I just finished watching Seabiscuit and admired the performance of jockey Gary Stevens as George Woolf. Other one off performances that I enjoyed were Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in Airplane! - not great acting but very funny, and the line, “You try dragging Walton and Lanier up and down the floor for 48 minutes” couldn’t be better delivered. The other standout was Ray Allen in He Got Game - I think it was years later that I discovered he wasn’t an actor.
Your favorite examples??
Gary Stevens was excellent in Seabiscuit! “So long, Charlie!”…gives me goosebumps every time.
One famous example of the OP is Dr. Haing S. Ngor. Untrained as an actor; won an Oscar for his first movie role.
Harold Russell in “Best Years of our Lives”.
I’m quite impressed by three rappers: Ice T, Ice Cube and LL Cool J. Lot’s of people from the music industry has tried acting and failed, but these three seem to continue getting work, deliver solid performances and don’t seem to make a lot of fuzz.
What I’ve seen of Cool James in interviews and such - he seems like a really good person.
Does R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket count? Up to that point FMJ was his 4th movie,
and he wasn’t even the first choice of Kubrick for the role of Gunnery Sgt. Hartman.
Second on Ice T, Ice Cube and LL Cool J. I especially enjoyed Cube in 3 Kings, and Ice T is pretty damn good in LO:SVU and he made a very crappy movie “Surviving the Game”, somewhat enjoyable.
I was gonna mention Lawrence Taylor’s work in “Any Given Sunday”, a movie that I really disliked, though the last twenty minutes or so, is pretty damn good. Especially Taylor’s last lines in that movie. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. A very cool line delivered in a cool fashion.
Frank Sinatra did enough movies that I’m not sure he counts as a non-actor, but he certainly deserved more respect for his acting skills than he ever got. Perhaps singers and comedians shouldn’t qualify anyway, being experienced performers already?
I’d have to say that rappers are actors to begin with - they have to put out a hard, gangsta character and be all scary and intimidating. But I agree, a lot of rappers seem to have given fine performances in movies. I’ll add Ludacris to the list for Crash.
If we’re counting singers, at least those who don’t do acting on the side as a matter of course, Bjork in Dancer In The Dark. She should have been nominated for an Oscar.
Might as well add Eminem, Mark Wahlberg, and Will Smith to that list of rappers who can act.
The Rock has been good in several movies, and even the movies that are bad have generally called out his performance as being good.
Ricky Jay is a magician who is also a tremendous character actor. You might know him as the craps dealer from Deadwood who decides to rip off Cy.
Levon Helm, the drummer for The Band, was excellent as Ripley in The Right Stuff.
William Obanhein in Alice’s Restaurant. Admittedly, he was playing himself (“Officer Obie”), but he was very good in the role and probably could have become an actor. Instead, he returned to arresting people for littering.
Martin Lickert acquitted himself well in 200 Motels, having gotten the role after Frank Zappa said, “The next person to enter the room plays Jeff.” Lickert, Ringo Starr’s driver, had gone out to get cigarettes for Ringo. Most of the others in the movie were musicians, and used to some performing, but Lickert had not.
Speaking of Ringo, he turned out to be a pretty good actor himself.
Jim Brown was solely a football player until he was cast in The Dirty Dozen, where he was good enough to retire from football and start an acting career.
Same with Johnny Weismuller and Buster Crabbe.
I came in to mention LT in Any Given Sunday. Really surprising.
Not being a football fan I didn’t recognize him until near the end… and only because of the Wrestlemania where he fought Bam Bam Bigelow.
Let’s not forget Alex Karras’ sensitive portrayal of Mongo in “Blazing Saddles”, either.
Mongo only pawn in game of life.
I don’t know if this counts or not, but if I am correct Elaine Miles’ first part was on Nothern Exposure as the doctor’s Eskimo receptionist. She wasn’t an actor before she was on the series, and she was great on that series. According to IMDB “She got the role of Marilyn on ‘Northern Exposure’ by accident - she had originally brought her mother in to audition, but the producers decided they wanted someone younger for the part and cast Elaine instead.”
Or John Matuszak’s Oscar-worthy performance as Sloth in The Goonies.
How about Andre the Giant in The Princess Bride?
That was the example that immediately came to my mind. All you youngsters need to take a look at the classics. And get off my lawn!
I thought TV producer Garry Marshall was pitch-perfect as a casino manager in Lost in America (1985). imdb shows a smattering of what look like cameo roles prior to this performance, but still.
Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat in Downtown 81.
Many directors are also capable actors, including Fritz Lang in Breathless (1960); Martin Scorsese and John Waters in various movies.
It amazes me that Robin Johnson was a non-actor before being chosen for her lead role in Times Square (1980).
Dexter Gordon was robbed of an Oscar for Round Midnight by that bratty upstart, Paul Newman. Fie! Fie on the academy! 