# Movies that had multiple actors who eventually became famous **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [April 6, 2021, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-multiple-actors-who-eventually-became-famous/939488 "2021-04-06T15:34:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-multiple-actors-who-eventually-became-famous/939488/41 "2021-04-09T04:36:38Z")
Empire of the Sun was Christian Bale’s first big movie, and he’s absolutely amazing in it as a child of 12. It also featured, in major speaking roles, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, and Ben Stiller. The first two were on the cusp of fame but not there yet, and Stiller was years away from being known as an actor at all. It’s still strange now seeing him not being Ben Stiller in a movie, but a young actor. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-multiple-actors-who-eventually-became-famous/939488/42 "2021-04-09T06:35:31Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > > [@msmith537](#): > > > > Scott Pilgrim vs the World > > Michael Cera > > Kieran Culkin > > Anna Kendrick > > Alison Pill > > Aubrey Plaza > > Mary Elizabeth Winstead > > Jason Schwartzman > > Brie Larson > > Brandon Routh > > Was coming here to post this. Also add a pre-_Captain America_ [Chris Evans](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/21/96/54/219654466d56f6091ce7beaa77dacb5c.jpg) and a pre-_Good Girls_ [Mae Whitman.](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/79/5d/0d/795d0d50dc8d4beba9aa3999f885fe88.jpg) Evans and Whitman were already well known, Evans for that other superhero franchise, Whitman as a child actor. Routh, too, had already been Superman… ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-multiple-actors-who-eventually-became-famous/939488/43 "2021-04-09T08:18:30Z")
> [@Temporary\_Name](#): > > Wow! This must be the worst movie ever! Even the trailer can’t put ninety entertaining seconds together. If that is what they featured the rest must be some kind of awful dreck; a remarkable waste of some very talented people. Sometimes a trailer is awful. I quite liked the movie though, maybe I have a fondness for such US summer comedies having never experienced a real one in the UK. It might be an offshot of The State, a sketch series I’d never heard of, but the movie seems to have the late 90s SNL vibe to it. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-multiple-actors-who-eventually-became-famous/939488/44 "2021-04-09T11:55:41Z")
**Almost Famous** had a stellar cast of people in various degrees of stardom. The ones who went on to bigger things were Zooey Deschanel, Billy Crudup, Kate Hudson, Eric Stonestreet, Rainn Wilson and Pauley Perrette. Probably a few others. Patrick Fugit never went much further, and Frances McDormand, Jason Lee and Philip Seymour Hoffman were already big names by this point. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2021, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-multiple-actors-who-eventually-became-famous/939488/45 "2021-04-09T12:28:04Z")
It also featured Marc Maron and Jimmy Fallon ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-multiple-actors-who-eventually-became-famous/939488/46 "2021-04-16T22:44:43Z")
Can’t Hardly Wait Jennifer Love Hewitt Ethan Embry Lauren Ambrose Peter Facinelli Seth Green Freddy Rodríguez Jason Segel Clea DuVall Selma Blair Jenna Elfman (uncredited) ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2021, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-multiple-actors-who-eventually-became-famous/939488/47 "2021-04-17T02:07:04Z")
_Stand By Me_ was, if not their first gig, certainly _a_ big early gig for Wil Wheaton (a year before _TNG_), River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell, Kiefer Sutherland and Casey Siemaszko. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2021, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-multiple-actors-who-eventually-became-famous/939488/48 "2021-04-17T03:28:50Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > _Stand By Me_ was, if not their first gig, certainly _a_ big early gig for Wil Wheaton (a year before _TNG_), River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O’Connell, Kiefer Sutherland and Casey Siemaszko. **Hell Drivers** wasn’t the first screen appearance for Sean Connery before he was James Bond — or for Patrick McGoohan or David McCallum, before they fielded _their_ star-making secret-agent roles — or for William Hartnell before he, too, landed a miniblurb-at-the-top-of-his-wikipedia-page role of his own, as Doctor Who; but that still seems like a heck of a thing. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2021, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-multiple-actors-who-eventually-became-famous/939488/49 "2021-04-17T03:47:25Z")
I thought maybe _Marnie_ was worth bringing up–early appearances by Sean Connery, Tippi Hedren, and Bruce Dern–but as it was preceded by both _The Birds_ and _Dr. No_; I’m not sure Bruce Dern’s breakout performance is enough to get excited about. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2021, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-multiple-actors-who-eventually-became-famous/939488/50 "2021-04-17T11:57:44Z")
The Last Supper is a fairly obscure 90’s movie that I like to recommend to people; it’s about a group of people who gather each week for a spirited political debate over dinner, and end up killing the invitees they don’t approve of. The cast includes roles from Cameron Diaz, Bill Paxton, Courtney Vance, Ron Perlman, and Jason Alexander, among others. > **[The Last Supper (1995 film)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Last_Supper_%281995_film%29&action=edit§ion=2)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > The Last Supper is a 1995 American satirical black comedy film directed by Stacy Title. It stars Cameron Diaz, Ron Eldard, Annabeth Gish, Jonathan Penner and Courtney B. Vance as five liberal graduate school students who invite a string of extreme conservatives to dinner in order to murder them. The film premiered at the 1995 Toronto International Film Festival. > The film centers on five graduate school students in Iowa who live together in a rust... ---
**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 18, 2021, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-multiple-actors-who-eventually-became-famous/939488/51 "2021-04-18T04:20:52Z")
It’s not a movie but _Band of Brothers_ was a 10 episode mini series so it’s not like a long running series. Several had some level of fame before the show. Donnie Wahlberg was known as a singer but only had one other small acting role in _The Sixth Sense._ David Schwimmer was obviously famous. Ron Livingston had starred in _Office Space_ but it was a flop and not yet a cult movie. Scott Grimes had been a working child actor for years. Jimmy Fallon was on SNL but only had a cameo. The rest were pretty new in their careers and mostly unknown. They range from giant movie stars to actors with busy careers in British and American TV. Damien Lewis Michael Fassbender Tom Hardy James McAvoy Andrew Scott Simon Pegg Dominic Cooper Jamie Bamber Neal McDonough Colin Hanks Jason O’Mara Kirk Acevedo Micheal Cudlitz Stephen Graham Richard Speight Eion Bailey Marc Warren Ross McCall Dexter Fletcher [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-had-multiple-actors-who-eventually-became-famous/939488.md?page=2)