# Celebrity Careers You Followed Before Stardom **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 4, 2001, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-careers-you-followed-before-stardom/79765 "2001-09-04T23:31:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-careers-you-followed-before-stardom/79765/21 "2001-09-06T03:48:22Z")
One of my favorite movies is “School Ties” and both Matt Damon and Ben Affleck were in that one. Would Sarah Polley(The Adventures of Baron Munchausen(1988)Go (1999), eXistenZ (1999), The Sweet Hereafter (1997)) be considered famous? I live about 20 minutes from Stratford Festival which is where she performed as a kid. [hijack] Incidentally, Stratford (Ontario) is a great place to see a play if you’re in the area. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Skijumper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3e96dc/32.png) [@Skijumper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skijumper)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-careers-you-followed-before-stardom/79765/22 "2001-09-06T05:54:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Edwardina \* > \*\*River Phoenix from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers?!! I thought that movie was made before he was born. \*\* I was referring to the TV series that came out in the 80s. Phoenix played the youngest brother. Some others I recall now - (granted, I had to check IMDB because I couldn’t remember the titles) Ellen DeGeneres from the so-so sitcom ‘Laurie Hill’. She played a nurse and came across funnier than lead DeLane Matthews. David Schwimmer in an episode of The Wonder Years. He played a hippie boyfriend. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-careers-you-followed-before-stardom/79765/23 "2001-09-06T07:35:00Z")
Another former soaps watcher. Plenty of stars started on soaps! I remember Meg Ryan from ATWT. Marcy Walker (“Profiler”) was on “Santa Barbara” (and she was _baaaad_) and the star of “The Pretender” (his name will come in a minute) was on DOOL for YEARS. Richard Biggs (“Babylon 5”) also from DOOL. (I think. A soap, anyway.) I visited the set of GH (a friend worked there) when Demi Moore was shooting a scene. Ah! And who can forget Janeen Turner (“Northen Exposure”) when she was on GH? Anyone know who Jeff Fahey is? He was in the series “The Marshal” a few years back, and in a lot of B movies. He started out on OLTL. I remember when he first started. I first saw Kim Delany (NYPD Blue) was on AMC. Dana Delany? (“China Beach”) I think it was “Edge of Night”, or some other defunct soap. But I remember seeing her in that. Oh! Kate Capshaw? (Mrs. Stephen Spielberg.) Edge of Night. I could go on with this soap stuff. AND ON. Another Jim Carrey “Duck Factory” fan. (I have tapes!) Courtney Cox from “Misfits of Science”. (I have tapes!) Another vote for Tom Hanks in “Bosom Buddies”. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-careers-you-followed-before-stardom/79765/24 "2001-09-06T07:37:46Z")
Oh! Micheal Richards (Kramer from Seinfeld) on SNL wannabe “Fridays”. When I saw him in that I knew he was destined for stardom. Only a matter of time. I also remember seeing Seinfeld visit Letterman and do his stand-up. I thought he was funny, so I’d tape him. (I still have the tapes!) ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-careers-you-followed-before-stardom/79765/25 "2001-09-06T07:40:56Z")
Oh! I have a **TAPE** of the VERY short-lived series “Gung Ho”. Starring a pre-Quantum Leap Scott Bakula. I have been told that such a tape is quite coveted and priceless among Quantum Leap Fans. I have the most amazing and scary tape collection. ---
**Author:** ![Skijumper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3e96dc/32.png) [@Skijumper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skijumper)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-careers-you-followed-before-stardom/79765/26 "2001-09-06T09:39:00Z")
Oh and there’s Michelle Pfeiffer from Grease 2. I will admit, that’s one of my favourite cheesy movies. ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-careers-you-followed-before-stardom/79765/27 "2001-09-06T10:02:53Z")
**Janeane Garofalo** from “Stand-Up Stand-Up” on Comedy Central, I think? ---
**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:** [September 6, 2001, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-careers-you-followed-before-stardom/79765/28 "2001-09-06T10:29:18Z")
Jodie Foster from the Walt Disney version of “Tom Sawyer” (1973). My first crush. ---
**Author:** ![lawoot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/35a633/32.png) [@lawoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawoot)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-careers-you-followed-before-stardom/79765/29 "2001-09-06T12:39:43Z")
Sandra Bullock, but only because she was a classmate (look how far one of us got!) and (then) a friend. ---
**Author:** ![aegypt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@aegypt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aegypt)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-careers-you-followed-before-stardom/79765/30 "2001-09-06T12:45:35Z")
I loved “Kramer” as Stanley Spadowski in Weird Al’s _UHF_. He played a goofy janitor who took over the children’s show “Uncle Nutsy’s Playhouse”. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2001, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-careers-you-followed-before-stardom/79765/31 "2001-09-06T12:47:24Z")
Speaking of soaps, Kate Mulgrew and Yasmin Bleeth on Ryan’s Hope. Mother and daughter. And Harold Rollins on Another World. George Clooney from E/R (the original with Eliot Gould), Facts of Life, and Roseanne. Betty Buckley from Eight is Enough. Indeed, I saw CATS in previews only cause she was in it! ---
**Author:** ![Kubla\_Khan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@Kubla\_Khan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kubla_Khan)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-careers-you-followed-before-stardom/79765/32 "2001-09-10T05:38:06Z")
I remember seeing bits of Dana Carvey’s stand up comedy on Nickelodeon’s “Turkey Television” back in the mid-eighties. Yes, the same show that introduced me to the song “Fish Heads”. ---
**Author:** ![epolo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@epolo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epolo)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2001, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-careers-you-followed-before-stardom/79765/33 "2001-09-10T15:50:42Z")
Ahem…Ben Affleck from **Voyage of the Mimi**. And Tea Leoni from **Flying Blind**. Woo-hoo! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/celebrity-careers-you-followed-before-stardom/79765.md?page=1)