Matt Damon played the Anti-Semetic cheater in “School Ties” (one of my favs).
Sarah Jessica Parker played the girl who brought the kid food at NASA in “Flight of the Navigator”.
That’d be Bob Balaban, who I don’t think exactly qualifies as “famous”, though he’s been working as a character actor upwards of 30 years. Per the IMDB, Midnight Cowboy was his first movie role.
John Larroquette (who’s arguably on his way to no longer being famous) had a bigger early role than others mentioned here as Bill Murray’s idiot commanding officer in Stripes. Judge Reinhold, who pops up so often in this thread, was a member of the squad.
Another film featuring early performances by later more recognizable character actors is the war/caper movie Kelly’s Heroes. Look for Harry Dean Stanton and Stuart Margolin (“Angel” on The Rockford Files) in the squad, and for Gavin MacLeod as “Moriarty” the tank driver.
Speaking of Gavin MacLeod… Helen Hunt had a very early recurring role as Murray Slaughter’s daughter on the Mary Tyler Moore show. I think other child actresses played the part too, but Helen was in at least two episodes.
B & C stole Gene’s car while he was courting his girl. They jumped into the girlfriend’s car and chased B & C. B & C got a kick out of that, turned around and chased them, making them stop. Gene and his girlfriend were made to get into the car with the gang, where they all got along after some nervous tension at first.
After stopping for cheeseburgers later in the evening, Gene revealed that he was a mortician, which freaked Bonnie out, and she made Clyde stop the car to let Gene and his girlfriend out.
Does that ring a bell?
Sheri
The spaceship in “FotN” talked, and was voiced by Paul Reubens AKA Pee-Wee Herman.
Not exactly obscure, but I had to mention Boo Radley.
Macauly Culkin played the kid with the “consecutive questions” record in “Uncle Buck”.
:::thwacking fivehead:::
Thanks DW
Audrey Hepburn had a small bit as a cigarette girl in Lavender Hill Mob
George Clooney played a handyman named George on “The Facts of Life”, and Roseanne’s and Jackie’s boss on the first season of “Roseanne” (who also was Jackie’s boyfriend).
Molly Ringwald played “Molly” on the first season of “The Facts of Life”.
I saw John Ritter on an episode of “The Waltons” as-get this!-a fire and brimstone fundy seminary student. It’s kind of odd to see Ritter screaming, “REPENT!!! REPEEEENNNNT!!!”
Janet Jackson was on “Diff’rent Strokes” as Willis’s girlfriend, “Charlene”. Of course, the Jacksons were well-known by that time, but it’s interesting to see her back then.
Jake Lloyd fromn The Phantom Menace had a small role on “ER” as the son of a woman with a terminal illness.
Mark Hamill was on an episode of “The Partridge Family”. The episode where Laurie gets braces. He plays her boyfriend to be, Jerry.
Interestingly, I see that a number of the films mentioned here were cast by Juliet Taylor. She seems to have given early-ish starts to all sorts of soon-to-be-famous folks.
Gwyneth Paltrow played the grown up Wendy at the end of Hook
Ben Affleck plays the little boy in the educational series The Voyage of the Mimi
To expound on things that others have mentioned, at least in passing:
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Samuel L. Jackson plays Eddie Murphy’s father in the skit at the beginning of Eddie Murphy: Raw.
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In the movie Regarding Henry, Harrison Ford is shot in the head during a robbery in a convenience store. The gunman is played by John Leguizamo.
Well, ur, ah obviously I was talking about Ron Howard before he made a name for himself as an adult rather than a child…
Oh, hell. You got me. And I’ve commented before that “Ronny” Howard was one of the few child television stars of the time who could actually act, rather than simply shouting his lines and trying to look cute. All in all one big :smack: for me.
well, most of mine have already been said, but, Samuel L. Jackson is the guy who wants the “good news” (or is it the bad news?) in the begining sting operation in Sea of Love starring Al Pacino, John Goodman & Ellen Barkin
Hey, as long as John Larroquette has come up a few times, might as well mention that he’s a Klingon in Star Trek III. He’s the one Kirk etc. run into towards the end, in a funny little scene in a transporter room (as I recall).
She also played Wilona’s daughter Penny on Good Times, I believe before that.
To make up for my earlier oversight, but sticking with the MASH theme from my previous post, here’s one: My wife and I were watching MASH earlier on fx today, and she turned to me and asked, “Is that Laurence Fishburne?” Up came the credits and she was right. He was credited as “Larry Fishburne”.
I know, as Eve stated earlier, that this is extremely common. Just about everyone has to start somewhere before the become stars. It’s still fun to spot them, though. Especially in 30 or 40 year old sitcoms when they look so young.
Are you sure that was Larry Fishburne? In 1970, he would have been all of seven years old. His earliest film role was 1975’s Cornbread, Earl, and Me, according to both Leonard Malrin’s guide and IMdB.
Although he would have been 9 (not 7) in 1970, he would have been 20 when he appeared in 1982.
Ah, I see the confusion. I meant TV show; you meant movie. Check further down on the IMDB under “Notable TV guest appearances.” In my original post, it was more clear that I was talking about the TV show (I mentioned re-runs).
Before becoming Mr. Spock, Leonard Nimoy was briefly on the soap opera “General Hospital” as Benny the pill-pusher.