Sorry, Cal. I must have read the first sentence and skimmed over the rest. I did watch The Duck Factory, which was a pleasant show that didn’t give his talents room.
Wonder who the third is?
I’m sorry, but I don’t think having a small role in films like Shampoo, Goodfellas or even Coming to America counts as “inauspicious”. Much better than appearing in B movies (or worse). Do you expect new actors to star in such films?
It might make for a fun thread to identify Movie Stars who did indeed hit the ground running.
Robert Duvall as Boo Radley comes close. The early nonsense roles that James Dean had are often mentioned but his big splash in East of Eden made it feel as if he had fallen off a passing comet.
James Gandolfini had a brief yet memorable role in True Romance, which I didn’t mention earlier because it fails the “inauspicious” requirement. 
Amen! That basically put him on the map. That movie has so many outstanding actors and scenes. Perhaps one of the Top Ten ever is True Romance - The Sicilian Scene in HD - YouTube
I first remember Bill Maher from “House 2: The Second Story”, a great horror-comedy that deserves better than the mediocre ratings it gets.
I’m not sure where you got your timeline. He was cut out of The Big Chill. Lawrence Kasdan felt bad about that so he cast Costner as one of the leads in Silverado. The Big Chill came out in 83, Silverado in 85. In between he was one of the leads in Fandango, an overlooked gem IMHO. The release dates are easy to find but I’m not sure what it means in terms of when he actually did the work. Starring in Sliverado led directly into his superstardom.
Did he have a thing for the maid in that one? Cause I remembered him in something pre-Frasier where he had a thing for the maid and I thought, “Here we go again” with Daphne. Who wasn’t a maid, but still, it’s similar enough that I thought that. And I would be the third, if it is in fact the same show.
Probably thinking of his Frat Boy #1 role in Night Shift, which came out in 1982, which turns out to be well before anybody but Ma and Pa Costner would’ve known who Kevin was.
Night Shift is hilarious, by the way. I couldn’t tell you how overlooked it might be, but I don’t know a lot of people who didn’t see it by the mid-80s being familiar with it. And as for hitting the ground running, how about Michael Keaton as Billy Blazejowski? “Not pimps … love brokers!”
Nicholas Cage in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. I think he had one line, as a worker in the fast food restaurant when Brad gets fired.
Is this a great country, or what?
Galaxy Quest was the first movie credit for both Justin Long and Rainn Wilson.
I can think of two that haven’t been mentioned:
Kevin Bacon’s first credited movie role was Chip Diller, the freshman Omega in Animal House – in his underwear, no less. His memorable, oft-quoted line:
“Thank you, sir. May I have another?”
And Richard Dreyfuss had an uncredited role as a Boarding House Resident in The Graduate. His single line:
“Shall I get the cops? I’ll get the cops.”
Fandango and Silverado came out after he turned thirty, just like I said: before he turned thirty, he’d pretty much just had the aforementioned Big Chill deleted scenes, plus the Frat Boy #1 credit Uncle Jocko mentioned, plus the uncredited Man In Alley role from Frances, and et cetera.
Alan Rickman shows up as a hotel desk clerk in one of the Alec Guinness George Smiley series(Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy or Smiley’s People) Patrick Stewart also shows up in a pivotal nonspeaking role, but he doesn’t count.
Nitpick: Percy Rodriguez did not play Dr. Daystrom. That was William Marshall.
Percy did appear in TOS, but as one of the commador’s at Kirk’s court martial, not Dr. Daystrom.
One that surprised me: I was watching the legendary B-movie C.H.U.D., and at one point two cops walk into a diner, swap some brief dialogue with the staff, and as I recall either get killed or called away on something CHUD-related within about a minute. The unnamed “cop in diner” roles were played by John Goodman (the same year he played the coach in Revenge of the Nerds) and Jay Thomas (played Carla’s husband Eddie LeBec on Cheers and is currently a successful comedian, with a radio show on SiriusXM radio).
Patrick Stewart doesn’t count because he seems to largely intermix very big famous great roles with minor roles in WTF? movies seemingly at random. I suspect he just really enjoys acting and doesn’t really care what exactly he gets to act in.
Last night I re-watched Searching for Bobby Fischer and was surprised to spot William H. Macy in a small role.
“You want a tuna fish sandwich? I’m going to get you a tuna fish sandwich!”
Not a nitpick at all, mon frere. I was totally wrong; I had the names reversed; do I get any credit for knowing Dr. Daystrom was Blacula?
Of course when you said WILLIAM Marshall, I wanted to holler back Nuh-uh, Galileo Seven and Land of The Giants. (DON Marshall) :smack: