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[[File:
You start watching [[Lost
You keep watching the show.
Then you see an old rerun of ''[[
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.
This is what happens when a former [[Hey, It's That Guy!]] finally lands a breakout role. It may also include a few minor roles before their [[Star-Making Role]]. When you just can't shake the image of the other roles, it's [[Role Association]]. If the older work is repackaged to accentuate the actor's later successes, it falls into [[Billing Displacement]].
{{examples|Examples (sorted by last name):}}▼
▲{{examples|Examples (sorted by last name):}}
== A-F ==
* In a variant of this, Kirstie Alley was a contestant on the game shows ''[[Match Game]]'' and ''[[Password Plus]]'' before her career started. Both of these episodes have occasionally rerun on [[GSN]].
* [[Amy Adams]] made her debut in ''[[Drop Dead Gorgeous (
** She also played one of Tara's hick relatives in an episode of ''[[
** Also popped up in a episode of ''[[
* [[Jensen Ackles]] was on an episode of ''[[Wishbone]]'' back in 1995.
* Nicole Anderson from ''[[
* Ashley Argota from ''[[True Jackson, VP
* Joey Lauren Adams had her first big break on the ''[[Married...
* [[Ben Affleck]] had a small role as a basketball player in the original ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (
** Don't forget his [[Jerkass]] highschool senior role in ''[[Dazed and Confused]]''.
** Even before that, he was the young kid and main character in Voyage Of The Mimi.
** Or as the teenage son of [[Star Trek: Voyager
* Long before she jumped to fame in ''[[Dark Angel]]'', [[Jessica Alba]] played a supporting role in ''[[The Secret World of Alex Mack]]''. [[Billing Displacement|When the DVD set was released in 2011, her appearance was promoted on the box art.]] She also guest-starred in an episode of ''ER''.
* [[Seinfeld
* Presumably it's due to a shared agency or casting director, a few other ''[[
** The first vampire ever staked on ''[[
* [[Rowan Atkinson]] starred in ''[[
** May not count as ''[[
* Simon Baker's small role as a young and absurdly pretty gay actor ({{spoiler|and murder victim}}) in ''[[
* [[Adam Baldwin]] played Major Mitchell, a minor yet important role in ''[[
** But the first thing anyone saw him in was as Ricky Linderman, the titular bodyguard in ''My Bodyguard''.
** He was also the lead in ''D.C. Cab''.
** He also had a bit part in ''[[Predator|Predator 2]]''.
** And he had a recurring role as Knowle Rohrer, an alien-enhanced supersoldier, in the final season of ''[[
** He also played Animal Mother from ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]''.
* [[Christian Bale]] as a child actor played Jim Hawkins in an awesome version of ''[[Treasure Island]]'' with Charlton Heston as Long John Silver.
** He also can be seen in [[Kenneth Branagh]]'s adaption of ''[[
** 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
* [[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
** She was also 'Man Hands' on ''[[
* Before her [[Star-Making Role]] in ''[[Veronica Mars]]'', Kristen Bell had a guest spot in an episode of ''[[The Shield]]'' as a gang member's girlfriend who gets raped by that season's [[Big Bad]], along with another small role in ''[[Deadwood]]'' as a prostitute.
* [[Julie Benz]] was Darla first on ''[[
* Rachel Bilson was a [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer
* [[Jack Black]] had a lot of surprising small roles before hitting it big: one of the Wasteland Scraps in ''[[
** A weedhead in ''[[I Know What You Did Last Summer
** He has some small roles in early episodes of ''[[Mr. Show]]''.
** He also played a young republican in ''[[Bob Roberts]]''.
** He also had a part in ''[[Airborne]]''.
** As part of [[
** 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
** He also played a security guard in The Best of the Best 2. He has no lines, but is recognizable. He gets beaten up.
* Before ''[[
* Doug Brochu, prior to joining [[Dueling Shows|rival series]] ''[[Sonny With a Chance]]'', was Freddie's lab partner in one of the early episodes of ''[[
* Andrew Bryniarski played [[Dumb Muscle|Zangief]] in ''[[Street Fighter (
* It's hard to tell on some older televisions, but with HD or some good light you can see [[Gerard Butler]] in ''[[
