The release of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides today marks former model Gemma Ward‘s third feature film. She famously left modeling three years ago in order to pursue acting. However, Ward is not the only recent convert. A new wave of models–Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Agyness Deyn and Natalia Vodianova–are looking to get their thespian feet wet, and if successful Hollywood will become that much more beautiful.

The transition from print to screen is a familiar path for many models. Some of have gone on to snag statues, while others have fallen slightly short (ok, a lot short) of the mark (Cindy Crawford in Fair Game anyone?). Here we’ll take a look back at some of the success stories and their modeling careers before they were bitten by the acting bug.