Whatever happened to the old ad stars?

I can’t count the number of times I’ve been driving somewhere or watching TV and suddenly thought, “Hey, whatever happened to the FedEx fast-talker guy?” That’s because I’ve never actually done it. But the folks at Mental Floss have, and now they’ve posted a “Where are they now?” retrospective about classic ads and their origins. After learning that I’m not the only person who’s creeped out by the FedEx guy, I found out that the Cracker Jack sailor was a portrait of someone’s dead grandson, that Bob’s Big Boy was a manchild who got paid in food to help out around the restaurant, and that the Coppertone girl is now a personal trainer in Florida.