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Retroactive Recognition: Difference between revisions
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You keep watching the show.
Then you see an old rerun of ''[[The X-Files]]''. There he is! Or you come upon the movie ''[[The Cutting Edge]]'' on cable. There he is! Or ''[[The Rocketeer (film)|The Rocketeer]]''. Or ''[[Heaven's Gate (film)|Heaven's Gate]]''. Or that other episode of ''[[The X-Files]]'' he was in, [[You Look Familiar|playing someone else]]. Or ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', when he played that asshole admiral. Or ''[[JAG]],'' where he played another admiral. Or ''[[The X-Files (film)|The X-Files]]'' (again). Or the other 94 things he was in.
Point is, you've seen these things before. You just never paid enough attention to the actor to learn his name, or connect one appearance to another, until he finally landed a regular role on a series you regularly watch.
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** As a child actor, he was probably most famous for starring in [[Steven Spielberg]]'s ''[[Empire of the Sun (novel)|Empire of the Sun]]''.
** Also in the much regretted [[Newsies]]. "[[The Nostalgia Chick|Baby Christian Bale!]]"
* [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|Jamie Bamber]] played a [[Horatio Hornblower|heroic sailor]] before he played a heroic pilot on ''[[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]''.
* Kristin Bauer showed up as one of the members of the bitchy girl clique in ''[[Romy and Michele's High School Reunion|Romy and Micheles High School Reunion]]'', after which she went on to portray a stripper in Dancing At The Blue Iguana, and now she is known worldwide as the bisexual vampire Pam on ''[[True Blood]]''.
** She was also 'Man Hands' on ''[[Seinfeld]]''.
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** As part of [[Tenacious D]] in ''[[Bio-Dome]]''.
** He's also [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_AtNY0bYAA a big fan] of ''[[Pitfall]]''.
* Long before establishing his reputation as a [[Large Ham]] with [[No Indoor Voice]], [[Brian Blessed]] had one of his first starring roles in the first season of ''Z-Cars'', a British police procedural that was considered rather gritty for its day. He can be hard to recognise because it's one of the few roles where he's without his trademark [[Badass Beard]].
* [[Orlando Bloom]] was a victim on ''[[Midsomer Murders]]''.
* [[Angel|David]] [[Bones|Boreanaz]] once was the "friend for this episode" of [[Married... with Children|Kelly Bundy]], and ended up being [[Once Per Episode|beaten up by Al]].
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* It's hard to tell on some older televisions, but with HD or some good light you can see [[Gerard Butler]] in ''[[Tomorrow Never Dies]]'', on the submarine {{spoiler|that is attacked}}. If you can't see him, his voice is almost unmistakable. Almost.
* [[Nicolas Cage]] has a small role in ''[[Fast Times at Ridgemont High]]'', billed under his real name Nicholas Coppola (he changed it soon afterwards, not wanting to ride the coattails of his uncle).
* Watch the ''[[Bridget Jones]]'' films now without being unnerved that her gay best friend is [[Battlestar Galactica
* [[Dana Carvey]] was "JAFO" in the short-lived TV series adaptation of ''[[Blue Thunder]]'' before he was on the ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' cast.
** He also played a mime waiter in ''[[This Is Spinal Tap]]'', alongside the already-well-known Billy Crystal.
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== G-L ==
* Fans of ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'' can find [[Papa Bear|Jack Bristow]] (Victor Garber) in the oddest places, including a few episodes of ''[[The Outer Limits]]'', on the deck of [[Titanic]], as a
* [[Sarah Michelle Gellar]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ss7_5PSnyA ate] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbtJIiBx3Ls at] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99i1OJlejlo Burger King.]
* [[Gina Gershon]] was an uncredited dancer in the early [[Sarah Jessica Parker]] movie ''Girls Just Want to Have Fun'', and has a small part as [[The Lyddie|Benny]]'s friend [[Embarrassing First Name|Trombley]] in [[Pretty in Pink]].
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* Kathie Lee Gifford's first major role was a singer on ''[[Name That Tune]]''.
* Darla's victim in the opening scene of the ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' pilot was played by Carmine Giovinazzo of ''[[CSI: NY]]''.
** Carmine also guest starred on the season 2
* The fantastic [[Summer Glau]], before becoming [[Firefly|River Tam]] and Cameron from ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'', was also on an episode of ''[[Angel]]'' as a ballerina.
** And on an episode of ''[[CSI]]'' as the crying best friend of a victim.
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* Aubrey Drake Graham was "Jimmy Brooks" on seasons 1-7 (2001-2008) of ''[[Degrassi]]''. He now is known as the rapper/singer Drake.
* Prior to ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'', Lauren Graham was a [[Girl of the Week|one-off love interest]] on ''[[Seinfeld]]''.
