Lordy, lordy, look what they did at 40: remember when 40 was a dirty word? As these icons proved, it's the age to weather a tragedy, win a Grammy, or conquer the world.

Abraham Lincoln Born February 12, 1809

For Honest Abe, 40 was complicated. At that age he was a married father completing his first and only term in the House of Representatives. He had proposed legislation to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia but didn't formally submit the amendment. While still a legislator, Lincoln was awarded a patent--the only president to earn that distinction--for his device that lifted boats over sandbars.

But by the spring of 1849, Lincoln had left Washington to practice law in Illinois; he was disappointed over having been passed over for a position with the General Land Office. And just days before his 41st birthday Lincoln lost Edward, his 3-year-old son, to what was likely tuberculosis.

Andy Warhol Born August 6, 1928

By the time he hit 40 Warhol was an international pop art icon, and his studiosalon, the Factory, was infamous. Just shy of the big 4-0, Warhol was shot and almost killed by Valerie Solanas, a peripheral member of the Factory and the founder of SCUM--the Society for Cutting Up Men. Warhol was plagued with physical problems for the rest of his life.

Weeks after the shooting and on the cusp of his birthday, Warhol appeared on-screen in The Queen, a documentary made the year before about a drag pageant. Three gay-themed films of his were released in 1968: Lonesome Cowboys, The Loves of Ondine, and Flesh, while a fourth, San Diego Surf, was never released. That year one of Warhol's most famous art installations, Silver Clouds-floating pillow-shaped balloons--was featured in the traveling exhibition "Air Art."

John Lennon Born October 9, 1940

After the birth of his son Sean in 1975, Lennon essentially retired from music to be a househusband. But while on a Bermuda vacation five years later, Lennon began writing songs that would eventually form Double Fantasy, his last album. Released between his 40th birthday and his death, Double Fantasy was a collaborative effort with his wife, Yoko Ono, spawning the hit singles "(Just Like) Starting Over," "Woman," and "Watching the Wheels." Lennon had enough material for another album, Milk and Honey, which would be released posthumously in 1984 with Ono's help.

On the morning of December 8,1980, Annie Leibovitz photographed Lennon and Ono for Rolling Stone; the image of a nude Lennon embracing a clothed, detached Ono became one of the magazine's most iconic. Late that night, as Lennon returned from a recording studio with Ono and walked into his apartment building, the delusional Mark David Chapman gunned him down.

John Waters Born April 22, 1946

In 1986 cult director Waters was five years past the release of Polyester and two years away from Hairspray, but 40 was still a big year for him. Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters, a collection of stories the auteur had written for various magazines, hit bookstores. Subjects included Pin Zadora, Christmas, and the National Enquirer.

That same year the director acted in two very different projects not his own: He played a crooked car salesman in Jonathan Demme's highly regarded film Something Wild and Barbara Hershey's husband in Passion Flower, a TV movie starring Bruce Boxleitner.

Whoopi Goldberg Born November 13, 1965

Forty was huge for Goldberg, who at 39 had become the first woman and first African-American to host the Oscars. In 1995 she divorced her husband of one year, Lyle Trachtenberg. She starred in the movies Boys on the Side and Moonlight and Valentino and appeared in the groundbreaking documentary The Celluloid Closet. She won a People's Choice Award as Favorite Comedy Motion Picture Actress.

Finally, she launched her production company, One Ho Productions, which in 1998 would revive the classic game show Hollywood Squares with Goldberg serving as center square.

Madonna Born August 16, 1958

By her late 20s, Madonna was already a global phenomenon, but it was at 40 that she really hit her stride.

In 1998, Madonna presented the Best Original Song nominees at the Academy Awards. She also released her seventh studio album, the lauded electronica- infused Ray of Light, which went on to sell 4 million copies in the United States alone.

Madonna performed "Ray of Light" and "Shanti/Ashtangi"--a song sung entirely in Sanskrit--at the MTV Video Music Awards, where "Ray of Light" won Best Video of the Year, Best Female Video, and awards for editing, direction, and choreography. Madge would don a kimono for her performance of "Nothing Really Matters" at the 41st annual Grammys, where she nabbed three statues for Ray of Light.

Renee Fleming Born February 14, 1959

The daughter of music teachers, Fleming initially considered a career in music education. But before she was 30, Fleming had already been a Fulbright Scholar and won the Grand Prix at the International Singing Competition.

At 40, Fleming won a Grammy for Best Classical Vocal Performance for her album The Beautiful Voice. An international recital tour brought her to Milan, Vienna, Copenhagen, and New York's Carnegie Hall. She performed in Alcina in Paris and Chicago, and in Susannah in New York. Fleming also released the album Strauss Heroines with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

ILLUSTRATED BY DAVID COWLES EXCLUSIVELY FOR THE ADVOCATE