# Unexpected IMDB Discoveries **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 29, 2009, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138 "2009-08-29T06:38:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2009, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/1 "2009-08-29T06:38:24Z")
Yeah, I know it’s been done before… Have you looked up an actor on IMDB and discover he or she played another character you remember, but you’d never connect the two? [Tobin Bell](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0068551/), famous as “Jigsaw” in the Saw series of horror films, was in the straight-to-DVD sequel, Boogieman 2\*. My wife asked me to confirm this, and I discovered that Bell, more than ten years before the first _Saw_ movie, played “The Nordic Man” in the film version of _The Firm_. I was shocked to see this. You? \*: Spoiler below: He played The Red Herring. ---
**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:** [August 29, 2009, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/2 "2009-08-29T11:19:03Z")
Can anyone explain [this](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0934055/)? Charlotte Rae? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/3 "2009-08-30T01:05:41Z")
A couple of years ago, I was looking up a favorite forgotten film of mine, **My Bodyguard**. It’s about a boy who is being bullied (by Matt Dillion, in a fantastic performance) and hires a kid with a reputation of being a psycho to be his bodyguard. I was surprised to discover that the bodyguard was played by Adam Baldwin (of **Firefly**. He was a big guy even when he was 18. I also was surprised to discover that Camille Codori (Jackie Tyler in **Doctor Who** ) had a role in **Nuns on the Run**. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/4 "2009-08-30T01:44:35Z")
I always suspected that Jimmy Buffett played a no-lines agent in **Repo Man** , but when I checked IMDB, I also saw that “Fingers Taylor” (Jimmy’s harmonica ace) also played “Another Blond Agent.” I wonder how they knew the director? ---
**Author:** ![Claire\_Beauchamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@Claire\_Beauchamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claire_Beauchamp)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/5 "2009-08-30T02:58:00Z")
Happens all the time, esp with British actors for some reason. (I watch a lot of PBS/BBC/costume drama kind of stuff, but not exclusively.) Just tonight, for example … Watched _Dangerous Beauty_ on Netflix Instant. I recognized the male lead instantly, but couldn’t place him, even though I saw his name in the opening credits. IMDB to the rescue … Rufus Sewell also played Alexander Hamilton in _John Adams_. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/6 "2009-08-30T03:31:40Z")
> [@Harvey\_The\_Heavy](#): > > Can anyone explain [this](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0934055/)? Charlotte Rae? It’s not THE Charlotte Rae. This one’s a [47-year-old short order cook](http://www.tv.com/cheaters/cindy-duffy-charlotte-rae/episode/813844/recap.html?tag=episode_recap;recap). Someone was a little overzealous in their contributions to IMDB. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/7 "2009-08-30T03:34:22Z")
I’m good with faces, so it happens backwards for me. For example, I noticed that the ignorant red-headed soldier who wipes his ass with Costner’s journal in _Dances with Wolves_ also plays the psycho stalker in _The Bodyguard_. Then I go find their names on IMDb. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/8 "2009-08-30T09:54:00Z")
Somethingawful did a photoshop contest (maybe went gold? I think?) where they photoshopped one character from one movie into another, but it was the same actor. Some of those submissions were really “WTF? Really he was in THAT?” ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/9 "2009-08-30T11:57:49Z")
After seeing Kevin Durand as “Keamy” on _Lost,_ I looked him up on IMDB. The reason I did so is because I wanted to know what his ethnicity was. He looked like he was definitely part-Asian. On his IMDB page I saw that he had played the protagonist’s prison cell-mate in _The Butterfly Effect_, who was explicitly supposed to be Hispanic and who looked COMPLETELY different from Durand’s character on _Lost._ The latter looked like a white European with some Asian blood; the former, like a Mexican of at least 3/4 Mestizo heritage. I was astonished at this seeming racial transformation. I would never, ever, ever have recognized him. Did they change his eyes somehow to make him look more ethnic? [Here](http://www.watchinglost.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/keamy.jpg) is a picture of him - he looks at least partially Asian or Hispanic, right? ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/10 "2009-08-30T12:42:32Z")
