Actors in small roles before they were famous

Drew Barrymore

Ryan O'Neal on Leave to Beaver. Warren Beatty on The Loves of Dobie Gillis.

Oh Patrick, that was such a chaste kiss, and hair flip- MARY!

A very young Russell Tovey loves Heinz ketchup.

[quote] Russell Tovey loves Heinz ketchup.

It was the shape of the bottle

Swayze looked so queeny in that. And the jingle was terrible.

Stephen Colbert as the gay teacher in Strangers With Candy. Great show.

A very small MTM

James Woods in The Gambler

Ben Whishaw pinging.

R10- He’s not in any way appealing in that commercial but then I never found him appealing.

R11 the ad is stupid

Dark Shadows has SO MANY of these.

See video at link for a Maine accent from Conrad Bain that would embarrass even Murder, She Wrote’s Sheriff Tupper.

More Dark Shadows with Kate Jackson.

The role got bigger with time.

Naomi Watts tampons

Clint Eastwood as a lab tech in "Revenge of the Creature".

John Goodman and his long way up to stardom through a myriad of commercials.

Clint Eastwood looks very handsome at r16 (that hair!), but judging from his performance, it’s a miracle he ever rose above an extra in a teen beach movie.

This commercial features a young, strapping, sexy mustacheless Tom Selleck, whose new soap turns out to be a pussy magnet of the highest order.

You’ll also see Patty Deutsch as the love struck cabbie plus Penny Marshall and Teri Garr as the fawning office girls.

Jodie Foster, age 3.

Ed Harris, hairline already receding, in Coma.

He got hotter as he got older and balder.

Ed Harris was so hot in Sweet Dreams

I recently saw Bradley Cooper in a bit part in an old SATC.

Bradley Cooper was in the audience during an episode of Inside the Actors Studio.

Farrah, in bed with Jean-Paul Belmondo (!) in the 1969 film Love Is a Funny Thing.

Patrick Swayze was a beautiful man.

Bruce Willis as a courtroom extra on Law and Order.

Naomi Watts turned down dinner with Tom Cruise

^because Tom doesn't eat fish and Naomi doesn't fancy salami?

John Ritter as a minister in tennis shorts on Mary Tyler Moore.

Henry Winkler as Rhoda’s date for one of the very best MTM episodes ever.

Emmy/Tony award winner Bryan had an itchy ass

Travolta romping in the gang showers.

John Travolta for Mutual of New York

[quote] He’s not in any way appealing in that commercial but then I never found him appealing.

r11 I'd fuck his brains out.

Aw, I think Ben is cute in that commercial

[quote] I recently saw Bradley Cooper in a bit part in an old SATC.

What's SATC?

(Why do people do this?)

R27, “Law & Order” didn’t air until after “Moonlighting” was canceled and “Die Hard” was a huge hit.

R37, “Sex and the City.”

R32- He was such a young looking yuppie in that commercial- and good looking too

R40. Ah my bad memory! Bruce was a courtroom extra in The Verdict not L&O. Thanks for catching that.

George Clooney on Murder She Wrote

George Clooney as Booker, factory supervisor, in the old Roseanne.

George Clooney in Facts of Life. I forgot what character he played.

He played George!

Madeleine Stowe on Little House!

Sean Penn on Little House

Jesus, John Goodman was one hot good ol’ boy. Totally my type. Before the weight gain.

Ooh, boy, look at the bounce in Patrick’s hair at OP. Love it! I saw some finale dance in Dirty Dancing moves in there, too.

Mistuh Tucci

Who would put Ben Whishaw in an ad for food? Also on the shortlist: Cheno and the Princess of Wales?

A brunette Kim Cattrall on Columbo

Jamie Lee Curtis and Katey Sagal also had early roles on Columbo

Faye

DL fave Donna Mills for Folgers

Tony Curtis in Criss Cross (1949). His entire role was the dance with Yvonne De Carlo.

If you watch Naked City you can see evil Martin Sheen corrupt Peter Fonda (both of them playing teens off the rails), and in other episodes Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman and William Shatner.

