Good movies with a largely unknown cast at time of release (1 Viewer)

[Don Quixote]

The Usual Suspects? Gabriel Byrne had Miller's Crossing, but not much else star power at that time...

Kevin Spacey

Benicio del Toro

Kevin Pollak

Stephen Baldwin

Giancarlo Esposito

 

[MC Gas Money]

Not sure how big some of these guys were, but how about

The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai, Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

Peter Weller

John Lithgow

Ellen Barkin

Jeff Goldbloom

Christopher Lloyd

I wouldnt call any of them true stars at the time.

lol

Were they all stars in 84?

 

[urbanhack]

Someone upthread had tied Paul Rudd's breakout

Paul Rudd has actually broken out?

 

[Charlie Steiner]

Not sure how big some of these guys were, but how about

The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai, Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

Peter Weller

John Lithgow

Ellen Barkin

Jeff Goldbloom

Christopher Lloyd

I wouldnt call any of them true stars at the time.

lol

Were they all stars in 84?

I'd call most of them working actors at the time, but not stars. This was pre-RoboCop Weller, Lithgow was in the middle of a string of high-profile movies (Terms of Endearment, Footloose for example), Barkin hadn't done much since Diner and Eddie and the Cruisers, Goldblum wasn't known for much at that point, and this was pre-Back to the Future for Lloyd. He was established but not really a star. Also don't forget Clancy Brown hadn't done Highlander or The Bride yet. The timing was there that none of them had really 'hit' yet but were in the process of going on to bigger things.

Good calls on Taps and American Graffiti, BTW.

 

[Doug B]

Not sure how big some of these guys were, but how about

The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai, Across the 8th Dimension (1984)

Peter Weller

John Lithgow

Ellen Barkin

Jeff Goldbloom

Christopher Lloyd

I wouldnt call any of them true stars at the time.

lol

Were they all stars in 84?

Christopher Lloyd was coming off of consecutive Emmies for playing the iconic Reverand JIm on Taxi.

John Lithgow was coming off consecutive Supporting Actor Oscar nominations for The World According to Garp and Terms of Endearment. He also had a promnent role in Twighlght Zone: the Movie and an Emmy-nominated turn in the classic TV movie The Day After.

Jeff Goldblum had been bubbling under throughout the late '70s (Annie Hall, Invasion of the Body Snatchers). His real breakout, though, was the year before Buckaroo Banzai in The Big Chill.

 

[Gr00vus]

Excalibur (1981)

While all of the following had done some acting prior, this was as big as it had gotten for them to this point:

Gabriel Byrne

Helen Mirren

Patrick Stewart

Liam Neeson

Oddly, the actors playing main characters didn't go on to as much notoriety:

Nigel Terry (Arthur) - he'd had decent parts prior to this, most notably The Lion In Winter (which also had early notable roles for Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Daulton).

Nicholas Clay (Lancelot)

Nicol Williamson (Merlin)

Cheri Lunghi (Guenevere)

 

[Gr00vus]

Swingers.

Vaughn, Favreau, Livingston, and Graham.

Favreau was in Rudy prior to Swingers.

 

[Gr00vus]

Trainspotting had Ewan McGregor

Yes, and Jonny Lee Miller as Sick Boy.

And Kelly MacDonald, Kevin McKidd and of course Robert Carlyle.

 

[Mr. Mojo]

LA Confidential

Russell Crowe

Guy Pearce

James Cromwell

Kevin Spacey had only been known for Usual Suspects at that time

Cromwell had been in the business for 20 years before LA Confidential. He'd also done "Babe".

Crowe was a star in Australia way before this. He won the Aussie version of an Oscar for Romper Stomper in 1992.

Spacey had done Swimming with Sharks, Glengary Glenross, Outbreak, Time to Kill, AND Se7en before LA Confidential.

The topic was "largely unknown at time of release".

Cromwell was not well known until Babe.

Crowe was not a star in US until later. That's kind of like saying "well he was a star in Bollywood" so you should know him.

I stand corrected on Spacey.

Pearce was about in the same boat as Crowe at the time (known in Australia).

 

[nirad3]

Too lazy to look up the particulars, but wasn't Red Dawn chock full of younger up-and-comers? Obviously not their first roles but at the time weren't they pretty green?

Also, how about Enemy of the State? Obviously not counting Will Smith and Gene Hackman, but there are a host of secondary/tertiary players in that flick that were newbies or just getting started. It's been on HBO this month.... one of those movies you can watch at any point.

 

[MC Gas Money]

Too lazy to look up the particulars, but wasn't Red Dawn chock full of younger up-and-comers? Obviously not their first roles but at the time weren't they pretty green?

Also, how about Enemy of the State? Obviously not counting Will Smith and Gene Hackman, but there are a host of secondary/tertiary players in that flick that were newbies or just getting started. It's been on HBO this month.... one of those movies you can watch at any point.

Off the top of my head I recall Jamie Kennedy and Jack BlackOne blew up and the other was briefly a part of pop culture

P.S. Scotty Evil too right?

 

[nirad3]

Too lazy to look up the particulars, but wasn't Red Dawn chock full of younger up-and-comers? Obviously not their first roles but at the time weren't they pretty green?

Also, how about Enemy of the State? Obviously not counting Will Smith and Gene Hackman, but there are a host of secondary/tertiary players in that flick that were newbies or just getting started. It's been on HBO this month.... one of those movies you can watch at any point.

Off the top of my head I recall Jamie Kennedy and Jack BlackOne blew up and the other was briefly a part of pop culture

P.S. Scotty Evil too right?

