# Movies that made a star of a supporting actor **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 6, 2016, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222 "2016-09-06T20:24:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/21 "2016-09-07T01:12:44Z")
Gary Cooper in the 1927 World War I aviation film “Wings” had a small role that launched his career > **[Wings (1927 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wings_(1927_film))** > > Wings is a 1927 American silent film known for winning the first Academy Award for Best Picture. The film stars Clara Bow, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, and Richard Arlen. Rogers and Arlen portray World War I combat pilots in a romantic rivalry over a woman. It was produced by Lucien Hubbard, directed by William A. Wellman, and released by Paramount Pictures. Gary Cooper appears in a small role, which helped launch his career in Hollywood. > The film, a romantic action-war picture, was rewritten by s... ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/22 "2016-09-07T01:22:59Z")
Kevin Spacey in _The Usual Suspects._ ---
**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:** [September 7, 2016, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/23 "2016-09-07T07:31:08Z")
_The Green Mile_ seemed to really put both Sam Rockwell and Michael Clarke Duncan on the map, so to speak. ETA: and even included Graham Greene. ---
**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:** [September 7, 2016, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/24 "2016-09-07T07:32:33Z")
Nm. Duplicate post ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/25 "2016-09-07T07:40:58Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > The recent one that comes to mind is “No Country For Old Men”, that brought Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem to the attention of the public. In Bardem’s case, of the international public. In Spain he went from being “Pilar Bardem’s youngest boy” to people knowing him by name with Jamón, Jamón. Now many people, including some of my parents’ generation, refer to Pilar as “Javier Bardem’s mother”. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/26 "2016-09-07T10:51:25Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > In Spain he went from being “Pilar Bardem’s youngest boy” to people knowing him by name with Jamón, Jamón. Isn’t that the movie that also put **Penélope Cruz** on the map ? I saw it when it came out in a very small theater with perhaps a 30 persons in attendance. Both actors were completely unknown to me at the time but I made sure to check out their names during the end credits. They only made it big internationally about 10 years later but I immediately recognized them. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/27 "2016-09-07T11:54:38Z")
Sonny Tufts got his first film role in a supporting part in _So Proudly We Hail_. His performance turned him into a star (although it was a short-lived stardom and he eventually became a punchline). Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were supporting players in _Flying Down to Rio_, with little to do with the main plot of the movie. It seemed to work out well for them. ---
**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:** [September 7, 2016, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/28 "2016-09-07T12:04:33Z")
Angelina Jolie in **Girl Interrupted** , which was intended to be a Winona Ryder vehicle. Meryl Streep eclipsed pretty much everybody in **Manhattan**. As Michael Murphy pointed out, “That was the first and last time I got higher billing than Meryl Streep.” Geena Davis had a brief but memorable debut in **Tootsie**. How big a deal was Jodie Foster before **Taxi Driver**? I think she was the Coppertone commercial girl and had some memorable appearances in **Partridge Family** and **Tom Sawyer.** ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/29 "2016-09-07T12:48:13Z")
Christopher Walken in “The Deer Hunter”? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/30 "2016-09-07T12:50:45Z")
Maybe Amy Adams in the indie film “Junebug.” ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/31 "2016-09-07T12:52:41Z")
Jack Palance was nominated for “Best Supporting Actor” three times in his career: in 1952 ( **Sudden Fear** ), 1953 ( **Shane** )…and 1991 ( **City Slickers** , for which he won, arguably on a “career total” basis). In between 1953 and 1991 there was a whole lot of unremarkable (or at least unremarked) work; \*\*City Slickers \*\*catapulted him back into the limelight. While his post-CS work wasn’t exactly remarkable either, he certainly got much better billing after the Oscar win. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/32 "2016-09-07T12:56:45Z")
Sandra Bullock in Speed. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/33 "2016-09-07T12:58:38Z")
> [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](#): > > Isn’t that the movie that also put **Penélope Cruz** on the map ? Yes, but since it happened to be her first you can’t say she went from being “a minor actress” to a big name. She’d only been in several videos for Mecano, the group of her at-the-time boyfriend Nacho Cano\*. IMDB gives a credit from one episode of a French series but I suspect that if she hadn’t made it big her name wouldn’t even be in the lists for the series. - Cano had believed the age she’d given him when they’d met; definitely underdeveloped, but that’s pretty normal for young dancers; kind of on the shy side, but ok, overprotected, whatever. Then he wanted to have her in one of their videos and it turned out she needed parental permission and reduced hours due to her age. Once he recovered from being completely freaked out, they skipped having her on that one, but she did appear in some of their videos once she was old enough to sign her own contracts. He’s not that much older, would have been college age at the time they met, but she’d said 16 and nope. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/34 "2016-09-07T13:13:49Z")
> [@glee](#): > > Sandra Bullock in Speed. Um, she was a lead actor, hardly a supporting role. Was credited third, after Keanu and Dennis Hopper. The first is reasonable, the second is presumably because Hopper was a well known actor. She won several secondary awards for best actress, not best supporting actress. The main movie before this where she was a supporting character and got a lot of notice was _Demolition Man_. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Bullock#1987.E2.80.9399:_Early_career): “Bullock had a prominent supporting role in the science-fiction/action film Demolition Man (1993), followed by a leading role in Speed the following year. Speed took in $350 million at the box office worldwide” ---
**Author:** ![mcgato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac8455/32.png) [@mcgato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcgato)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/35 "2016-09-07T14:33:09Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > The recent one that comes to mind is “No Country For Old Men”, that brought Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem to the attention of the public. Interesting to see that the two shared equal billing on the poster with Tommy Lee Jones and Woody was not mentioned. His role was a much smaller one but he has a lot of drawing power. Speaking of Tommy Lee Jones, I think that ‘The Fugitive’ changed his career. I think he was mostly a supporting actor before that, but it led to a long series of starring roles. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/36 "2016-09-07T15:06:06Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > R Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket I completely agree. He went from total unknown to the de facto movie drill sergeant overnight ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/37 "2016-09-07T17:51:06Z")
In terms of comebacks, you could say Frank Sinatra in “From Here to Eternity”. He had big roles in musicals in the late 1940s in such films as “On the Town”. But his career faded for a few years until his dramatic role in “From Here to Eternity” and also signing with Capitol records. No horse’s heads were involved. Boris Karloff in “Frankenstein” although the Universal monster pictures he subsequently made weren’t big in their time. Like the Three Stooges, TV airings made monster pictures big. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/38 "2016-09-07T17:53:11Z")
John Houseman as the law professor in “The Paper Chase”. He had a whole career afterwards selling wine and stock brokerage firms after decades behind the scenes. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/39 "2016-09-07T17:58:18Z")
> [@xizor](#): > > I completely agree. He went from total unknown to the de facto movie drill sergeant overnight And he was hired as a technical adviser and wasn’t even supposed to be in the movie - the “Git Some!” door gunner was originally cast as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman. ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222/40 "2016-09-07T18:16:33Z")
Olympia Dukakis in “Moonstruck”? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-that-made-a-star-of-a-supporting-actor/765222.md?page=3)