** She also had short-lived recurring roles on ''[[News Radio]]'' and ''[[Caroline in The City]]'', and was also Benjamin Bratt's love interest in the two part ''[[Law
* [[Seth Green]] in ''IT'' deserves a mention.
*** Really, watching ''It'' as an adult after having seen it as a child results in a massive ''bombardment'' of Retroactive Recognition.
** As well as in ''[[My Stepmother Is An Alien]]'', alongside future co-star [[Alyson Hannigan]].
** He also voiced a character in ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]''.
** And appeared in an episode of ''[[The X-Files]]'' and ''[[Enemy of the State]]''
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* There is much mockery to be made of [[Old Shame|future Oscar winner]] Phillip Seymour Hoffman's supporting role in ''[[Twister]]''.
* Laurie Holden is well-known these days for her roles in ''[[The Shield]]'' and ''[[The Walking Dead (TV series)|The Walking Dead]]'', but she had a number of guest appearances (including many Canadian series) long before then:
** She played a young girl in an episode of ''[[Captain Power
** A guest spot on an episode of ''[[Murder, She Wrote]]''.
** As the shadowy Marita Covarrubias in several episodes of ''[[The X-Files]]''.
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* [[Samuel L. Jackson]] holds up a [[Burger Fool]] in ''[[Coming to America]]'', and has his ass handed to him by [[Eddie Murphy]], of all people.
** He also appears very briefly in ''Mean Streets'', where he's slapped around by [[Robert De Niro]] and Harvey Keitel. He isn't even credited for this on IMDB.
** He also plays a lawyer on a Season 1 episode of ''[[Law
* Stephanie Jacobsen had a tiny role in the ''[[Farscape]]'' episode "Incubator" as one of Scorpius's nurses/"assistants", years before her prominent genre roles as Kendra in ''[[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]'' and Jesse in ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]''.
* It's a little creepy to watch [[Famke Janssen]] pursue a romantic relationship with [[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Jean-Luc Picard]] 8 years before hanging out with [[X-Men (film)|Professor X at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning]].
* [[Scarlett Johansson]], usually playing someone’s sister, in many a crappy 90s film. Including ''[[North]]'' and ''[[Home Alone|Home Alone 3]] ''.
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* [[Milla Jovovich]] was [[Parker Lewis Can't Lose|Parker Lewis]]' female target in the series pilot.
** And a French foreign exchange student in an episode of ''[[Married... with Children|Married With Children]]''.
* As [[Wil Wheaton]] regularly reminds us, he got some lip action with a pre-famous [[Ashley Judd]] in an
* Tim Kang acted in a ''ton'' of commercials (for Cingular, Home Depot and Dairy Queen) before landing the role of Agent Cho on ''[[The Mentalist]].'' He also had a small role on ''[[The Sopranos]]'', seen [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXONOtUAKME here].
* [[Stana Katic]] of ''[[Castle]]'' once had a bit part as a flight attendant on ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]''.
** And as Officer Morgenstern (she of the [[BFG]]) in ''[[The Spirit (film)|The Spirit]]''.
* It's a bit of a shock to watch old episodes of ''Desmonds'', and realise that the [[Token White]] loser wideboy is Dominic Keating from ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]''.
* [[Star Trek: The Original Series
** And ''Gunfight at the OK Corral'', which was [[Actor Allusion|alluded]] to in the episode "Spectre of the Gun" in an illusion.
* The 1956 novel ''[[The Last Hurrah]]'', which was very loosely based on real events in early 1950s Massachusetts politics, features a character named Kevin McCluskey, who is a telegenic but politically inexperienced candidate with a fancy education, a pretty wife, smiling kids, a respectable [[World War II|war record]] from his days in the Navy, and [[Brainless Beauty|more good looks than brains]]. Reading the book anytime after 1960, the character [[John F. Kennedy|seems strangely familiar]]...
* [[Ben Kingsley]] showed up on the BBC's ''Playing Shakespeare'' in the late 1970s.
*
** Not to mention her appearance in the 1999 ''[[Oliver Twist]]'' miniseries as Rose Fleming, where she looks about
**
** And her appearance as the slutty friend in ''[[The Hole]]'', [[
* Jane Krakowski, aged 16, appears in the opening moments of ''[[Fatal Attraction]]'' as the Gallaghers' babysitter.
* Before he was the main character in ''[[Numb3rs]]'', David Krumholtz was the dorky Jewish kid Joel who had a crush on [[Christina Ricci]]'s Wednesday Addams in ''[[The Addams Family|Addams Family Values]]''.
