Before They Were Stars

Brad Pitt sported one totally gnarly mullet, Matt Damon emoted as Humpty Dumpty, and Jen and Vince could have been extras in Sixteen Candles. Check out some of today’s hottest stars before they made the A list
By People Staff
Updated May 03, 2016 04:17 AM

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GEORGE CLOONEY

Credit: SPLASH NEWS

A living testament to the power of contact lenses, this goofy guy would later be sexy enough to own his own Italian villa!

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Brad Pitt, 1988

Credit: WAYNE WILLIAMS/SHOOTING STAR

Someday, people would actually want to see this man with his shirt off. But doing this hokey-pokey pose was a good gig for struggling model-actor Pitt. Another job? Chauffering a limo for a strip-o-gram service.

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Angelina Jolie, 1988

Credit: Splash News

Somewhere, Boy George is missing his hat. But proto-Goth Angelina Jolie would soon grow into her looks and appear in the Rolling Stones video “Anybody Seen My Baby?”

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Britney Spears, 1997, and Kevin Federline, 1988

Credit: CLASSMATES.COM YEARBOOK ARCHIVES; SPLASH NEWS

Post-Mouse Club Britney played basketball for Mississippi’s Park Lane Academy. The future K-Fed had already been voted Most Likely to Be on America’s Most Wanted at Fresno’s Tenaya Middle School.

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Ashton Kutcher, 1995, and Demi Moore, 1981

Credit: PACIFIC COAST NEWS; WAYNE WILLIAMS/SHOOTING STAR

Pulling a Marky Mark in Calvin Klein underwear, he found steady work as a model. A few years earlier, his future wife did what she could with that ’80s curse: the superfluous ruffle.

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Nicole Kidman, 1971, and Keith Urban, 1972

Credit: SPLASH NEWS

Proving that America has no corner on ambitious child performers, these two talented tots came of age in ’70s Australia. By age 4, Kidman had mastered her Serious Actress Look. Meanwhile, little Keith had mastered … the ukulele? Says neighbor Anna Miletic: “He always had a guitar in his hand.”

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Vince Vaughn, 1988, and Jennifer Aniston, 1987

Credit: SPLASH NEWS; GLOBE

As the host of his Lake Forest (Ill.) High School talent show, Vaughn “was hysterical,” says his volleyball coach Chris Eiserman. Aniston, meanwhile, channeled her inner Joan Jett while at New York’s Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School for the performing arts, admitting she “did liquid eyeliner better than anyone in history.”

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Tom Cruise, 1984

Credit: ROXY RIFKIN/SHOOTING STAR

Right after strutting his stuff in tighty whities in Risky Business, a young Tom Cruise flashed his guns – and an early prototype of his patented grin – for the camera.

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Matt Damon, 1986

Credit: ABACA

Sure, he has an Oscar, but who could forget Damon’s portrayal of Humpty Dumpty in Bravo Cappuccio! in the New England Drama Festival? Especially after seeing that costume.

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Jamie Foxx

Credit: CLASSMATES.COM YEARBOOK ARCHIVES

Back in 1986, when he was Eric Bishop, Foxx, 38, battled a serious Jheri curl dependency as a trumpet player at Terrell High in Terrell, Texas.

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