# Bit parts when they were not so famous **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 27, 2004, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521 "2004-10-27T19:29:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/41 "2004-10-27T23:27:17Z")
In the movie _Heartburn_, an unknown Kevin Spacey plays a punk who mugs Meryl Streep as she’s on her way to her group therapy session. It plays out rather hysterically. In the Rick Moranis version of _Little Shop of Horrors_, two of the doo-wop backup singer girls are [Tisha Campbell](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0132896/) and [Tichina Arnold](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0036651/), who would later come to popularity as the female lead, Gina, and her best friend Pam (respectively) on the sitcom _Martin_. Campbell is now the wife on Damon Wayans’s sitcom, _My Wife and Kids_. In _My Blue Heaven_, [Jesse Bradford](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0103038/), seen recently on _The West Wing_ and in _Swimfan_ plays one of Joan Cusack’s young sons. Speaking of _The West Wing_, Richard Schiff, who plays Toby Ziegler, played a cop on a “very special” episode of _Saved by the Bell_. Years earlier, he was a cruel and mean-spirited dog pound employee in an episode of _LA Law_. He’s one of the few men who don’t look great in a uniform. Bradley Whitford, who plays Josh Lyman, was the sucky boyfriend who stood up Elisabeth Shue precipitating the events in _Adventures in Babysitting_. And John Spencer (Leo McGarry) was the senior officer in the missile silo in the prologue scenes of the movie _War Games_. ---
**Author:** ![MidnightRadio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@MidnightRadio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MidnightRadio)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2004, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/42 "2004-10-27T23:32:56Z")
Before she did _The Blue Lagoon_, Brooke Shields was the first victim of the killer in _Alice, Sweet Alice_. ---
**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:** [October 27, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/43 "2004-10-27T23:38:52Z")
> [@TeaElle](#): > > And John Spencer (Leo McGarry) was the senior officer in the missile silo in the prologue scenes of the movie _War Games_. And the junior officer was Michael Madsen. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/44 "2004-10-28T00:09:11Z")
**Kevin Bacon** made his screen debut as the smarmy Omega pledge in _Animal House_. **Laurence Fishburne** (credited as Larry Fishburne) was one of the musicians at Shug’s jazz hole in _The Color Purple_. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/45 "2004-10-28T00:16:39Z")
Jamie Lee Curtis makes a brief appearence in an episode of [Columbo](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075864/) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/46 "2004-10-28T00:19:20Z")
Also in **Them!** : Fess Parker, in a single scene as a guy in a nuthouse. I understand the role got him the lead in **Davy Crockett**. ---
**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:** [October 28, 2004, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/47 "2004-10-28T00:21:54Z")
> [@Tracy Lord](#): > > **Laurence Fishburne** (credited as Larry Fishburne) was one of the musicians at Shug’s jazz hole in _The Color Purple_. And I presume we all know he was Clean, the 15 year old gunner in **Apocalypse Now**. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/48 "2004-10-28T00:25:02Z")
Laurence Fishburne also had a bit part in the thoroughly excerable Melanie Griffith vehicle _Cherry 2000_. I believe she consults him in a busy nightclub or something. Awful movie, but a treat to see Mr. Fishburne. And of course, Samuel L. Jackson as the robber who tries to hold up McDowell’s burger joint in _Coming to America_. ---
**Author:** ![Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9dc877/32.png) [@Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightwatch_Trailer)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/49 "2004-10-28T00:40:48Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Oh, and **Nightwatch Trailer** , Dana Carvey’s boss in that scene (the one who says, “Mime is money”) is Billy Crystal. And Fran drescher hosts a party for the band. Right…I just thought they were already pretty well-known at that point. An IMDb search reveals that neither had been in anything very high-profile before _Tap_, so I guess I was wrong. “Money talks and [expletive] walks!” ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/50 "2004-10-28T00:49:10Z")
Laurence Fishburn also played Cowboy Curtis on “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse”. When HG Wells ends up at the museum after traveling through time in the begining of “Time After Time”, there’s a little boy wanting to let his mother know about the strange man in the display. The little boy is Corey Feldman. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/51 "2004-10-28T00:54:29Z")
