Ever re-watch movies after a long time and find future stars in small roles?

[NewJeffCT]

Last edited Tue Jul 3, 2018, 04:48 AM - Edit history (1)

I watched the movie "Addams Family Values" over the weekend after seeing it in the theater in 1993, when it came out. All that I remember at the time was liking it more than the original Addams Family movie. I doubt I'd seen it since.

I rewatched with my daughter over the weekend and it was full of actors in smaller/supporting roles that would become much more well known in the future.

The two adult camp counselors were played by Christine Baransky (later a multiple Emmy nominee for The Good Wife and also The Big Bang Theory) and Peter MacNicol (later a multiple emmy nominee for Ally McBeal)

The bored police desk sergeant was played by Nathan Lane, famous for multiple Broadway roles, the movie The Birdcage and much more.

and, in a small role as the lead sailor in the bar was Tony Shalhoud, who won the Tony for The Band's Visit a few weeks ago and who was nominated for multiple Emmies for Monk in the early 2000s.

And, my favorite was the pretentious 12 or 13 year old summer camper Amanda Buckman, played by Mercedes McNab, later somewhat famous for playing the annoying vampire Harmony on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.

And, current candidate for governor of NY Cynthia Nixon was in the movie as well in a small role

[Phoenix61]

1. Happens on Twilight Zone all the time nt

[NewJeffCT]

2. William Shatner is one of the most famous ones

terror at 20,000 feet. Loved seeing everybody smoking on the plane.

[Phoenix61]

3. Robert Redford played Death in one. nt

[Va Lefty]

32. Jack Klugman, Charles Bronson Elizabeth Montgomery

[zanana1]

49. I love those.

And yes, it does happen alot. I wonder if those actors got their start that way?

[Wounded Bear]

50. A lot of actors get their start doing commercials...

If you search archives, you see some real surprises of stars promoting products.

[Raven123]

4. Robert DuVall "To Kill a Mockingbird "

[NewJeffCT]

5. did not know that

i'll have to check it out next time I see the movie

[sarge43]

6. Harrison Ford, Army officer briefing Sheen about the mission

Viggo Mortensen, non speaking role in Witness

Christian Bale as Robin in Henry V.

[Lars39]

14. Bale was well known before Henry V, though

because of Empire of the Sun.

[sarge43]

20. True. n/t

[mucifer]

63. Harrison Ford and Cindy Williams in "The Conversation"

[zipplewrath]

7. Tia Leoni

If you watch real close, you'll see Madam Secretary, Tia Leoni in "A League of Their Own". Don't blink. I think she's in about 3 scenes, and has maybe 5 total words. But she does make the credits.

[NewJeffCT]

19. nice

I remember that movie - one of the great lines in movie history "There's no crying in baseball!"

[SeattleVet]

8. Just watched the Max Headroom TV series from 1987...

and one episode features a young Bill Maher as one of the characters.

[NewJeffCT]

15. that would be interesting to see

I recently read the Ready Player One book, so Max Headroom came up in the book (not the movie, if I recall)

[Sneederbunk]

9. Bruce Willis as a juror in The Verdict.

[NewJeffCT]

12. wow

I loved that movie when I saw it back in the day in theaters, but I don't think I've seen it since

[lame54]

10. Dennis Hopper in Rebel Without A Cause

[lame54]

11. Warren Beatty and Tuesday Weld in Dobie Gillis

[NewJeffCT]

23. wow

that would have been interesting to see.

[dameatball]

36. Excellent catch!!

[Ernesto]

13. M*A*S*H has plenty!

[NewJeffCT]

16. I can imagine

I probably never noticed because I watched as a kid

[Ptah]

17. George Takei - - Perry Mason: "The Case of the Blushing Pearls" n/t

[NewJeffCT]

18. Oh my

that would have been cool to see

[smirkymonkey]

21. Yes, I love that - especially when it's someone who really made it big playing a bit part.

I watch a lot of British TV and movies and it's even more noticeable over there, they just seem to have a much smaller pool of talented actors.

[NewJeffCT]

22. all of the British actors

are here playing Americans in The Walking Dead - Andrew Lincoln, Lauren Cohan, Lennie James, David Morrissey, Frank Dillane, Tom Payne and Pollyanna McIntosh, plus a few I'm probably missing

[Ron Obvious]

24. One flew over the cuckoo's nest

Has Christopher Lloyd and Danny De Vito in small roles, who were to reunite in Taxi a few years later and make it big. Also the guy who played Wormtongue in Lord of the Rings whose name I'm blanking on right now. Probably a few others as well.