* [[Nicolas Cage]] has a small role in ''[[Fast Times
* 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 ''[[
** He also played a mime waiter in ''[[This Is Spinal Tap]]'', alongside the already-well-known Billy Crystal.
* [[Star Wars
** As well as the ''[[Goosebumps]]'' episode for "Night Of The Living Dummy III".
** As well as the ''[[Are You Afraid of the Dark?]]'' episode, "The Tale of Bigfoot Ridge".
** As well as the ''[[The Famous Jett Jackson]]'' episode, "Popularity".
** And ''Life as a House''.
* [[Misha Collins]] was in ''[[
** He also was in a scene of ''[[Girl,
** Also in a season 2 episode of ''[[
* If you have a ''really'' good eye, you can spot a 13-year-old [[
* Prior to being the [[Gentle Giant]] in ''[[Harry Potter (
** Also there were those two James Bond movies.
*** An interesting case of location-based
*** Even before ''[[Cracker]]'', he was in a bunch of episodes of British TV comedies, including two of ''[[
* Just like Hayden Christenson above, [[Criminal Minds
** And before that, she played Mary Lisbon in ''[[The Virgin Suicides]]''.
** And had a memorable roles the college student George's father starts an affair with in ''[[Dead Like Me]]''.
* Dane Cook was Waffle Man aka The Waffler in ''[[Mystery Men]]'', a character who only appeared in the [[Terrible Interviewees Montage]].
* Danny Cooksey, the guy who plays John's best friend in ''[[Terminator (
* [[Miranda Cosgrove]] become widely known due to her role on ''[[
* Near the end of Season One of ''[[Highlander (TV series)|Highlander]]'' in the episode called Nowhere To Run, there is a young woman who's raped by a rich ambassador's son. It's her first ever acting role. Her name? Marion Cotillard.
* Yet another [[Girl of the Week]] on ''[[
** And [[Ace Ventura]]'s girlfriend.
** And one of the main [[Audience Surrogate]] characters in the 1987 live-action ''[[Masters of the Universe (
** And before that, she was Alex Keaton's girlfriend during the final season of ''[[Family Ties]]''.
** And before that, she was a conflicted telekinetic teenager in the almost completely forgotten series ''[[Misfits of Science]]''.
** And even before that she was the girl who got up on stage and danced with the Boss in the ''[[Bruce Springsteen
* Blink and you'll miss her, Nikki Cox is the red headed Girl interviewed by the T-1000 in ''[[Terminator (
** She also played an alien pen pal to Data in an early episode of ''[[Star Trek:
* Ronny Cox has shown up as the villain in any number of movies, from ''[[RoboCop
** Even further into the past, there's ''[[
*** Somewhere between the two, but not as a bad guy, he played Louden Swain's dad in ''[[Vision Quest]]''.
* [[Daniel Craig]] ''and'' [[Kate Winslet]] in the [[Old Shame]] example of ''[[A Kid in King
* Bryan Cranston, before ''[[Breaking Bad]]'', or even ''[[Malcolm in
** he also voiced some monsters on '''''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]''''' and Billy Cranston was named after him.
* Denise Crosby, aka [[Star Trek:
* Marcia Cross aka [[Desperate Housewives|Bree Van De Kamp]] as Topanga's mother in ''[[
** And as yet another [[Girl of the Week]] on ''[[
** And a [[Rich Bitch]] patient of Lu Delgado in ''Strong Medicine''.
** Marcia Cross played Rebecca's sister on ''[[
** What, no mention of the original ''[[Melrose Place]]'' series, where she played psycho oh-so-well?
** Plus a villain of the week on ''[[
* A virtual reality guy that went into the real world and started killing people, facing off with [[Denzel Washington]]: Serious Actor [[Russell Crowe]] in ''[[Virtuosity]]''.
* [[Two and A Half Men|Jon Cryer]] in ''[[
** He was well-known before that from ''[[
* [[Matt Damon]] had a very tiny part in ''Mystic Pizza'' (as the [[Annoying Younger Sibling]]) before breaking out in ''School Ties''.
* It was shocking to see how many [[John Carpenter]] films [[Keith David]] was in before ''[[
* [[
** She also played Billy Ray's daughter in ''Doc''.
* Voice actress Elizabeth Daily ([[The Powerpuff Girls
** And had a cameo as a fan of Ellen Aim and Billy Fish in ''[[Streets of Fire]]''.
** And sang the title song in ''[[Better Off Dead]]''.
* Jeremy Davies (Daniel Faraday from ''[[
** He also had a small part in the 2002 remake of ''[[
** Before those he also had a small role in ''[[Twister]]''.
* Geena Davis is a girl Named Larry in ''Fletch''.
** Geena Davis was also on ''[[Family Ties]]'' for about two episodes as the Keatons' incompetent housekeeper.
** And as [[Seven Deadly Sins|the personification of Pride]] in [[
* And another ''[[
* [[Felicia Day]] had [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer
** She was also depressed dancer Penelope in ''[[Bring It On
* Before Tim DeKay was Peter Burke in ''[[White Collar]]'', he was Senator Patrick Kiley in ''[[
** And as [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] Larry Deon on ''Seaquest 2032''.
* [[Star Trek:
** And playing the villain in the pilot ep of the 80s ''[[Mission: Impossible (TV series)||Mission Impossible]]'' revival series.
* Like many below examples, [[Judi Dench]] graced BBC's educational show ''Playing Shakespeare'' in the 1970s.
