Oh, well, then: Reginald Denny, the Broadway actor who did a ton of flicks back when: lots of supporting roles, and more than a few top-billed screen performances.
Thanks to WALKING IN MEMPHIS, singer-songwriter Mark Cohn won a Grammy.
Édgar Ramírez was top-billed on the small screen as Carlos the Jackal in CARLOS; and top-billed, on the big screen, as Roberto Duran in HANDS OF STONE; and in between, he was top-billed in that remake of POINT BREAK; and, so far this year, he’s been busy with top-billed work for this season of American Crime Story — since you need an interesting Gianni Versace if you’re doing “The Assassination Of Gianni Versace”.
filmmaker Howard Deutch.
Jonathan Nolan got an Oscar nomination for the MEMENTO screenplay, and then picked up writing-and-directing-and-producing Emmy nominations for WESTWORLD, and in between he and Christopher Nolan brought us THE PRESTIGE and INTERSTELLAR and various of Christian Bale’s blockbuster outings as Batman…
The Bryan Brothers have won a record 16 Grand Slam Doubles championships, and they set a separate record by simultaneously holding all four as the reigning Olympic gold medalists — and while Mike Bryan doesn’t count, I figure Bob Bryan does.
Which I could lob back with everybody’s favourite “should-be-trillions-better-if-he-just-put-his-dang-head-to-it” Nick Kyrgios.
Speaking of sports — sort of — “Razor Ramon” was the name Scott Hall wrestled under when he won the WWF Intercontinental Championship four times.
And if he’s to be listed as “Scott Hall”, then I’ll add that Hall lost that title to, and then won it back from, Diesel — aka Kevin Nash — who promptly went on to wrestle under his own name, alongside Hall and a No-Longer-A-Face-But-Now-A-Heel-Can-You-Believe-It Hulk Hogan, who proclaimed themselves to be the New World Order.
American actor Robert Taylor
American socialite Wallis Simpson
Jack Kruschen was an Oscar-nominated actor, which I figure qualifies him even before mentioning his Hey It’s That Guy status from when Americans had like three networks to watch: he’s the real villain pitting Anne Baxter against Adam West on BATMAN, he’s the amiable chess grandmaster who gets murdered by Laurence Harvey on COLUMBO, he’s the go-to guy if you need someone to do his thing on I SPY or THE ROCKFORD FILES or BARNEY MILLER or THE INCREDIBLE HULK or whatever.
(I mean, yeah, he got name-on-the-poster roles in plenty of memorable flicks, too: McCLINTOCK and CAPE FEAR and THE UNSINKABLE MOLLY BROWN and so on — from a Rock-Hudson-And-Doris-Day flick like LOVER COME BACK to being the common enemy James Caan and Alan Arkin team up with in FREEBIE AND THE BEAN — and so, y’know, figure that at some point, he gets in there.)
Dominick Cruz - MMA fighter
Hall of Fame golfer Byron Nelson won the US Open and the Masters Tournament, was twice named “Athlete of the Year” by the Associated Press, and, near as I can tell, still holds the record for Longest PGA Tour Win Streak (with Tiger Woods at #2).
Chiwetel Ejiofor — who, y’know, doesn’t count — picked up an Oscar nomination for starring in 12 YEARS A SLAVE, which in turn won the Oscar for Best Picture.
But the man Ejiofor played — Solomon Northup, who famously wrote the bestselling autobiography 12 YEARS A SLAVE — yeah, he counts.
Speaking of which: superhero Harriet Tubman.
Tom Cruise of course doesn’t qualify, because the movie star sensibly bills himself as “Tom Cruise” instead of as Tom Mapother IV. But, having said that, I’d argue that his cousin, William Mapother, has done enough recognizable work to count.
And, with that running start, he started doing all sorts of other stuff — moderating presidential debates, hosting SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, authoring a book and watching it reach #1 on the New York Times bestseller list — and he “was in demand to play himself in films and on television. Among his film credits were The Pelican Brief, Spies Like Us, and My Fellow Americans; television appearances included episodes of Newhart, Mr. Belvedere, The Golden Girls, Wings, and Murphy Brown.”
New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug
Silent-movie star Jane Novak: “The third film performer to earn more than $1000 for a single picture, following Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks.”
Hate to be a bad news bear again - the “uh” of Bella and the short vowel “a” of Abzug have agreed to a divorce.
Alexis Smith - Canadian actor in films like Age of Innocence, Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane, and Once is Not Enough.
(Edwin Newman was a major hero of mine, and did a nifty late 70s docu called Land of Hype and Glory, looking at goofy American trends and fads. Unfortunately all the internet has of this gem is this Kissexcerpt.)