^ Christopher Walken and Gene Hackman were on Naked City, too

I've always wanted the Oscars to show clips of the presenters' early, embarrassing roles as they appeared onstage, but no way would anyone allow that.

Pony Soldiers must die

Melora Hardin on Quincy M.E.

Jennifer Aniston in Leprechaun

Idris Elba was on Law & Order as a nightclub manager in "Dawg." He had a few lines and then disappeared.

And Philip Seymour Hoffman had a small role as a defendant on L&O. I don't think he even had a line. He was a defendant, gang rape maybe?, and was acquitted.

Philip Seymour Hoffman was also on Law & Order

Aniston on The Edge...

Courteney Cox in Springsteen's Dancing in the Dark video

Yes Philip has some lines in L&O: The Violence of Summer

Cate Blanchett advertising Australia's national biscuit (cookie).

NYPD episode 1968 Deadly Circle of Violence has Al Pacino and Jill Clayburgh.

Judy Davis in High Rolling (1977).

Sandy Dennis in Naked City.

Dawson in Dawson's Two Day Load

[quote]Bradley Cooper was in the audience during an episode of Inside the Actors Studio.

It was Robert De Niro's in the late '90s.

Then 13 years later, they starred in David O. Russell's SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK for which both were Oscar-nominated.

Cynthia Nixon as a maid in Amadeus.

That one reminds me--Marion Ross from Happy Days is the maid in the Coward/Bacall/Colbert "Blithe Spirit" that is on YouTube.

r55 Tony Curtis meh looks like Tony Curtis. But Yvonne de Carlo looks nothing like Lily!

Sylvester Stallone in Kitty and Stu’s Private Party

“I FUCKED YVONNE DE CARLO!”

Wesley Snipes uttering the ultimate invective, “You polygamous punk!” on All My Children.

R71 Sandy Dennis always seemed mentally challenged or on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

R46 Sean was cast in that episode because his father, Leo Penn, directed it. So old Sean is just as much a nepo baby as his hideous son, Hopper. Somehow that makes him even more insufferable. Fuck that whole family.

Parker Posey toiled for a whopping eight episodes on As the World Turns before her rightful ascension.

Her love interest here, Hutch, looks like a mildly retarded gay porn star.

R82 Parker Posey was on ATWT for over a year. If you're going by IMDB data, it's terribly wrong. She was in far more than 8 episodes.

And also R82? You have the porn star bit right. Lots of guys on that show during that era that all looked a lot like classic 80s gay porn

A shirtless photo of the guy that played Hutch....

Young Elijah Wood was in Paula Abdul’s Forever Your Girl music video back in 1989. You can see him first at 1:45.

Fun song.

Bette for GE

Keanu Reeves was also in one of Paula Abdul's videos. Rush, rush was the song.

How would anyone think Swayze was straight seeing that commercial?

I have no doubt Swazye was mostly straight or bi, but also.....he was no stranger to cock and/or a man's mouth or hole on his cock.

Sounds like you have all bases covered.

Pedro Pascal on Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Who could forget the actor at R84 from his small role in “Steel Magnolias”? Wasn’t he the one that there are gay rumors about because of his track lighting?

R92 Yes, and he looked less special ed in that movie.

If you had track lighting in 1989, it was the same as passing out Polaroids of yourself with a dick in your mouth, r92.

R83, I did go by IMDb. I’ve never seen the show.

But I love Parker Posey. I remember an interview she did where she was asked what she learned from working on a daytime soap. It was clear the interviewer was expecting to hear something about the acting craft or working under time constraints, but she casually answered that she learned nothing, and then corrected herself: she learned how to nap while waiting around to shoot her scenes.

Bette Davis knew her early film work was bad, bad enough for Robert Aldrich to use in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane to illustrate why the titular character bombed when she tried to move from vaudeville to the silver screen. Davis freely gave permission to dredge up her duds to build the story.

"Hutch" was hot!