* [[Leonardo
* Before getting the lead role in ''[[Burn Notice]]'', Jeffrey Donovan matched wits with [[Monk
* [[Lizzie
* After watching [[Sam Raimi]]'s ''[[Spider-Man (
** She was Claudia, the child vampire, in ''[[Interview
** Also ''[[Little Women]]'' as little Amy (with Samantha Mathis as her older self).
** ''And'' she was an alien child in an episode of ''[[Star Trek:
** Appeared in an early 1990s ''[[
** Was in ''[[Small Soldiers]]'', too.
** As well as ''[[
** ''[[Tower of Terror]]''
* [[Eliza Dushku]], AKA Faith from ''[[
** [[Eliza Dushku]] also played [[Leonardo
* Most [[Fan Wank
** Also part of the [[Five-Man Band]] in ''[[
* Most people would recognize Jason Earles as Miley Stewart's brother in ''[[
* [[Clint Eastwood]] first appears in an uncredited role as a lab technician in ''[[
* Before she was [[House (TV series)|Lisa Cuddy]], Lisa Edelstein was George's [[Girl of the Week]] on ''[[
** She can also be seen in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it role in [[As Good
** Appeared in 5 first season episodes of ''[[
* [[High School Musical|Zac]] [[Hairspray|Efron]]'s first acting gig was the role of young Simon in ''[[
** And he was caught with a stolen cell phone on ''[[
* ''[[The Gong Show]]'' contestant and small-time [[Los Angeles]] musician [[
* Colin Ferguson of ''[[Eureka]]'' had previously played Christopher Titus's doctor in the coma episode of ''[[Titus]]''.
** And Laura Linney's amnesiac love interest in ''More Tales of the City''.
* [[Two and A Half Men|Conchata Ferrell]] played one of the women in the neighborhood in ''[[Edward Scissorhands]]''.
** Also appeared as the school nurse in ''[[
* [[Nathan Fillion]] is a Private Ryan in ''[[
** As well as a well-meaning priest in [[Wes Craven]]'s ''[[
** And playing alongside [[Ryan Reynolds]] in ''[[Two Guys, a Girl And A Pizza Place]]''.
* Jenna Fischer was on ''[[That
* [[Laurence Fishburne]] played a male nurse in a psychiatric ward in ''[[A Nightmare
** He was also Cowboy Curtis on ''[[Pee
** Don't forget about 14-yr old Fishburne in ''Cornbread, Earl, and Me''.
** He's also one of the PBR's crew in ''[[Apocalypse Now]]''.
* Jerome Flynn, who plays the sellsword Bronn in ''[[
* [[Harrison Ford]] has said his early career was mostly spent playing "the guy who didn't do it" on various cop shows, before he hit it big with ''[[Star Wars]]''. This also makes him a great subversion of [[Narrowed It Down to
** He also had a minor role in ''[[American Graffiti]]''.
* [[Jodie Foster]] had a bunch of roles as a kid, before breaking out in ''[[Taxi Driver]]'' (while ''still'' a kid), e.g. ''[[Kung Fu]]'', ''[[The Partridge Family]]'', and ''The Courtship Of Eddie's Father''. Plus of course being the Coppertone Girl.
** She also had a voice acting role as the tomboy Anne Chan in ''[[
* [[Scrubs
** Also as the f-bombing construction worker in ''[[Major League]]'' and the Cubs’ first baseman in ''[[Rookie of the Year]]''.
* [[Megan Fox]] had a small role as [[Alpha Bitch|a mean girl]] in the [[Lindsay Lohan]] feature, ''[[Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen]]'' about three years before ''[[Transformers (
** Fox also appeared as a dancer during a montage sequence in ''[[Bad Boys]] II''. She pointed it out an episode of '"The Tonight Show With Jay Leno''.
* One of [[Michael J. Fox]]'s first acting roles was a one episode gig on ''[[
* Jason Frank appeared as a bully in an episode of ''[[Family Matters]]'', a far cry from fighting evil space monsters as a [[
* Before he voiced [[Hellsing
** Even though the three actors playing the other three leads ([[Lisa Ortiz]], [[Eric Stuart]], and [[Veronica Taylor]]) were also breaking out at the time, all three of them would wind up working for the not-too-fondly thought of 4KidsEntertainment, as did most of the other actors who worked on ''[[Slayers]]''; when CPM started to fall under, Freeman rose to stardom working for other companies dubbing more popular, un-[[Bowdlerised]] anime, mostly those licensed by Bandai Entertainment.
== 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 ''[[
* [[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]].
* Paul Giamatti had a minor role in the FMV videogame ''[[Ripper]]'' back when he was still an unknown. Ironically, said game had an [[All-Star Cast]] of people still fairly well known today meaning he ended up enhancing it over time.
