# Before they were famous **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 6, 2008, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233 "2008-04-06T21:47:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/41 "2008-04-07T19:28:14Z")
According to the full cast listing for [Quo Vadis (1951)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043949/fullcredits#cast) both Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren (hubba hubba) had uncredited roles as slaves or eye candy. I saw this movie not too long ago on TCM or Retroplex and, armed with this bit of trivia, tried to pick them out. No luck. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/42 "2008-04-07T19:32:38Z")
Bonanza was famous for this. Charles Bronson played various Mexican villians. DeForest Kelly played a drunk surgeon who, when Ben told him to operate on Hoss, replied “I’m not a surgeon. I’m a drunk.” The Lords of Flatbush had Sylvester Stallone, Henry Winkler and Susan Blakely. The TV broadcast of Wendy Wasserman’s first play _Uncommon Women and Others_ had Meryl Streep, Swoosie Kurtz, and Jill Eikenberry. Jeremy Irons’s first professional gig was John the Baptist/Judas in the Original London cast of Godspell, a cast that also included Gay Sopher, Marti Webb, David Essex and Julie Covington, all of them have had good theatre careers. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/43 "2008-04-07T19:33:18Z")
[QUOTE=gonzomax] I was a Teenage Werewolf=Micheal Landon The Blob was Steve Mcqueens first big role. [/QUOTE] Quite so. Landon was the albino dowsing boy in the delightful _God’s Little Acre_ and McQueen had a tiny part in Newman’s breakout _Somebody Up There Likes Me_. The latter case started a rivalry that wasn’t satisfied until they both had lead billing in _The Towering Inferno_. McQueen always felt he was in Newman’s shadow, just as Newman had felt he was following James Dean. (He and Dean were in a screen test for _East of Eden_ which Newman lost out on.) ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/44 "2008-04-07T19:55:05Z")
Jack Nicholson was also in Love Story, as one of Ryan O’Neal’s buddies… I love Remember the Titans and Heroes! I can’t believe I never made the connection! ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/45 "2008-04-07T20:20:28Z")
Bill Paxton in Terminator. Arnold " your clobes gib dem to me" Bill " Screw you asshole" or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/46 "2008-04-07T20:40:57Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] The Empire Strikes Back had b.t.w.f. appearances by John Ratzenberger (Major Derwin) … [/QUOTE] He’s the Rebel officer on Hoth who tells Leia that they have to close the base doors while Luke is still missing. [Here’s a pic.](http://www.starwars.com/episode-v/bts/article/f20011217/img/rats2.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/47 "2008-04-07T20:48:13Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] The Empire Strikes Back had b.t.w.f. appearances by John Ratzenberger (Major Derwin) and Treat Williams (Cloud City Trooper), but I have absolutely no idea where they appear (other than Treat Williams is obviously in the Cloud City scenes). [/QUOTE] Cliff is on Hoth. He’s the one who says “Your TaunTaun will freeze before you reach the first marker.” > [@astorian](#): > > As an in-joke, in Eastwood’s cop flick “The Rookie,” there’s a scene where an old man is watching “Tarantula” on a small TV. There’s also a brief shot of the tarantula in the psychedelic bar scene in **Coogan’s Bluff**. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/48 "2008-04-07T22:34:33Z")
[QUOTE=The New and Improved Superman] Nicholas Brendan (Xander on “Buffy”) appears in “Married…With Children” as a member of a street gang that menaces Al Bundy. Brendan also appeared in the original ‘Buffy’ movie as an extra (no lines.) [/QUOTE] His co-star David “Angel” Boreanaz was on the show as well as one of Kelly’s boyfriends. It was his first role with a character name. Another of his role’s was, ironically, as “Vampire’s Victim” in a movie called _Macabre Pair of Shorts_. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/49 "2008-04-07T23:09:59Z")
Chuck Liddell was in the 1981 Jack Nicholson film “The Postman Always Rings Twice.” He plays a boy scout Nicholson tells to scram. He would have been about 10 or 11 at the time. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/50 "2008-04-07T23:12:12Z")
