Nah, I’m lying to impress people on a message board.
I was referring to the fact that people were posting “before they were stars” answers only, and forgetting the “you actually remember seeing” part of the OP. Like this:
But hey - knock yourself out and assume the worst motive from me.
When I first saw “The Love Boat” I recognized Fred Grandy as “That guy from ‘Monster Squad’” (a Saturday morning live action series - Monster Squad - Wikipedia) - really. I loved Monster Squad Monster Squad - Wikipedia
I very clearly remember that. As a kid, I loved The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, and clearly remember the whole plotline that had Eddie coming home with black eyes, etc. always saying “Joey” beat him up. When his father finally called Joey’s father for a face-to-face, Joey and father show up, and Eddie’s father is shocked to find that Joey is (gasp) a girl! Jodie Foster, in short. I’ve had a girl-crush on her ever since then! (And no, it’s not creepy that I had a girl-crush on her when she was so young, because I was a year younger than her!
And Sherry Stringfield (from ER.)
Helen Hunt in “The Quarterback Princess,” and some teen dance movie which also featured a young Sarah Jessica Parker.
Fella named William Allen Young. He’s most famous, I suppose, for being Moesha’s dad, but I saw him in a junior college production of Treasure Island in 1976. He played the doomed sea captain at the Admiral Benbow Inn who received the Black Spot from Blind Pew.
I thought Terri Hatcher was the one that he thought had fake boobs.
Both of those would be great examples of actors I didn’t know the first time I saw the movies but rediscovered years later.
Heh, I can beat that one…I remember Anderson Cooper from a news program called “Channel 1 News” that aired in schools circa 1993 or so. The schools put TVs in every classroom and the news feed came in on a C-band, was taped, and played to the classes at some point during the day. The broadcast was about 15 minutes long and had regular, mainstream commercials (which we kids thought was weird.)
Lisa Ling was a reporter on that program, too, at the same time.
(And yes, I remembered both of them when I saw them again. Same for Tim Robbins–I was too little when Top Gun actually came out, but when “Shawshank” got big, I recognized Andy as Maverick’s replacement RIO. I watched “Top Gun” far too much.)
I posted this and yes, I did see them all. I also remember a very young Helen Hunt as Murray’s daughter on The Marry Tyler Moore Show
I just looked this up on Youtube. He looks strange so slim and with so much hair.
They really make those burgers look great in the commercial.
Yep. And Debra Messing was the racist.
OK then. Like I said, impressive. 
I remember noticing Hugh Grant in the adaptation of EM Forster’s “Maurice” (1987) and after he became mega-famous I realised I’d also seen - but not particularly noticed - him at the Edinburgh Festival in 1985 as part of a troupe called The Jockeys of Norfolk.
That’s what I was thinking. Booker.
I’ve seen a lot of the ones people have posted as re-runs. And there is one that I noticed just recently- Sarah Jessica Parker as the nurse/aide in the ancient Disney movie Flight of the Navigator.
I saw Katherine Heigl in a TV movie before I saw her on Grey’s, and remembered her, but she became really popular very soon after that, so I doubt that it was really that early in her career.
The only one I can think of that I actually remembered watching is Jennifer Garner. I saw her in a Hallmark movie called Rose Hill, somewhere around 1996.
When I was in seventh grade (1991, I think), I caught some virus thing and became the sickest I’ve ever been in my life. Couldn’t keep anything down, that sort of thing. Anyway, I milked this thing as much as I could because…it was seventh grade. I’d have done pretty much anything to get out of that hell. I think I managed about two weeks of quiet alone time outside of school (both my parents worked) before my mom made me go back. It was heaven, aside from the feeling like utter shit thing.
Anyway, during this period, I started watching…oh, geez, All My Children? I think. I’ve never watched daytime soaps since, but I think that was it. I quickly became interested and followed the antics of a wild blond girl named Haley with interest. I thought she was awesome.
Years later, I was channel surfing, and there she was! Hosting some inane morning talk show with Regis Philbin. SRSLY - Kelly Ripa! Seventh grade me had terrible taste.
Oh - that reminds me: I watched Parker in one of her first roles, as a high school student in the under rated “Square Pegs” Square Pegs - Wikipedia
I also remember Kathleen Turner as Nora Dancy and Alec Baldwin as Billy Allison on the soap The Doctors. And Demi Moore as Jackie Templeton and John Stamos as Blackie on General Hospital