* Kathie Lee Gifford's first major role was a singer on ''[[
* Darla's victim in the opening scene of the ''[[
** Carmine also guest starred on the season 2
* The fantastic [[Summer Glau]], before becoming [[Firefly
** And on an episode of ''[[
** And in a ''[[
* Before playing [[The Caligula|Joffery]] in [[
* Before becoming a household name, [[Life On Mars|Philip Glenister]] showed up in ''Calendar Girls''
* [[Alias (TV series)|Jennifer Garner]] once played a nurse in the 2001 turkey ''[[Pearl Harbor]]''.
** Which starred Ben Affleck. See, they knew each other before ''[[Daredevil (
* [[Jeff Goldblum]] is one of the evil thugs in ''[[
** Laurence Fishburne also played a thug in ''[[Death Wish II]]''
** Goldblum can also be briefly seen in ''[[
** Goldblum also rode around on a motorcycle for most of [[Robert Altman]]'s ''[[
* [[
** She and her childhood friend, fellow future [[Disney Channel]] star [[
* It can be a severely weird experience to first see Matthew Goode as Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias in ''[[Watchmen (
* Betty Grable appeared in ''The Gay Divorcee'' as Edward Everett Horton's unnamed dancing partner, and was a chorus girl in several earlier movie musicals.
* 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 ''[[
** She also had short-lived recurring roles on ''[[
* [[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
** And appeared in an episode of ''[[
** And a major role in the ''[[Tales
** And a minor role in an episode of the ''[[Weird Science (TV series)|Weird Science]]'' TV show as a hacker whose bogus program almost fries Lisa.
** And a major role in ''[[Airborne]]''.
** And as Woody Allen's childhood self in ''[[
* Way back when, he was one of the kids in ''[[Shoot The Moon]]''
* [[Kathy Griffin]] in ''[[
* [[Heroes (TV series)|Greg Grunberg]] was in ''[[Hollow Man]]'' as a fairly major minor character. And in ''[[Lost]]'' he was the Pilot in the [[Pilot]].
** He also had a recurring role in ''[[Felicity]]''.
** And let's not forget about a minute of screentime in ''[[
* A very young Jake Gyllenhaal as the son of a [[Victim of the Week]] in a ''[[Homicide: Life
** He also played Billy Crystal's son in the ''[[City Slicker]]'' movies.
* Journeyman supporting actor/''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' standout Bill Hader was a field agent on ''Punk'd''. Avid viewers of the credits of action films (all two of you) may also spot his name as a production assistant on a host of early-2000s films like ''Collateral Damage'' and ''[[The Scorpion King]]''.
* Long before he became a household name, [[Tom Hanks]] appeared in the 1980 slasher flick ''He Knows You're Alone''.
** People familiar with Hanks as blockbuster movie actor would probably have this reaction to his role in [[Bosom Buddies]].
* [[Alyson Hannigan]] as [[Dan Aykroyd]]'s daughter in ''My Stepmother is an Alien''.
* [[NCIS
** Of course, older viewers remember him as the heartthrob Dr. Caldwell on ''[[St. Elsewhere]]''.
* Teri Hatcher was a "Mermaid" (showgirl) in the final season of ''[[The Love Boat]]''.
** [[Sylvester Stallone|Ray Tango's]] [[My Sister Is Off-Limits|younger sister]] in ''[[Tango and Cash]]'', a spunky sidekick on reruns of ''[[
** And she was Sam's ex in ''[[
* [[Ashes to Ashes|Keeley Hawes]] shows up in the two-part finale of ''[[The Vicar of Dibley]]'' and the voice of a certain [[Tomb Raider|female archeologist...]]
** Of course, before then she was best known for being a regular on ''[[Spooks]]''. Funnily enough, in ''[[The Vicar of Dibley]]'', she plays [[Richard Armitage]]'s sister, who would go on to be in ''[[Spooks]]''.
* [[The Sarah Connor Chronicles|Lena Headey]] played a mousy new teacher in the 2007 film ''[[St
* In the ''[[Highlander (TV series)|Highlander]]'' episode "Nowhere To Run", [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer
* [[Audrey Hepburn]]'s silent appearance in the opening scene of ''The Lavender Hill Mob''. The same year she instantly became a smash success with ''[[Roman Holiday]]''.
* 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 ''[[
* Josh Holloway, like co-star Terry O'Quinn, had a fair number of credits before ''[[
* [[Gabriel Iglesias]] was on ''[[All That]]'' for a season several years before [[Comedy Central]] specials and ''[[Last Comic Standing]]'' made him widely famous.
* [[Jeremy Irons]] appeared on ''Play Away'', a BBC children's show, in the 1970's. It often crops up in 'before they were famous' clip-shows in the UK.
