# Who are the best/your favorite non-actor actors? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, movies\ **Created:** [November 16, 2024, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325 "2024-11-16T18:23:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/1 "2024-11-16T18:23:43Z")
I mean people who started in another field and then drifted into acting, like [Dave Bautista](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Bautista), who took the same path as The Rock in jumping from pro wrestling to movies. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/2 "2024-11-16T19:00:20Z")
Time was, there were a lot of working cowboys who’d come to work as extras and horse-breakers, and then start filling roles. A lot of favorites among them. ---
**Author:** ![iamatractorboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iamatractorboy/32/21261_2.png) [@iamatractorboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamatractorboy)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/3 "2024-11-16T19:24:42Z")
I suspect Sean Connery might be cheating…? ---
**Author:** ![SwissMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@SwissMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SwissMan)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/4 "2024-11-16T19:55:32Z")
Danny Trejo is probably a good answer for this question. Danny was a former gangbanger in L.A. who did time at San Quentin and Soledad. While in solitary after a prison riot, he realized that he needed to turn his life around. He got sober and stayed on the straight path after he was paroled. In the mid-80s, he was giving a testimonial at a meeting and another participant, who was an actor, suggested that Trejo should try to work as an extra. Trejo was hired to work on the film _Runaway Train_, and was recognized by Edward Bunker, the screenwriter (who had been incarcerated at San Quentin at the same time as Trejo). Bunker hired Trejo to teach Eric Roberts how to box and even got him a small part in the film. This began Trejo’s prolific screen career, which continues to this day. ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/5 "2024-11-16T20:17:40Z")
Burt Mustin, typecast as “the old guy” in numerous movies and television series, started out old. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burt_Mustin) tells us he had previously worked as a civil engineer, a car salesman, and something called a “fiscal agent” before he retired from all that and was cast in his first professional acting role at the age of sixty-seven. (The Wikipedia page also tells us he had done some amateur work earlier in life, so that’s that.) ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/6 "2024-11-16T20:56:47Z")
R Lee Ermey is perhaps the best known quintessence of this concept. He’d dabbled in acting before breaking out in _Full Metal Jacket,_ but he was mostly making a living as a technical advisor to film productions, capitalizing on his genuine background as a drill instructor, before exploding into fame in Kubrick’s film. Later in life, as his career progressed, he did develop into a pretty solid actor, able to transcend the archetype in which he’d been (understandably) typecast. (Check him out in _Dead Man Walking_ to see what he can really do.) Along similar lines, but less well known in the States, is Vinnie Jones. He achieved fame as a professional footballer, the “hard man” on his various teams, the defender of his teammates’ on-field honor. Then Guy Ritchie cast him to play the criminal-underbelly version of that role in _Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels,_ followed by _Snatch,_ and his career began rolling. He’s not as good an actor as Ermey turned out to be — he always basically plays variations on the tough guy, and hasn’t stretched himself much — he does have undeniable presence and screen charisma, and he’s always at least a little bit fun to watch. I’d say he deserves an honorable mention in this general area. But the king of this category — a classic guy whose profession put him around movie sets until he got noticed and graduated to an on screen role — has to be Dennis Farina. He was a Chicago detective, on set for Michael Mann’s _Thief_ as a technical consultant. Mann liked his vibe and gave him a little role. Seven years later, he’s holding his own against Robert De Niro in _Midnight Run._ Farina is so good you forget he just sort of fell into the career; most people who know him as an actor, I wager, are unaware of how he started. (He was smart enough, once he got bit by the bug in _Thief,_ to know he had to prepare himself, so he spent a couple of years doing Chicago theater at night while still drawing a detective’s paycheck, before diving back into film. This work shows.) He also got typecast a lot, but he turned out to be a genuinely gifted actor, able to bring interest and energy and surprise to even the most stock characters he was commonly asked to play. You want the best non-actor actor, he’s at the top of my personal list. Film is better for having had him in it. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/7 "2024-11-16T21:11:56Z")
The first non-actor actor who came to my mind is Steven Van Zandt. Prior to being cast in The Sopranos he was a musician in Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band with no acting experience. ---
**Author:** ![Fortyfold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7c8e57/32.png) [@Fortyfold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fortyfold)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/8 "2024-11-16T21:56:01Z")
George Kennedy was a good example. He started as an army technical advisor for _The Phil Silvers Show_ and got into acting from there. ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/9 "2024-11-16T22:03:55Z")
