Carrie Fisher played one of Warren Beatty’s conquests in Shampoo, well before Star Wars (Mort Drucker even drew her caricature in the Mad spoff.)
On TV, Sally Struthers played “The Smother’s Brothers Dancer” (singular) before All in the Family. And Goldie Hawn was a regular character as someone’s girlfriend on Good Morning, World! before she appeared in Laugh In. Penny Marshall also played someone’s girlfriend, but on The Odd Couple on TV, before Laverne and Shirley.
David Ogden Stiers, by the way, started a recurring role as a station executive on The Mary Tyler Moore Show near the end of its run well before MASH (and, I think, the film Magic)
One of the famous before-they-were-stars is Charles Bronson’s appearance (under his real name, Charles Buchinski) as Vincent Price’s mute assistant in House of Wax. He appeared in Master of the World (also starring Vincent Price) before he appeared in more important roles in, for instance The Great Escape.
Juliette Lewis was the daughter on an 80s sitcom I Married Dora about a guy who marries his houskeeper so she won’t get deported. I’ve never been able to see her as anything other than a ditzy dyed-blonde bimbo ever since. I really hate that she’s in so many otherwise good movies because she annoys the [heck] out of me.
She played an assistant to Ocar at the New York Herald, Myrna. I think she brought her boyfriend over to Felix and Oscar’s apartment one episode. And he was played by Rob Riener.
The reason I didn’t mention Danny DeVito and Christopher Lloyd in Cuckoo’s Nest is because they had fairly major roles. I just assumed they were well known at the time.
Of course, we all remember that one episode of The Dating Game where unknowns Phil Hartman and Steve Martin were contestants. I also remember Martin on the old Smothers Brothers show. I didn’t know his name at the time, but he was this weird standup comic with jet black hair and an arrow through his head. He was really crazy. And wild.
In the beginning of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” the swarthy guy who help Indiana Jones steal the little golden statue right before the big ball rolls down is none other than…Alfred Molina, also known as Doc Ock in “Spiderman 2”. He’s been in lots of stuff.
Here’s an odd one. Famously long-winded novelist and “philosopher” Ayn Rand appeared as an uncredited extra in the 1927 version of “King of Kings.” She played one of the adoring disciples of Jesus Christ. An ironic role for her, given that she an outspoken athiest and derided all organized religions for their “irrational collectivist” notions.
Here’s an old and obscure one – in the silent movie Lucky Dog starring solo comedian Stan Laurel, he gets held up by a fat mugger with a toothbrush moustache. It’s Oliver Hardy, on-screen with Laurel years before they teamed up.
Oliver Hardy also shows up as The Tin Woodsman (!!) in Larry Semon’s silent version of The Wizard of Oz, made about 15 years before the sound and color version with Judy Garland.
Even more obscure silent movie bit: Bull Montana, who played the Ape Man in the 1925 silent version of The Lost World appeared as an apeman about a decade earlier in Go and Get It.
Apologies if this was mentioned - I didn’t see it.
In Night Shift, Richard Belzer was one of the pimps shoving a fire hose down Henry Winkler’s throat in the morgue, before Michael Keaton burst in with the Vice cops and saved him.
I know that a few of you have already mentioned Nicholas Cage’s bit part in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but here’s an interesting factoid:
That movie was almost his first big break - they wanted to give him the part of Brad, but he was only 17, and too young to work the hours he would have needed for a major character.
Anthony Edwards and Eric Stoltz both tried out for the part of Spicolli, but it went (and rightly so) to Sean Penn. However, Heckerling and the casting people wanted them in the movie, so they wrote in bit parts for them, and also for Nicholas Cage, creating the “brad bud” and “stoner bud” roles.
I watch too many DVD extras…
In Blade Runer the policeman(?) who makes the little origami figures is Edward James Olmos.
In Ferris Bueller Sloane’s teacher (“In what waaaaay”) was played by Del Close, who was actually a well-known and influential teacher of improv in Chicago. When he died a few years ago, just about every famous Chicago actor you could name showed up to pay tribute. His skull was later used as a prop, I think it was in a local production of Hamlet, as per his wishes - so it could be said he’s the first actor to play Yorick. My sister interviewed Del just before he died, as part of a school project, & said he was quite a character.
Also, you may not have noticed that Jeffrey Jones, Principal Rooney in Ferris Bueller, was the Emperor in Amadeus (“Too many notes”). Of course, this was long before he developed an unfortunate taste for young boys & got himself in a lot of trouble.
I was watching MacGuyver (hey, it’s SpouseO’s favorite) one day, and young Cuba Gooding, Jr. played the quirky sidekick for that episode. I think he was credited as plain Cuba Gooding.
