Well, a movie based on an Ian Fleming novel, at least - he was the Toymaker in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
The one that immediately comes to my mind is John Goodman as Louis in True Stories. He sings the last song “People Like Us” at the festival at the end of the movie.
[Emily Litella]Never mind.[/Emily Litella]
I only saw it last night, but if you’ve ever watched, Leaving Las Vegas, watch it again. It includes small roles for Richard Lewis, Stephen Weber, Emily Proctor, French Stewart, Ed Lauter, Mariska Hargatay, R. Lee Ermy, Laurie Metcalfe, Shawnee Smith, and Lou Rawls.
When I first saw Miracle on 34th Street, I didn’t recognize Thelma Ritter and Jack Albertson. Albertson wasn’t credited, but each year I saw the film, he became more recognizable.
Remember the sequence in The Sure Thing where John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga are riding with a couple of squeaky-clean dorks who like to sing show tunes? The guy driving is a pre-Bull Durham Tim Robbins!
Do TV actors count? I was just checking the listing for Wings at IMDb after a reference in the “good added characters” thread, and realized that Lowell’s wife Bunny was played by Laura Innes – later Weaver on ER.
Probably the king of this (in my house anyway) is John C. McGinley from Scrubs.
I don’t know how many times I’ve been watching something and will suddenly say, “Hey, that’s Dr. Cox”
I can think of Office Space, Car 54 Where Are You? and Se7en off the top of my head.
And for TV. I was once watchng a rerun of Star Trek:TNG and standing in Worf’s place was Diedrich Bader (Oswald from the Drew Carey Show). He had now lines.
I had a really strange Retrognition event once.
I had watched “The Faculty” and knew I recognized the blonde chicky from somewhere, but couldn’t think of from where. (This was before I knew about IMDB, but not long before.) Every time she’d show up on screen, I would rack my brains trying to thing of where I’d seen her before, but came up empty.
This was such a true “thunderbolt” moment that it’s permanently etched into my memory -
I was standing in the kitchen, making dinner. For whatever reason I was reflecting on old TV shows that I had seen, and began to remember some crazy kids’ soap opera that had been on Nickelodeon briefly. Light, as they say, dawned on Stonehenge. I stood there, jaw dropped, as it suddenly occured to me that I knew where the Faculty chick was from - she was an actress in “Fifteen!”
Luckily, by then I did know about IMDB so I raced to the computer to verify the revelation, and it was indeed her.
My personal favorite is Bill Paxton as “Punk Leader” in Terminator from whom the naked Arnold requests his clothes.
The guy who plays Marshall on Alias is one of the tourists trapped in a prison cell in the movie The Rock. My wife spotted him as he flashed on the screen for about 2 seconds. We looked it up and it is him.
He has no lines.
Stephen Fry uniquely made three appearances on University Challenge for 3 different teams. He appeared in 1979 with his real university team. In 1993 current college team took on a team of celebrities who had competed while at university. This episode also featured Robbie Coltrane who at the time was little known. The same is probably true of Ben Elton who is in the episode.
Bitty Schram, who played Monk’s assistant Sharona on the TV show “Monk” was the gal that Tom Hanks screams “There’s no crying in baseball!” at in “League of Their Own”. (Probably quit the show because she got sick of “There’s no crying…” jokes.)
Paul “Pee Wee” Reubens plays a waiter in The Blues Brothers. I think his only line is “Very good, Sir” after Jake orders the most expensive bottle of champagne in the house. I didn’t recognize him until I watched it on DVD a few years ago.
Jim Carrey plays a rock star in The Dead Pool. On Sunday, TV Land aired an episode of Gunsmoke with William Shatner as a bad guy. Nimoy was also in one episode.
John Larroquette plays a Klingon in Star Trek III. His only line is, “I deserve to die.”
The dad on 7th Heaven played Decker in ST: TMP and his wife on the show was Kirk’s “love interest” in ST IV.
I don’t know if this really counts. When NBC aired the making of Seinfeld recently, they showed clips from Fridays, the skit show from the early 80’s. It started Michael Richards (which I remembered) but also a very wacked out looking Larry David (which I didn’t).
“Weird Al” Yankovic’s only movie, UHF, features a pre-Seinfeld Michael Richards and a pre-Nanny Fran Drescher.
I just realized that Anthony Hopkins’ wife in 84 Charing Cross Road was Dame Judi Dench and that Prince Albert from Blackadder’s Christmas Carol was Jim Broadbent.
Seeing Helen Hunt and recalling all the roles she played in TV as a juvenile. Kevin Spacey, too - re watching films and not seeming to remember him in them the first time - which is odd seeing he always plays basically the same character! Oh Oh and Vincent whatshisface from Criminal Inent - he was Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket!
mm
In Bonnie and Clyde, the pair pick up a hitchhiker and ditch him once he reveals he’s an undertaker. That was Gene Wilder. His first role, I believe.
Meryl Streep had a small part as Woody Allen’s ex-wife in Manhattan. You also spot Sigourney Weaver in Annie Hall as Woody’s date at the end, but even knowing that, it’s hard to recognize her.
He was also the guy who gets beatup in the original The Out-of-Towners. :smack: