Thanks for reminding me about this! When I saw the Switzerland date I turned to my wife and said “that can’t be right! Switzerland?!!”
Not all that many, but yes. I remember a scene where he’s talking to Anthony Hopkins (John Quincy Adams).
This might interest you: I met Keir Dullea tonight! - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
It’s true. He is just. That. Awesome.
:: golf clap ::
Appalling but true: Women's suffrage in Switzerland - Wikipedia
It was, at the time, one of three European countries that still denied women the right to vote. Of the remaining two, one still hasn’t yet extended the franchise to women.
Wiki says otherwise: 1984 Liechtenstein women's suffrage referendum - Wikipedia. Which country were you thinking of?
Well, Wikipedia is wrong. I was thinking of another European microstate, the Vatican City. It is an elective monarchy where women are legally prohibited from becoming electors.
Kevin Costner’s hand gets no billing in The Big Chill.
Thanks – you’re right! So, from post #8, you found that, five years ago, Dullea did NOT resemble his “aged” forms from 2001. Let us know if you happen to catch Infinitely Polar Bear sometime (don’t go out of your way – not a great movie), and if you agree with me that he DOES rather resemble them in that one.
Sad, since it was less wooden than the whole him was in many other movies.
I can sort of see saying that about Ms Fisher, but Harrison Ford absolutely was a lead role in the movie, even if not as big as Finn and Rey.
More of a video release. There was a 1969 jam session known as “Supershow”. When it came out of VHS in 1986, there were 17 performances, one of which was Led Zeppelin’s “Dazed and Confused” (I forget who they ripped off on that song). It was there only song on the tape. But with the massive popularity of Led Zeppelin on AOR stations, their picture and name was prominently portrayed on the cover.
Farrah Fawcett was something like fifth in the credits for “Logan’s Run”. But when that was on network television in 1977 when she was battling to leave “Charlie’s Angels”, the network promos prominently mentioned “making a rare television appearance this year, Farrah Fawcett”.
Margot Kidder in* Superman III* was in, IIIRC, one scene, and Laura Dern was only briefly featured at the beginning and end of Jurassic Park III.
No Retreat, No Surrender billed, at #2, an up-and-coming martial arts phenom known as Jean-Claude Van Damme. He appears for about a minute early on, then disappears completely until the contest at the end, where he provides a few minutes of action and says roughly 6 words.
Michelle Rodriguez reprised her role as Letty (#3 billing) in Fast And Furious. She…does not do very much, to put it mildly.
Re. Alec Baldwin in Glenngarry Glen Ross (#3 billing): I just watched the whole movie yesterday (Go IPad! :D), and the thing that really strikes me about the Blake character was how superfluous he was. He looked every bit like a pointless made-up character randomly shoehorned in to pad out the running time. First off, the salesman already have a manager, John Williamson; why wouldn’t he be the one giving the speech? (IMO Kevin Spacey gave a fine performance and would’ve had no difficulty pulling it off). He was never shy about stating the terms of the contest or pushing the need to close, close, close. Second, we don’t need some gold-plated corporate slimeball to pressurize the concrete or whatever. The contest is already underway (you can see the poster on the wall), we see the kind of frustrations these shady salesman have even before the meeting, and, oh yeah, the entire goddam movie is about lying and backstabbing to get ahead in an insanely cutthroat, dirty business. In the right kind of movie, Blake could’ve been a handy Macguffin, or provided a fun throwaway early sequence. Putting him here is like urinating into an open sewer. Can’t kill what’s already dead.
Another one I just thought of was Heroes (1977). At the time it was regarded as a star vehicle for Henry Winkler, who was at the height of his fame for playing Fonzie on Happy Days. His co-star was Sally Field, who was also apparently poised for her breakout role in films. So the initial publicity heavily focused on the two leads.
But then Star Wars was released. And Harrison Ford became a mega-star. And somebody remembered that he had a supporting role in Heroes (he was on screen for around ten minutes). The marketing of the movie shifted and it became Heroes, starring Henry Winkler, Sally Field, and Harrison Ford - Han Solo from Star Wars.
There were a whole bunch of epic movies in the 50’s and 60’s with big stars with big billing who played bit parts. Think about John Wayne in The Longest Day, John Wayne in How the West Was Won, Edward G. Robinson in The Ten Commandments, etc.
DKW, you do realize, don’t you, that the character played by Alec Baldwin was created for the film? He didn’t exist in the play that it was based on at all. I won’t agree or disagree with you about that scene, but let me note that I think that it’s become thought of as the most famous single scene that Baldwin has ever done. Take a look at this Saturday Night Live parody:
http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/glengarry-christmas---elf-motivation/n12000
And again with the Brando–top billing in Apocalypse Now for about 15 minutes of screen time, and (IIRC) doesn’t make his first appearance until nearly the end.
Here’s an old one: The Maltese Falcon. Someone named Gladys George got third billing in a completely forgettable and execrably acted role as Sam Spade’s partner’s wife. She had two scenes with dialog (both awful) and one view of her face in a car. All of that could have been cut from the movie without any loss of interest.
Why give her such high billing for such a nothing role? My guess is that she was so bad that they ended up editing out as much as they thought they could, but they were stuck with the billing. She had been a busy actress starting in 1937, but after this role she didn’t work for two years.
[quote=“Wendell_Wagner, post:56, topic:746198”]
Chronos writes:
> Sigourney Weaver was, at the time, a no-name.
Interesting piece of trivia: Before Alien, Sigourney Weaver appeared in one minor movie, one minor TV show, and one minor TV mini-series, all in what were apparently small roles, and also in one other movie which was an Oscar Best Picture winner, although her time on screen was only ten seconds.
That movie was Annie Hall. She appeared in the scene at the end where Woody Allen and Diane Keaton’s characters meet again at a showing of The Sorrow and the Pity. She played Allen’s date in the scene. You would never recognize her if you weren’t told that it was her:
[/QUOTE] I hope there is more of her in the movie than in this clip, where you see her from across the street. I wouldn't recognize my own mother from that distance.Nope, that’s the whole Magilla.
Mark Lenard has an equally small bit earlier in the film, on a TV show.
Annie Hall was full of small roles by well-known people. Even stranger than the brief appearance by Sigourney Weaver was the one by Truman Capote. He played a Truman Capote lookalike and got no on-screen credit: