True, I’m sure. But Ms. Panettiere is surely not the type who can back a dog off a meat truck, and that might at least cause a second glance, unless you’re really bored with all that good-looking women thing.
Ratzenberger was living and working in London during the late '70s and shows up in several other movies from that period. Some examples:
In A Bridge Too Far, he’s the lieutenant sitting behind Robert Redford during the river crossing; he gets shot.
In Superman II, he’s one of the guys at mission control when General Zod and friends attack the astronauts on the moon.
In Hanover Street, he’s a member of Harrison Ford’s bomber crew.
Ratzenberger was also in an ep of “Hill Street Blues” where he was a bad guy pretending to be a cop
Dan Castellaneta had two guest shots on Married…with Children, one as a very macabre funeral director and one as a guy who confronts Al because Peg is dating his husband.
He later found real fame on The Simpsons, voicing a bunch of major characters.
The policeman who brings Norman Bates a blanket at the end of Psycho (“He feels a little chill”) is Ted Knight (Ted Baxter of Mary Tyler Moore fame).
Speaking of Mary Tyler Moore, she was just some legs and a voice on the old Richard Diamond series when she was his secretary Sam.
…and before that she was Happy Hotpoint in TV commercials, playing a danving flame.
Speaking of dancers, Sally Struthers was the “Smothers Brothers’ dancer” (note the singular) on The Smothers Brother Show before she was Gloria on All in the Family
And before she was a regular on Laugh In, Goldie Hawn played Ronnie Schell’s girlfriend Sandy Kramer on Good Morning World
In another entertainment genre altogether, Jimi Hendrix was an opening act for The Monkees before he was famous (or at least before he was legendary). He left their tour when he got booed off the stage by fans wanting Davy.
Bette Midler and Barry Manilow were singer and accompanist at gay bars and bath houses (hence the nickname “Bathhouse Bette”) before they were famous.
Bill Macy, best known as the husband on Maude (“God’s gonna get you for that Walter…”), performed on Broadway completely naked in O Calcutta before he was famous. (He was no prettier then than on Maude.)
Rotund character actor Sidney Greenstreet was a tea planter and merchant until middle age when he started acting. Irma Hall (the grumpy cool old black lady hired whenever a grumpy cool old black lady is needed- The Lady Killers, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, etc.) was a schoolteacher for most of her life and did not begin acting full-time until she was middle aged.
Bob Denver was a high school history teacher before Dobie Gillis/Gilligan’s Island.
He was also in a Bewitched episode. A B & W Bewitched episode. I only recognized him because of his mannerisms and vocal inflections, as with slicked-back dark hair he was virtually unrecognizable visually.
Can’t forget Teri Garr in an ep. of 1960’s Star Trek either. Proof of a subsequent boob job too.
That episode was supposed to be the jumping off point for a new series, but I don’t think it went anywhere.
They’ve been showing “Coming to America” on Cinemax lately. I had noticed Samuel L Jackson as the guy who attempts the robbery on McDowell’s. But I never noticed that the kid getting his haircut when the barbers are having the “greatest boxer” debate is…Cuba Gooding Jr. No lines, and just sits there with this silly grin on his face.
Not the greatest movie, but I always end up watching it (“Sexual Chocolate !!!”)
Burt Reynolds had earlier appeared in the original Twilight Zone (!!) He played an actor (imagine that) in the episode where someone brings Shakespeare back to write for TV. It was one of the shows from the season where the episodes were stretched to an hour long, so it didn’t show up in syndication, and consequently hasn’t been seen much since its initial run.
I was watching the British gangster flick The Long Good Friday the other day. It has a very brief scene with a very young and very naked Pierce Brosnan.
Duvall definitely has a talent for disappearing into his roles. I would hazard a guess that the reason you pick those two characters is because so few of the dozens of other roles he’s done are known as “Duvall characters”.
For my own contribution:
Cracked had list a while back of “before they were famous” commercial appearances, including Brad Pitt, Elijah Wood and Sarah Michelle Gellar.
In the movie version of “Hair”, the part of Sheldon (recruit who refuses to remove his socks lest his painted toes be discovered) is played by Michael Jeter.
The Don Bluth cartoon “The Secret Of Nimh” from 1982 features the voices of both Will Wheaton and Shannon Doherty. And Derek Jacobi, John Carradine and Dom DeLuise.
I’ve seen that episode a few times when SciFi is having one of it’s Twilight Zone marathons, which often include the hour-long episodes. He does a marvelous take-off on Method Acting (“What’s my motivation?”) and I swear he was channeling Marlon Brando.
The fact that Burt resembles Brando helps explain why the studio folks wanted Burt for the Sonny role in GF1. But Brando resented Burt’s way of dealing with children and nixed Burt in favor of Caan.
Speaking of Married with Children and Bette Midler, Katy Segal was a backup singer for Midler in the 1970’s.