# Oh that's who that was?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 6, 2025, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935 "2025-05-06T00:12:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2025, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/101 "2025-05-26T17:48:01Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#): > > Giancarlo Esposito is a real chameleon of an actor. I recently watched Homicide: Life on the Streets for the first time, and it took me a bit to realize that it was Giancarlo Esposito playing the son of Lt. Al Giardello. He was much younger then, and seemed much less physically imposing. The cheezy moustache didn’t help. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2025, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/102 "2025-05-26T19:11:40Z")
For me, it’s Aaron Taylor-Johnson. I understand that in theory, the guys from _Kick-Ass, Godzilla, Age of Ultron_ and _Bullet Train_ are all the same actor, but looking at their faces, I’m just not buying it. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/103 "2025-05-27T05:33:14Z")
That guy is a proper chameleon. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/104 "2025-05-27T19:03:51Z")
Just watched _Escape From Alcatraz_ and recognised one of the actors from somewhere but just couldn’t place him (no, not Clint). So on to IMDB I go… the character was ‘Butts’, Clint’s next door neighbour. Turns out it is actor Larry Hankin and I recognised him as the doughnut eating cop on the phone to Kevin’s mum in _Home Alone_. What I didn’t know/recognise him from was he was also Old Joe of scrapyard fame from _Breaking Bad_! Oh and I also recognised the actor playing ‘Doc’, although a few seconds’ brain searching and I cracked that one… I didn’t know the actor’s name (Roberts Blossom), but I could place him; another _Home Alone_ favourite, this time playing old man Marley, he of the notorious salt shovel. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/105 "2025-05-27T19:24:12Z")
And I was surprised that the warden was Longshanks himself from _Braveheart._ ---
**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:** [May 27, 2025, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/106 "2025-05-27T19:25:58Z")
> [@iamatractorboy](#): > > Just watched _Escape From Alcatraz_ and recognised one of the actors from somewhere but just couldn’t place him (no, not Clint). So on to IMDB I go… the character was ‘Butts’, Clint’s next door neighbour. Turns out it is actor Larry Hankin and I recognised him as the doughnut eating cop on the phone to Kevin’s mum in _Home Alone_. What I didn’t know/recognise him from was he was also Old Joe of scrapyard fame from _Breaking Bad_! He’ll always be “The guy who made Peg Bundy’s couch” to me. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/107 "2025-07-05T16:50:04Z")
Just had another one and it even was a Marvel related one again. I had no idea that was Sacha Baron Cohen playing Mephisto in Ironheart . ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2025, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/108 "2025-07-05T18:10:27Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I understand that in theory, the guys from _Kick-Ass, Godzilla, Age of Ultron_ and _Bullet Train_ are all the same actor, but looking at their faces, I’m just not buying it. I watched _Nosferatu_ the other day, so there’s another movie to add to the list of movies where I don’t recognize him. ---
**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:** [July 5, 2025, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/109 "2025-07-05T22:16:44Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > > [@Alessan](#): > > > > I understand that in theory, the guys from _Kick-Ass, Godzilla, Age of Ultron_ and _Bullet Train_ are all the same actor, but looking at their faces, I’m just not buying it. > > I watched _Nosferatu_ the other day, so there’s another movie to add to the list of movies where I don’t recognize him. And I always forget he’s English until I hear him talking as himself. ---
**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:** [July 18, 2025, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/110 "2025-07-18T01:11:18Z")
Maybe not 100% what the OP is looking for, but I’m doing a rewatch of _The Sopranos_, and in one episode, AJ and his friends break into their school to go swimming. It develops into vandalism when they smash the glass in the trophy case and throw a desk into the pool. One of AJ’s friends is played by a teenage Lady Gaga. [![](https://townsquare.media/site/942/files/2024/05/attachment-lady-gaga-soprano.jpg?w=1200&q=75&format=natural) ](https://townsquare.media/site/942/files/2024/05/attachment-lady-gaga-soprano.jpg?w=1200&q=75&format=natural) ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/111 "2025-07-31T23:18:12Z")
