (1991) earned him a special award at the Cannes Film Festival. Three years later, at 45, he played Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction. The role earned him an Oscar nomination and made him a star.
