Peter Billingsley, A Christmas Story. While he hasn’t had a stellar career, he’s been a worker in H’wood ever since, and is one of those rare cases where a cute kid actor grew up to be a pretty damned good looking adult.
Here’s what “Ralphie” looks like nowadays. Macaulay Culkin, eat your heart out.
Cate Blanchett in Paradise Road. It was only her second (or maybe third) film, but she held her own alongside her better known co-stars, Glenn Close, Frances McDormand and Julianna Marguiles. Not to sound overly hipster, but I knew then that she was one to watch out for.
Jim Carrey jumped overnight to absolute-top-tier-money-maker with Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, but IMDB reveals that he’d had a fair number of roles before that, other than being a cast member on In Living Color, which was where I was familiar with him.
More to the point, Flick should have stayed with the flagpole…
I like this picture of Billingsley better. I wonder if he carries those glasses around with him?
From the moment I saw Glenn Close in her first feature film The World According to Garp (for which she received an Academy Award nomination), she became my favorite actress. After 30 years and a stellar career, she is still my favorite actress.
Having a stupid, jerky white guy on a black-cast show always bothered me. The reverse hadn’t been tolerated for decades.
Up there with the white kid in the comic strip Curtis named “Gunk.” We get it. Here’s your hammer back.
(Said strip drawn by Ray Billingsley, who I assume is no relation to Peter.)
It’s actually her third role, but Uma Thurman has never looked lovelier than in her turn as Venus in* Adventures of Baron Munchausen*. I believe it was her film career springboard.
It’s open to debate, but IMO it was her significant, um, exposure, in Dangerous Liaisons (released just a week after Baron) that put her, uh, name, in the minds of movie-goers.
Is this right, Leo? :dubious:
How about Al Pacino in The Godfather?
Oh I like that!
:eek:Hubba, hubba, I’d like a piece of that! Those eyes are gorgeous.
While we await Leo’s clarification, I would guess that the term “debut” means just that. I guess the word debut could be determined to be a leading role, or a supporting or even a featured role.
I even have a problem with Gene Wilder in The Producers, since he’d had a featured role in Bonnie and Clyde a year earlier, and even though he only had a 5 minute scene, we all noticed him at the time because he was very unique! And *Bonnie and Clyde *was a very popular movie, where as The Producers closed and opened in about a week when it was released in 1968. It became a cult classic AFTER Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.
I’m also not sure what “career-making” means. Dr. Haing S.Ngor won an Oscar for a supporting role in The Killing Fields, but not much of a career. Same with Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker. On the other hand, Richard Gere’s first movie role that was more than a one liner, was a 7 minute featured part as a psycho in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, but those 7 minutes got mention in most reviews and made him a star.
Meant to add, Liza Minelli in The Sterile Cuckoo in 1969. A small movie, but rave reviews for her, that led to her being cast in Cabaret a year or two later and an Oscar for Best Actress.
Tatum O’Neal in Paper Moon.
Orson Welles in Citizen Kane.
Her problem is that she’d only seen the sights a girl could see from Brooklyn Heights, thus she never got a very popular TV show.
Peter Boyle made a big splash with his role in Joe (Susan Sarandon somewhat less so).
Jean Seberg got a lot of notice in her first film, Otto Preminger’s St. Joan – nearly all of it bad. She managed to overcome it and became a respected actress with a notable career, which would not have happened if she hadn’t become famous in her first film.
The OP mentioned “Body Heat”. Now I don’t know if it was his first role, but it’s the first thing I remember seeing Mickey Rourke in. A small part but one that made an impression.
It was Rourke’s fourth movie but the first one he was generally noticed in. It was also William Hurt’s fourth movie, Ted Danson’s second movie, and Kathleen Turner and director Lawrence Kasdan’s debut. It’s hard to conceive now but at the time of the film’s release, Richard Crenna was the biggest name in the movie.
Jessica Lange’s career was almost sunk by her debut in King Kong - she was playing the role of an untalented actress and she did it so well people apparently thought she actually was an untalented actress. She wouldn’t get another role for three years after that.