A late bloomer is a person whose talents or capabilities are not visible to others until later than usual. The term is used metaphorically to describe a child or adolescent who develops more slowly than others in their age group, but eventually catches up and in some cases overtakes their peers, or an adult whose talent or genius in a particular field only appears later in life than is normal – in some cases only in old age.
Children
“Late Bloomer” is commonly used to refer to young children who develop skills such as language, reading or social interaction later than others of their age.
There are many theories of the way in which children develop, proposed by authorities such as Urie Bronfenbrenner, Jerome Bruner, Erik Erikson, Jerome Kagan, Lawrence Kohlberg, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Although they disagree about how stages of development should be defined, and about the primary influences on development, they agree that a child’s development can be measured as a predictable series of advances in physical, intellectual and social skills which almost always occur in the same sequence, although the rate may vary from one child to another.
When a child falls behind their peers at some stage of development, their teacher may perceive that the child is “backward”. There is strong evidence that this perception may become self-fulfilling: although the child catches up, the teacher may continue to rate their performance poorly, imposing a long-term handicap. Thomas Edison’s mind often wandered and his teacher was overheard calling him “addled.” This ended Edison’s three months of official schooling. His mother then home schooled him. Edison may have had some form of Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which is said to affect about 3 – 5% of children.
A notable example of a child who overcame early developmental problems is Albert Einstein, who suffered from speech difficulties as a young child. Other late-talking children who became highly successful engineers, mathematicians and scientists include the physicists Richard Feynman and Edward Teller. Neuroscientist Steven Pinker postulates that a certain form of language delay may in fact be associated with exceptional and innate analytical prowess in some individuals.
Dyslexia is a learning disability that may affect 3% – 10% of children. It is thought to be the result of a genetically inherited neurological difference from “normal” children, and has been diagnosed in people of all levels of intelligence. Studies indicate that 20% to 35% of U. S. and British entrepreneurs have the condition: by definition, late bloomers. Researchers theorise that dyslexic entrepreneurs may attain success by delegating responsibilities and excelling at verbal communication. Richard Branson, known for his Virgin brand of over 360 companies is a notable example, as is Charles R. Schwab the founder and CEO of the Charles Schwab Corporation. Pablo Picasso, Tom Cruise and Whoopi Goldberg are other examples of dyslexics, considered “slow” as children.
The autism spectrum of psychological conditions affects about 0.6% of children, characterized by widespread abnormalities of social interactions and communication, severely restricted interests and highly repetitive behavior. Notable individuals with autism spectrum disorders include Tim Page, a Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and author and Vernon L. Smith, a Nobel Laureate in economics.
Adolescents
During adolescence a child goes through physical and mental changes that lead to them becoming an adult. Adolescence is usually considered to start with the first stages of puberty and to continue until physical growth is complete, although the World Health Organization defines adolescence simply as the period between ages 10 and 20. There is a wide range of normal ages, but generally girls begin the process of puberty between the ages of 9 to 14, reaching adult height and reproductive maturity within 4 years, while boys usually start between the ages of 10 to 17, and continue to grow for about 6 years after the first visible pubertal changes. Adolescence is often a period of turbulent emotions and mood swings combined with rapid intellectual development.
“Late Bloomer” can refer to children who suffer from delayed puberty, who are late in reaching their full height. W.B. Yeats (age 30), Pierre Trudeau (age at least 28), Mark Twain (age 34), and Johann von Goethe (age 39) are all “late bloomers” in this last sense.
In most public educational systems, children and adolescents of the same age are put in the same classes. Because of the wide variance in the onset of adolescence, this means that one class may include individuals who have not yet started puberty, others who are sexually mature but not fully grown and yet others who are effectively adult. During this period, there is a high risk of an adolescent dropping out of formal education (due most commonly to intellectual boredom, bullying, or rebellion) without having achieved their full learning potential. The term “late-bloomer” may refer to such an individual who develops serious intellectual interests in their 20’s or 30’s and enrolls in college, where he or she performs particularly well and is subsequently able to establish a professional career.
Adults
A late blooming adult is a person who does not discover their talents and abilities until later than normally expected. In certain cases retirement may lead to this discovery.
Some notable examples of late bloomers in different fields follow.
Acting
In acting Danny Aiello did not begin acting until he was 40. Peg Phillips might be one of the best examples as she first pursued acting as a professional after her retirement from accounting. Although not a noteworthy actress Clara Peller might be noted for having an even later start in entertainment. Richard Farnsworth became an actor after 40 years as a stunt man, although he had had a few small uncredited roles when younger. Rodney Dangerfield was an actor/comedian who didn’t really start until he was 42. He had done clubs when he was younger, but stopped in order to work as a salesman. Zelda Rubinstein was 48 before she had her first role, a minor part in Under the Rainbow, but is more known for her “debut” in the Poltergeist film series starting the following year. Chicago native, Chi McBride, best known for the role as the principal in the series Boston Public, only got into acting when he was 31. Danny Glover had a brief stint in the career of politics before he had involved himself in acting at 28. BAFTA winning British actress Liz Smith did not become a professional actress until the age of 50. Kathryn Joosten also got a late start. Television star Judd Hirsch from Taxi became active at the age of 36. George Wendt who played Norm on Cheers became active at the age of 32. Brian Dennehy had dreams of stage and screen at an early age, but chose to first pursue other interests such as service in the U.S. Marine Corps prior to becoming active at the age of 38. Irish actor Brendan Gleeson, who appeared as Mad Eye Moody in the Harry Potter films and alongside Colin Farrell in In Bruges, started acting at 34, having previous work as a school teacher.