> [@dirtball](#): > > Burt Mustin, Good choice. I will nominate Harold Russell, who played the serviceman who had hooks for hands in The Best Years of our Lives. He was the first non-professional actor to win an Academy Award for acting ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/10 "2024-11-16T22:07:09Z")
At the same ceremonies, the Academy also gave Russell an Honorary Oscar, for “bringing aid and comfort to disabled veterans through the medium of motion pictures.” (They didn’t expect him to win the competitive Oscar.) ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/11 "2024-11-16T22:32:34Z")
Ben Stein started out as a lawyer and presidential speechwriter (Nixon, then Ford) before a friend-of-a-friend in Hollywood decided his deadpan voice would be perfect for the economics professor in _Ferris Bueller’s Day Off_. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/12 "2024-11-16T22:39:58Z")
SPORTS Belita Jim Brown Wilt Chamberlain Carl Weathers Fred “The Hammer” Williamson PRO WRESTLERS Mike Mazurki Stanislaus Zybszyko - in _Night and the City_ (1950) The Swedish Angel – in _Mighty Joe Young_ (1949) - [https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/721138959075761602/](https://nl.pinterest.com/pin/721138959075761602/) Tor Johnson THE LAW Melvin Belli - Only mentioned for the single scene in _Star Trek: TOS_ where his face melts. Leo Gordon – Armed robber MUSICIANS David Bowie Tom Waits Ringo Starr – as a Mexican gardener in _Candy_ (1968) Taylor Swift – in _Amsterdam_ (2022), most especially the scene where she is run over by a car OTHERS Bolaji Badejo – Graphic designer, outstanding in the title role of _Alien_ (1979), his only feature Joe Dallesandro – JD, nude model and drug addict/street hustler ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/13 "2024-11-16T22:47:34Z")
Can’t forget pro football player and wrestler Alex Karras as Mongo in _Blazing Saddles_. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/14 "2024-11-16T22:51:43Z")
I couldn’t tell you how much acting range he has outside of sitcoms, but I really liked Terry Crews (NFL) in _Everybody Hates Chris_. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/15 "2024-11-16T23:37:06Z")
The guy who played The Cowboy in David Lynch’s _Mulholland Drive_, Monty Montgomery, had no acting experience and he read all of his lines from offscreen cue cards. Yet he owned that performance like nothing I’ve ever seen. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd5HEJdcBwM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd5HEJdcBwM) ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/16 "2024-11-16T23:40:14Z")
Roger Daltrey deserves a mention. My favorite role of his was as host of the short-lived “Extreme History” series. Sadly, except for a few short clips it doesn’t seem to be available anywhere online. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2024, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/17 "2024-11-16T23:59:30Z")
Raoul J. Raoul, the temperamental director who berates Roger at the start of _Who Framed Roger Rabbit_, was played by film producer Joel Silver. As Wikipedia has it: > This was a prank [Steven Spielberg](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Spielberg) and [Robert Zemeckis](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Zemeckis) pulled on then-Disney CEO, [Michael Eisner](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Eisner), as Eisner and Silver had despised each other since their days at [Paramount Pictures](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paramount_Pictures) in the early 1980s, especially with the issues they faced making _[48 Hrs](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/48_Hrs.)_. Silver trimmed his beard off, paid his expenses, and asked to not have his name in initial cast lists. Reportedly, when production wrapped, because Silver was unrecognizable, Eisner questioned who played Raoul and was told it was Silver, at which point, Eisner shrugged and praised his performance. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2024, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/18 "2024-11-17T00:25:07Z")
William Obanhein. He was a cop in Stockbridge, MA who at one point arrested someone for littering. That was Arlo Guthrie, who turned the incident into the epic song “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree.” He mentioned Obanhein as “Officer Obie.” When they made a movie of the song, Obanhein decided to play himself. He was excellent. After the movie was done, he went back to policing and did not act again. However, like many Stockbridge residents, he posed for Norman Rockwell and appeared in a few of his artworks. ---
**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:** [November 17, 2024, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/19 "2024-11-17T00:26:35Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Can’t forget pro football player and wrestler Alex Karras as Mongo in _Blazing Saddles_. Karras are previously appeared in _Paper Lion_ as himself. He later starred in a sitcom. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2024, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325/20 "2024-11-17T00:43:31Z")
Sharlto Copley was doing visual effects before he starred in _District 9_ (and the short film that preceded it), directed by his friend Neill Blomkamp. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-best-your-favorite-non-actor-actors/1010325.md?page=2)