what do actors do when they are not working?

[Slartybartfast]

just googled various actors and got me thinking, these actors, IE Bill Bailey, my age, Their work is not continuous. how do they survive?

A friend of mine is an actor mainly on stage. He's also done supporting parts in short drama series on BBC etc.

When he isn't touring he does acting for the local medical school's practical exams (how he met his wife!) and quite a bit of advertising work, particularly radio. He also does the bulk of the childcare when he's home as his wife does it all when he's on tour.

It's worse being a concert pianist. I have a relative, and his DP earns enough to survive.

Oh, I forgot to mention the personal appearance circuit. In Star Trek (for example) many of the actors spend their free time going to Comic Con and other similar events all over the world which they get paid for. They tend to do single or group talks to the audience about their particular show / shows. You can also often buy tickets to get an autograph or a photograph with them. Sometimes the cast of a show will do a group photo shoot so you stand on the bridge of the Enterprise for example with the Next Generation cast and have your photos taken with all of them.

I saw Bill Bailey live
and having run events at venues did the maths ....
he was clearing £20,000 a night
on a 40 night tour
that pays for quite a lot of "down time" between gigs

live performance is VERY lucrative

yonks ago Newman and Baddeil cleared £1,000,000 EACH per night at the O2
(by cleared I mean after ALL costs except tax)

There was a Home & Away anniverosary special on recently (); two of the big stars of the 80s/90s are now an accountant and a (specialist) window cleaner.

One of our neighbours is a jobbing actor. He seems to have done a lot of stage work, ads, small parts in reasonably big films and so on. When not working he teaches and does the bulk of the childcare; his wife has a regular job.

My friend is an actor he spends his time preparing for roles, auditions, writing, voice overs etc. He also has a young family so he spends time with his kids which is really important as many of his jobs take him away for weeks on end.

It's worse being a concert pianist.

I know someone who is a professional tuba player and he does very well for himself. I guess it helps being a niche instrument.

An actor where we live (and in fact another one in a nearby town) runs a drama club for children. The one in a nearby town, who has appeared in a soap, runs school holiday drama courses.

Pauline Quirke also has an academy near us, she has them all over the country now, not sure if they are franchised or not

Probably TwoBlueShoes.

But what if you're famous and a household name, then your career sinks without trace. Can you still get a normal job 20 years later?I'm thinking of Jonathan Morris (Adrian from Bread), or Tony Slattery?

Yes, I would like to know that too

I’m sure I read that Spider from Coronation Street had been working in a coffee shop after he left along with doing bits and pieces of acting. He was pretty distinctive looking.

Have an actor friend, they've been in all the soaps. They get some income via repeat fees but do lots of voiceovers, radio, producing etc .
I'd find the constant hustling exhausting!

Also, I met Stephen Fry during his hiatus from acting many years ago. He was presenting the raffle at a travel convention. I guess he could scrape together enough small jobs to get by.

He was very nic by the way.

One of my fairly close relatives won an Oscar for a smallish film that was critically well received. A few years on, they are working on some fairly low-rent telly stuff and promotional videos. Their career took a real dive afterwards for various reasons.

Most of the actors, musicians and comedians I know (both family and work have introduced me to quite a few) lead very ordinary lives away from the job. Some do voiceover work and commercial jingles, others just do the school run and nip to the supermarket.