Art
In art “late bloomers” are most often associated with Naïve art. This term is used for untrained artists so fits those who start late in life without artistic training. Hence the classic late bloomer is Grandma Moses whose painting career began in her seventies after abandoning a career in embroidery because of arthritis. An even older example is Bill Traylor who started drawing at age 83. Another painter who started late in life is Alfred Wallis who began painting after his wife’s death in his 60s.
Business
In business Irene Wells Pennington became best known in her nineties when she helped straighten out irregularities in her husband’s oil business after he went senile in his own 90s. Colonel Sanders began his franchise in his sixties and can also be deemed a late in life financial success. In his mid-50s Taikichiro Mori founded the business that made him, for a year or two, the richest man in the world. He came from a merchant family, but had been a business professor before his 50s.
Dance
Japanese dancer and choreographer Kazuo Ohno did not undertake formal dance lessons until his late twenties and was 43 years old when he performed his first recital at Kanda Kyoritsu Hall in Tokyo in 1949. A decade later, he and colleague Tatsumi Hijikata would achieve worldwide acclaim as the nucleus of the Butoh dance movement.
Games and Sports
In professional sports, an athlete’s career usually ends in the mid-to-late 30s, so a player who breaks through in his late 20s/early 30s would be considered a late bloomer. One such example is Kurt Warner, who entered the NFL at age 28, and went on to become a two-time MVP and Super Bowl champion. Baseball pitcher Randy Johnson, who made his Major League debut at 25, but didn’t reach superstar status until he was 30, might also be considered a late bloomer, as might defender Marco Materazzi of Inter Milan, who started playing football professionally at 26. Former NBA star, Hakeem Olajuwon did not touch a basketball until he was 15, but his athleticism and fundamentals from the sports, soccer and handball, helped him advanced as one of the greatest bigmen to ever play in the NBA.
In shooting there have been two figures of note whose accomplishments occurred in their sixties or later. Joshua Millner of Britain was 61 when he won his Olympic gold medal in Free rifle, 1000 yards. Swedish marksman Oscar Swahn won two Olympic gold medals in the running deer, single shot event at the age of 60. He won his last medal, silver, at 72 making him the oldest medalist. In athletics Philip Rabinowitz set a sprinting record for centenarians.
Jonah Barrington, a squash player, overcame alcoholism to later become a 6 times British Open Squash champion, and was regarded as one of the fittest men on the planet.
Heavyweight champions Ken Norton and Rocky Marciano did not take up boxing until their twenties, but both enjoyed successful careers at the highest level of competition.
Music
Musical ability is inherent in almost all people, to a greater or lesser extent. However, those who develop it to a high level are generally encouraged to play an instrument or to sing at an early age. Late bloomers in music are generally composers or artists who became prominent later in life, but had displayed musical ability much earlier.
Anton Bruckner is an example of a musical late bloomer. Although he played church organ some in his twenties he did not become a composer until his 40s. Singer K. T. Oslin released her first album at age 47 which was a major country music success. Al Jarreau is also an example, who released his first album at age 35. AERIA Recording Artist Colie Brice released his 10th solo album Late Bloomer at 39. Elliott Carter did not achieve compositional maturity until his Cello Sonata (1948), when he was 40. César Franck and Leoš Janáček also matured late as composers; 56, for Franck with his first Symphony in D; and, for Janáček, Jenufra (1904) marked his first true breakthrough at age 50. Iannis Xenakis did not even begin studying composition until 30, with Messiaen. Leonard Cohen did not release his first album until he was 32 years old.
Filmmaking
Though many filmmakers begin directing in their late 20s or early 30s, many of the most notable directors in film history waited until their mid-to-late-30s to direct their first feature. These directors include Nicholas Ray, Alain Resnais, Edward Yang, Michael Mann, Paul Verhoeven, Frank Tashlin, Robert Aldrich, Satyajit Ray, Anthony Mann, Terry Gilliam, Jerry Lewis, Tsai Ming-liang, Don Siegel, Melvin Van Peebles, Gaspar Noé, Lloyd Bacon, Alexander Kluge, Mrinal Sen, Jean-Marie Straub, Ida Lupino, Alexander Payne, Ang Lee and Jacques Rivette. David Mamet directed his first feature at 40, having already found success and been awarded a Pulitzer Prize as a playwright. Éric Rohmer directed his first feature film at 39, though he didn’t become a full-time filmmaker until he was in his late 40s.