* [[Samuel L. Jackson]] holds up a [[Burger Fool]] in ''[[
** 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 ''[[
* It's a little creepy to watch [[Famke Janssen]] pursue a romantic relationship with [[Star Trek:
* [[Scarlett Johansson]], usually playing someone’s sister, in many a crappy 90s film. Including ''[[
* Turns out [[Cherry Jones]] (aka [[24
* [[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...
* 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 ''[[
* [[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 (
* 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
* [[Star Trek:
** 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
** That same year, she was also Sabé, one of [[The Phantom Menace|Queen Amidala's handmaidens and decoys]]
** And her appearance as the slutty friend in ''[[
* Jane Krakowski, aged 16, appears in the opening moments of ''[[Fatal Attraction]]'' as the Gallaghers' babysitter.
* Before he was the main character in ''[[
** Not to mention Mr. Universe from ''[[
** 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 ''[[
** And the guy who stabbed Lucy and Carter on ''[[
** Neil Schweiber's older brother on ''[[Freaks and Geeks]]''.
* [[Mila Kunis]] played the younger version of ''[[Gia]]'', whose older edition was played by [[Angelina Jolie]].
** She was also one of the orphans in '' [[Santa
** And she was in ''Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves''.
* Sarah Lancaster, [[Chuck]]'s sister, looked very familiar to some fans. Turned out she was [[Scrubs
** And the very mature and sexy Ephram's girlfriend in ''[[Everwood]]''.
** And Rachel Meyers in ''[[Saved
* Before ''[[The Human Centipede]]'', Dieter Laser played [[Omnicidal Maniac|Mantrid]] in ''[[Lexx]]'', serving as the [[Big Bad]] for Season 2.
* In ''[[
** He also played Jasper in the [[Live Action Adaptation]] of ''[[101 Dalmatians
** He had already a decades-long career on the other side of the Atlantic, though. For people who know their ''[[
*** One of the great things about that episode was that they went to the bother of getting guest appearances from Hugh Laurie, [[Absolutely Fabulous
** He's also a hapless random French court official in ''[[The Man in the Iron Mask (1998 film)|The Man in the Iron Mask]],'' who gets executed on a whim by [[Leonardo
** He was also the bumbling policeman that John Goodman kept arguing with [[Running Gag|throughout]] ''[[The Borrowers]]''.
** And was [[Stuart Little]]'s adoptive dad in the live-action movies.
** Mr. Palmer in ''[[Sense and Sensibility (
*** Hugh Laurie really isn't such a great example of this trope - he might not have been a household name (no pun intended) before he became a certain [[House (TV series)|grouchy doctor]] but as evidenced by the movies above, none of which are direct-to-TV stuff, he certainly got a fair old amount of acting work in Hollywood and as also mentioned above, he was extremely well known in the UK. As well as ''Blackadder'', he was also [[Stephen Fry]]'s comedy partner for a number of years, with shows like ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (TV series)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'' and ''[[A Bit of Fry and Laurie]]''.
*** Incidentally, both he and Stephen have been asked a few times if the latter will ever pop up in ''[[House (TV series)|House]]''. They've said the only way they'd like to do it is if Stephen played a character that is even brighter than House, possibly House's mentor at med school or something. Yes, [[Sherlock Holmes|they want Stephen to play Mycroft to Hugh's Sherlock.]]
* Before [[Taylor Lautner]] was in ''[[Twilight (
** He was also Sharkboy in ''[[
* Adam Lazare-White, voicing Jacob from ''[[
* Matt Le Blanc of ''Friends'' fame had his first big break on the short-lived Fox sitcom ''Top of the Heap'', a [[Spin-Off]] of ''[[Married...
** He also played the same character in a few episodes of ''[[Married...
* [[Heath Ledger]] as Patrick in ''[[
** Though this was more of a [[Star-Making Role]] - he parlayed this into more serious fare.
* 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
** 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 ''[[
* Chad Lindberg, aka Ash, the computer genius, from ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'', started his computer training early: he shows up in the first-season ''[[
* Sam Lloyd took away [[The Drew Carey Show
* Carl Lumbly played a South African Embassy staff in ''[[
* Jane Lynch has had a whole bunch of small or supporting- yet almost always scene stealing- parts in various movies and TV shows before becoming beloved the world over as Sue Sylvester in ''[[
