# You first knew actor/actress from a role different from one they're widely known in. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 16, 2015, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139 "2015-03-16T19:15:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![smokey78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@smokey78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smokey78)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/21 "2015-03-17T00:06:23Z")
I love Norman Reedus on Walking Dead, but the only time I ever recall seeing him before the show was not Boondock Saints, but a PSA ad with his then girlfriend Helena Christensen with their baby son. I vividly recall it cuz I was like so this was the guy she dated after Michael Hutchence’s death… I first saw Spencer Grammer not on her abcfamily show Greek, but on As The World Turns when she there for half a year. Incidentally, her stint was not popular there and she was on it the same time Jennifer Landon was on (Spencer’s daddy=Kelsey and Jenn’s daddy=Michael) Jennifer won three emmy’s on her yrs on that soap but has been unemployed/never made it to the big leagues of Hollywood. Jennifer’s leading guy on ATWT was played by Jesse Lee Sofer, who I now watch on Chicago PD. I like Jesse a whole lot, but funny how he wanted to leave ATWT cuz he thought movies was such much better, and in the end returned to TV (but luckily, a regular primetime gig) I remember Denise Richards on Teen magazine covers and Cameron Diaz on her Seventeen covers! ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/22 "2015-03-17T00:14:19Z")
One of my favorite movies is My Stepmother is an Alien. So I know Alyson Hannigan from that rather than American Pie or HIMYM. ---
**Author:** ![tenacious\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenacious\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenacious_j)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/23 "2015-03-17T00:17:25Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > Sorry, Donald Falson, you were always “The drummer from Can’t Hardly Wait” to me. Turk came second. Nah, he’s Elton from Clueless! > [@MrDibble](#): > > You joke, but when I first saw _The Princess Bride_, I went “Hey, that’s [Kelly Capwell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Barbara_%28TV_series%29)” … So glad I’m not the only one. I’m still catching people from Santa Barbara and going “wait, where do I know her from?” > [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I first knew Josh Charles from \*Sports Night I actually came out here to mention 2 others from Sports Night, which was a great show- Felicity Huffman, known to most as a Desperate Housewife, and Peter Krause, who nobody in my family seemed to recognize until Parenthood. Almost forgot that I (shouldn’t admit that I) recognized Leo DiCaprio from Growing Pains and George Clooney from the sitcom E/R, when I saw them later in the '90’s. ---
**Author:** ![tenacious\_j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/439d5e/32.png) [@tenacious\_j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tenacious_j)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/24 "2015-03-17T00:31:31Z")
Crap. Murray from Clueless. I seen it a thousand times, and I still make that mistake :o ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/25 "2015-03-17T00:40:01Z")
> [@tim-n-va](#): > > Amy Adams in “Junebug” is close for me but since she was nominated for supporting actress, I’m not sure it counts. I think for a lot of people it was her later roles that she is known for. Even with Junebug she had lots of small prior roles on her IMDB profile. I don’t watch many movies, so to this day, the only thing I’ve ever seen her in is an episode of _Smallville_, where she had a slight eating disorder. She ate her classmates. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/26 "2015-03-17T00:48:07Z")
“Turk” is that guy from Clueless. Josh Charles is Bryan the Weiner Man from _Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead_ ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/27 "2015-03-17T00:49:06Z")
To me, Michael Richards is first and foremost Stanley Spadowski from _UHF_. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/28 "2015-03-17T00:54:28Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > I first knew Josh Charles from \*Sports Night \*where he was the nerdy second banana of the sportscasting team who never got the girl. Then I see him on _The Good Wife_, where he’s supposed to be the hot, powerful, sexy Will Gardner? Um…I don’t think so. I never believed him in that role. Never got the girl? Dan charmed the ravishing Rebecca (Teri Polo) and may or may not had a fling with the not-so-shabby Bobby Bernstein (Lisa Edelstein.) Compared to Casey and his timid approach to the romantically challenged Dana, Dan was a stud. ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/29 "2015-03-17T00:59:46Z")
Another one for Hugh Laurie - first I saw _Fry and Laurie_, then _Blackadder_, and then _Jeeves and Wooster_. Watching _House_ is actually really weird for me, just because my brain keeps telling me the genius with the stubble is supposed to be a moron. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/30 "2015-03-17T01:12:00Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > I think you mis-remembering Sports Night. > > He was Dan Rydell. He was the cool and charming one. It was Casey that was nerdy. No, Casey was the cute one who got the girls in spite of himself. Dan THOUGHT he was the lady-killer but he was not. That’s the way I remember it anyway. Just binge-watched the whole series about a month ago. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/31 "2015-03-17T01:54:30Z")
