Aubrey Plaza, who played his wife on Parks and Rec, seems to be on a similar path. (See her recent starring role in the crime drama Emily the Criminal.)
How about Zendaya? She first became famous in Disney sitcoms like Shake It Up and K.C. Undercover. But then she did a dramatic series, Euphoria, and now she’s making movies like the Spiderman and Dune franchises and The Greatest Showman and Challenger.
Not exactly the case of “sitcom actors becoming famous for dramatic roles”, but there have been quite a few comedians who played straight dramatic parts.
Ed Wynn – the “Perfect Fool”, who voiced The Mad Hatter in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland and was Uncle Albert in Disney’s Maty Poppins played non-comedic dramatic roles in The Diary of Anne Frank and Requiem for a Heavyweight and The Great Man, among others.*
The movie Fail Safe gave us a bunch of comedians and usually comic actors in serious roles, including Walter Matthau, Larry Hagman, Sorrel Booke, and Dom de Luise
Danny Kaye played Jazz musician Red Nichols straight in The Five Pennies
Jackie Gleason plated it mostly straight in Gigot (1962) as mute and mentally challenged man.
Jerry Lewis famous starred in the controversial The Day the Clown Cried, which was never finished and never released (although a copy of what there is has been deposited in the Library of Congress, and got a limited viewing this year.)
*Ed Wynn, by the way, briefly ran a major radio network, Amalgamated Broadcasting System, in 1933. It was a difficult undertaking, and was partially responsible for Wynn’s nervous breakdown.
And completely straight in The Hustler, Requiem For a Heavyweight, and Soldier in the Rain.
To our generation she is known mostly as a sitcom star (and could arguably be credited with creating the modern TV sitcom with Desi). But by the time they created “I Love Lucy” in 1951, she was 40 years old, and had been working in Hollywood for 20 years. She had appeared in more than 80 movies, many in uncredited parts, but by the 40s was getting starring and leading roles, mostly light or comic, opposite big stars like Bob Hope and William Holden.
Before he was a big-name film star, Shia LaBeouf rose to fame as the younger brother on the Disney Channel sitcom Even Stevens.
I’m not sure if you’re talking about Bill Murray, who was a staple on the original Saturday Night Live and traded quips with Chevy Chase and Eddie Murphy. I was surprised that Lost in Translation got an Oscar or something like it. Bill Murray was fine, I guess, but I didn’t think much of the movie at all. But I don’t see much in his resume for Action movies.
For that matter, I don’t see much in Chase’s c.v. for dramatic roles. Eddie Murphy did some action flicks (48 Hours 1 & 2; Beverly Hills Cop 1-4, et cetera) I don’t see drama parts in his history.
I believe Carol Burnett was recognized for her role in Friendly Fire but the latter is a TV Movie and her work is mostly in sketch comedy (The Carol Burnett Show, etc) rather than SitComs.
Or maybe you’re thinking of later SNL cast members?
–G?
I was light-heartedly referring to Robert Downey Jr.
Perhaps more clarity next time?
Some of us got it.
“Man, I don’t drop character ‘til I’m done with the DVD commentary.”
Sarah Jessica Parker started out as one of the leads on the 80s high-school sitcom Square Pegs.
Well, I don’t think he became famous for it, but John Ritter who was known mostly for his slap-stick physical comedy in Three’s Company, turned out an excellent performance in Sling Blade. He returned to TV sitcom in 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Daughter.
I think he would have had many more dramatic roles like that except for his untimely death.
The last line of the post made it extremely clear who was being talked about.