Although I personally have yet to see A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) where Johnny Depp played Glen Lantz, I’ll have to concede that that role was memorable for Johnny. At least if the buzz about that movie is correct.
Now, the task in this thread is to locate IMDB credits for movie people (actors, writers, directors, crew types, you name it) who got into a hit (or at least a memorable movie) right out of the gate.
Even though Marlon Brando has one older credit than The Men, the Plot summary for “Actor’s Studio” (1948) suggests that even it was an acknowledgement of Brando’s stage work before he got into movies. Whether that constitutes a hit or not is debatable, so I’ll leave Brando in that fuzzy zone so his IMDB entry can be seen as a “close but no cigar” type of thing.
And just to have some guidelines for the thread, let’s have a minimum of five credits before we call somebody eligible for consideration. And let’s exclude “Self” credits, too.
Do bit parts count? Jeff Goldblum’s first credit was like “Hoodlum #4” or something in Death Wish. Whether or not that film was a “hit,” one can’t argue that it was influential.
I’ll try to think of a better example, where the person actually had a good, speaking part.
Another example of the “fuzzy zone” (at least for the sake of this thread) would be where Tommy Lee Jones fits into Love Story. There’s little doubt that the movie itself was a hit, but it would be hard to say that Tommy Lee had hit the big time as a result of his part in it.
So TLJ is not a candidate for recognition in this thread.
Sydney Greenstreet (The Maltese Falcon), Gene Kelly (For Me and My Gal), and Jane Russell (The Outlaw) all fit.
But do you mean oldest credit, or oldest film credit?
Because if you mean the latter, then Robert Duvall (To Kill a Mockingbird), Warren Beatty (Splendor in the Grass), and Haley Joel Osment (Forrest Gump) also qualify.
I’m sorry I missed your post on preview. Jeff’s role is like Tommy Lee’s, in my opinion, so he’s not to the level of Johnny Depp (who himself could be debated as having “made it”) as far as this thread is concerned.
Yes, it’s movie credits. But the oldest movie credit needs to be more than a bit part or extra, and should be seen as a “recognizable” role as opposed to Tommy Lee Jones, Jeff Goldblum and so many others who cause the reaction, “Wow! There’s so-and-so before he/she got to be so-and-so.”
I’m willing to go with Duvall and Beatty, and if I could remember his part in Gump, even Osment.
Judgment will play a large part in selections, and I’m just another vote for the relevance others assign.
ETA: James Dean had some early movie work that, for me at least, disqualifies him from this thread.
Here’s a weird one. Most people think that John Houseman’s first role was in The Paper Chase in 1975. And most people think that Joseph Cotton’s first role was in Citizen Kane in 1941. But in fact they both debued in a comedy short called Too Much Johnson in 1938.
Great. I had just forgotten Osment’s part. All of these are ideal examples of what I hope we can unearth at IMDB.
What’s evident is how many of the Big Stars like Hackman, Hoffman, Streep, Pacino, DeNiro, and so many others, had to take the shit roles before their talents and screen magic could emerge.
Only a blessed few hit the ground running, and maybe we can find who some of those Instant Stars have been.
I’m pretty sure that Julie Andrews’ film debut was in Mary Poppins. Granted, she’d been doing stage and tv for years, but that’s a pretty big start in movies.
Many of the actors in Citizen Kane had their first credit there. These include Agnes Moorhead, Ruth Warrick, Everett Sloane, and William Alland. Of course, Kane wasn’t really a hit when it came out (nor was it a flop – it broke even).
Mae West in Night After Night (with the famous line “Are you packing a rod or are you just glad to see me.”)
Buster Keaton’s first role in The Butcher Boy was in a very successful short subject.
Cathy Moriarty got an Oscar nomination for Raging Bull
Millie Perkins in Diary of Anne Frank.
Much of the cast of Bugsy Malone, most notably Scott Baio.