When I was a kid at our house Bob Denver was far more known as Maynard G. Krebs than he was as Gilligan. I’m aging myself.☹ > [@running\_coach](#): > > Leslie Nielsen. I was first aware of him in _Airplane!_ and the _Naked Gun_ series. It was only much later I saw his earlier dramatic work. If you only knew him from Airplane and Naked Gun, then it had to be difficult to watch his earlier dramatic work later. Even though I know it’s serious I keep waiting for the captain of the Poseidon to fart or wisecrack! ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/32 "2015-03-17T02:17:11Z")
I watched Hugo Weaving as a drag queen in _The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert_ years before he was Agent Smith or Elrond. ---
**Author:** ![Wolf333](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf333/32/3460_2.png) [@Wolf333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolf333)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/33 "2015-03-17T02:34:03Z")
I first saw Nathan Fillion as the first Private Ryan in _Saving Private Ryan_, and as Bill Pardy in _Slither_. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/34 "2015-03-17T02:43:02Z")
When [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcU4t6zRAKg) (“the front fell off.”) went viral a few years ago, I thought “oh, that’s John Clarke from _The Games_,” (in which he played a character named “John Clarke”). ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/35 "2015-03-17T02:50:00Z")
My favorite one is Kyle Maclachlan. To so many people (when he showed up on HIMYM) he was “that guy from Sex and The City” but a lot of us got to know him as Coop from Twin Peaks. Jane Krakowski pops up from time to time and a lot of people just know her from 30 Rock, but for me she’ll always be from Ally McBeal. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/36 "2015-03-17T03:05:41Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > To me, Michael Richards is first and foremost Stanley Spadowski from _UHF_. To me, Michael Richards is first and foremost the guy on the skit show **Fridays** who got pissed off at Andy Kaufman for intentionally blowing a skit and then getting into a fist fight with him. (Yes, I know it was all staged. At the time, I didn’t know.) [QUOTE=Wolf333] I first saw Nathan Fillion as the first Private Ryan in Saving Private Ryan, and as Bill Pardy in Slither. [/QUOTE] And to me, he’ll always be the first adult (well young adult) Joey Buchanan from **One Life to Live** , son of longtime heroine Vicki Lord Buchanan. (Viki’s arch-enemy Dorian seduced Joey just to spite Viki.) When I was a young lad, my parents took me and a few of the sibs to see a “grown up” movie - **Death on the Nile** , adapted from the Agatha Christie whodunit. Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury, Mia Farrow and Olivia Hussey were all suspects. David Niven was the sidekick to the detective Hercule Poirot. And I associate them all with this film before anything else. (And my second Bette Davis film was Disney’s **Return from Witch Mountain** ) ---
**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:** [March 17, 2015, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/37 "2015-03-17T03:32:35Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > My favorite one is Kyle Maclachlan. To so many people (when he showed up on HIMYM) he was “that guy from Sex and The City” but a lot of us got to know him as Coop from Twin Peaks. To me, Maclachlan is Paul Atreides. ---
**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:** [March 17, 2015, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/38 "2015-03-17T03:34:11Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Jane Krakowski pops up from time to time and a lot of people just know her from 30 Rock, but for me she’ll always be from Ally McBeal. I know her FROM 30 Rock, but I think her performance as Jacqueline Voorhees in “The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” has replaced the former. Which is weird, since they’re awfully close to the same character. ---
**Author:** ![Fubaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@Fubaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fubaya)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/39 "2015-03-17T03:48:34Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Jane Krakowski pops up from time to time and a lot of people just know her from 30 Rock, but for me she’ll always be from Ally McBeal. To me, she’ll always be the “Yeah but daddy says I’m the best” girl in National Lampoon’s Vacation. Not that I was a fan of her for her two lines back then, but when I first saw her on 30 Rock, she looked so familiar that I had to look her up. Afterwards, it kept blowing my mind that she was the girl with that iconic line years ago because a) that’s cool and b) of course she is, she still looks exactly like that girl. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139/40 "2015-03-17T03:48:59Z")
I probably first saw both Benedict Cumberbatch and Robert Carlyle in a British series called _The Last Enemy._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-first-knew-actor-actress-from-a-role-different-from-one-theyre-widely-known-in/715139.md?page=3)