# Seeing famous actors before they were famous **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 13, 2011, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516 "2011-03-13T09:59:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/1 "2011-03-13T09:59:41Z")
I often keep an eye out when watching older movies to see if there are any famous people in early roles. Today, I was watching the Green Mile, and recognized Sam Rockwell as Wild Bill. I used to watch Law and Order: Criminal Intent a lot, and it’s still jarring to see a young Vincent D’Onofrio in Full Metal Jacket. Who else had unnoticed early career roles in big films? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/2 "2011-03-13T11:14:17Z")
My favourite is an unknown actress making a brief appearance in Columbo. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWnYdS_VhY0) ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/3 "2011-03-13T13:35:49Z")
Jeff Goldblum as a street thug in **Death Wish**. He’s billed as Freak #1. ---
**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:** [March 13, 2011, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/4 "2011-03-13T13:35:52Z")
Walter Brennan had bit roles in movies like “The Invisible Man” and “Bride of Frankenstein”. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/5 "2011-03-13T14:17:37Z")
Jack Nicholson in Roger Corman’s LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, as the masochist dental patient. ---
**Author:** ![Obeseus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbce88/32.png) [@Obeseus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Obeseus)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/6 "2011-03-13T14:22:04Z")
Jane Lynch in The Fugitive [http://www.hernameisjanelynch.com/2010/06/06/the-fugitive/](http://www.hernameisjanelynch.com/2010/06/06/the-fugitive/) ---
**Author:** ![Rrose\_Selavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rrose\_Selavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rrose_Selavy)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/7 "2011-03-13T14:33:22Z")
A very young Leonard Nimoy appering in Dragnet 1954 [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2jCs5ZJu8w) ---
**Author:** ![Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harvey_The_Heavy)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/8 "2011-03-13T14:36:19Z")
Just now saw the Three Stooges short with Lucille Ball [Three Little Pigskins (1934)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw8-Icy9Auw) ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/9 "2011-03-13T14:48:14Z")
Charles Buchinsky was Wascylewski, Jack Warden was Tommy Morse, Lee Marvin was Radio Man in You’re in the Navy Now. also interesting on TV, lots of actors showed up in westerns and crime shows in the 50’s, though particularly rich were anthology shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Kraft Television Theater, Playhouse 90, The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone. those are interesting and in current rebroadcast. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/10 "2011-03-13T14:49:30Z")
I spotted George Chakiris, who played Bernardo in _West Side Story_, playing a young dancer in the old Bing Crosby flick _White Christmas_. Hmmm: now I’m wondering if that makes me gay. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/11 "2011-03-13T14:55:42Z")
There is a movie in which Audrey Hepburn plays a girl who lights the leading man’s cigarette at a cafe… I can never remember which movie it was, and whether the leading man was Carey Grant or Jimmy Stewart (or someone else tall dark & handsome). Does anyone know what film it was? ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/12 "2011-03-13T15:05:07Z")
A very young Richard Dreyfus in a 1st season black-and-white ep. of _Bewitched_. It was on while I was at my mom’s place, and while we were talking I looked over at the TV and said to her, “Is that who I think it is?” His hair was dark and slicked back, unlike the curly brown locks he would sport in _Jaws_ and _Close Encounters_. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/13 "2011-03-13T15:13:01Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I spotted George Chakiris, who played Bernardo in _West Side Story_, playing a young dancer in the old Bing Crosby flick _White Christmas_. Hmmm: now I’m wondering if that makes me gay. He’s dead sexy, so…yes, gay but w/ _really good_ taste. For me it was Daniel J. Travanti on an episode of the original Perry Mason show - Perry made him confess right there on the stand! Stunning! Oh, and Yaphet Kotto as an accidental hostage-taker (a soldier at a hospital whose care triggered flashbacks) on the original Hawaii 5-0. He was super skinny, compared to now. ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/14 "2011-03-13T15:59:47Z")
I had never noticed it before, but a VERY young Jake Gyllenhall played Billy Crystal’s son in “City Slickers”. (It was the eyebrows that give him away). ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/15 "2011-03-13T16:06:37Z")
I’ll see your “Sam Rockwell in The Green Mile” and raise you one “Sam Rockwell in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTQO9cfs9uw](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTQO9cfs9uw) ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/16 "2011-03-13T16:17:01Z")
[Bill Paxton in The Terminator.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jmm3pgVDSpQ) ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/17 "2011-03-13T16:30:31Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > There is a movie in which Audrey Hepburn plays a girl who lights the leading man’s cigarette at a cafe… I can never remember which movie it was, and whether the leading man was Carey Grant or Jimmy Stewart (or someone else tall dark & handsome). Does anyone know what film it was? Checking IMDB, she’s credited as cigarette girl in [Laughter In Paradise](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043727/), but neither Carey Grant nor Jimmy Stewart was in it. Also, according to the trivia, she was already a well-known actress at the time, and was offered a main role in the film, but she had other commitments. ---
**Author:** ![Marc\_Xenos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Marc\_Xenos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marc_Xenos)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/18 "2011-03-13T17:52:52Z")
Old Twilight Zone episodes were great for seeing young versions of actors in their prime during the 70’s and 80’s, but even they aren’t around anymore. I mean, it was a shock to see that hottie in a show called the Macahans, Finnoula Flannigan, turn out to be some old bag in later movies. Geez, do **I** look that old??? OMG, I do! ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/19 "2011-03-13T18:13:36Z")
I’ve been re-watching Northern Exposure, and a lot of the guest stars went on to later fame (I’m bad at remembering actor names, so I’ll have to use the names of their later roles) -Spike from Buffy plays a priest in Maggies home town. -Jordan from Scrubs is making a film in Sicily -Teardrop from Winterbone looks about 80 years younger and is a health inspector. -Jack Black is a highschool student (was he already famous in '93? I don’t know). ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516/20 "2011-03-13T18:16:08Z")
Bonanza is great for this game. Charles Bronson played a host of Indians and Spanish men, and DeForest Kelly, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy were all on it pre-Star Trek. I can’t see Ray Liotta wihtout thinking of little Joey Perini from Another World. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seeing-famous-actors-before-they-were-famous/574516.md?page=2)