This may have been done many times before, but I’m not great at searching the archives.
You often hear about comedic actors that surprisingly prove to have great dramatic chops when given the right role (Adam Sandler, Robin Williams, Tom Hanks), but I rarely hear the opposite mentioned - great dramatic actors becoming successful in comedy - even though comedy tends to be regarded as being harder to perform than drama.
So who are some examples of an actor or actress who becomes known mainly as a dramatic performer that later become successful in comedic roles.
I think the most obvious example, at least of recent years, is Alec Baldwin’s role on 30 Rock. Before then, he was known mostly as a dramatic actor that was very funny on SNL from time to time.
I’d love to hear some more examples without anyone resorting to copying and pasting a list of names from Wikipedia or someplace. That’s no fun for anyone.
Leslie Nielsen is an obvious one, though he wasn’t particularly well-known before Airplane! He was a solid dramatic character actor, never a star. Of course, the point of Airplane! was that he did his lines as if there were no humor in them at all.
Some of Nielson’s co-stars in Airplane! were also known as dramatic actors, like Lloyd Bridges and Peter Graves. Bridges did at least two other comedic turns in Hot Shots 1 and 2. Turns out Graves had a few appearances in comedies prior to Airplane.
I just want to tell you Leslie Nielsen, we’re all counting on you.
Going back a bit, John Barrymore traded on his guilded age matinee idol status for Depression screwball comedies.
Why “even though”? If comedy is harder than drama (and I believe it is), then that would explain why actors have a harder time crossing from drama to comedy than vice versa.
Anyway, I was going to suggest Johnny Depp, but I’m actually not sure how many of his roles should be classified. Looking at his earlier major film roles, the title characters in Edward Scissorhands and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape were (quirky) dramatic roles, but in Benny & Joon and Ed Wood were his characters more dramatic or more comedic? Depp has definitely done straight drama, but I’m not sure he’s ever starred in a movie that’s primarily a comedy and not a dramedy or action/comedy – although judging from the trailer the upcoming Dark Shadows movie is a comedy.
Apparently Garrett Dillahunt is best known to people as a goon and a villain but on Raising Hope, he’s a charming goofball with a penchant for physical comedy.
