You Saw them Here First: Stars' Obscure Beginnings

[DaveCinzano]

June Brown (Dot Cotton) in Sitting Target:

 

[DaveCinzano]

Steve Coogan and John Thomson in Harry:

 

[DaveCinzano]

Ben Daniels (House Of Cards, Jason Isaacs' co-star in The State Within) in The Paradise Club:

 

[DaveCinzano]

Laurence Kinlan (Elmo in Love/Hate) in Veronica Guerin:

 

[DaveCinzano]

Blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance of Zawe Ashton in 2002's Shooters:

 

[joustmaster]

I've no idea who half the people on this thread are

 

[D'wards]

Mike Baldwin in the Bulldog Breed

 

[DaveCinzano]

I've no idea who half the people on this thread are

My work here is done

 

[The Octagon]

Heather Graham in 1988 Corey Haim / Feldman caper 'License to Drive' (which I recall enjoying as a kid and can only imagine would be painful to rewatch).

Also Seth Green / Alyson Hannigan pre-dating Buffy by a good few years in 'My Stepmother is an Alien' (1988) -

 

[DaveCinzano]

Here's TopCat's favourite bullshitter/plastic gangster/unlicensed bailiff Dave Courtney as a bouncer in The Paradise Club:

 

[Orang Utan]

Transparent's Gaby Hoffman in Uncle Buck:

 

[joustmaster]

My work here is done

Stars' Obscure Beginnings
not
Obscure Stars' Beginnings

 

[Orang Utan]

Quantum Leap's Al (Dean Stockwell) as The Boy With Green Hair:

 

[Santino]

How about 'Films/TV That Some Actors Have Been In'?

 

[DaveCinzano]

Probably best known as Father Phil in The Sopranos, Paul Schulze is not necessarily a household name, but you probably will recognise him. He's notched up appearances as seven separate characters in the Law & Order franchise (six in the regular, one in SVU)!



He's not even the most prolific - I still need to complete my John Doman set (Rawls from The Wire: 11 appearances) and Scott Sowers (also 11).

 

[Orang Utan]

How about 'Films/TV That Some Actors Have Been In'?

There's even a tv programme called Before They Were Famous

 

[Orang Utan]

Law & Order seems to be the US's version of The Bill or Doctors. Anyone who's anyone has been in it.

 

[DaveCinzano]

Law & Order seems to be the US's version of The Bill or Doctors. Anyone who's anyone has been in it.

A fair few nobodies too

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Deforest Kelly in the Lone Ranger

George Takei in Perry Mason

Walter Koenig on Giget:

 

[D'wards]

Oliver Reed in the Bulldog Breed

 

[D'wards]

Michael Caine in the Bulldog Breed

 

[cypher79]

Prince Philip hanging out with his Nazi mates, before he changed his surname and became a member of the British royal family;

 

[albionism]

Gary Oldman's debut as "Coxy" in Mike Leigh's "Meantime".

 

[Yossarian]

Ian McShane and John Hurt making their debuts in The Wild and the Willing:

 

[TheHoodedClaw]

Prince Philip hanging out with his Nazi mates, before he changed his surname and became a member of the British royal family;

Edit: Ach, not worth it

 

[Steel Icarus]

Robert Carlyle and Aiden Gillen in "Safe", a screenplay about homeless young people from 1993.

 

[Orang Utan]

Lena Headey, famous for playing Cersei in Game Of Thrones, in Waterland in 1992:

 

[DaveCinzano]

How about a very young Baldrick being pushed into the Thames by The Duke?

 

[Mrs Miggins]

Not quite on topic but this has reminded me of a play called Saved by Edward Bond that I went to see a few years ago. It's a very stylised and quite challenging piece of theatre and Dennis Waterman was in the original 1965 cast. It's about as far away from Minder as it's possible to get!

 

[Ming]

Here's TopCat's favourite bullshitter/plastic gangster/unlicensed bailiff Dave Courtney as a bouncer in The Paradise Club:

View attachment 113020

I first saw him as Jerry Sadowitz's bouncer on his TV show. So went in to Waterstones in Birkenhead to get his autobiography but couldn't find it on the shelves. The security guard said 'we had to take it off the shelves as everyone was nicking it'.