# Whoa!, I never knew that actor was in this movie!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 11, 2009, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719 "2009-04-11T02:41:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/81 "2009-04-14T16:16:49Z")
> [@Mahna\_Mahna](#):
>
> …Hard to picture Aragorn as a wheelchair-bound greaseball with a cheesy hispanic accent yelling “I can’t walk, I can’t hump…”. He did it beautifully, though.
How about a hard-ass Navy SEAL instructor wearing really [tight shorts](http://www.hunkdujour.com/blog/gay_blogger/530/viggo_mortensen_2008_01_1.jpg).
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### Author:  [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/82 "2009-04-14T18:47:31Z")
My two favorite examples of this:
_I, Claudius_ features many actors who were already well established in the pantheon of British stage and screen back in the 1970s, but also includes among the dozens of named characters quite a few up-and-comers who have long since become well known to cinema audiences on both sides of the pond. Some of the smaller roles, for example, were cast thus.
[ul]
[li]John Rhys-Davies[/li][li]Charles Kay[/li][li]Kevin McNally[/li][li]Bernard Hill[/li][/ul]
_The Bounty_ is, thus far, the only cinematic treatment of the famous story that comes close to getting the facts right. And it features a boatload of actors who were relatively unknown in 1984.
[ul]
[li]Liam Neeson[/li][li]Daniel Day-Lewis[/li][li]Bernard Hill (again)[/li][li]John Sessions[/li][li]Dexter Fletcher[/li][/ul]
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/83 "2009-04-14T18:57:17Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I, Claudius features many actors who were already well established in the pantheon of British stage and screen back in the 1970s, but also includes among the dozens of named characters quite a few up-and-comers who have long since become well known to cinema audiences on both sides of the pond. Some of the smaller roles, for example, were cast thus.
You forgot **Patrick Stewart**. With Hair!
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### Author:  [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/84 "2009-04-14T19:16:00Z")
Samuel L. Jackson was the guy who held up McDowell’s in **Coming To America** , and was also “Stacks” in **Goodfellas** , who gets whacked by Joe Pesci.
**Fast Times At Ridgemont High** has lots of famous actors in small roles - Forest Whitaker was the star football player Jefferson. “Hey Jefferson - that’s a good looking car!” “Don’t fuck with it.” Spicoli’s stoner buds: Nicholas Cage, Eric Stoltz, Anthony Edwards.
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### Author:  [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/85 "2009-04-14T19:29:38Z")
Nicholas Cage was pretty well-established by the time Peggy Sue got married. But who had ever heard of Joan Allen, Jim Carrey, Sofia Coppola, or Helen Hunt?
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### Author:  [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/86 "2009-04-14T19:31:26Z")
One of the victims in Hostel II was little Dawn Weiner from **Welcome to the Dollhouse**.
Talk about a run of bad luck.
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### Author:  [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/87 "2009-04-14T22:33:28Z")
> [@phreesh](#):
>
> Raiders of the Lost Ark was just on TV and who was that guide at the beginning who didn’t throw the whip back to Indy? Alfred Molina!
Alfred Molina also played the unkempt, wolf-trapping Cezar in _Ladyhawke_.
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### Author:  [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)
#### Post date: [April 14, 2009, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/88 "2009-04-14T23:17:01Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> You forgot **Patrick Stewart**. With Hair!
And Brian Blessed. I’m sorry, that should read **BRIAN BLESSED! HAAAAH!**
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### Author:  [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2009, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/89 "2009-04-15T13:31:49Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> You forgot **Patrick Stewart**. With Hair!
> [@Scissorjack](#):
>
> And Brian Blessed. I’m sorry, that should read **BRIAN BLESSED! HAAAAH!**
No, I didn’t forget either (I’d be deserving of an instant lynching). But the roles of Augustus and Sejanus were both significant, and my post dealt with the supporting players.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2009, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/90 "2009-04-15T13:57:24Z")
I was just reminded of this when I said it in another thread. I loved The Young Ones when they were first broadcast on MTV. Bambi is probably my favorite episode. In the end the boys are up against the posh kids from Footlights College Oxbridge. Three of the posh kids: Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. IMDB confirms that none of them in much of anything before they did that. That episode also had Ben Elton (known more as a writer, Blackadder etc), Tony Robinson, Robbie Coltrane, Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones. Most if not all of them were in the Cambridge Footlights comedy group.
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### Author:  [@Terraplane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terraplane)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2009, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/91 "2009-04-15T14:20:58Z")
If it hadn’t been for IMDB I never would have realized that the guy who played the retarded brother (“Franks and Beans!”) in Something About Mary, W. Earl Brown, was also the guy who played Dan Dority in Deadwood.
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### Author:  [@Promethea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Promethea)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/92 "2009-04-15T14:29:51Z")
> [@Mahna\_Mahna](#):
>
> As far as OMG-I-didn’t-remember-him-in-this-movie, the Viggo Mortensen part in Scarface is the one that stands out for me.
>
> Hard to picture Aragorn as a wheelchair-bound greaseball with a cheesy hispanic accent yelling “I can’t walk, I can’t hump…”. He did it beautifully, though.
