Bit roles before they were "famous"

[Aragorn]

Ryan wrote:

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Noah Wyle had a bit role in A Few Good Men.

That gets promoted heavily when the movie airs on NBC.

"Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Cuba Gooding Jr. and ER's Noah Wyle... star in a Few Good Men."

[ToddPence]

Here's some other TOS regulars before TOS:

George Takei from "The Twilight Zone". This episode has not been seen on TV since it first aired, although it has been released on video and DVD.



Here's a couple from "The Fugitive". The first with Jimmy Doohan. The second with DeForest Kelley.





And, of course, we can't forget that Shatner was on "The Fugitive", too.



Here's a couple of more with Kelley, from separate episodes of "Route 66" . . .





. . . which, incidentally, was ANOTHER series that the ever-present Shatner was on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHRC6...e=channel_page

Three more youtube clips - these are from separate episodes of the 1960's high school drama "Mr. Novak", a series with a lot of Star Trek connections, and each features Walter Koenig:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKTyLfGoSEU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhJCvewqpGg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHsVLk1E4sI

Koenig's full-length Alfred Hitchcock episode, "Memo From Purgatory", can also be seen at hulu.com (as can Shatner's).

[Finn]

Gywenth Paltrow in Hook

[NCC1701]

The Laughing Vulcan wrote:

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Jack Black - Enemy Of The State

He also plays a pilot in Waterworld, which was 3 years before Enemy of the State. I wasn't quite sure it was him until I saw the credits, he didn't seem to have gained weight til after that, though it's been a while since I saw Waterworld.

[Skywalker]

Jack Black also plays a minor role in the rollerblading film Airborne, which was two years before Waterworld, along with Seth Green. Speaking of Seth Green, he was also in Ticks.

[Sephiroth]

Skywalker wrote:

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Jack Black also plays a minor role in the rollerblading film Airborne, which was two years before Waterworld, along with Seth Green. Speaking of Seth Green, he was also in Ticks.

and as I noted earlier, he was also on Tales from the Darkside

[Aragorn]

Tales from the Darkside: The Movie

Christian Slater was the known commodity, but in his segment were also Steve Buscemi and Julianne Moore.

[Donald Draper]

Quantum Leap -

I know that Jennifer Aniston was mentioned already

Both future Trek cast members Terry Ferrell and Robert Duncan McNeill appear in separate episodes.

The same for future Desperate Housewives Marcia Cross and Teri Hatcher.

[The Borgified Corpse]

A pre-Bones Emily Deschanel has a bit role as a secretary at the beginning of Spider-Man 2.

John Ratzenberger seemed to pop up all over the place in the late 1970s/early 1980s. He has one line as a Rebel Alliances deck officer on Hoth in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. He's one of the military guys tracking the nuclear missiles in Superman: The Movie. And he's one of the NASA mission control guys in Superman II.

Before he was Captain Hollister on Red Dwarf, Mac Macdonald had a bit role as a colony administrator on LV-426 in Aliens. Ironically, his role was cut from the theatrical version and didn't resurface until the special edition came out in the early 1990s, after Red Dwarf premiered.

[Donald Draper]

The Borgified Corpse wrote:

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John Ratzenberger seemed to pop up all over the place in the late 1970s/early 1980s. He has one line as a Rebel Alliances deck officer on Hoth in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. He's one of the military guys tracking the nuclear missiles in Superman: The Movie. And he's one of the NASA mission control guys in Superman II.

All of those films were made in England. Ratzenberger was living there in the mid to late 70s. He got a lot of bit roles which called for American actors. Often military men.

[Aragorn]

And now he probably gets asked more questions about his three-second role in Star Wars than his 11 years on Cheers.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Emmy Rossum was on Law & Order when she was a kid. About 11, I think.

[Aragorn]

Emmy Rossum played a young Audrey Hepburn in the movie starring Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Tom Noonan was Frankenstein in The Monster Squad, but that came after F/X and Manhunter, so maybe he wasn't unknown anymore.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

John Spencer (Leo from The West Wing) was in the movie WarGames. He played one of the military guys in the bunker at the beginning. He had great lines like this:

"SCREW the procedure. I want somebody on the (#%*^ phone before I kill twenty million people!"

He was also in the first L&O episode ever broadcast (not the first one made; they weren't aired in production order in the first season). He was the victim's father.

[KeptinChris]

Jack Black as an arcade attendant in The X-Files.