I can only see Drake as sensitive, paralyzed, suburban Canadian rapper, Jimmy Brooks. Of course, Drake still retains most of those traits.
Wasn’t that The Tim Conway Comedy Hour? <check IMDB> Huh! She must’ve done the same routine on both shows.
To me, Michael Keaton is the obnoxious Presidential aide from All’s Fair, and David Letterman is the mailman from The Starland Vocal Band Show. And, of course, Debra Winger will always be Wonder Girl.
Oh, no way, Philip Seymour Hoffman will always be that worm of a kid in Scent of a Woman.
And Leonardo DiCaprio somehow seems to always remind me of Arnie Grape.
Wait, you thought he was the fifth Doctor? Or the guy who made the hilarious video about trying to sneak into the Doctor Who fiftieth anniversary episode? Or Henry Sharpe on Law And Order UK? I’m sorry, you’re wrong: Peter Davison is Tristan Farnon from All Creatures Great And Small.
I saw Tao of Steve well before Terriers or Gotham but I do believe that I know Donal Logue from Grounded For Life. But I really saw him first as Jimmy the Cab Driver on the MTV spots. That was a fun “Aha” moment when I put that together.
Did that even need saying?
She was smoking hot in The Getaway (the Steve McQueen version). And then she discovered Twinkies.
Bob Odenkirk will always be associated with Mr. Show for me. Whenever I see him wearing a suit as Saul Goodman/Jimmy McGill on Breaking Bad or Better Call Saul (which is to say, in essentially every scene he appears in), I think he’s just one brow-mopping handkerchief away from lapsing into his Senator Tankerbell character.
And Warren Beatty is rich, arrogant, jock Milton Armitage.
Tuesday Weld, of course, is money-obsessed Thalia Menninger. But that is only because her father is 60 years old and has a kidney condition, her mother is not getting any younger, her sister is married to a loafer and her brother is a public charge.
I know Anjelica Huston’s been in tons of important movies and that she and Jack were a big power couple in the day, but to me she’ll always be Morticia Addams and the Grand High Witch!
And Lawrence Fishburne will always be Cowboy Curtis.
(I know he was in Apocalypse Now and Cornbread, Earl and Me but “scrawny kid Larry Fishburne” just isn’t the same)
BTW, while making sure I was remembering the title of Cornbread, Earl and Me correctly I discovered Fishburne is married to Gina Torres. I did not know that.
I first saw Angelina Jolie in Foxfire (1996). I was bowled over by her performance—which was a far cry from her eventual celebrity persona. She began to attract attention with Gia (1998). She became a household word a few years later with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001).
It wasn’t exactly “a” earlier role, but I saw Paul Hogan’s TV series (it was more of a sketch comedy) years before Crocodile Dundee - or before his TV commercials for Australia, for that matter.
I became introduced to Liam Neeson through his role in the 1999 movie “The haunting”. Not sure what his signature film role is, but I also confident that it is not that movie.
I don’t think it’s DARKMAN, but it is for me.
He became a famous name after Schindler’s List and then Rob Roy, I think. I saw him in a bunch of things before then, though, including Krull and Excalibur.
Jim Carrey will always be Fire Marshall Bill to me.
Brent Spiner (Data from ST:TNG) will always be Bob on Night Court.
I know that I saw Neeson earlier in The Mission and The Bounty, but I don’t really recall him from those. Darkman was the first movie of his where I noticed him as an individual, rather than as one of a company.
Archie Panjabi, who plays Kalinda on The Good Wife also played Sam Taylor’s girlfriend, Maya, on Life on Mars in a couple of episodes… She’ll always be Maya to me - especially with her on again/off again American accent on TGW!
Teri Hatcher will always be Katherine “Kiki” Tango in Tango & Cash, rather than a desperate housewife, or the “They’re real…and they’re spectacular” woman. Of course, I remember her on an episode of Night Court as well, as the one woman that Dan Fielding had to consider off-limits.
Rene Auberjonois will always be Clayton Endicott III on Benson, and no one else.