13 Beloved Actors We Forgot Started Out As Child Stars
![13 Beloved Actors We Forgot Started Out As Child Stars](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/8/8/825688_320x180.jpg)
Sometimes the lights of famous actors and celebrities can shine so brightly that they obscure other parts of their lives or their pasts. We often forget or simply ignore other facets of their life, like strange hobbies or talents, interesting family members, or even their own pasts.
We dug up more than a dozen examples of beloved actors that we completely forgot started out as child stars.
For example, Ryan Reynolds--action and comedy star extraordinaire--actually started out as a teenager in Nickelodeon's Fifteen way back in 1990. It was about teenage life and Reynolds was just 14 years old.
Jake Gyllenhaal got started as a kid as well, though his path was somewhat easier as his mom and dad were both already in the Hollywood elite.
Plenty of famous actors are well-known to us as grown-ups, so it can be kind of weird to find out that they started out when they were way, way younger, and in some cases were legit child stars ... who just kept going.
Ryan Reynolds
![Ryan Reynolds got a big role when he was just a teenager. It was in Nickelodeon's Fifteen, from 1990, and it's, well, about teenage life - and it was Reynolds' debut, when he was just 14. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/9/8/825698.jpg)
Jake Gyllenhaal
![Jake Gyllenhaal started acting when he was just a kid. Не kind of comes from Hollywood royalty - his mom was screenwriter Naomi Foner, and his dad is director Stephen Gyllenhaal -which kickstarted his career. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/9/5/825695.jpg)
Bruce Lee
![Bruce Lee got started in his career way before he became a martial arts master. His first role was when he was just one year old, and he became a child actor - his dad was a movie star, so he was able to get Bruce's career started very early. The first time Bruce played a lead was in The Kid, when he was just nine. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/0/1/825701.jpg)
Jackie Chan
![Jackie Chan got his start in showbiz as a child actor. Не got cast in his first movie when he was just five - it was Big and Little Wong Tin Bar, which was released in 1962. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/9/9/825699.jpg)
Jennifer Connelly
![Jennifer Connelly got into showbiz really young - at the age of 10. She started modelling at 10, and when she was 12, she got cast in Once Upon a Time in America. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/9/3/825693.jpg)
Mayim Bialik
![Mayim Bialik got her start in Hollywood at a really young age. Way back in 1988, she played cc Bloom in the movie Beaches with Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/9/6/825696.jpg)
Shia LaBeouf
![Shia LaBeouf started his acting career back when he was still a child. Basebulls Не got an agent at 11, and he soon started getting roles on big TV shows like The X-Files and ER. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/9/0/825690.jpg)
Ben Affleck
![Sure, Ben Affleck got famous as an adult, but he was also a child actor. On the PBS show The Voyage of the Mimi, he taught science and math to middle-school kids. Не says he didn't get the material himself, though -- It was totally beyond me, I had no idea. They worked me to the bone, so I was half asleep all the time.com](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/9/7/825697.jpg)
Jason Bateman
![Jason Bateman got his start in Hollywood when he was still a child. At the age of 10, he signed with an acting agency, and got cast in Little House on the Prairie two years after that. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/9/2/825692.jpg)
Giovanni Ribisi
![Giovanni Ribisi started out in acting at a pretty young age. In 1985, he got cast on Highway to Heaven as a child cancer patient. There are so many things - that was one of my first jobs. I remember being completely bald and just the surreal thing of like, 'Oh this is what it's like to be an actor. You have to do things like that.'', he said later. OM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/9/1/825691.jpg)
Demi Lovato
![Demi Lovato started their showbiz career at the age of 7. They got cast on Barney & Friends, and they eventually got a part on the Disney Channel show Camp Rock. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/8/9/825689.jpg)
Anna Paquin
![Anna Paquin was a child star, and got an Oscar before she hit puberty. She got the Oscar for best supporting actress in The Piano, released in 1993. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/0/0/825700.jpg)
Ryan Gosling
![Ryan Gosling joined The Mickey Mouse Club in 1993, when he was 12. Не was there at the same time as Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. I think they needed a Canadian. Every man in my family works in a paper mill, and I'd probably be doing that, too, if I hadn't learned when I was 11 that there's more out there, he later said.0M](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/6/9/4/825694.jpg)