# How many obese actors have shed huge amounts of weight? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 8, 2014, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622 "2014-04-08T08:28:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/1 "2014-04-08T08:28:33Z")
I was very surprised today when I watched American History X and recognized a hugely obese man who played the character Seth. I seemed to recognize him as the friend to the lead character in the movie Blow named Tuna. Turns out this actor’s name is Ethan Suplee and when I looked him up on IMDB, I was shocked to see that he has lost about 200 pounds. Just take a look at his following picture: > **[Ethan Suplee - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0839486/)** > > Ethan Suplee. Actor: Remember the Titans. Ethan Suplee has established himself over the past few decades as an actor of considerable talent and accomplishment. His diverse and eclectic resume ranges from hilarious roles in such comedies as Mallrats... That reminded me of the actor who played Neuman on Seinfeld. His name is Wayne Night. You can’t really see a huge weight loss in the following picture. But you can see a large one. I have read that he has in fact lost a huge amount of weight. > **[Wayne Knight - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001431/)** > > Wayne Knight. Actor: Jurassic Park. Actor Wayne Knight achieved television immortality assaying the role of the frenetic mailman "Newman", nemesis of the eponymous lead character in the classic TV series Seinfeld (1989). He also appeared in Jurassic... This got me to wondering how many other extremely obese actors have shed the weight and how many have not. Is the explanation just as simple as follows? If they didn’t shed the weight, any hugely obese person stands little chance of living much past 40. But then I’m reminded of the actor who played “The Fat Man” in all those Humphrey Bogard movies. His name was Sydney Greenstreet. He played in The Maltese Falcon, Across the Pacific, Christmas in Connecticut (a great movie with Barbara Stanwick), Conflict, Passage to Marseille and Cassablanca as well as many others. He was hugely obese but never lost any significant weight. He lived to 75 years old and died from complications from Diabetes. I’ve seen him in many movies and he always appears to be close to 300 pounds. Very hard to understand him living that long. Of course, I suppose there are always statistical flukes. But I’m just wondering how many other actors who were hugely obese either died at a young age or shed the weight and lived a long time? > **[Sydney Greenstreet - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002113/?ref_=tt_cl_t7)** > > Sydney Greenstreet. Actor: The Maltese Falcon. Sydney Greenstreet's father was a leather merchant with eight children. Sydney left home at age 18 to make his fortune as a Ceylon tea planter, but drought forced him out of business and back to England.... ---
**Author:** ![sandra\_nz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@sandra\_nz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sandra_nz)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/2 "2014-04-08T09:27:03Z")
Many obese people live past 40. My cite is Walmart. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/3 "2014-04-08T09:32:40Z")
[The boy who played Dudley Dursley in the Harry Potter films](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/harry-potter/6262567/Harry-Potter-star-My-life-after-Dudley-Dursley.html) lost so much weight that they had to put him in a fat suit for his final scenes (and it showed). Seth Rogen might have been obese by some metrics, but was at least fat, and isn’t now. Ricki Lake lost a ton of weight and kept it off. ---
**Author:** ![Oglomott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oglomott/32/3543_2.png) [@Oglomott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oglomott)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/4 "2014-04-08T10:10:59Z")
Oliver Hardy lost a lot of weight near the end of his life. I’m not sure if it was intentional or due to illness. [![](https://jaydeanhcr.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/laurel-and-hardy-today.jpg?w=640) ](https://jaydeanhcr.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/laurel-and-hardy-today.jpg?w=640) And sometimes fat people do live long lives. Leon Askin, whom played the fat General Burkhalter on “Hogan’s Heroes”, lived to be 97. And Al Molinaro from “Happy Days” is still alive at 94, though I haven’t seen any recent pictures of him. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/5 "2014-04-08T10:14:20Z")
