Famous People From Nostalgic Commercials: Where Are They Now?

22. What Are You Wearing?

You will be pleased to know that Jake from State Farm is actually named Jake Stone in real life and he really works for State Farm. According to Stone, one of his friends in marketing suggested him for the commercial, even though he didn’t have any formal acting experience. In the commercial, a husband is caught talking to someone on the phone at 3 am. The wife takes the phone, thinking that its another woman on the other end, and asks “what are you wearing?” Jake from State Farm simply responds, “khakis.”

The commercial was a massive hit and Stone became a household name almost overnight. The pop culture sensation appeared in a sequel to the same commercial a few years later but featuring coneheads calling planet State Farm at three in the morning.

23. I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up

Edith Fore will forever be known for her famous line “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up,” in Life Call commercials. Fore played the role of “Mrs. Fletcher,” promoting the lifesaving emergency alert device. What you may not know though, is that before making her commercial appearance, her life was actually saved by Life Call.

After falling and hitting her head, Fore activated her Life Call device and relayed her now-famous line to the dispatcher. Life Call notified paramedics and her family, saving her life. Her appearance in the commercials was not as an actor but as a testimonial.

24. GoDaddy Kiss

Jesse Heiman kissing Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli is the Super Bowl commercial from web hosting company GoDaddy you wish you could forget. For an unbearable 10 seconds the two locked lips, making audiences cringe nation-wide. “It was like kissing paradise. Like kissing God’s hands,” Heiman told the New York Daily News.

The couple reportedly took around 60 retakes of the awkward kissing scene. They also made two other versions of the commercial that were rejected by CBS for being “too indecent.” So maybe we dodged a bullet there.

25. Better Than Rancid Milk

Orlando Jones’ career started to take off during his role in the original cast of sketch comedy show MADtv. During that time, he also landed his a role as spokesperson for 7-Up. He reigned as the lemon-lime soft drink pusher from 1999 to 2002.

One of his ads featured Jones giving taste tests to blindfolded guests, a spoof of the Pepsi challenge, but instead of taste testing against the obvious Sprite, they were given liquids such as rancid milk and dishwater. Classic. Today, Jones is still acting, most recently he has appeared in TV series such as Sleepy Hollow and American Gods.

26. Life Cereal

Little Mikey, Mikey John Gilchrist, began starring in Life cereal commercials in 1972. The campaign was so popular that it was aired for over 12 years, making it one of the longest running commercials ever. A few sequels were also produced in the ’80s with a college student Gilchrist.

Little Mikey is all grown up now and is the director of media sales for the MSG TV network, based in New York. He has stated that he doesn’t really remember filming the popular commercial since he was around three and a half years old at the time. And yes, Gilchrist says he still enjoys Life cereal and keeps it around the house.

27. Mean Joe Greene

Mean Joe Greene is considered one of the greatest defensive linemen to ever play in the NFL, but for many, he is also known for his Coca-Cola commercial. Coca-Cola aired their “hey kid, catch!” campaign during Super Bowl XIV in 1980.

Greene came to be known as a “tough football player who’s a nice guy,” breaking his reputation for being hostile and unapproachable. After his football career ended, Greene went on to become an assistant coach for the Steelers, then the Dolphins and the Cardinals before retiring.

28. Apple 1984

Anya Major is an English athlete, actress, model and singer who appeared in Apple’s 1984 commercial to introduce the first Macintosh PC. The commercial portrayed a dystopian future similar to that of George Orwell’s novel 1984.

In the commercial Major raced down streets and into a theater carrying a giant hammer. She threw the hammer into a screen showing Big Brother. The commercial was used to quell the fear that computers would enslave mankind. After the commercial, Apple received a cease-and-desist letter from the estate of George Orwell.

29. The Dime Lady

Candice Bergen is a world-renowned actress and model. While starring as the lead role on the television sitcom Murphy Brown, Bergen became the spokesperson for Sprint telephone commercials. She was commonly referred to as the “Dime Lady,“ not for selling dime bags of drugs but because Sprint’s rate was 10 cents a minute.

Bergen already had a successful modeling and acting career prior to starring in Sprint commercials but the additional publicity certainly helped her further her career. She went on to host her own show on the Oxygen network and has appeared in endless films and television series.

30. Easy As Dell

Ben Curtis quickly became a national sensation as the “Dell Dude” in the early 2000s. He starred in around 26 different Dell commercials, all including his famous catchphrase, “Dude, you’re gettin’ a Dell!” He was fired from the role after being arrested on marijuana charges in 2003.

He was caught by an undercover policeman who was following a known drug dealer. Curtis was caught on the street wearing a kilt, buying drugs from a guy on a bicycle… Not suspicious at all. After that, he went through a bit of a rough patch finding work. He stated in an interview that he felt “blacklisted.” But recently he’s been making an acting comeback and even started his own wellness company. His main goal, according to himself, is to land a role on Orange is the New Black. Hopefully, we’ll be seeing him soon.

Credits: icepop.com