I’ll post the one I always do in these threads: In Repo Man, Archie, the punk with the Mohawk who gets blown up by the car, was played by a very young [Miguel Sandoval](http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2271976704/nm0762153). ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/11 "2009-08-30T14:32:20Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > … > [Here](http://www.watchinglost.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/keamy.jpg) is a picture of him - he looks at least partially Asian or Hispanic, right? He looks Eastern European. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/12 "2009-08-30T14:49:34Z")
Realising Elisha Cook Jr was the gunfighter in Shane. I was so thick. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2009, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/13 "2009-08-30T17:07:04Z")
Possibly too subtle/niche for the OP, but… We just started watching [I-Spy](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058816/) starring Bill Cosby and [Robert Culp](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0191685/). Great series, way before its time. Culp was very familiar, so I popped over to IMDB to see what else he’d done. Familiar, OK, familiar, never saw it, OK, waitasecond … _Dr. Wallace Breen_?! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/14 "2009-08-31T14:14:15Z")
Wasn’t Elisha Cook Jr. the gunfighter’s victim in _Shane_? ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/15 "2009-08-31T14:34:57Z")
I found one a while back that surprised me: [Kenneth Colley](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0171829/). I looked him up because he played Admiral Piett, the subject of my favorite sub-plot in **The Empire Strikes Back**. And I saw that, the year before he played Piett, he played Jesus (!) in **Monty Python’s Life of Brian**. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2009, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/16 "2009-08-31T16:29:34Z")
Just this morning, in looking up the details on _Harold and Maude_, which I saw for the first time this weekend, I discovered that (a) the director of _Harold and Maude_ was also the director of _Being There_, one of my favorite movies of all time (I had been pretty sure of this already) and (b) the writer of _Harold and Maude_ was also the writer of _Silver Streak_ and _Nine to Five_, two more of my favorite movies of all time, which led to the real surprise that I had never connected: the same writer wrote _Silver Streak_ and _Nine to Five_! ---
**Author:** ![De\_La\_Rue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@De\_La\_Rue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/De_La_Rue)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/17 "2009-09-01T20:43:49Z")
Kind of similar: I sometimes am looking over an old anthology of sci-fi stories, and find that I suddenly recognize the authors from elsewhere. Like yesterday (which pretty much inspired this post): “Robert Sawyer did the crash-landing-four-armed-alien-with-living-blood-that-displays-the-Pythagorean-theorem-to-communicate story? The same guy who wrote about parallel universe atheist neanderthals? Huh.” Also, Robert Wise directed The Day the Earth Stood Still, West Side Story, and the first Star Trek movie. Which admittedly isn’t implausible, but they are pretty different kinds of films. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/18 "2009-09-01T20:53:42Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > I found one a while back that surprised me: [Kenneth Colley](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0171829/). I looked him up because he played Admiral Piett, the subject of my favorite sub-plot in **The Empire Strikes Back**. And I saw that, the year before he played Piett, he played Jesus (!) in **Monty Python’s Life of Brian**. And Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Admiral Ozzel were played by the [same guy](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0790410/), too. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/19 "2009-09-02T14:24:32Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > And Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Admiral Ozzel were played by the [same guy](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0790410/), too. So, actors who played both Hitler and Jesus were on-screen together as cohorts in **The Empire Strikes Back**? Oh, man, now _that’s_ hilarious… ---
**Author:** ![jk1245](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jk1245](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jk1245)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138/20 "2009-09-02T16:22:46Z")
This is one of my favorite down-time activities. It was IMDB that pointed out that Fred from Roseanne (Jackie’s baby daddy) was also Danny Noonan in _Caddyshack_. You look now and it’s obvious that it’s the same guy, but I never put that together before. Also, Jack Black was in _Dead Man Walking_. He was Sean Penn’s younger brother who came to the jail for a last visit before execution. Guido the killer pimp from _Risky Business_ is Ralphie from _The Sopranos_. That’s another that is obvious when you look now, but I didn’t connect them at first. There’s lots more that I wish I could remember. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unexpected-imdb-discoveries/508138.md?page=2)