The theater stage is usually considered the starting point in any actor’s career. A person who suffers from unsurmountable stage freight wouldn’t even be accepted at a drama school.
Being a stage actor means standing and performing in the spotlight in front of hundreds, maybe thousands of people. The script has to be committed to memory. There are seasoned and famous actors who have won many awards in their career who are nervous when they return to the stage.
Being a movie actor is different. You play a scene knowing it can be reshot a couple of times if necessary. It’s possible to learn the lines in smaller chunks.
So are there any famous actresses or actors who are absolutely horrified by the mere notion of standing on a theater stage (and thus don’t do it) but who are good movie/TV actors?
Ian Holm (Bilbo in LOTR) had an attack of stage fright so bad that he left the theatre for twenty years and developed a solid career in film and TV. It was during a production of The Iceman Cometh in 1974 and he dried mid monologue. Holm says
I have a hard time imagining any actor who is good enough to excel on TV/in movies yet who gets stage fright to the point where they never go on stage. Some stage fright here or there, certainly, but an entire career spent in film simply because nerves keep them off the boards? Seems unlikely to me.
I don’t know that being a movie actor would be different in a good way for many people with severe stage fright. If you’re in a big Hollywood movie then there are going to be plenty of people watching you work (the crew, service people, and whatever other actors and extras there may be), and if you keep blowing takes then you’re wasting a lot of people’s time, costing the production money, and potentially causing other problems if it’s an on-location shoot where lighting/weather conditions, shutting down public spaces, etc., are a consideration.
There is no question that Bing Crosby was bald. In later years he would shop in the same Safeway as my mother and go without his toupee. Few people recognized him without the rug, but some did. He was not embarrassed about being seen bald.