Well, the movie is \*Carlito’s Way \* rather than _Scarface_ but I agree with the review - he’s very good in that small role.
Staying with Al Pacino, watching _Sea of Love_ the other year I was pleased to see Samuel L Jackson turn up right at the start as a criminal warned by Al not to fall for a police sting about baseball tickets.
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### Author:  [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/93 "2009-04-15T19:00:11Z")
James Gandolfini was Bear in Get Shorty.
Christopher Guest was also a cop towards the end of Death Wish who gives the gun to the police chief.
Speaking of Spinal Tap alumni: I forget the name, but the bass player was Darcie’s first husband in Married With Children. Fran Drescher was the shrewish record company rep at the beginning of the Spinal Tap tour. Paul Shaeffer was Arnie Fufkin.
But the funniest of all was Liam Neeson in the Patrick Swayze movie where he’s some city cop from the sticks…well, I forget the name of it, but it was by far the funniest I had ever conceived. Liam Neeson, playing some pure-dee backwoods Appalachian hillbilly. I would have paid for the production of the movie myself had I known that it would be him in it!
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### Author:  [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2009, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/94 "2009-04-15T19:09:43Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#):
>
> But the funniest of all was Liam Neeson in the Patrick Swayze movie where he’s some city cop from the sticks…well, I forget the name of it, but it was by far the funniest I had ever conceived. Liam Neeson, playing some pure-dee backwoods Appalachian hillbilly. I would have paid for the production of the movie myself had I known that it would be him in it!
Ah yes, you refer to Patrick Swayze’s magnum opus [_Next of Kin_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097967/). My kin from Kentucky thought that one was a real hoot.
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### Author:  [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2009, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/95 "2009-04-15T19:27:53Z")
> [@Promethea](#):
>
> Staying with Al Pacino, watching _Sea of Love_ the other year I was pleased to see Samuel L Jackson turn up right at the start as a criminal warned by Al not to fall for a police sting about baseball tickets.
[nitpick]Jackson _was_ in the beginning of **Sea of Love** , but he wound up getting arrested. He’s the one walking to the table telling Al Pacino to say the bad news first. The guy who showed up late with his son and got cut loose was someone else.[/nitpick]
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### Author:  [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)
#### Post date: [April 15, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/96 "2009-04-15T19:33:23Z")
> [@Promethea](#):
>
> Well, the movie is \*Carlito’s Way \* rather than _Scarface_ but I agree with the review - he’s very good in that small role.
:smack:
I always get those two mixed up.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2009, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/97 "2009-04-16T05:57:50Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#):
>
> Speaking of Spinal Tap alumni: I forget the name, but the bass player was Darcie’s first husband in Married With Children. Fran Drescher was the shrewish record company rep at the beginning of the Spinal Tap tour. Paul Shaeffer was Arnie Fufkin.
Whoa stop right there. I’m surprised the mob hasn’t shown up yet. The bass player from This is Spinal Tap, Derek Smalls, was played by Harry Shearer (The Simpsons’ Mr Burns, Principal Skinner etc). The husband in Married With Children was David Garrison (I had to look that up, I could picture his face but didn’t remember the name).
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### Author:  [@Promethea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Promethea)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2009, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/98 "2009-04-16T07:21:00Z")
> [@Linty\_Fresh](#):
>
> [nitpick]Jackson _was_ in the beginning of **Sea of Love** , but he wound up getting arrested. He’s the one walking to the table telling Al Pacino to say the bad news first. The guy who showed up late with his son and got cut loose was someone else.[/nitpick]
> [@Mahna\_Mahna](#):
>
> :smack:
>
> I always get those two mixed up.
Well, to be fair it’s not hard to see why - they’re even both directed by Brian de Palma 🙂
In any case, it seems those who live by the sword of pedantry are doomed to die by it. Shows the tricks memory can play!
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### Author:  [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)
#### Post date: [April 16, 2009, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/99 "2009-04-16T07:26:04Z")
> [@Uncle\_Brother\_Walker](#):
>
> I believe Lawrence Fishburne was also one of the thugs in Death Wish ( I )
So is Jeff Goldblum.
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### Author:  [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)
#### Post date: [September 7, 2012, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoa-i-never-knew-that-actor-was-in-this-movie/492719/100 "2012-09-07T17:50:19Z")
I’m bumping this thread because I had two of these “whoa” moments last night while watching _The Fugitive_ (which someone else mentioned upthread re: Joe Pantoliano). It’s been many years since I last watched it.
I was first suprised to see that [Jane Lynch](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0528331/) plays one of Dr. Kimball’s colleagues. She is questioned by the police after Kimball goes on the run, and then she has another significant scene later where she helps Kimball figure out why the one-armed man had been sent after him in the first place.
In a different scene, [Kirsten Nelson](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0625529/) (aka “Chief Vick” in _Psych_) appears briefly as a receptionist or something–I forget because my brain was going “Holy shit, that’s Chief Vick! And she looks so young!”
Fun fact: Jane Lynch appeared in an episode of _Psych_, playing Chief Vick’s sister.
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