** Not to mention Mr. Universe from ''[[Serenity]]''.
** And Bernard the elf in ''[[The Santa Clause (film series)|The Santa Clause]]''.
** And the victim of a pedophile in an early ''[[Law
** And Michael in ''[[10 Things I Hate About You]]''.
** And the guy who stabbed Lucy and Carter on ''[[ER]]''.
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* Pictured above, [[Bruce Lee]] playing Kato in the [[Adam West]] ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' series for three episodes. This was before his first film by three years.
** Technically, that was a crossover. ''[[The Green Hornet]]'' series ran alongside ''Batman'' for one season, with Kato being the only redeeming quality of the show.
* [[Lost|Ken Leung]] was [https://web.archive.org/web/20140705230529/http://cdn-www.cracked.com/phpimages/photoshop/5/3/8/1538_slide.jpg?v=2 a mutant] in ''[[X-Men: The Last Stand|X Men the Last Stand]]'', and kidnapped the girl from ''[[Rush Hour]]''.
** Not to mention [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlKhfEWchf8 Dong!] (rhymes with flong).
* Even Evangeline Lilly can invoke this, despite having next to no acting experience with dialogue prior to starring in ''[[Lost]]''. She worked in Vancouver for a while as a part-time model and would occasionally appear as a mute extra in tv series filmed there, notably in ''[[Smallville]]'', where she managed to be in 5 episodes. So if you go on a ''[[Smallville]]'' binge, expect several moments of, [[Hey, It's That Guy!|"Hey! Did]] ''[[Hey, It's That Guy!|Kate Austin]]'' [[Hey, It's That Guy!|just walk past the screen?!"]]
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* Eddie McClintock, best known as Pete from ''[[Warehouse 13]]'' is [[Bones]]' FBI boyfriend.
** Also appeared for five seconds in ''[[Sex and the City]]'' when they went to L.A.
* [[Battlestar Galactica
* Gates McFadden, before being known for her role as [[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Beverly Crusher]], played a secretary in ''[[The Muppets Take Manhattan]]''.
** She also had a cameo as Dr. Cathy Ryan in ''[[The Hunt for Red October]]''.
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* Keke Palmer from ''[[Akeelah and the Bee]]'' and ''[[True Jackson, VP|True Jackson VP]]'' was Madea's young troubled foster child in ''[[Madea's Family Reunion|Madeas Family Reunion]]''.
* Gwyneth Paltrow played the younger version of Wendy in ''[[Hook]]''.
* It's startled quite a few people watching reruns of ''[[Law & Order:
* Either inverted or played straight with Grace Park, who plays GDI's Lt. Sandra Telfair in ''[[Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars]]''. People might recognize her for her previous role as Number Eight on ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* Before ''[[Legend of the Seeker]]'', Craig Parker played Haldir, a minor elf in ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings]]''.
* [[Jim Parsons]], now known as Sheldon Cooper on ''[[The Big Bang Theory]]'', played Tim, the [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|Klingon-speaking]] "fast-food knight" in ''[[Garden State]]''.
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* [[Star Trek: Voyager|Robert Picardo]] appeared in ''[[Innerspace]]''.
** He was also the guy Rodney Dangerfield's wife is sleeping with in ''[[Back to School (film)|Back to School]]''. And the [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]] in ''[[Gremlins]] 2''. The impressive head of hair can make him hard to recognize.
* One of the ickier episodes of ''[[Law
* Markie Post was a behind-the-scenes lady on the 1970s game shows ''[[Split Second (TV series)|Split Second]]'' and ''[[Double Dare (1976 TV Show)|Double Dare]]'' ([[Name's the Same|a quizzer, not the kids' stunt show]]), and later a card dealer on ''[[Card Sharks]]'', before her breakthrough role on ''[[Night Court]]''.
* [[Zachary Quinto]], who is Sylar from ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' and Spock in the 2009 ''[[Star Trek (film)|Star Trek]]'' movie, played a demon in ''[[Charmed]]''.
** And prior to both, he hilariously hammed it up playing Tori Spelling's [[Gay Best Friend]] on her show ''[[So Notorious]]''. Watching that show and then ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' back to back makes for an especially hilarious experience.
** And he was the forgettable Adam Kaufman in season 3 of ''[[24
* Following from ''24'', TJ Ramini gets some billing as Tarin Faroush, but will be more recognised among British audiences as DC Zain Nadir, one of the more famous characters of ''[[The Bill]]''.
* Before ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'' and ''[[The Last Airbender]]'', Jackson Rathbone popped up in a couple episodes of ''[[The OC]]''.
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== S-Z ==
* [[Katee Sackhoff]] got beheaded in ''[[Halloween (film)|Halloween: Resurrection]]'' and was on one season of MTV's ''[[Undressed]]'' before she became ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* [[Adam Sandler]] was one of Theo's buddies in ''[[The Cosby Show]]''.