Lisa Bonet - really just known for Cosby Show, yeah?

Regina King - wasn't she more TV?

Barry Pepper

Jake Busey

Scott Caan

Jason Lee

Heck Seth Green and Tom Sizemore weren't even credited, per IMDB.

 

[MC Gas Money]

Too lazy to look up the particulars, but wasn't Red Dawn chock full of younger up-and-comers? Obviously not their first roles but at the time weren't they pretty green?

Also, how about Enemy of the State? Obviously not counting Will Smith and Gene Hackman, but there are a host of secondary/tertiary players in that flick that were newbies or just getting started. It's been on HBO this month.... one of those movies you can watch at any point.

Off the top of my head I recall Jamie Kennedy and Jack BlackOne blew up and the other was briefly a part of pop culture

P.S. Scotty Evil too right?

Lisa Bonet - really just known for Cosby Show, yeah?

Regina King - wasn't she more TV?

Barry Pepper

Jake Busey

Scott Caan

Jason Lee

Heck Seth Green and Tom Sizemore weren't even credited, per IMDB.

Scott Caan didnt really take off til "ready to rumble"

 

[msommer]

Lisa Bonet is still only known for the Cosby show

 

[MC Gas Money]

Lisa Bonet is still only known for the Cosby show

And banging Kravitz

 

[FlapJacks]

Not a movie, but if you look at the guest stars on Miami Vice, a lot of big names before they were superstars

Don't know if there's another TV show in history that had as impressive a list of guest stars who were unknowns (or relatively) and went on to become big stars. It was pretty amazing.

Seinfeld had a number of solid guest stars.Teri Hatcher - "They're real, and they're spectacular."

Also, Jeremy Piven made an appearance somewhere in there.

Bryan Cranston

Anna Gunn

Michael Chiklis

the lady who played Mimi on Drew Carey

The girl who played Daphne on Frasier

Larry David (as voice of George Steinbrener)

 

[Zow]

The Outsiders

First one that came to my mind.

 

[msommer]

Lisa Bonet is still only known for the Cosby show

And banging Kravitz

Nope

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

LA Confidential

Russell Crowe

Guy Pearce

James Cromwell

Kevin Spacey had only been known for Usual Suspects at that time

Cromwell had been in the business for 20 years before LA Confidential. He'd also done "Babe".

Crowe was a star in Australia way before this. He won the Aussie version of an Oscar for Romper Stomper in 1992.

Spacey had done Swimming with Sharks, Glengary Glenross, Outbreak, Time to Kill, AND Se7en before LA Confidential.

Crowe was not a star in US until later. That's kind of like saying "well he was a star in Bollywood" so you should know him.

I knew who Crowe was. He received a lot of international acclaim for "Romper Stomper".

 

[the moops]

Lisa Bonet is still only known for the Cosby show

And banging Kravitz

Nope

Yes

 

[MC Gas Money]

Lisa Bonet is still only known for the Cosby show

And banging Kravitz

Nope

Yes

Lulz

 

[The Man With No Name]

The Killers (1946)

First film for Burt Lancaster and William Conrad. Made stars of unknowns Ava Gardner and Edmond O'Brien too

This is on tonight at 10:15 ET on TCM. Worth a watch if you like film noir.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Killers_(1946_film)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038669/

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Animal House. Donald Sutherland was a late addition to the cast simply because nobody else had any drawing power.

John Belushi

Tom Hulce

Kevin Bacon

Tim Mathewson

Peter Reigert

Karen Allen

Note that Belushi became famous after being cast in the role, but before the film was released.

Totally agree on this one.

None of those actors were known and they have been Hollywood character staples ever since. That was Belushi's first movie too.

 

[General Tso]

How about a TV show - In Living Color... Introduced the following stars...

- Wayan brothers

- Jim Carey

- Jamie Foxx

- Jennifer Lopez

- Rosie Perez

Not bad. Some of the greatest talents in the 90's and 00's.

 

[Chaka]

True Romance had some real heavy hitters before they were big. Sam Jackson, James Gandolfini, Brad Pitt, all in bit parts

True Romance was made for this topic. Oldman wasn't big before True Romance, same for Patricia Arquette. Tom Sizemore wasn't a known commodity at the time (talk about a guy whose career went completely off the rails). Michael Rappaport never got huge but he's a guy everyone recognizes.

 

[Chaka]

did anyone else become known for other roles other than Ford?

Fisher had a decent journeyman type of career.

Hamill not being able to build anything has got be one of the strangest Hollywood stories.

Hamill had one of the most successful voice acting careers of all time. He's most well known for the Joker in the Batman Animated series.

Yup, and the Fire Lord from Avatar: The Last Airbender. But to be fair most people don't know about that part of his career and as storied as his voice acting career is he's no John Ratzenberger.

 

[Tanner9919]

Full Metal Jacket

Better off Dead - John Cusak

Platoon

 

[Tennessee_ATO]

School Ties.

All unknowns at the time.

Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Chris O'Donnell, Brendan Fraser, Anthony Rapp, Cole Hauser.

This. Amazing how many big hitters were in this before they became big hitters.

 

[Doug B]

Couldn't remember the title of this one earlier: how about The Incident (1967)?

- Martin Sheen's first film

- Beau Bridges second non-juvenile role

- Jack Gilford (you well know his face if not his name), who had come over from Broadway after having been blacklisted throughout much of the 50s.

- Teen-aged Donna Mills (later of Knots Landing)

- One of Ed McMahon's early film roles (though he was already on Johnny Carson)

- Both Brock Peters' (To Kill a Mockingbird) and Ruby Dee's second major feature film.