How many actors can you think of who began their careers playing serious dramatic roles, but then drifted into comedic ones, to the point where they are today remembered primarily as “funny” actors?
The big one that I can think of is Christopher Walken. When he first became famous, he was clearly on the career path of “serious actor playing serious roles”, cast in a succession of films where he portrayed brooding, intense, psychologically troubled guys. Even his character in Annie Hall is a deeply disturbed individual, though it’s used for comedic effect in that case. These roles continued basically up until the 90s. But at some point they clearly realized that Christopher Walken’s mannerisms are hilarious, and that he would be better served in comic performances (and maybe that’s what he wanted to do all along, but couldn’t get the roles - I don’t know.) His many turns on SNL cemented this. In the final analysis it seems that Walken is best known today for comedy, and is an iconic figure of weird/quirky humor.
Who else has followed the same trajectory?
Edit - Samuel L. Jackson would also qualify, right?
Peter Graves started out in Westerns and then starred in the TV series Mission: Impossible. Later on, he played Captain Over in the Airplane! comedy films. And don’t call me Shirley!
I saw Paul Reiser as an evil corporate bureaucrat in Aliens before I ever saw him in anything funny.
My first and strongest impression of Angela Lansbury was as the evil communist mole in The Manchurian Candidate. I’m not sure that her later work should be defined as “comedy,” but it certainly strikes me as much more lighthearted.
Lloyd Bridges - Jeff Bridges had to argue that he could do drama to get him in Blown Away as the Producers only knew him from his comedy roles. They didn’t think he could do drama!
Robert De Niro looked like he as headed in that direction. He doesn’t strictly do only comedies but he sure seems to be light and breezy compared to the De Niro of decades past.
And along those lines there’s Joe Pesci. From “Raging Bull” to…“My Cousin Vinny”, but then “Goodfellas”, “Casino”, etc… thrown in just to mix things up.
William Shatner. Shakespearean actor, first captain of the Enterprise. Then he did a sketch on Saturday Night Live lambasting Trekers (You people need to get a life) and was casted as the Big Giant Head on 3rd Rock From the Sun, where they told him to play it “as loose as you can.” Lead to Boston Legal.
Trivia time: Shatner was cast on 3rd Rock mostly so they could use this line of dialog:
Dick: How was your light?
BGH: Horrible. I kept seeing this monster on the plane’s wing.
Dick: The same thing happened to MMMMMMMMEEEEEEEEEE!!!
Fun fact: Sir Christopher Lee was offered the role of Dr. Rumack in Airplane, but turned it down. He was a little gun-shy about appearing in another wacky comedy after the spectacular failure of Spielberg’s 1941. He later said he regretted doing so. It all worked out for the best because it showcased Leslie Nielsen’s great comedic talent, but one can’t help but wonder how Sir Christopher would have done it…and what it might have meant for HIS career afterward…
Speaking of John Lithgow, he had mostly done musicals and dramatic roles until he was cast as Dick Solomon, where much of his work was as the smary straight man. Legend has it that when the casting the show, the question was asked “Who would be good as Dick?” and someone suggested Lithgow. He was interested, auditioned and cast without anyone else being considered.
Jack Elam. His early career was playing heavies – the bad guy henchman of the main villain. He was a nasty looking guy with a beady-eyed stare and was one of the bad guys featured in the book The Heavies, an overview of the movie villains in the 50s.
Then in the 60s, he gained a bit of weight and started playing comic relief characters, starting with Support You Local Sheriff. He soon grew a beard and stuck to comic sidekicks and the like. He’d occasionally switch back to his bad guy persona, but usually in comedies where everyone would play off him.
Yeah, while others have dabbled with comedy and drama, Nielsen made a hard turn to comedies after Airplane and never looked back. Take a look at his IMDB page before Airplane and after.
As I understand it, that was a deliberate choice; the filmmakers thought that casting serious dramatic actors in a screwball comedy would add to the absurdity. It would be like seeing Denzel Washington in an American Pie sequel.
Interesting to think that a filmmaker could achieve a similar subversion of expectations by casting Leslie Nielsen in a perfectly straight dramatic role, today.
