Liam Neeson on “Life’s Too Short” as himself, attempting to break into comedy:
One of the best loved British Sitcoms was Only Fools and Horses. Buster Merryfield who portrayed Uncle Albert worked full time in a high street bank (rising to an area manager) before taking early retirement and becoming a professional actor at the age of 57.
Admittedly he had been involved all his life in amateur acting as a hobby.
TCMF-2L
I think James Caan pulled off some comedic roles like Honeymoon in Vegas.
Since the OP includes “non-actors”, both Dwayne Johnson and John Cena have shown a definite flair for comedy.
Ed Asner acted in mostly serious roles before The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Hip-hop duo Method Man & Redman starred in the stoner comedy How High and had their own short-lived sitcom called Method & Red.
How do we count Dustin Hoffman? His early TV work was all serious roles. Then came The Graduate, which I’d describe as dramatic with comic moments. Then Midnight Cowboy, a purely dramatic role, then Little Big Man, then a whole string of purely dramatic roles, then Tootsie, and on and on.
Analyze This (1999) actually came before Meet the Parents (2000); I think that the former was probably his first real comedic role in a major film.
Chris Hemsworth started out doing dramatic work, including the Australian soap opera Home and Away, Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, and Snow White and the Huntsman.
In more recent work, he’s shown his comedy skills, as Thor was transformed into a much funnier character in later MCU movies (Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Endgame), and in other films, like Ghostbusters.
…and then right back into a serious role playing the same character in the “Lou Grant” spin-off. Btw, not to hijack, but I imagine that’s unusual for a spin-off to be so different in tone and / or genre. I mean, there may have been comedy elements to LG but as I recall it was pretty much a straight-up hour long drama. Hey, that would be a good thread topic- “spin-offs that very different in tone from their source”.
Lloyd Bridges was so gut-bustingly funny in Hot Shots and Hot Shots Part Deux that it made me wish he had done comedy all his life. He was great in Airplane! too.
Hulk Hogan did some comedic roles, too. Like Suburban Commando.
(I didn’t say it was any good. But I do want to see it. The trailer looks funny.)
DiCaprio might count. He was unexpectedly hilarious in the Wolf of Wall St, and Don’t Look Up is mostly a dark comedy, especially his role.
I don’t know about that as a thread - because I’m 99% sure that “Lou Grant” would be the only example.
A recent animated Star Trek spinoff - Lower Decks - would be another good example, as it’s a comedy. But, I agree, it’d be a short list.
Trapper John, M.D. and AfterMASH
Just guessing. Never seen a single episode of either.
I know, that’s why I didn’t go ahead and start a thread right away- I thought it might just be DOA. But then, Dopers will surprise you…
I have no memory of AfterMASH whatsoever, but Trapper John, M.D. is a great example. Similar to the ‘MTM to Lou Grant’ example, a spinoff from an iconic half hour comedy (M*A*S*H did have its serious side, especially as the seasons went on, but still) to an hour long drama.
That does sound like another good example, though I’ve never seen it.
I think I remember watching one episode – it aired during my freshman and sophomore years of college, when I mostly didn’t have a TV set.
From what I recall, it was, broadly, like MASH in tone: comedy, with some drama. Both IMDB and Wikipedia list its genre as “comedy,” and they were 30-minute episodes, which were far more typical of comedies than dramas in the '80s.
Alex Karras. He was a pro football player who first got into films playing himself in Paper Lion*. He then went into full-time acting, and did comic roles and became known by playing Mongo in Blazing Saddles. It ended as a full-time acting career, usually in comedy.
Max Baer** went into acting after leaving the ring, often in comic roles and even had a short-lived short subject series with another ex-boxer, “Slapsie” Maxie Rosenbloom, though Rosenbloom did more drama than comedy.
*Ironically, Karras was under suspension for gambling when Plimpton trained with the Lions, but Plimpton did include some stories about him.
**Father of Jethro Bodine
There is a sort-of sequel book to Paper Lion, which Plimpton wrote several years later, called Mad Ducks and Bears. Karras (with whom Plimpton became good friends) was the “Mad Duck” in the title, and it’s full of stories about Karras being hilarious.