Ashley Judd on Star Trek: The Next Generation

Brad Pitt on 21 Jump Street

Johnny Depp was on 21 Jump Street, not Brad Pitt. 21 Jump Street propelled Johnny Depp. It was the sine qua non, not like Parker Posey on a soap. Btw, PP sounds dumb saying she learned nothing from doing soaps. Every job teaches tou something if you pay attention.

Brad Pitt guest-starred on a 21 Jump Street episode

Ryan Gosling glowed in a no line role in Remember The Titans.

I won't make this a soap thread but two quick replies.

R95 yeah I wasn't yelling at you or anything, just an FYI that IMDB info on episodes is usually spotty at best and terrible for some of those soap actors. You'll have actors on the show for decades and it says, like, "30 episodes."

R97 yeah he was. The head writer and producer were gay men and there was a stretch where all the actors looked like extras on a William Higgins/Matt Sterling film.

A few hotties but the template was this guy, Jon Hensley, who played "Holden" on the same show that Parker Posey was on.....he looked a bit like Lex Baldwin the porn star, and basically stood around in tight jeans and stared hotly at other actors/actresses.

R85 Jfc! Did they ALL have stage parents or what??

Donald Glover in 30 Rock.

Richard Dreyfuss in The Graduate

Nothing goes better with disco dancing than mugs of draft Pabst Blue Ribbon. She bitch would be hurling vomit spinning around on the dance floor after chugging brews.

RICHARD DREYFUSS 1967 Valley of the Dolls

Megan Mullally serves John Goodman a 99 cent Egg McMuffin.

Joanne Woodward on Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Long before Sex in the City ...

Matt LeBlanc hawking Cherry 7-Up.

Angela Bassett on Thirtysomething (1989)

Brad Pitt in thirtysomething

Nicole Kidman in Bop Girl music video.

Virginia Madsen in Cher's "I Found Someone" video

Brittany Murphy twix commercial

Miss Angie Dickinson for Halo Shampoo

Carol Lynley for Halo Shampoo

Ruta in Witness...

Jack Nicholson in the original Little Shop of Horrors.

John Goodman as Ed Harris's buddy in Sweet Dreams.

Bening in Postcards From the Edge

Laura Dern in Foxes as the girl who crashes Jodie Fosters party.

Patrick Swayze looks like Prince Charming in Shrek 2.

Robert Duvall, Robert Redford, and Burt Reynolds all had early roles other Twilight Zone

Oops, that should say "on The Twilight Zone"

John Lithgow in All That Jazz.

M

Chadwick Boseman and Jennifer Lawrence on Cold Case

Mrs. Hanks

Gene Wilder's memorable bit part in the seminal classic BONNIE AND CLYDE.

One year later, he hit it really big with THE PRODUCERS, which earned him an Oscar nomination.

Not bad for your first and second films.

Marilyn Monroe in All About Eve

Who in the television audience watching Angie would have guessed that Halo Hussy was just months away from giving the president of the US the best 30 seconds ride of his life.

Van Johnson as a chorus boy in Too Many Girls

Quentin Tarantino in The Golden Girls

Joan Rivers being tempted by a slab of middle-aged sex in the form of a wet Burt Lancaster.

Fran Drescher in Saturday Night Fever.

Naomi Watts in Flirting

FYI that's not Naomi in the clip.

Naomi in Brides of Christ.

Naomi also had small roles in Matinee and Wide Sargasso Sea

Corrected clip

Nicole Kidman in Dead Calm.

Nicole Kidman was the female lead in Dead Calm, not a bit part.

Richard Chamberlain had early guest spots on Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Bourbon Street Beat

R144 - Hollywood doesn't consider a leading role in an Australian film as making an actor famous.

'Tippi' Hedren

Farrah for Ultra-Brite

Farrah for Cougars

Farrah and Tom Selleck for Dubonnet

Daniel J. Travanti for Allstate

Bryan Cranston is here to talk to you about hemorrhoids!

Cameron Diaz for Coca-Cola

Pedro Pascal's 10 second appearance in ADJUSTMENT BUREAU seating future co-star (The Great Wall) Matt Damon:

Greta Garbo commercial

Russell Crowe on Neighbors.

