10 Famous People You Never Knew Worked as Electricians

Liam Cunningham dropped out of school at 15 and took a job as an electricians mate. He continued to work as an electrician in the 80’s when he moved to Africa and maintained equipment in a safari park. He is a very recognisable actor however he has become more famous of late for his portrayol of Davos in the hugely successful Game of Thrones. If the work dries up he can always come and work for us here at Trade Skills 4U as it appears he spent some of his time in Africa training other electricians in Zimbabwe.

‘Psycho’ was a trained electrician when he was signed up by Nottingham Forest. Famously, he advertised his services in the match day programme. He worked as an electrician for four and a half years and is now a champion for asbestos awareness due to the fact he fears he was exposed to the substance whilst on the tools.

8. Rowan Atkinson

Rowan Atkinson studied Electrical engineering at Newcastle University. He then continued to achieve a masters in the subject at The Queens College, Oxford in 1975. However he never took his electrical career any further and swiftly moved into writing and comedy. He is most famous for his roles in Blackadder and Mr Bean. I think we can all agree it is a good thing Mr Bean was not an electrician.

David Jason was made famous mainly for his role as Del Boy in Only Fools And Horses. He had always wanted to follow in his older brothers footsteps and be an actor, however his father had other ideas. David actually trained for 6 years as an apprentice electrician before giving up his job and his current girlfriend (excuse the pun) to take up acting in 1962.

One of the UK’s most loved footballers, Bobby Charlton originally trained as an apprentice electrical engineer. His mother had forced him to do so as she felt football was unlikely to provide him with a sustainable income. As it turned out football didn’t pay so well in those days so he still used to pick up the tools in the off season when he didn’t get paid.

As one quarter of the most famous band of all time George Harrison was part of a cultural movement that changed the world. However by the sounds of it he was lucky to be alive. In an interview in 1966 he was quoted as saying:

“I had a short go at being an electrician’s apprentice, but I kept blowing things up, so I got dumped.”

Hitchcock is still to this day one of the most famous directors of all time. His films have electrified audiences around the globe and in fact his first ever job when he left school at 16 was as an apprentice electrician at Henleys who manufactured electronic appliances. It was clear his talents were wasted on the tools very early on and he was quickly promoted.

“Hitchcock swiftly graduated to the sales section, where he honed his design and draftsmanship skills. There he would cultivate his habit of diligent planning, with notes, drafts, and multiple revisions. There he would also learn various means of publicity and promotion. No one ever had a better procedural grounding for film than Hitchcock did at Henley’s. The job educated him technically, artistically, and commercially.”

Known by many as the First American, a founding father and present on the $100 bill Benjamin Franklin was also possibly one of the first electricians in history. He was an inventor and experimenter who really helped the world understand what electricity was and how it worked. He was famous for experimenting with flying kites in lightning storms, the result of which led to the use of lightning rods and grounding.

Everyone knows that being an electrician is probably the trade that requires the most brain power. However it clearly wasn’t challenging enough for Albert Einstein. One of his first ever jobs was running cables and hanging lights for his father and uncle at the first ever Oktoberfest to be lit with electric light via a steam generator. Once everything was set up Albert was asked to wander the fair to make sure all the lights were on.

The King is still pretty much the most famous person on the planet. It’s amazing to think what would have happened had he stuck to his training programme as an electrician with the Crown Electric Company. Thankfully for his millions and millions of fans worldwide he didn’t and was quoted as saying:

“I was training to be an electrician. I suppose I got wired the wrong way round somewhere along the line.”