[Raven123]

25. George Reeves in Gone With the Wind

TV's Superman!

[Ferrets are Cool]

26. Watch the Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai...

you will be amazed. At how good the movie is AND how many future stars are in this gem.

[exboyfil]

30. Weird and great movie

Got to love Jeff Goldblum as the Rhinestone Cowboy.

[Ferrets are Cool]

40. ...

[geardaddy]

55. John Big-boo-TAY! Tay! Tay!

[Ferrets are Cool]

58. hehehehehehe

[yellowdogintexas]

27. Twilight Zone and Gunsmoke reruns are full of them n/t

[Crutchez_CuiBono]

51. That's exactly what I thought of. Night Gallery as well.

[malthaussen]

52. Everybody was on Gunsmoke at some time...

... including all of the original cast of Star Trek

-- Mal

[exboyfil]

28. Just saw Arnold Schwarzenegger as a goon

in The Last Goodbye (I mean like a 1/2 hour ago).

I don't know how popular she was, but Christina Ricci was in the two Addams Family movies. She wanted to do Morticia in the remake, but they cast someone else.

[yellowdogintexas]

29. in Undercover Blues, Stanley Tucci steals every

scene as "Muerte"

[Va Lefty]

33. Very underrated movie IMHO. Great chemistry between Quaid and Turner!

[Iggo]

44. "Morty!"

[Va Lefty]

31. Sharon Stone in Stardust Memories

less than 30 seconds screen time

[dameatball]

34. There was an old Roy Rogers episode where this boxer came into town and somehow Roy had to fight him

This was in B&W. The boxer looked familiar to me, so I checked the credits after the show. The name was Charles Brewinski or something similar......sorry for that....he later became known as Charles Bronson.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

67. You made me look him up.

Charles Bronson

Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky; Lithuanian: Karolis Dionyzas Bučinskis; November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American actor.
....

Early life

Bronson was born Charles Dennis Buchinsky, the 11th of 15 children, in a Roman Catholic family of Lithuanian descent in Ehrenfeld, Pennsylvania, in the coal region of the Allegheny Mountains north of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

His father, Valteris P. Bučinskis, who later adjusted his name to Walter Buchinsky to sound more "American", hailed from the town of Druskininkai in southern Lithuania. Bronson's mother, Mary (née Valinsky), whose parents were from Lithuania, was born in the coal mining town of Tamaqua, Pennsylvania. The family had Lipka Tatar roots.

Bronson learned to speak English when he was a teenager; before that, he spoke Lithuanian and Russian.

Bronson was the first member of his family to graduate from high school. When Bronson was 10 years old, his father died and he went to work in the coal mines, first in the mining office and then in the mine. He later said he earned one dollar for each ton of coal that he mined. He worked in the mine until he entered military service during World War II. His family was so poor that, at one time, he had to wear his sister's dress to school for lack of clothing.
....

Early film roles (1951–1954)

Bronson's first film role — an uncredited one — was as a sailor in You're in the Navy Now in 1951, directed by Henry Hathaway. Other early screen appearances were in The Mob (1951); The People Against O'Hara (1951), directed by John Sturges; Bloodhounds of Broadway (1952); Battle Zone (1952); Pat and Mike (1952), as a boxer and mob enforcer; Diplomatic Courier (1952), another for Hathaway; My Six Convicts (1952); The Marrying Kind (1952); and Red Skies of Montana (1952).

In 1952, Bronson boxed in a ring with Roy Rogers in Rogers' show Knockout. He appeared on an episode of The Red Skelton Show as a boxer in a skit with Skelton playing "Cauliflower McPugg". He appeared with fellow guest star Lee Marvin in an episode of Biff Baker, U.S.A., an espionage series on CBS starring Alan Hale, Jr.

He had small roles in Miss Sadie Thompson (1953); House of Wax (1953), directed by Andre de Toth; The Clown (1953); Torpedo Alley (1953); and Riding Shotgun, starring Randolph Scott, directed by de Toth again.

Bronson had a notable support part as an Indian in Apache (1954) for director Robert Aldrich who then used him again in Vera Cruz (1954). Bronson then made a strong impact as the main villain in the Alan Ladd western Drum Beat as a murderous Modoc warrior, Captain Jack (based on a real person), who relishes wearing the tunics of soldiers he has killed.

He had roles in Tennessee Champ (1954) for MGM, and Crime Wave (1954) directed by de Toth.

In 1954, during the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) proceedings, he changed his surname from Buchinsky to Bronson at the suggestion of his agent, who feared that an Eastern European surname might damage his career.