I forgot to mention John Pinette. He was the actor on Seinfeld who was found dead in a hotel room at age 50. > **[National Post](https://nationalpost.com/category/entertainment/)** > > Keep up with what's happening in the world of entertainment. From celebrity interviews to movie reviews to music updates, we have you covered. The above story says he played a “pivotal role” in Seinfeld. But it looks like he only appeared in a single episode. So how pivotal could that be? Anyway, I can’t see any reason for his death. It said “natural causes”. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/6 "2014-04-08T10:35:16Z")
> [@sandra\_nz](#): > > Many obese people live past 40. My cite is Walmart. Wikipedia says morbid obesity reduces life expectancy by ten years. So as u say, most obese people can expect to live long past 40, even if they do tend to die earlier then their more svelte peers. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/7 "2014-04-08T10:55:07Z")
But what does that have to do with Walmart? ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/8 "2014-04-08T11:21:51Z")
I haven’t seen a recent enough picture of Kevin Smith to know if he’s thin-again or fat-again, but his weight _has_ to have swung by triple digits since he’s been in the public eye. Not an actor, but John Popper of Blues Traveler lost over 200 pounds after some form of bariatric surgery. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/9 "2014-04-08T11:59:15Z")
I read something only a few days ago about a movie directed by [Ron Lester](http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2313132032/nm0504516?ref_=nmmd_md_nxt) who was 508 lbs when he played Billy Bob in _Varsity Blues_. According to IMDB he lost 348 lbs in 2 years due to surgery. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/10 "2014-04-08T12:08:15Z")
UK comic actress Dawn French recently [lost a lot of weight](http://www.bohomoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Dawn-French.jpg), but then gained a chunk of it back again. On balance she’s still better off than she was, though. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/11 "2014-04-08T12:52:03Z")
Jerry O’Connell was a fat kid but grew up to be a fit handsome guy. I don’t know how much of that was a lifestyle change and how much was growing to be 6-2. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/12 "2014-04-08T12:54:44Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > I forgot to mention John Pinette. He was the actor on Seinfeld who was found dead in a hotel room at age 50. > > [Entertainment News, Gossip, Photos and Headlines | National Post](http://arts.nationalpost.com/2014/04/07/comedian-john-pinette-who-played-a-pivotal-role-in-seinfeld-series-finale-dead-at-50/) > > The above story says he played a “pivotal role” in Seinfeld. But it looks like he only appeared in a single episode. So how pivotal could that be? Anyway, I can’t see any reason for his death. It said “natural causes”. It was pivotal because it was the final episode which still gets discussed and dissected today. And his character being mugged was the plot point which lead to the rest of the plot. The pivot if you will. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/13 "2014-04-08T12:59:25Z")
**Roger C. Carmel** , who I suspect most people on this Board will recognize as Harry Mudd from two TOS Star Trek Episodes, seems to have been heavy most of his career – he was heavy not only as Harcourt Fenton Mudd, and as Roger Buell on the sitcom _The Mothers-in-Law_ (until replaced by Richard Deacon), but at the end of his life when he played “Senor Naugles” on TV commercials for the Mexican fast-food restaurant Naugles. But in between he seems to have lost a LOTR of weight a couple of times. He was extremely thin as accountant Doug Wesley on _The Dick Van Dyke Show_, for instance. According to Wikipedia, he was only 54 when he died, of congestive heart failure. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/14 "2014-04-08T13:00:11Z")
Stephen Furst was a blimp - and so named - in _Animal House_. He was still quite heavy in the early seasons of _Babylon 5_, but by the final season and following movies he had shed quite a bit of weight and hardly looked the same. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/15 "2014-04-08T13:03:09Z")
[Laird Cregar](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0187284/)was a very large actor who had a promising career as a villain (literally “heavies”) in dramas and in horror movies. Among other roles, he played the “Jack the Ripper”-type serial killer in Hitchcock’s 1944 picture [_The Lodger_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037024/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_2), and also the “Jekyll and Hyde”-type schizophrenic (in the Hollywood split personality sense, not the medical sense) in the 1945 [_Hangover Square_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037761/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_1). However, he wanted to break away from the villain roles and become a leading man. To that end, he embarked on a medically questionable weight-loss program, dropping from 300 to 200 pounds in a period of months. This drastic shock to his system caused serious health problems, and he died following emergency abdominal surgery at 31. He was considered an excellent actor, and, if had stayed with the villain roles, he could have had a career path similar to that of his good friend [_Vincent Price_](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001637/?ref_=nv_sr_1). His death was a major loss to the industry; many actors of the day cited him as a significant influence. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/16 "2014-04-08T13:03:42Z")