** She was also Dr. Wahler in ''[[The Fugitive (
** She was Spencer Reid's mentally ill mother on ''[[
** She was the store manager in ''[[The 40-Year-Old Virgin]]''.
** She was Julia Child's sister in ''[[Julie and Julia]]''.
== M-R ==
* [http://www.streetsedge.com/images/wizard.jpg Tobey Maguire in] ''[[The Wizard (
** Also, he's the Hitchhiker at the beginning of ''[[Fear and Loathing
* Tina Majorino, probably best known for her role as [[Napoleon Dynamite|Deb]] or as [[Veronica Mars|Mac]], is the [[MacGuffin Girl]] in ''[[
* [[Patty Maloney]]. Because she didn't speak or show her face on ''[[
* Costas Mandylor had guest appearances on ''[[Sex and
* Vincent Martella, who is the voice of Phineas in ''[[
* Eddie McClintock, best known as Pete from ''[[Warehouse 13]]'' is [[
** Also appeared for five seconds in ''[[Sex and
* [[Battlestar Galactica
* Gates McFadden, before being known for her role as [[Star Trek:
** She also had a cameo as Dr. Cathy Ryan in ''[[The Hunt for Red October]]''.
* John C. McGinley: [[Scrubs
** He had a similar role in the environmental film ''[[On Deadly Ground]]''.
** He's also a member of the S.W.A.T. team in ''[[
** ''[[The Rock]]''
** ''[[Platoon]]''
** ''[[Office Space]]'' anyone
** He also pops up to fix [[
** And a Jim Rome expy in ''Any Given Sunday''.
** Appeared as [[Charlie Sheen]]'s coworker in ''[[
* Making anyone under 30 go "Holy crap!", [[Ian McKellen]] showed up in the ''Playing Shakespeare'' educational series in the 1970s.
* Debra Messing was a [[Girl of the Week]] on ''[[
* [[Vic Mignogna]] voiced minor [[Tournament Arc]] villain Uraurashima in the dub of ''[[
* [[Monster of the Week]] on ''[[
* [[Alfred Molina]] was [[Indiana Jones]]' treacherous guide Sapito in the beginning of ''[[
** And Betty Mahomoody's [[Dr. Jerk]] of an abusive husband in ''[[Lifetime Movie of the Week|Not without my daughter]]''.
* [[Julianne Moore]] as Marlene, Claire's friend in ''[[The Hand That Rocks the Cradle]]''
** A suspicious Chicago doctor in ''[[The Fugitive (
* [[The Lord of the Rings (
** And played Satan in ''The Prophecy''.
* Joe Morton, before playing Henry Deacon, the Mechanic-turned convict in ''[[Eureka]]'', played Scratch's number two in the classic film ''Crossroads''. He transports them to the [[Power of Rock|guitar head-cutting contest]] against Steve Vai, who plays Jack "Devil Boy" Butler, the one person [[Fan Nickname|Eugene Martone, King of the Hobos]] has to actually fight.
** Also in the early nineties he was involved in some [[Terminator|cutting-edge cybernetics research]] as Dr. Miles Bennett Dyson.
** He was also the first Dr. Hamilton in ''[[
** Also played a Senator who was left at the altar by [[A Different World|Whitley Gilbert]]
** And as a hard-ass military man in John Sayles' ''Lone Star''
* [[Brittany Murphy]] was a regular in ''[[The Torkelsons]]'' revamp, ''Almost Home''. She also guested several times in the first season of ''[[Sister, Sister]]''.
* Sean Murray, who plays McGee in ''[[
* ''[[Krull]]'' features [[Liam Neeson]] in a minor role.
** Also, ''The Mission''.
* Eric Nelsen, who played Zeke in the "iDream of Dance" of ''iCarly'', later played the [[Jerk Jock]] Brett in ''[[
* Famously, [[Jack Nicholson]]'s debut was a bit part as a masochistic dental patient in the original ''[[
** And now he gets [[Billing Displacement|first billing]] on the DVD box.
** He also turns up, equally unrecognizable, in several other [[Roger Corman]] movies before his breakthrough role in ''[[Easy Rider]]'', including ''The Raven'', where he typically does lose first billing to the [[All-Star Cast|all "star" cast]] of [[Vincent Price]], [[Peter Lorre]], and [[Boris Karloff]].
* [[wikipedia:John Noble|John Noble]] in an episode of ''[[
** And his role as Denethor in ''[[The Lord of the Rings (
* Renee O'Connor, of [[
** She is also in the second ''[[
** She played a waitress in one of the ''[[
* One for lefties - Lawrence O'Donnell Jr. was a producer on ''[[
* [[Masi Oka]], best known as the [[Adorkable]] Hiro Nakamura from ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', had previously played Franklin on ''[[Scrubs]]'' and had a bit part in ''[[Austin Powers]]'' where he insisted the monster was most definitely ''not'' Godzilla.
* [[Hawaii Five-0
* [[Terry O
** He was also a dickish Starfleet admiral in an episode of ''[[Star Trek:
** Don't forget the original (I.E. "better") version of ''[[
** And Howard Hughes (yes, THAT Howard Hughes) in ''[[The Rocketeer (
* [[
** She also played Cassie in one of the ''Sarah Plain And Tall'' movies.
** She also appeared on ''[[3rd Rock
* Haley Joel Osment may be most famous for [[The Sixth Sense
** He and [[Jonathan Lipnicki]] played the sons on ''[[The Jeff Foxworthy Show]]''.
* In 1962, Kerry Wendell Thornley wrote a [[Roman à Clef]] called ''The Idle Warriors'' about a strange young man he had known while in the United States Marine Corps. His name? ''[[Who Shot JFK?|Lee Harvey Oswald]]''. For those who don't know, that's one year ''[[Harsher in Hindsight|before]]'' the Kennedy assassination.
