Morgan Freeman wasn’t famous until he was 50 years old

While not every celeb has the privilege of skyrocketing to fame at the very start of their career - it's clear there are a bunch of famed Hollywood A-listers that took an entire lifetime before ever receiving their spot in the limelight.

And that was exactly the case for the award-winning Morgan Freeman, 86, who has since been heralded as one of the best actors of his entire generation.

As shocking as it is, the Shawshank Redemption star did not become famous until he was a staggering 50 years old.

The actor finally had his big break after starring in Street Smart, a crime thriller released in 1987 all about a reporter, Jonathan Fisher, struggling to keep his job at a magazine.

The plot follows the protagonist, played by Christopher Reeve, who is assigned to write a real-life prostitution exposé but fails to gain information from his subjects and decides to make up his own story about a pimp.

While the story ends up reviving his career, the reporter's fictional character turns out to be strangely similar to Fast Black, portrayed by Freeman, an actual pimp, who is outraged and demands that Jonathan spill his sources.

After police get involved in the whole ordeal, matters only get worse for the pair.

Freeman's career took off shortly after the film hit theatres in the late 1980s with subsequent roles like Sergeant Major John Rawlins in Glory (1989) and Hoke Colburn in Driving Miss Daisy (1989) paving the way for stardom.

The star has recently just celebrated his 86th birthday on Thursday (1 June) and has received a whole load of birthday tributes from his famous pals.

Douglas captioned the post: "Happy birthday to my good friend @morganfreeman! I had such an incredible time working with Morgan on the final season of The Kominsky Method. Have a great one Morgan! MD."