[Vincent D’Onofrio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_D'Onofrio) > [@](#): > > In 1986, D’Onofrio took on the role often considered the defining moment in his acting career, as Pvt. Leonard Lawrence, an overweight and mentally unstable Marine recruit in the movie Full Metal Jacket. On a tip from friend Matthew Modine, D’Onofrio was urged to send audition tapes to director Stanley Kubrick, in England. Four tapes later D’Onofrio landed the role. Originally, the character of Pvt. Lawrence had been written as a ‘skinny ignorant redneck’; however, Kubrick believed the role would have more impact if the character was big and clumsy. **D’Onofrio gained 70 lb (32 kg) for the role, bringing his weight to 280 lb (130 kg). This remains the record for most weight gained by an actor for a movie, surpassing Robert De Niro’s accumulation of 60 lb (27 kg) for the filming of Raging Bull.** While filming an obstacle course scene for the movie, D’Onofrio injured his left knee, compounded by the excessive weight, which required surgical reconstruction. > > **After filming of Full Metal Jacket was completed, having lost nearly all the weight gained for the movie in just nine months** , D’Onofrio went on to play Dawson, the owner of ‘Dawson’s Garage’ in Adventures in Babysitting. D’Onofrio appears in only one scene near the end of the film, but his small role attracted attention because of his muscular physique (in complete contrast to the overweight and flabby character he played in Full Metal Jacket) and long blond hair (a wig) which causes Sara, the film’s youngest character, to mistakenly believe he is Thor, the comic-book superhero she idolizes. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/17 "2014-04-08T13:05:47Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Stephen Furst was a blimp - and so named - in _Animal House_. He was still quite heavy in the early seasons of _Babylon 5_, but by the final season and following movies he had shed quite a bit of weight and hardly looked the same. He probably would be dead by now if he didn’t. His father died of diabetes complications. Stephen started having severe complications from diabetes at a very early age. If he hadn’t changed his lifestyle and lost weight his health would have continued to deteriorate. He has been an outspoken advocate for diabetes education for decades. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/18 "2014-04-08T13:09:00Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > [Vincent D’Onofrio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_D'Onofrio) That belongs on a whole other list, actors who gained or lost weight for a role. Jennifer Hudson lost a bunch of weight and has kept it off. One source I just looked at says 80 lbs but it seems more than that. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/19 "2014-04-08T13:09:55Z")
Then there’s Kirstie Alley, who is sort a of a whole list by herself. Maybe she could share it with Oprah. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2014, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622/20 "2014-04-08T13:19:31Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#): > > I was very surprised today when I watched American History X and recognized a hugely obese man who played the character Seth. I seemed to recognize him as the friend to the lead character in the movie Blow named Tuna. > > Turns out this actor’s name is Ethan Suplee and when I looked him up on IMDB, I was shocked to see that he has lost about 200 pounds. Just take a look at his following picture: > > [Ethan Suplee - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0839486) This was referred to in an episode of Raising Hope three years ago. Ethan Suplee was a guest star and this happened, as noted by me in a thread about the show: > [@any love here for "Raising Hope" - besides mine?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-love-here-for-raising-hope-besides-mine/605411/26): > > “And your husband looks like a thin version of the fat guy from Mallrats!” > > That just cracked me up as, let’s face it, half the people watching it were thinking “crap, he’s lost weight”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-obese-actors-have-shed-huge-amounts-of-weight/685622.md?page=2)