* [[Supernatural (TV series)|Jared Padalecki]] was a fifteen-year-old in a car crash on ''[[
** And one of the bullies in ''[[
** And [[Hilarious in Hindsight|Dean]] in ''[[Gilmore Girls]]''.
* Keke Palmer from ''[[Akeelah and
* Gwyneth Paltrow played the younger version of Wendy in ''[[
* It's startled quite a few people watching reruns of ''[[Law
* Either inverted or played straight with Grace Park, who plays GDI's Lt. Sandra Telfair in ''[[Command
* Before ''[[Legend of the Seeker]]'', Craig Parker played Haldir, a minor elf in ''[[The Lord of the Rings (
* [[Jim Parsons]], now known as Sheldon Cooper on ''[[
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APbUGnt2DaM He was also raised by wolves.]
* [[Simon Pegg]] appears as an Easy Company NCO in ''[[Band of Brothers (TV series)|Band of Brothers]]''.
** That's yet another case which is location-specific - he was already known as a comic actor/writer in the UK by then, though admittedly not as instantly recognisable as he is now.
* So you're watching ''[[Breakfast
* Matthew Perry. Before ''[[
** His first big break was in a Fox sitcom initially called "Second Chance," then re-tooled as "Boys Will Be Boys," minus the original version's supernatural elements.
** Or Brandon's suicidal classmate in ''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]]''.
* [[Star Trek: Voyager
** He was also the guy Rodney Dangerfield's wife is sleeping with in ''[[Back to School (
* 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 (
** 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 (
* [[Ryan Reynolds]] was in the original pilot movie for ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV series)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]''
** Also was in ''[[Two Guys, a Girl And A Pizza Place]]'' together with [[Nathan Fillion]].
** Popped up in a season 3 episode of ''[[
* Speaking of Giovanni Ribisi, he had one of those moments in ''[[
* Wayne Robson. You know Mike Hamar, the ex-con on ''[[The Red Green Show]]''? Did you notice him in ''One Magic Christmas''? How about the Disney TV Movie ''Murder She Purred''? ''[[Cube]]''? ''Welcome To Mooseport''? ''[[The Rescuers (Disney film)|The Rescuers]] Down Under?''
** How about ''[[Popeye (
* Daniel Roebuck, Artz from ''[[
* [[Seth Rogen]] appears as a bully in ''[[
** Before that he had fairly large roles in ''[[Freaks and Geeks]]'' and ''[[Undeclared]]''.
* Tim Russ aka [[Star Trek: Voyager
** He was also one of the crooks in the ''[[Star Trek:
** He's also a bridge officer on the Enterprise-B at another point. We get a good look at his ears and they're not pointed.
** Interestingly he was retconned in a Voyager episode to actually BE Tuvok (complete with pointed ears in a flashback) as a lieutenant on the Excelsior who had joined starfleet in Kirk's era only to become disillusioned by Sulu's maverick attitude, quitting Starfleet for decades until rejoining in Picard's time.
* Debra Jo Rupp aka [[That '70s Show
** And Jerry [[
* Tim Robbins appears in a 1st season episode of ''[[Moonlighting]]'' as an assassin that underestimates an old man and is [[Curb Stomp Battle|Curb Stomped]] with a bedpan.
* ''[[
** And don't forget the above Tim Robbins as Merlin.
== S-Z ==
* [[Katee Sackhoff]] got beheaded in ''[[Halloween (
* [[Adam Sandler]] was one of Theo's buddies in ''[[
** He also played Colin Quinn's "delinquent cousin Stickpin" and "The Stud Boy" in ''[[Remote Control]]''.
* Peter Sarsgaard in ''[[The Man in the Iron Mask (1998 film)|The Man in the Iron Mask]]'', playing a romantic rival to [[Leonardo
* David Schwimmer made minor appearances on ''[[The Wonder Years]]'' and ''[[
* Hey, did you know Tony Shalhoub, TV's [[
** Tony Shalhoub guested in a lot of stuff - ''[[
** Hell, he even had his own sitcom (with [[Neil Patrick Harris]]) ''[[Stark Raving Mad]]''.
** Although it doesn't seem to work if you were a fan of ''[[Wings (TV series)|Wings]]''.
** He also sings "Macho Man" with Joan Cusack in ''Addams Family Values''.
** He's near unrecognizable as an incompetent producer in ''[[Barton Fink]]''.
* Rondell Sheridan was Andre in ''[[Cousin Skeeter]]'' before becoming well known to kids as ''[[That's So Raven
* John Simm was in ''[[Spaced]]'' and ''Human Traffic'' before ''[[Life On Mars]]''.