Many notable directors started even later: Robert Bresson, Jacques Tati and Takeshi Kitano directed their first features at 42; Maurice Pialat at 43; Michael Haneke at 47; Jim Sheridan at 40 and his peer and fellow collaborator Terry George at 46. Yevgeni Bauer at 48. Clint Eastwood, the oldest person to win the Academy Award for Best Director, directed his first film at 41.
One of the most shining examples of late bloomers in filmmaking is the Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira. Born in 1908, he worked sporadically in filmmaking from the 1930s. He completed his first feature film in 1941 called Aniki-Bobo. Due to circumstances beyond his control (difficulty in financing, having to deal with his family’s business), he didn’t complete his second feature film until 1971 (when he turned 63). 2 years later, he completed his third feature film, Benilde or the Virgin Mother (1973). Five years later, he made his breakthrough film (originally commissioned by Portuguese TV) called Doomed Love. After his critically acclaimed film Francisca (1981), he became a full time filmmaker (at the age of 73).
Politics
It is common for politicians to achieve prominence late in life, often after a career in business or the law. For example, in the United States Congress as of January 2009, of 540 elected officials 215 had worked in the legal profession and 189 had worked in private sector business. The average age of senators was 62. A lawyer or businessperson who moves into politics later in life is presumably putting existing skills to a new use, and should not be considered a late bloomer. However, some highly successful politicians come from unusual backgrounds.
Václav Havel, born in 1936, was a playwright and writer with an interest in human rights. He became the voice of the opposition in Czechoslovakia in the 1980s and President of Czechoslovakia at age 53 after the collapse of the communist regime in 1989. Ronald Reagan, a former actor, union leader and corporate spokesman, was first elected to public office at 55 when he became Governor of California and remains the oldest man to have served as U.S. President. Melchora Aquino was an uneducated Filipino peasant woman, the mother of six children, who became an activist in the fight to gain independence from Spain. Known as the Grand Woman of the revolution, she was 84 when the Philippine Revolution broke out in 1896. Silas C. Swallow was a minister who became a Prohibition Party activist in his sixties. Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s might also fit. Her first environmental work of note occurred when she was almost 60, at 78 she founded “Friends of the Everglades”, and she continued until she was over age 100.
Religion
The great proponent of Gaudiya Vaishnavism A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada founded the International Society for Krishna Consciousness or the Hare Krishna movement in 1966 at the age of 70. Within the final twenty years of his life Prabhupada translated over sixty volumes of classic Vedic scriptures (such as Bhagavad Gita and Bhagavata Purana) into the English language.
Writing
Many writers have published their first major work late in life. Mary Wesley might be a classic example. She wrote two children’s books in her late fifties, but her writing career did not gain note until her first novel at 70, written after the death of her husband. Harriet Doerr published her first novel at age 74, and went on to great praise. A possibly more well known example might be Laura Ingalls Wilder. She became a columnist in her forties, but did not publish her first novel in the Little House series of children’s books until her sixties.
Memoirist and novelist Flora Thompson was first published in her thirties but is most famous for the semi-autobiographical Lark Rise to Candleford trilogy, the first volume of which was published when she was 63. Children’s author Mary Alice Fontenot wrote her first book at 51 and wrote almost thirty additional books, publishing multiple volumes in her eighties and nineties. Kenneth Grahame was born in 1859, joined the Bank of England in 1879 and rose through the ranks to become its Secretary. Although he had written various short stories while working at the bank, it was only after his retirement in 1908 that he published his masterpiece and final work The Wind in the Willows.
Charles Bukowski published his first novel at age 49 after a lengthy career working odd jobs and then at a post office. Richard Adams’s first novel, the bestseller Watership Down, was published when he was in his fifties. Anthony Burgess, the novelist best known for A Clockwork Orange, published his first novel at age 39. William S. Burroughs was also 39 when he published his first novel, Junky. The Marquis de Sade published his first novel, Justine, after turning 51. Henry Miller published his novel Tropic of Cancer at 44. Raymond Chandler published his first short story at 45, and his first novel, The Big Sleep at 51.
In other areas of writing, poet Wallace Stevens started late in life after years as an insurance salesman and executive. Although he was first published at 38, his “canonical works” came out in his fifties. In philosophy Mary Midgley had her first book when she was 56. Edmond Hoyle wrote a booklet on whist in his late sixties. To avoid unauthorized copies he wrote the copyrighted A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist at age 70.
The Indian writer and polymath Nirad C. Chaudhuri wrote his autobiography The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian at the age of 54. He wrote a sequel to it Thy Hand, Great Anarch! at the age of 90. He published his next work (and his final work) Three Horsemen of the New Apocalypse at the age of 100.
Aron Ettore Schmitz published his first novel Senilità in his 38th year, however it was not until he published Zeno’s Conscience that he made a breakthrough, aged 61. Even this was self-published.
Joseph Conrad was one of the greatest authors in the English language. He could not speak a word of English until he was about 21. He only started writing in English at about age 32, and his first published works came out when he was about 37.