# When did "behind the scenes" people become famous? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 24, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739 "2015-08-24T16:55:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/41 "2015-08-26T15:31:00Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Sure, he was an actor. But he wasn’t famous as an actor, he was famous as a writer/director/producer/dramatist/whatever-they-called-it-in-1599. People didn’t go to see his plays because he was starring in them, as far as we can tell he played small parts in his own plays. He was known as actor and writer. I think [this summarizes his level very well](http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/04/shakespeares-brilliant-forgotten-acting-career/361093/): > [@](#): > > Supporting actors often played multiple roles in a single performance, while a leading man like Edward Alleyn could expect to deliver more than 4,000 lines of verse each and every week. > > As a matter of reputation, Shakespeare the actor fell somewhere between these poles. While there is no indication that he was ever a box-office draw—that responsibility was left to the clownish antics of Will Kemp and the brooding heroics of Richard Burbage—he was always classed among the principal players of the company that eventually became The King’s Men, so named for their final patron. Apparently, the royal affinity suited Shakespeare, for he was said to favor “kingly parts,” with legend having Hamlet’s father as his farewell role. ---
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/42 "2015-08-26T18:59:51Z")
[Sherwood Schwartz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherwood_Schwartz)was another example of a showrunner/writer/producer getting as well know as his stars. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/43 "2015-08-26T19:16:46Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Stephen J. Cannell had his own theme music; you’d watch the end of an A-TEAM episode, or 21 JUMP STREET, or THE GREATEST AMERICAN HERO, or whatever, and suddenly _there he was,_ typing with gusto before throwing the latest page on the stack. \ Kinda like [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJZCZwVhiY8)? ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2015, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/44 "2015-08-26T22:03:57Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Piss off, I work for Mel Brooks. The year was 1990. I was visiting the Disney-MGM theme park, which was only a year old. I was waiting on line in the hot sun for a park tour bus, and there were video screens on which Mel Brooks was describing the tour we were about to take. There was a teenage couple on line in front of me. The girl said “Who’s Mel Brooks?” Her boyfriend answered, “Don’t you remember? He’s the guy who died last year, who used to do the voice of Bugs Bunny.” She replied, “Ohhhh, yeah. That was so sad.” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/45 "2015-08-27T00:20:31Z")
> [@Cartoonacy](#): > > There was a teenage couple on line in front of me. > > The girl said “Who’s Mel Brooks?” > > Her boyfriend answered, “Don’t you remember? He’s the guy who died last year, who used to do the voice of Bugs Bunny.” > > She replied, “Ohhhh, yeah. That was so sad.” How quickly we forget… ☹ Of course, it helps if you have a three-digit IQ … which they probably did (~100). :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2015, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/46 "2015-08-31T17:42:11Z")
When was the rise of the _auteur_ in film? '60s-'70s or so? ---
**Author:** ![Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disgruntled_Penguin)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2015, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/47 "2015-08-31T18:54:58Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Kind of like inviting Jessica Fletcher to your reception. 😃 Or the Harts inviting you to a party. Someone is going to die. ---
**Author:** ![Sr\_Siete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@Sr\_Siete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sr_Siete)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739/48 "2015-08-31T19:00:01Z")
> [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](#): > > When was the rise of the _auteur_ in film? '60s-'70s or so? There’s always been the occasional director, special effects master or even writer whose name was used as part of the marketing- the D.W Griffiths, the Capras, the movies based off John Steinbeck books… But the, to call it something, the _fetishization_ of the Auteur, when their personal lives and ideas became part of the conversation, _Cahiers du cinema_ style, yeah, that started in the late sixties. And it even reached back to people from previous generations, like John Ford or Orson Welles. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-behind-the-scenes-people-become-famous/728739.md?page=2)