DL fave Susan Dey for Cover Girl

Cybill Shepherd for Cover Girl

^ Oops, that's for Noxzema, not Cover Girl

Susan Blakely for Cover Girl

Sharon Stone for Finesse

Sharon in Stardust Memories

Patricia Arquette in Nightmare on Elm Street 3

Susan Blakely seems like an actress who should have had a bigger career.

Patty Arquette was kind of the lead in Nightmare on Elm Street 3.

Patrick Swayze had such an arresting gaze when he looked at his dance partners.

Teri Garr in Star Trek’s Assignment Earth episode (1968).

Sharon Stone on Remington Steele.

SPOILER ALERT: She’s the killer, despite having very minimal screen time before being unmasked as the deranged culprit.

Robert Osborne was already well known but I can't believe he did this commercial.

Joanne Woodward (before she did Hitchcock) did a couple of Four Star Theater anthology shows co-starring Dick Powell. Age difference but they were good together.

John Forsythe on Lights Out and Alfred Hitchcock Presents

Robert Osborne in The Beverly Hillbillies pilot

^ “Another five minutes and that whole darn prison woulda been empty!”

Warren Beatty on One Step Beyond

Kent McCord (ADAM 12) on THE ADVENTURES OF OZZIE AND HARRIET).

Robert Redford was on a Route 66 episode, I think. His hair was colored dark, he was playing some ethnic character.

A bit on Robert Redford on Route 66.

I wonder what George Maharis thought of him.

Kent McCord was beautiful ! 😭

Ricky Nelson’s forearms here are hyper-hairy and hot as fuck.

Jamie Lee Curtis with the nub in Blue Steel

R178, Ricky Nelson WAS HAF!!!

Ricky and Kent were real life friends which is how he got on the show.

And they stayed friends!

Future actors union president Ken Howard with Liza in Tell Me You Love Me, June Moon.

He was lanky and sexy. Morphed into a hot daddy.

L E G S

Was Liza a mouth-breather? Why was her mouth always hanging open?

By the way, before she was famous, she had a cameo at the end of In The Good Old Summertime.

R183 That scene was at Hammond Castle, Gloucester, MA.

BTW, Hammond Castle was built by a 'mo

Suzanne Pleshette on One Step Beyond

Um— there’s Larry Tate AND Dr. Auschlander in that episode! ^^

Gwen Verdon billed as Gwen Verdun in Little Annie Rooney.

Ava Gardner as a salesgirl in Reunion in France

Even before "21 Jump Street" and "Thirtysomething," Brad Pitt appeared in daytime soap opera, Another World.

Julianne Moore in Hand that Rocks the Cradle.

I first remember Julianne Moore from Tales From The Darkside the movie where she played Christian Slater's evil bitch sister who has an unfortunate encounter with a cursed mummy.

Julianne Moore on daytime soap, The Edge of Night, 1984.

(IMDb shows this being her first television role.)

^What is that accent?

Julianne in Tales from the Darkside.

Moldavian, of course!

It sounds Scandinavian.

Michael J Fox had a supporting role on the TV series, Palmerstown.

Michael J Fox in Midnight Madness from 1980.

Barbara Feldon commercial.

John Travolta’s first acting job - a 1972 episode of EMERGENCY where he played Chuck Benson. He’d have been about 18.

R84’s picture is not of the character of Hutch. James Wlcek played one of the Linc Lafertys on As the World Turns.

Judson Mills played Hutch Hutchinson on As the World Turns. Hutch and original recipe Rosanna even had their own country song/love theme.

Parker Posey played Tess Shelby. She tells a story of having to enter down a staircase and then stop so that an earlier scene could be inserted. The director yelled cut and angrily asked her what she was doing/why did she ruin the shot? She drolly replied, “Sorry, I’ve never had a flashback in real life.”

R204 did Travolta get the pleasure of Randolph’s mantooth?

R203. It’s medicated. See, it says so right on the label! Gotta love 60s advertising techniques.