[QUOTE=The New and Improved Superman] In “the Warriors”, Mercedes Ruehl is the undercover cop posing a hooker in Central Park who busts one of the gang-members. [/QUOTE] Ajax, James Remar’s character. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/51 "2008-04-07T23:36:49Z")
I was watching an episode of the original _Flipper_, and Burt Reynolds guest starred as a bad guy. It didn’t really look like him, either, except in certain shots. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/52 "2008-04-07T23:40:07Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] He’s the Rebel officer on Hoth who tells Leia that they have to close the base doors while Luke is still missing. [Here’s a pic.](http://www.starwars.com/episode-v/bts/article/f20011217/img/rats2.jpg) [/QUOTE] He looks like Jamie Hyneman in that pic. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2008, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/53 "2008-04-07T23:50:42Z")
I didn’t actually _see_ this - nobody ever will - but I stumbled across it whole researching a project on the early days of television. It was a still from a production of _Hay Fever_, a Noel Coward play given over NBC’s experimental TV station in 1939. In the background playing a supporting role was a very young, probably teen-age, Montgomery Clift. It was amazing to realzie that before he ever made a movie, or even established himself as a stage actor, here he was on TV - back when TV didn’t even mean anything. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/54 "2008-04-08T01:24:51Z")
Didn’t Kurt Russell appear in some early Disney movies as a child? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/55 "2008-04-08T04:52:45Z")
[QUOTE=ivylass] Didn’t Kurt Russell appear in some early Disney movies as a child? [/QUOTE] Almost all of them. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/56 "2008-04-08T05:45:39Z")
Watch practically any episode of the original _Twilight Zone_, and you’re almost certain to see someone who either had been famous in earlier decades or would become famous in later decades. Ed Wynn, Cecil Kellaway, and Agnes Moorehead fall in the former category, and the latter category, just off the top of my head, includes: William Shatner Robert Redford Jack Klugman Jonathan Winters (in a rare straight role as the ghost of a pool player, opposite Klugman) Elizabeth Montgomery Peter Falk Martin Landau Dick York Ronnie Howard Burgess Meredith Fritz Weaver Martin Milner Orson Bean Inger Stevens Sydney Pollack Cloris Leachman I’m sure my fellow Dopers can think of lots more. Oh, and BTW, Bill Paxton also played Anthony Michael Hall’s bullying older brother in _Weird Science_. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/57 "2008-04-08T05:54:52Z")
Video games have introduced me to a couple. There’s the oft-mentioned Hayden Panettiere as Kairi in the Square-Enix/Disney fusion series _Kingdom Hearts_ (if there’s ever a KH3, she might be slightly more expensive to get back). Also, years ago, I played _Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete_, which included a voice cast interview on a DVD. The protagonist was voiced by a good looking young man with the memorable/unusual name of Ashley Angel. Who knew he’d get hot years later for being in a reality show-manufactured boy band? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/58 "2008-04-08T12:18:03Z")
The _Friends_ rerun last night was The One Where Monica & Chandler are buying a house and Joey doesn’t want them to. Joey has a talk with the 8 year old daughter of the people selling the house who doesn’t want them to sell it. The child was played by Dakota Fanning. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/59 "2008-04-08T13:49:26Z")
Dakota Fanning was also in an early CSI. There had been a brutal murder (of course, it’s “CSI”), and she was one of the witnesses. Grissom is talking to her outside the house, trying to get some info. And she’s saying nothing. Just blinking, slowly. And those big eyes have cut to a different direction between blinks. Very captivating scene. I had no idea who she was, but I thought at the time, “She’s probably going to be making some serious money soon.” ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2008, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233/60 "2008-04-08T13:53:16Z")
[QUOTE=Zeldar] Oh, yes, you’d notice her. The real issue is if you’d need to know her name. Sounds too much like Hayden Planetarium to suit me, but I can let that part slide. She’s quite attractive. [/QUOTE] I live in Florida. It’s filled with attractive people. She’d be just another. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/before-they-were-famous/444233.md?page=4)