Usually actors starting out in TV will make the attempt to jump to movies after a few years building up their fame, sometimes successfully (George Clooney), sometimes not (David Caruso). Also you might find a movie actor make the transition to television if their movie career begins to fizzle, again with various degrees of success (although sometimes this is seen as a ‘downgrade’ for the actor - Whoopi Goldberg was box office gold in the 80’s and is in a lukewarm sitcom now).
My question is how many actors have had simultnaeous parrallel successful movie and TV careers. The only person I can think of is Joe Pantoliano. From the IDMB we see he has been active in both movie and TV with a good deal of success, critical and commercial, in both. In movies he has: The Matrix, Memento, Bad Boys, Daredevil, Bound. In the TV arena he has: The Sopranos, Sugar Hill and EZ Streets (which despite lasting for a single season is one of my favourite shows and was a critical darling) and the upcoming The Handler as well as numerous guest appearances on various shows.
The only reason I can think of for his success in both spheres is that for the vast majority of his roles he is in the supporting cast (and he does it well as witnessed by his Emmy). By not being a ‘leading man’ he does not scare away TV producers with demands for a large payday, but still remains recognisable enough to grab movie roles.
Who else has the ability to jump easily back and forth between movies and TV unencumbered by the disadvantages that this can sometimes have on a career?
David Duchovny’s film career is not what I would call a success. Also I think Ashton Kutcher, Alyson Hannigan and Brittany Murphy might be a bit too early in their movie careers to be considered successes either.
Martin Sheen, while at one time having a great movie career, has seen it fizzle since jumping to TV (where he has found great success though). None of the movies he has made since West Wing have been box office giants or garnered him critical review.
Helen Hunt won an Oscar and an Emmy the same year.
It also depends on what you mean by successful. Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, and Lisa Kudrow have made some good films (“The Whole Nine Yards,” “The Good Girl,” and “The Opposite of Sex,” respectively). Kudrow especially has some fine acting chops when she doesn’t have to play Phoebe.
William H. Macy bounces between mainstream film character work, independent film leading roles, prominent guest roles on TV, and dabbling in offbeat TV movies roles as well. Not a huge star, but a recognizable and respected character actor.
Would Martin & Lewis with their film career and their popular frequent series of TV specials in the 1950s count?
I want to suggest James Garner, but really he bounced back and forth between the two easily rather than had both going well at the same time.
I may be jumping the gun but Jennifer Garner seems like a likely prospect for dual success, if her next couple of movies do well.
I’m looking at their whole career, not their career this year. None of the people I cited gets a Jim Carrey-level salary, but all of them have worked consistently in both movies and television for the duration of their careers, which is how I read the OP.
Duchovny made quite a few movies before hitting gold with X-Files. Not all of them were huge hits, but some of them were very well-received. He’s always been able to get film work and he had two hit series on TV (I’m including Red Shoe Diaries here), three if you count Sex and the City.
Kutcher currently has two very popular TV shows and has had three fairly popular low-budget comedy films in as many years (One was a hit, and I’m pretty sure the other two are in the black, or will be after video/DVD sales are tallied).
Alyson Hannigan is one of the most in-demand character actresses working today. Brittany Murphy has a hit show on TV and is extremely in demand for film (Uptown Girls had some problems, but she wsn’t one of them). And while Sheen’s career peaked in the 70s and 80s, do you really think he doesn’t have a few more movie successes in him? Or that he’s on any casting director’s “do not call” list?
Oh, the name that shpould be on top of this list: Christine Baranski!
IIRC, Michael J. Fox did the Back to the Future movies while still working on TV. Don’t think he had much success in film beyond that trilogy, however.
He was on the VERY popular “Roseanne” show in the late 80’s / early 90’s while at the same time did some films such as “Raising Arizona” and “Sea of Love”. Of course, he’s gone on to do many more films but it seemed like those two stuck out during that timeframe.
His increasing Parkinson’s symptoms probably had more to do with his retirement from film work than a fall-off in popularity.
Helen Hunt may have won and Emmy and Oscar in the same year (though she wasn’t the first; Liza Minella did the same in 1972), but Jose Ferrer won an Oscar, a Tony, and an Emmy nomination for playing Cyrano de Bergerac on film, on stage and on television (though admittedly not all in the same year).
