The kid who tries to steal the guitar from Ray’s Music City in The Blues Brothers is the chauffeur who drives Bruce Willis to the Nakatomi Building in Die Hard.
I was channel surfing once and came across Downton Abbey for the first time. The actor who plays Mr. Carson was also in Top Secret (the one with Val Kilmer). I thought, almost literally, “whoa, deja vu, that’s Deja Vu.”
Hermes Conrad from Futurama is also Marvin in Pulp Fiction.
Meekus is played by the same guy who plays Eric Northman in True Blood, Aleksander Skarsgard.
The guy who plays Al Capone on Boardwalk Empire is also in Snatch which I just watched.
The one that always gets me is that Vincent D’Onofrio, the actor from Law & Order: Criminal Intent (Detective Robert Goren) was also Thor/Dawson in Adventures in Babysitting.
And Pvt. Pyle in Full Metal Jacket. And Edgar in Men in Black.
Courtney B. Vance, the ADA on L&O:CI was also the sonar operator in The Hunt for Red October.
I missed an easy Kevin Bacon connection once because I forgot that the doctor who testifies in the trial in A Few Good Men was also Count Rugen (the six-fingered man) in The Princess Bride.
And James Marsden is in Zoolander in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him scene. He plays John Wilkes Booth.
Speaking of Stalag 17, I watched it for the second time a couple of years ago and I knew I knew the actor who played Hoffy from somewhere else. It took me forever to figure out who else he played. Richard Erdman is more than a half century older now but I still managed to recognize him as Leonard, the old guy in NBC’s Community. I think it was more his voice than his face that I found familiar.
I knew British actress Joan Greenwood from her circa-1950s work in films such as “Kind Hearts & Coronets” and the Anthony Asquith version of “The Importance of Being Earnest.” Many years later, she showed up in one of the Miss Marple mysteries–“Bertram’s Hotel”–as an old friend of Jane Marple. I wouldn’t have recognized her, if it were not for the plummy way she said “Extraordinary!” *That *hadn’t changed in 35+ years.
My interest in Sleepy Hollow sent me looking for other work by Tom Mison. His Mr Bingley in Lost in Austen looks totally different from his Ichabod Crane–but I was expecting that.
It took a long time for my mind to register that Mrs Bennet was also River Song…
Both of mine are Vacation franchise tie-ins:
Johnny Galecki was Russ in Christmas Vacation as well as Leonard Hofstadter on Big Bang Theory.
Jane Krakowski was Cousin Vicki (about age 15) on National Lampoon’s Vacation as well as Jenna Maroney on 30 Rock.
Not nearly as interesting to me as that Justin Hammer is Zaphod Beeblebrox, who is also Guy Fleegman.
(Something about his face really appears to change depending on his haircut and shaving status. I would never have guessed that Zaphod was Guy, and with Hammer only had a nagging feeling that I recognized him until I checked the movie’s IMDB entry. Not quite Gary Oldman level (I never spot Oldman without already knowing he was in the movie), but, man…)
Yes, those Ealing Studio films with Alec Guinness were great.
She also played Lady Fairchild in the 1961 Ray Harryhausen film The Mysterious Island.
She says “Extraordinary!” the same way in that film.
I was watching American Hustle and I knew the guy playing Carmine was somebody I should recognize but I couldn’t pull up the name. It was Jeremy Renner. For some reason, seeing him with his hair like that and playing a different kind of role made it impossible for me to recognize him.
Same here, it took me a bit to realize who he was. The hair really drastically changed his appearance.
Hyacinth Bucket (It’s Bouquet!) AKA Patricia Routledge is in To Sir With Love. She plays “Clinty” Clintridge, the young teacher who the kids actually like. It’s been a few years since I’ve seen the movie but I think she even dances with Sidney Poitier once in the film.
Another thread just reminded me of this one. Craig Ferguson (from The Drew Carey Show, and his own late-night talk show) was in a first-season episode of Red Dwarf. It’s the one where Lister gets sick and his confidence and paranoia manifest as other people. Ferguson played his confidence.