** He also played Colin Quinn's "delinquent cousin Stickpin" and "The Stud Boy" in ''[[Remote Control]]''.
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* In an episode of ''[[Cheers]]'', Diane serves on a jury and manages to get the defendant to break up with his girlfriend when he comes into the bar. The man looks uncannily like a flesh-colored [[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Data]].
** What's funny about Brent Spiner is how many of his roles are comedic-ish... Data's the exception, not the rule. The rule is closer to Arik Soong.
** Though he does appear in an episode of ''[[Law
** Then there are those episodes of ''[[Night Court]]'' with the hillbilly family. Take a look at the man in that family....
** Spiner played another comedic hillbilly as a rural preacher in the ''[[Tales from the Darkside]]'' episode "A Case of the Stubborns".
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* Don Stark aka [[That '70s Show|Bob Pinciotti]] appeared as holographic gangster Nicky the Nose in ''[[Star Trek: First Contact]]''.
** He also had a role in ''[[Santa with Muscles]]''.
* Before making a name for himself as a leading man with ''[[The Transporter]]'' films, [[Jason Statham]] appears as a secondary character in John Carpenter's ''[[Ghosts of Mars]]''. It's also one of his few on-screen appearances without shaving his head.
* [[Kristen Stewart]] in ''[[Panic Room]]''. Weird to look back on it years later, since she was 10 when the movie was made.
** She also shows up at the very end of ''[[Jumper (novel)|Jumper]]'', as the protagonist's half-sister.
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* [[Patrick Stewart]] appeared in the BBC educational show ''Playing Shakespeare'' in the 1970s before becoming [[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Captain Jean-Luc Picard]].
** He was Leondegrance in ''[[Excalibur (film)|Excalibur]]''. Said film also had [[Liam Neeson]] (Gawain), Helen Mirren (Morgana), and Gabriel Byrne (Uther Pendragon).
** He also played Gurney Halleck in ''[[Dune (1984 film)|Dune]]''.
** [[Poirot|David Suchet]] was in the same.
* An actor named Woodrow Strode played the King of Ethiopia in ''[[The Ten Commandments]]''. In a later scene, he doubled as a royal slave. Years later, Mr. Strode became mildly well known. This led viewers of [[Cecil B. DeMille|Mr. DeMille's]] epic to conclude that [[Wild Mass Guessing|Rameses enslaved the Ethopian king]].
* [[Poirot|David Suchet]] played the rival Arab dictator in the first ''[[Iron Eagle]]'' movie.
* Faran Tahir, prior to becoming [[Iron Man (film)|Raza]] or [[Star Trek (film)|Captain Robau]], combined this with [[You Look Familiar]] by appearing as two separate characters on ''[[24
* [[Amber Tamblyn]] was one of Dawn's friends in the sixth season of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''.
* [[Amanda Tapping]] showed up in an episode of ''[[Due South]]'' a year before ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' aired, playing a scientist with a secret government program that was strongly implied to be tracking UFOs.
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* Sam Trammel plays the upstanding owner of a popular bar in ''[[True Blood]]'', but way back when in the second episode of ''[[Dexter]]'' he played a drunk with a persistent hit-and-run problem. {{spoiler|He didn't last long}}.
* [[John Travolta]]'s first role was in the horror movie ''The Devil's Rain''. He yells "Blasphemer!" and falls down the stairs, and the protagonists see the flashback inside his eyes.
** Many young people in the 21st century would be surprised to see him in reruns of ''[[Welcome Back, Kotter]]''.
** And after that, playing [[Delinquents|Billy]], [[Alpha Bitch|Chris]]' [[All Girls Want Bad Boys|boyfriend]] in ''[[Carrie]]''.
* A young [[Keith Urban]] appears in the 1992 video for [[Alan Jackson]]'s "Mercury Blues". Most Americans probably didn't recognize Urban's face until 1999.
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* Same-TV-show example: Before Michael Wisher was the first actor to play Davros on ''[[Doctor Who]],'' he had a fairly minor role as a broadcaster in "The Ambassadors of Death," five years earlier, and then another role the next year.
** He also provided may Dalek voices before playing Davros.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120206075754/http://www.elijahfan.com/gallery/gal/Movies/Back_to_the_Future/btf-010.jpg Elijah Wood was one of the kids that Marty meets in an arcade in 2015] ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to The Future]] Part II''. He even spoke.
** He also had a part as a stressed-out child business man in the [[Paula Abdul]] video [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pyxKqdtrH8 Forever Your Girl] (He appears almost 2 minutes in).
** He's one of the main characters in ''[[Deep Impact]]'', but he still wasn't recognizable to most people until [[The Lord of the Rings (film)|a bit later]].
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Characters and Casting]]
[[Category:Audience Reactions]]
[[Category:Example as a Thesis]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
[[Category:Trivia Trope]]
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