One of the cable networks that I get airs episodes of I Love Lucy every afternoon. They recently aired the entire “Hollywood” story arc. One of the first episodes of that arc features the Ricardos and Mertzes driving through Bent Fork, Tennessee, the hometown of Tennessee Ernie Ford (who is supposed to be Lucy’s cousin, on the show).
They stop at a filling station and ask the guy who lives there for directions. This country bumpkin is played by none other than Aaron Spelling, future super producer.
He was in an early episode of Law & Order as a union rabblerouser who was set up for murder. There’s a scene where the police lay out some guns on a table so he can pick which one is his. I just hope someone there shrugged his shoulders and said “revolvers.”
My wife was watching a Bones rerun a few nights ago and there was a blond haired guy that we both recognized but just couldn’t figure out from where. After racking our brains for several minutes, she finally pulled up the guide to get the name of the episode and then hit the internet. Turns out it was Patrick Fabian, probably best known as Howard Hamlin from “Better Call Saul”. I told my wife I was thinking I had seen him before in a military uniform – I should have been thinking expensive lawyer suit!
I recently watched The Lavender Hill Mob (1951). There’s an opening scene where we see the main character living the good life in South America. And part of that is when a young senorita briefly flirts with him. I remember thinking “She looks familiar but I can’t place her.”
I checked afterwards and I was surprised to see it was Audrey Hepburn in one of her first roles.
Giancarlo Esposito is a real chameleon of an actor. Gus Fring in Breaking Bad was the first time I learned who he was. But I later learned that he played Muhammad Ali’s father in the Will Smith biopic. Very different character, in manner and appearance. And he also played Bugs Raplin, the lefty journalist in Bob Roberts. Just as different.
For me, the all-time winner for an actor being unrecognizable is John Ritter in Sling Blade. I saw it in the theater with friends, and I didn’t realize he was even in it until discussing it afterward.
He’s an interesting case. I suppose his first big splash was in Spike Lee’s movies. If you look back at his career he has always worked a lot. It’s been a slow steady rise to where he is now. There are a bunch of roles I’ve forgotten like being Yaphet Kotto’s son on Homicide: Life on the Streets.
He also turned up in The Residence, which was recently discussed briefly but favorably in the “Series You’ve Recently Watched” thread. He was the murder victim. The show is generous with flashbacks, so even though his character is dead in the “present tense” timeline, he gets screen time throughout the series.