* Kurtwood Smith ([[That '70s Show
** Not to mention as the President of the Federation in ''[[Star Trek VI:
** And he was Neil's father in ''[[Dead Poets Society]]''. This is actually what makes {{spoiler|Neil's suicide scene}} go from [[Tear Jerker]] to [[Narm]], though.
* [[Matt Smith]] shows up in a deleted scene of ''[[
** Matt Smith didn't exist in the public eye until ''[[Doctor Who]]''. His IMDB page was practically empty up until this year.
** He was in an episode of ''[[Secret Diary of a Call Girl]]'' to have a one night stand with [[Billie Piper|Rose Tyler]]
*** Much in the same vein he played her best Friend in the [[Made for TV]] adaptation of [[Sally Lockhart]].
* [[How I Met Your Mother
* Ian Somerhalder played a [[Recurring Character]] for half a season on ''[[
** He also was on [[Young Americans]] and in [[Tell Me You Love Me]].
* In an episode of ''[[
** 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
* Cole Sprouse played Ben in ''[[
** And together, they also played the part of Julian "Frankenstein" McGrath in ''[[Big Daddy]]''.
* Another one for ''[[Higher Ground]]'': [[Jewel Staite]].
** And again, she was on ''[[
** And before that, she was rainbow-haired Catalina on ''[[Space Cases]]''.
** Way back in 1996 she was Becca, the best friend and neighbor of Ben Foster's Tucker on the [[Disney Channel]] show ''[[Flash Forward (TV series)|Flash Forward]]''.
* Don Stark aka [[That '70s Show
** He also had a role in ''[[Santa
* 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 (
** In ''[[Zathura]]'' as the sister.
** Also in ''Catch That Kid'', which also has
** Immediately pre-breakout, she played the underage love interest in ''[[Into the Wild]]''.
** She also stars in the 2004 movie ''[[Speak]]'' (based on the novel of the same name), being 13 years old at the time.
* [[Patrick Stewart]] appeared in the BBC educational show ''Playing Shakespeare'' in the 1970s before becoming [[Star Trek:
** He was Leondegrance in ''[[Excalibur (
** 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.
* [[Poirot|David Suchet]] played the rival Arab dictator in the first ''[[
* Faran Tahir, prior to becoming [[Iron Man (
* [[Amber Tamblyn]] was one of Dawn's friends in the sixth season of ''[[
* [[Amanda Tapping]] showed up in an episode of ''[[Due South]]'' a year before ''[[
* [[Catherine Tate]] shows up in an episode of ''[[Men Behaving Badly]]'' as a woman interested in buying Tony and Gary's flat.
* How about John Terry (Christian Shepard), who played Felix Leiter in ''[[
* [[Leon Thomas]] is well known as Andre on the [[
* 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
** 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 [[
* In ''[[Rudy]]'', Vince Vaughn has a minor part as Jamie O'Brien, the under-performing halfback who {{spoiler|throws the TD pass in the final game to give Rudy a shot on the field}}.
* Before she became Major Kira on ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
* In ''[[Tank Girl (
* Before playing Tony DiNozzo on ''[[
* Game show announcer Randy West, despite not having a familiar face, was a contestant on several shows before his announcing career began. Among these were ''[[All
* Vanna White was a contestant on ''[[The Price Is Right]]'' about three years before she became the co-host on ''[[
* Before his [[Star-Making Role]] in ''[[Moonlighting]]'', [[Bruce Willis
* Speaking of ''Wheel'', [[Alicia Witt]] was a contestant on a teen week in 1989. (Incidentally, she later played a [[Celebrity Edition]] in 1997.)
** Her first acting role, at the age of nine, was Alia in [[David Lynch]]'s ''[[Dune]]''.
* Before her breakout job as a regular on ''[[
* Mark "[[Harry Potter (
** He was also a goofy exterminator in ''[[The Borrowers]]'', where Hugh Laurie was a rambling cop and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) was the son in the family of Borrowers.
** Speaking of Williams, watch the first two seasons of ''[[
** And then my son helped vanquish the Dark Lord. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alQjtnWQlAE Which was nice.]
*** Really, this is similar to the Hugh Laurie example above. Both men had large parts on comedy shows which were huge in the UK (''[[The Fast Show]]'' might not have been quite as big as ''[[
* 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
** He also had a part as a stressed-out child business man in the [[
** 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 (
* [[Anton Yelchin]] played a troubled teenager in the ''[[
** He also plays the main child character in the film version of ''Hearts In Atlantis''.
* Billy Zane, who played Cal in ''[[
** And in between he was ''[[The Phantom (
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