Honestly, check out Broken Hearts Club from like 1999. So many actors who are well known today starred in it - AND played gay. Timothy Olyphant, Zach Braff, Billy Porter. Even Christian Kane was in it - I didn't recognize him until a recent rewatch.

Such a lame movie —no, gracias.

R197 I believe the story Julianne was involved in had her being located in Switzerland, but which of the four languages in the country her accent is supposed to reflect may be part of the problem. Her character's name was "Carmen Engler." Her father's name was "Anton Engler." Maybe she was trying to do some kind of German-French-Italian combo. .. lol

Accent aside, Julianne stands out from the two other bland actresses in the scene.

She was a Moldavian refugee

R18 - Oh, it was no miracle at all that Clint rose to the top.

R19 - Do you think Selleck brought his Safeguard with him to the Continental Baths?

[quote] Sandy Dennis always seemed mentally challenged or on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

My kind of woman!

[quote] Swayze looked so queeny in that.

Oh honey. Have you never seen Skatetown, USA?

Minority (?) opinion: I didn't think Swayze looked queeny in the ad.

Christopher Reeve as "Ben 'Beanie" Harper" on soap, "Love of Life" (1976).

Clip features Tudi Wiggins playing his mother, "Meg Dale" .. chewing the scenery .. I'm surprised Reeve made out of their alive.

Here's another clip of Reeve in a JC Penney commercial, ca. 1974.

Meg Ryan in Rich and Famous.

Barbara Feldon for Revlon.

Meg Ryan toothpaste commercial

Julia Roberts in Satisfaction.

Matt Damon in Mystic Pizza, his first film role.

R218 - I only watched the first few minutes but to be fair, Reeve was wooden as hell and not giving that histrionic actress much to play off of.

BTW, this is the first time I've ever seen "Love of Life" and immediately noticed the opening credit looks like the template for parody spoof opening of Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. I guess Norman Lear was familiar with the show.

Anthony Edwards, Eric Stoltz in Fast Times At Ridgemont High

Robert De Niro’s car ad. He plays a mama’s boy who talk a like a dis

^ “It’s got air conditioning!”

When did air conditioning become standard in a car? Apparently not by 1970.

The Gumm sisters.

R227 - If those Old World Italian stereotypical parent are thinking he's spending too much money on a fancy car, wait until they find out Bobby is a big fan of chocolate. "Mamma Mia! She's ah moulinyan!"

Al Pacino in old episode of NYPD (1968).

Needs dental work.

Gary Sandy, Rue McClanahan, Fannie Flagg, and Candy Darling plus Gil Gerard in the semi-sordid gay bar melodrama Some of My Best Friends Are…

Gary Sandy plays a vicious hustler and is sexy as fuck.

R228 my parents shopped for a new car in the mid-80s. The dealer showed them a car which didn’t have AC or a radio standard. When my mum was surprised at the lack of a radio, he snorted and suggested she could steal one.

My mum is black and was very offended. Naturally, they did not purchase a car from him. Although he took his elderly mother to the doctor and turned a pleasant shade of green when my mother was the doctor in question.

Alan Alda on The Phil Silvers Show in 1958, over 65 years ago.

Antonio Fargas, future Huggy Bear, in Putney Swope from 1969.

Mandy for The Uncola

Mandy for The Uncola

Nancy McKeon on Starsky & Hutch.

Molly Ringwald was on The Facts of Life

Robert Wagner in Titanic from 1953.

Faye Dunaway for THRILL.

Paul Rudd before playing my teenaged boyfriend on "Sisters"

Now who call say no to a big, heaping pile of Brown fried chicken?!

Halle Berry and Leah Remini on the short-lived 1989 show Living Dolls

Here's a good recap from Miami Vice.

A very young Zach Braff in an episode from The Baby-sitter's Club tv show. Interestingly, Mandy Patinkin's wife Kathryn Grody plays his mother, but it wasn't before she became famous, her star making turn as Kate's good friend a jet-setting business woman on Kate and Allie had aired a few years previous.

Sorry, here's Braff

Jack Black appeared in a Pitfall Harry ad for the Atari 2600.