John Cusack as one of the geeks in _Sixteen Candles_. Playing the fast-talking, wheeling and dealing brother in _Willy/Milly_ and “Egg” in _The Hotel New Hampshire_ was Seth Green. ---
**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:** [October 28, 2004, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/52 "2004-10-28T01:07:23Z")
> [@](#): > > And Fran drescher hosts a party for the band. She had a very small part in **Saturday Night Fever** as a woman at the club gushing over Tony. I may as well add this one - many people might not know that Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) was in a bunch of Brian DePalma’s early films - **The Fury** , **Dressed To Kill** , **Blow Out** , and **Body Double**. I watched The Fury recently (man, that movie’s terrible), and there’s a scene where Kirk Douglas holds up two cops and uses them to make his getaway. I didn’t recognize Dennis Franz at all as one of the cops…until he started talking. 🙂 ---
**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:** [October 28, 2004, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/53 "2004-10-28T01:13:07Z")
Oh, and speaking of The Fury, there’s a scene where Amy Irving is at school and some of the girls at the lunch table are making fun of her. One of them is an extremely young Darryl Hannah and the other is an extremely young Dr. Weaver from **E.R.**. Also, Dr. Weaver was Lowell’s wife Bunny from **Wings**. Susanne Somers was in **Magnum Force** - in the scene where the guy sneaks up on the Tiburron pool party and machine guns everyone, she can be seen walking around topless, and again getting shot moments later. I could go on in this thread forever. I think instead I’ll just bow out. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/54 "2004-10-28T01:16:20Z")
Richard Dreyfuss in the _Graduate_ Suzanne Sommers as the Girl In The White T-Bird (only seen once or twice, but talked about through the entire movie) in _American Graffitti_ ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/55 "2004-10-28T02:05:52Z")
Laurence Fishburne was also an orderly in “A Nightmare on Elm Street Part III: The Dream Warriors”. He’s had quite the career. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/56 "2004-10-28T03:40:52Z")
> [@Menocchio](#): > > Laurence Fishburne was also an orderly in “A Nightmare on Elm Street Part III: The Dream Warriors”. > > He’s had quite the career. I’ll say. As Larry, he was one of the thugs in Deathwish 2. In My Stepmother is an Alien, a very young Alyson Hannigan stars as Dan Aykroyd’s daughter. At the end of the movie she goes on a date. With a very young Seth Green. Julliet Lewis is in there, too. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/57 "2004-10-28T03:44:38Z")
> [@TeaElle](#): > > In the Rick Moranis version of _Little Shop of Horrors_, two of the doo-wop backup singer girls are [Tisha Campbell](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0132896/) and [Tichina Arnold](http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0036651/), who would later come to popularity as the female lead, Gina, and her best friend Pam (respectively) on the sitcom _Martin_. Campbell is now the wife on Damon Wayans’s sitcom, _My Wife and Kids_. Speaking of Damon Wayans, he is in _Beverly Hills Cop_. Briefly. He’s the gentleman that gives Eddie Murphy the banana to put in the tailpipe of the cop car. ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/58 "2004-10-28T07:30:30Z")
Nicholas Cage had a bit part in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”. No lines. Anthony Edwards was there, too. One line, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/59 "2004-10-28T07:50:46Z")
**Tea Leoni** played 1st base in _A league of their own_. She was on the Racine team and had no lines. **Fred Gwynn** of the \*Munsters \* fame was a corrupt union official in _On the Waterfront._ He had no lines. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2004, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521/60 "2004-10-28T08:13:52Z")
Actress Rachael Leigh Cook first won our hearts as the girl smashing up the kitchen in one of the “This is your brain on drugs” commercials. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bit-parts-when-they-were-not-so-famous/271521.md?page=4)