No, you’re right. Branagh seems to have three theatrical movies before Henry V; the rest was TV.
No, you’re right. Branagh seems to have three theatrical movies before Henry V, so he shouldn’t count.
I’m a huge Branagh fan, so forgive the nitpick, but three of his pre-HV films were theatrical releases, though not big successes (Coming Through, High Season, and A Month In The Country.) I’ll agree for the purposes of this thread, though, that HV was his first major role.
I’ll also mention William Hurt in Altered States. I remember thinking at the time, “where the hell did this guy come from?”
You’re right; it was Abraham’s first big role, but not his first appearance. So he’s out.
In, however, is Marlee Matlin, who won the Oscar for “Children of a Lesser God,” her first movie. B-movies ever since, but she’s certainly got her niche carved out.
Sigourney Weaver appeared in a few movies before “Alien.”
Hard to beat Abe Vigoda in “The Godfather”, especially given his age. Just a few TV appearances before that.
There’s quite a few people being listed who had made earlier films. Please check The Internet Movie Database first.
Agree with you, ftg, on Vigoda. He just answered a casting call with no previous film experience.
James Dean had done some bits in movies along with any number of live TV shots, but Eden was his first role with any significance.
IMDB lets you locate earlier work by almosr everybody you might have thought were first-timers, but it’s also fun to watch older things and see now-famous people in tiny roles. I was surprised to see in the first “Terminator” that Bill Paxton (not a huge star even now) was one of the punks playing with the telescope when Arnold comes up naked to get their clothes.
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Paxton’s a fun guy. He’s appeared in all three of the “modern classic” sci-fi series. The original Terminator, in a bit part, the second Alien, and the second Predator flick. His character also never survives in one of these.
And apropos of nothing, Bill Heinriksen and Michael Biene were both in the original Terminator with Paxton, and all three went on to be in Aliens.
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[sub]And the actress who plays Vasquez in Aliens went on to be John Connor’s step-mom in T2. I don’t know what it means, but it keeps me watching these cheesey movies…[/sub]
plnnr:
He had already been in This Boy’s Life, in which he was also excellent. His first feature film, however, was Critters 3 ( though the OP does specifically discount “standard Horror/Teen flick[s]”).
“you expect me to believe that Omar was a stoolie cause Sosa said so?”
Didn’t F. Murray play Omar in scarface?
Another good one (maybe not the best, but still very good): Rob Brown in “Finding Forrester”.
Brad Davis in Midnight Express. Up until then, he’d only done different things on TV (like Roots), one short film and apparently, was an extra in a really cheesy flick called Eat My Dust!. Otherwise, his performance will just blow you away (and in some instances, he looked more than a bit like Brad Pitt). Sadly his career never really took off and then he died of AIDS in 1991. What a terrible loss. 
Anthony Hopkins in A Lion in Winter. Not a bad movie start to be co-starring along with Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn.
Since Zeldar took James Dean, I would say Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday. I think that she had had walk ons mostly in a foreign film or two, but this was considered her debut. She won the Oscar.
Maybe not exactly what the OP is looking for, but how about James Earl Jones. His first movie role was as the bombardier in Dr. Strangelove. It’s a small part, but very memorable and probably the best film he will ever be in.