Very often we don’t become familiar with an actor or actress until they become a big name. But once in a while someone will get our attention when they are just starting out, and we get to enjoy the rest of the world discovering how cool this actor is when we have already noticed. For instance, I already loved Teri Hatcher from her minor roles in sitcoms (like Night Court and Seinfeld) and movies (Tango & Cash, Soapdish) before Lois and Clark:The New Adventures of Superman and of course Desperate Housewives finally made her a household name.
Here are five other actors/actress’s who had been around for awhile
before hitting the big time, but I was already a big fan before they
became a household name.
Lauren Graham
Graham is best know for Gilmore Girls and Parenthood, but she was actually around a lot before those two shows. I don’t think there was a sitcom in the 90’s she didn’t make at least one appearance in. Caroline in the City, Seinfeld, NewsRadio, 3rd Rock. She also starred in four awful sitcoms that never went anywhere. I think it was her turn on NewsRadio that I really liked her, even if many many disagree with me, she had a way of being ditzy but still intelligent at the same time. I never watched Gilmore Girls but she was good in Parenthood.
Leah Remini
Most people know Remini from her role in The King of Queens. And maybe her short tenure on that talk show she did. But I have been a fan of her since the late 80’s! Her first big break was on Who’s The Boss? in a role which was designed to be a backdoor pilot of sorts for the new show “Living Dolls”. Yeah Living Dolls was awful and faded fast, but I liked that episode and she really shined in it. After that she appeared in Hogan Family, Saved By The Bell, Blossom, Cheers, Evening Shade, and Friends (where she was going to play Monica at one point). Then she had a role in a sitcom called “Fired Up” which just never took off. Thankfully the next year King of Queens did take off, and she was no longer resigned to the “whatever happened to” category.’
George Clooney
Do I really have to tell you about this guy? I went over this in an article on TV stars who went on to movies but I couldn’t not talk about him here. Clooney was always a goofy guy in the 80’s appearing various sitcoms. He was a regular on an Elliott Gould comedy called E/R. He was a regular on The Facts of Life for years. He was also a regular on Roseanne for the first year or two. He also did an episode of The Golden Girls, in one of the better episodes of that series. He also starred in the badly conceived “Baby Talk”, for about six episodes. He also did an episode of Friends, for some reason. He moved to drama with a short lived showed followed by a stint on Sisters on NBC. He was good too but left that show for another little show called ER. The rest is history. What I love is that Clooney is not a snob, he has a sense of humor and isn’t afraid to go back to his roots.
Ashley Judd
For awhile there Ashely Judd was a huge movie star, and while that fame has died down she is still working with three new movies ready to come out. She also does a lot of producing. But I first loved her in one of her first roles. On a Star Trek:The Next Generation episode called “Darmok” and another called “The Game”. She played Robin Lefler and was so liked she appeared twice! Then she appeared in the same show Clooney did, Sisters, and was pretty awesome there too. After that came Natural Born Killers and, well, you know the rest.
By the way Judd isn’t the only time an actor or actress had an early role on a Trek Show or movie. James Cromwell had an early role in TNG’s “The Hunted”, Kim Darby was in TOS episode “Miri”, a very young Joan Collins appeared in TOS’s “City on the Edge of Forever”, One of Kirsten Dunst’s earliest roles was on a TNG episode called “The Dark Page”, Niki Cox had an early role in a TNG episode called “Pen Pals”, and Star Trek 2-The Wrath of Khan featured the debut of an actress you may have heard of, named Kirstie Alley.
Tom Bergeron
This one is a little more personal than these others. I am sure most people never knew who Tom Bergeron was until he did Hollywood Squares, America’s Funniest Home Videos and then of course Dancing with the Stars. Since then he has become a pretty big name on ABC. But here’s the thing, I actually grew up watching and listening to him! Bergeron got his start in the Boston area where I live. He did local radio and TV on a local station called WBZ. I used the listen to him on the radio and watched his talk show he had here (called “People are Talking” if you’re interested). After that ended and before his jump to national he did reports on the local news. Back when he started his national show on FOX I asked him on an internet chat if he missed Boston. He said that he did and it would have been perfect if he could have done the national show from there. It’s still funny to see how famous he has come these last several years.
Sure there are more. Are there any you guys watched start out and the become big named stars?
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