Marilyn in Ladies from the Chorus

Twenty-year-old Carol Kane with Art Garfunkel in Carnal Knowledge.

Dean Cain in THE STONE BOY, directed by his father Christopher Cain.

Gavin MacLeod on The Munsters.

I didn’t recognize him when I recently watched the episode. But the voice did catch my attention.

He was already wearing wigs.

John Hoyt! Old-school eldergay.

There are no small roles.

There are only small actors.

Olivia de Havilland in Orphans of the Storm. She played the Gish girls' grand-mèrer.

Noel Coward had a small part in D. W. Griffith's Hearts Of The World (1917), starring Lillian Gish.

Jeff Goldblum in Death Wish as one of the thugs who murder Charles Bronson's family.

Bonnie Franklin in Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man (1957). The other girl is always identified as Tuesday Weld, but I doubt it. I don't see any resemblance.

Young Tuesday

Looks like her to me.

Pedro Pascal as Dio, a Satan worshiping murder suspect in NYPD Blue

R256 - Which one was Noel?

Another Pedro Pascal role, this one is as Goth Boy in the TV movie Earth vs the Spider from 2001.

Leonard Nimoy on Dragnet 1:45

Gavin Macleod also had roles in the films Compulsion and I Want to Live in the late 50s

R253, he was hardcore prissy gay even in that Munsters scene. I tried to find a video just of the brief scene but can’t. They ran out of the mansion - I believe in fast-motion - when they met Herman or Grandpa.

John Hoyt was kind of dashing.

Gavin MacLeod was an established working actor but not famous when he debuted his infamous Big Chicken character on Hawaii Five-O.

He talked about it at length - with great hilarity - on Gilbert Gottfried’s wonderful podcast.

Soft-core Hawaiian prison porn! Yum^

Suzanne Somers as "The Girl" in American Graffiti. No lines, it was her best performance.

R266 Was he actually gay, though?

Diahann Carroll in Carmen Jones.

R270, yes.

See link. His widow happily confirmed this.

R270 it turns out not to be the case. But he played gay very well. Also, he was great as an alien and as part of the Federation star fleet.

Well, I stand corrected! And I’m the one who made the original assumption upthread.

My gaydar still works ;)

Lynda Carter bustin’ out all over in Nakia.

Robert Forster looks hot as fuck here.

She had already been Miss World USA

Well that's good to know, because he seemed gay as a goose.

George Chakiris was a chorus dancer in the '50s, he was one of 4 dancers w/ Rosemary Clooney in her big number in White Christmas, he also can be seen in Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend, from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, w/ Marilyn.

Ali MacGraw for the Polaroid Swinger camera.

[quote]George Chakiris was a chorus dancer in the '50s, he was one of 4 dancers w/ Rosemary Clooney in her big number in White Christmas,

He is also in two places at once in the movie. He's in NYC performing with Rosie but is also back at the Pine Tree Inn rehearsing with Vera Ellen.

R279. I don’t care what anyone says about her acting.

As a young gayling, I dreamed of Harvard and falling in love with Jennifer Cavalleri!

Massacre at Central High had quite a few actors who were prolific in the 70s and 80s (Andrew Stevens, Derrel Maury, Robert Carradine, Kimberly Beck), but in smaller roles in the film there was Lani O’Grady (Eight is Enough) and Steve Bond (General Hospital).

Patty Duke in The Goddess.

Clint Walker in [bold]Jungle Gents[/bold] (1954)

Bob Fosse in Kiss Me Kate

A dick, dick, hardy dick…

They don’t write lyrics like they used to…

harry* dick

Thelma Ritter in Miracle on 34th Street.

R286 Freudian slip

Not exactly a role, but Colin Farrell had a gig line dancing 30 years ago.

You can see him quite well at about :33.

Natalie Wood in Happy Land, her first screen appearance (she was a blonde as a kid, and is hardly seen). Filmed in Sebastopol, in Sonoma County, CA - Natalie's home town.

June Allyson in All Girl Revue.