[dameatball]

35. I love this kind of stuff. One of the reasons why I watch Barney Miller reruns.

[Kaleva]

37. The Big Chill

William Hurt
Jeff Goldblum
Glenn Close
Tom Berenger
Kevin Kline
Mary Kay Place
JoBeth Williams
Meg Tilly
Kevin Costner played the corpse but we only see his slashed wrists in the movie

[Paladin]

38. Many, many times. It's enjoyable. (nt)

[TexasBushwhacker]

39. Chris Messina, of The Mindy Project, had a small part in You've Got Mail

He's at about 2:30. He was in his early 20's.

[IrishEyes]

41. Matt Damon was in Mystic Pizza in 1988. He had one line.

He played the brother of Julia Robert's wealthy lover.

Ben Affleck was in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer film in 1992. He had one line as well. He played a basketball player.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was in the 1979 film Scavenger Hunt. He played a trainer in the gym trying to get Tony Randall's character to exercise. He had a few lines but it was a pretty short scene.

It is alway fun to see actors before they were stars in films and tv shows.

[TexasBushwhacker]

56. Ben was in a family series called the Voyage of the Mimi

in 1984 when he was 12. I believe it was produced by Boston's PBS affiliate.

[friendly_iconoclast]

57. Ben Affleck also had a small role in Dazed and Confused...

...a movie that reminded me very much of my high school years

[TexasBushwhacker]

59. We must be close in age

D&C takes place in 1975, which is when I graduated from high school. I remember zipping my jeans with a pair of pliers. They were called Dittos.

[BlueSpot]

42. The Devil's Rain - John Travolta

Saw it in high school with a friend. We nearly got thrown out of the theater because it was so BAD a horror movie we were howling with laughter.

Looked it up on IMDB to make sure I had the name right and was surprised to see the "big names" in it:
Ernest Borgnine
Eddie Albert
Ida Lupino
William Shatner

[miyazaki]

43. The horror movie "The Sentinel" from 77' is famous for many stars, past and future.

This movie freaked me out when I was a kid. I bought the blu-ray on sale, and it's
still kind of a fun watch.

I see that the original house is still there in Brooklyn Heights. Could be fun on Halloween.

[exboyfil]

45. It had one of the best paperback covers for the novel

My mom read it, and it really got to me as a young kid. Saw the movie in the 1980s, and recently read the novel for the first time. He did a sequel, but he was not known for horror novels. He is a Hollywood producer.

[miyazaki]

46. Ya i just looked up the cover.

I see two different book covers, and both would have left an impression on me. Really good. Guess I have to read the book now, ha.

I can remember watching the edited version on tv late one night with my brother, sitting indian style. Then all of
a sudden in the movie that old freaky bastard marched across the room and I reeled backwards in a somersault, rolf.
Even the star actress seemed terrified making that movie.

[mnhtnbb]

47. Dominic West of The Affair

Played Fred Casely, shot by Roxie Hart, in the movie version of the musical Chicago from 2002.

Happened to watch it recently on HBO and was amused to see him. I'm totally hooked on The Affair which just started a new season a couple of weeks ago.

[NewJeffCT]

48. West was also in The Wire

considered by some to be the greatest show of all time.

He turned down a role on Game of Thrones because he didn't know what it was at the time. Mance Rayder, if you know the show or the books. The role was then scaled back and went to Ciarin Hinds.

[mnhtnbb]

53. never watched it. Not on netflix, unfortunately.

[NewJeffCT]

54. I watched it last year

and it was on Amazon Prime, I believe.

[Leith]

60. My Favorite One

Pee-Wee Herman was in The Blues Brothers. He was the waiter in the fancy restaurant.

[NewJeffCT]

62. That would be fun to see

looking back at it now

[frogmarch]

61. Viggo Mortensen in Witness

(1985) starring Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis. Harrison is an undercover cop in an Amish settlement.

Viggo is one of the Amish barn raisers.

[TexasBushwhacker]

64. Tom Hanks was in a low budget horror movie in 1980

called "He Knows You're Alone". It was right before he got Bosom Buddies.

I just read that he will be playing Mr Rogers in a biopic to be released next year.

[NewJeffCT]

65. Hanks was also in Mazes and Monsters

back when the Religious Right had targeted Dungeons & Dragons as being Satanic and causing kids to kill themselves.

[NewJeffCT]

66. Another one I recently found

At the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indy goes into the tomb with another guy, who tries to escape and leave Indy behind - "throw me the idol and I'll throw you the whip" - only to get speared by a trap.




That guy was Alfred Molina, most famous probably for being Doctor Octopus in the 2nd Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movie.