Tom Hanks, going the opposite direction, to the point EW said,“We miss the funny Tom Hanks.”
Well, theElephant Man DID have a part in that movie From Hell, under the pseudonym Anthony Parker
William Shatner was trained as a Shakespearean actor and appeared in dozens of plays in Stratford, Ontario in the early 50’s. He wrote an autobiography and talks about his career (well, duh) extensively.
What is he a villain in? I thought he was from Swingers.
He still is a voice actor. He is in Madagascar 3. With a Russian accent.
Avery Brooks has always focused more on the stage and teaching. He is a tenured professor at Rutgers University.
Peter Berg. Went from TV actor to almost exclusively a film director including big budge films like Hancock and Battleship.
You beat me to it. The scene where he outed himself to his boss Garner is a classic. “You’ve made me so happy!”
Tom Hanks from Bosom Buddies, a show with a goofy premise that turned out to be kind of good, to the superstar he is now (or was recently).
John Travolta, who got his start in Welcome Back, Kotter, and went on to superstardom, too.
I think Sonny and Cher are the poster children for surprising career arcs, he was a truck driver who eventually gets into the music biz like he wants. He does percussion, back up vocals and a gofer for Phil Spector, and brings along the 16 year old he is screwing (Cher). When the Spector “Wall of Sound” loses favor, Sonny and Cher use some elements but have some big hits such as “I Got You Babe”. They even manage to star in an episode of “Man from UNCLE” (also the Sonny penned song “Laugh at Me” becomes of staple of Mott the Hoople.Ian Hunter, the 1970s definition of cool).
When their careers fade in the late 1960s as a film they make is a disaster and psychedelic fans don’t like their “no drugs/un hip image”, they retreat into Las Vegas, build a stage act and after a few years get a TV show (one episode featured both Michael Jackson and Ronald Reagan, neither of whom brought their monkeys). After several years, they break up.
Sonny fades quickly from show business, his few records and a TV show flop. He gets into the restaurant business, has a feud with local politicians and decides to run for mayor of Palm Springs.
He wins, later tries to get the nomination for Republican senate candidate, loses but becomes a genuine U S congressmen. Unfortunately hitting a tree while skiing kills him.
Cher has more success in music and TV, although less in marriage as her wedded bliss to Greg Allman lasts 8 days. Eventually she moves into movies, has a good career in the 1980s and even wins an Oscar (plus is the most memorable things about one Oscar broadcast with an outrageous dress she wore).One woman who works at a cash register at my local grocery store was raving about Cher’s concert last year.
On a lesser extent, gavin MacLeod played a few not very bright hoods on some “Untouchables” episodes. Strictly supporting characters too. After a couple of years on “McHale’s Navy” where his only line each week is a mournful “What are we going to do, Skip”? He manages to get a role on one of the best, and most popular sitcoms of the 1970s “Mary Tyler Moore”. He then gets a job as the captain of “The Love Boat”, which if people had any taste would not have gotten out of drydock but instead lasts for 9 years.
He was also pretty good as Buzz Aldrin in the miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon”. He looked seriously crushed when he found out he wasn’t going to be first on the Moon.
One small tweak I would have made, though, would have been to add a scene where he gets a bee in the space capsule with him.
ETA: Hugh Laurie.
Bill Murray, from SNL to film comedies, then to dramas and Oscar nominations.
emcee2k - Hugh Laurie is a great example of someone withmost recently a surprising career arc. Great comedic actor often as an idiotic twit; great dramatic actor as a genius. Hope his fans on this board know he’s doing a (musical) concert tour now. Has an appearance coming up in Milwaukee.
And a successful author. I read his book The Gun Seller and quite enjoyed it.
Vince Vaughn was an extremely good villain in Clay Pigeons, with Joaquin Phoenix and Janeane Garofalo. It’s a good movie too IMO.
And of course he was Norman Bates in the remake of Psycho (which I’ve never seen).
Liam Neeson’s new side career as grizzled action badass is an eyebrow-raiser. Who knew he’d be so suited to the task?
I’ve always been fascinated with Kris Kristofferson’s path - Rhodes scholar, helicopter pilot, taught for a while at West Point, then decided that he wanted to pursue his dream, and moved to Nashville where he worked at Colombia Records as a janitor. One day he rented a copter and landed it unannounced on Johnny Cash’s property to hand deliver a tape of his music. Within a decade he’d be a bona fide movie star.
Let’s get Kris Kristofferson’s career straight. He didn’t teach at West Point. After five years in the army, he was offered the chance to teach at West Point if he stayed in the military, but instead he quit and moved to Nashville:
So his history was approximately like this:
Moved around a lot as a child because his father was in the Air Force.
Honor student and athlete at Pomona College.
Rhodes Scholar, where he began singing and writing songs on the side.
Five years in the army, where he learned to fly helicopters.
Moved to Nashville, where he did various jobs while trying to make it as a singer and songwriter, including working as a janitor, a firefighter, a bartender, and a helicopter pilot for an oil company to transport their workers to and from oil platforms (and, incidentally, consumed a lot of drugs and alcohol around this time).
Finally made enough as a singer and songwriter to give up those jobs.
Began acting, sometimes spending more time on that than on singing.
One new thing I just learned by reading the Wikipedia entry was that his family disowned him when he quit the army. They expected him to go to law school and enter politics eventually. They never got used to him being a singer/songwriter/actor. Here’s another good article about him:
Yep, or rather just a one-liner I remember. Maybe I should’ve added a smilie but I thought as I was using a character’s name it wasn’t required.
Much appreciated, Wendell. His is one unique, amazing story, for sure.
So he was The Soldier who Fell from Grace with his Family, then?