I recently looked up Esposito’s movie appearances. One I didn’t remember was “Taps”, starring Timothy Hutton, George C. Scott, and a young Sean Penn and Tom Cruise. He was the cadet who tried to fire up the gas/oil generator after the power was cut off. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2025, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/112 "2025-07-31T23:23:55Z")
I was watching a repeat of “Adam-12” the other night, and did a double-take when I saw that an actor playing a small role as a motorcycle gang member was Mickey Dolenz (of the Monkees). He fit right in. What I didn’t realize till later was the the motorcycle gang leader was Edd Byrnes (Kookie from “77 Sunset Strip:”). ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/113 "2025-08-05T05:08:05Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I understand that in theory, the guys from _Kick-Ass, Godzilla, Age of Ultron_ and _Bullet Train_ are all the same actor, but looking at their faces, I’m just not buying it You might also add young John Lennon in the biopic _Nowhere Boy._ ---
**Author:** ![peccavi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peccavi/32/388_2.png) [@peccavi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peccavi)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/114 "2025-08-05T15:29:19Z")
I did not recognize this actor in _She Rides Shotgun_: [![](https://static1.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/she-rides-shotgun-11.jpg) ](https://static1.cbrimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/she-rides-shotgun-11.jpg) As this actor in _Rocketman_: [![](https://d26oc3sg82pgk3.cloudfront.net/files/media/edit/image/35632/large_thumb%401x.jpg) ](https://d26oc3sg82pgk3.cloudfront.net/files/media/edit/image/35632/large_thumb%401x.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2025, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/115 "2025-08-05T22:01:53Z")
Along the same lines, I had no idea the actor who played Greg Hunt in _The White Lotus_ was the same guy who played Uncle Rico in _Napoleon Dynamite_ ([Jon Gries](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0340973/)). He looked totally different with hair. (Did he wear a wig in Napoleon Dynamite? It seems like if he’s bald now he would have been at least partly balding then.) ---
**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:** [August 5, 2025, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/116 "2025-08-05T22:59:50Z")
He also has a bit part in the first _Men In Black_ as the van driver at the very beginning of the movie who is stopped by border patrol before Tommy Lee Jones and his partner intervene. ETA: I just did a rewatch of _Kindergarten Cop_, and Angela Bassett plays a stewardess towards the beginning of the film. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/117 "2025-08-06T11:18:10Z")
While rummaging through IMDB looking for something else, I noticed that a well-known actor had _Band of Brothers_ in his credits. So I went to the BoB listing and learned (it’s been a while since I had watched the series) that small parts had been played by the likes of Michael Fassbender, Simon Pegg, James McAvoy, Jimmy Fallon and even Tom Hardy. Now I’m watching the show again mostly to catch these folks, largely before they were famous. ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/118 "2025-08-06T13:53:48Z")
We’ve been watching old movies from the 60s lately. We watched Please Don’t Eat the Daisies with Doris Day and David Niven. In one scene, they’re in a restaurant. The waiter is Uncle Leo (Seinfeld). No, he didn’t say, “Jerrrrry!”. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2025, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/119 "2025-08-06T17:16:35Z")
Circa 2011, I watched _If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium_, a 60s madcap ensemble comedy, on my mother’s recommendation. Not long after, I watched the 4th _Pirates of the Caribbean_. Shamefully unfamiliar with his work in the intervening 42 years, it took me the whole second movie to realize this handsome fellow from the first movie: [![](https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/zyplionok/2437295/34972/34972_original.jpg) ](https://ic.pics.livejournal.com/zyplionok/2437295/34972/34972_original.jpg) played Blackbeard: [![](https://www.thepopverse.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.thepopverse.com%2Fmedia%2Fian-mcshane-in-pirates-of-the-caribbean-on-stranger-tides-qtuka5udup2fjo00k5xnfocp0y.jpg&w=1280&q=75) ](https://www.thepopverse.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.thepopverse.com%2Fmedia%2Fian-mcshane-in-pirates-of-the-caribbean-on-stranger-tides-qtuka5udup2fjo00k5xnfocp0y.jpg&w=1280&q=75) ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935/120 "2025-08-07T04:43:51Z")
Ian McShane was a tour de force in Deadwood. Worth a look if you have HBO Max. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-thats-who-that-was/1017935.md?page=7)