Favorite "Before They Were Famous" Appearance

[Stanislav]

Part of the fun of Classic TV is seeing actors who later went on to become well-known characters playing earlier guest roles. For example, I just watched an episode of Combat! in which Ted Knight played a Nazi Sergeant.

What are some of your favorite such "before they were famous" appearances? It might be because they did a particularly good (or bad) job, or because the role was humorously incongruous with the character for which they later became famous (and, more often than not, typecast).

 

[tlyle]

Tom Hanks had a role on "Family Ties" around the same time he did "Bosem Buddies."

 

[Stanislav]

Tom Hanks had a role on "Family Ties" around the same time he did "Bosem Buddies."

IIRC, he was an uncle (?) who was a closet alcoholic. A typical "Very Special Episode."

 

[davect]

Lucille Ball had a small part in a Three Stooges short.

 

[Mark Giardina]

John Ritter playing a burglar in a Kojak episode.

Always enjoyed watching Peter Falk play the bad guy before he became famous as Columbo.

 

[Mario500]

Jenny Jones appearing in three editions of "Press Your Luck" years before hosting a syndicated TV talk show.

 

[cd637299]

I seem to remember Gary Coleman on "The Jeffersons" for the first time, thinking, "wow, this kid's good....he'll go places."

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[KeithE4]

I seem to remember Gary Coleman on "The Jeffersons" for the first time, thinking, "wow, this kid's good....he'll go places."

Commercials from Chicago: Coleman in a Harris Bank commercial in the mid '70s. Robin Williams in an Illinois Bell commercial from about the same time. Kathy Griffin in a White Sox commercial in 1977 or '78. Steve Carrell in a Brown's Chicken commercial in the '80s.

 

[dmargalotti]

Tom Selleck in The Rockford Files..Willie Aames and Cloris Leachman in Adam-12 (different episodes).

 

[Wright County Guy]

The premiere of "Rockford Files" as a series had a young James Woods.

 

[Charles1]

What about Jack Nicholson on the Andy Griffith Show? Or Ed Begley Jr. as a klutzy rifleman but great chef on M*A*S*H?

 

[therealjm12]

Watch any episode of the "the Untouchables". There's a future recognizable face in everyone. Just too many to list.

 

[landtuna]

Martin Milner in a host of war movies from the early 50's.

John Banner (Sgt Shultz on "Hogan's Hero's) as a defendant on "Perry Mason" (late 50's).

Werner Klemperer (Col. Klink on "Hogan") a Nazi in the movie "Judgement at Nurenburg". Interestingly, Klemperer was Jewish and agreed to play Klink only as an oafish, less than bright officer.

 

[anotherguyTN]

More from MASH:

Teri Garr and Shelley Long (Pre-Cheers) as nurses Hawkeye was dating
John Ritter, Ron Howard (Between Andy Griffith and Happy Days) , Patrick Swayze and Lawrence Fishburne as patients
Leslie Nielsen (Not unknown but pre-Airplane) as a colonel that Hawkeye and Trapper wanted to make him think he was going crazy to get him off the front line
George Wendt (Pre-Cheers) as a Marine who got an 8 ball stuck in his mouth

 

[wbhist]

In the final season (1969-70) of Petticoat Junction, Harry Dean Stanton (many, many years before such works as Paris, Texas) appeared in the episode "One Of Our Chickens Is Missing" as one of a gang of bikers who stole chickens. As with most of the film and TV shows he did back then, he was credited at the end of the episode as Dean Stanton, and in one of life's greatest ironies, the reason why he was billed as such was in that same episode - character actor Harry Stanton (no relation), who played a sheriff in pursuit of the chicken-napping bikers.

But in that show's first season of 1963-64, another future iconic actor of the hippie generation appeared in a PJ episode - a pre-Easy Rider Dennis Hopper, in "Bobbie Jo and the Beatnik."

 

[cordeliachase]

Watch any episode of the "the Untouchables". There's a future recognizable face in everyone. Just too many to list.

Ditto for "The Twilight Zone." Just about every episode featured familiar faces like William Shatner,
Robert Duvall, Jessica Tandy, Gig Young, Dean Stockwell, Elizabeth Montgomery, etc.

 

[Tim L]

Also, In that first Peticoat Junction season of 1963-64, Adam West played a handsome young doctor whom Billie Jo was smitten with. Just listening to his voice then..You could hear the "Batman" inflection, though Batman was 2 years away..

 

[Stanislav]

Also, In that first Peticoat Junction season of 1963-64, Adam West played a handsome young doctor whom Billie Jo was smitten with. Just listening to his voice then..You could hear the "Batman" inflection, though Batman was 2 years away..

And can still hear it in his delightful voice work on Family Guy as "Himself." (Or a brilliantly self-parodying bizarro version therof...)

 

[Stanislav]

If you want to see a BTWF that's a real hoot, seek out surviving footage of Carson's Cellar, a local L.A. show Johnny Carson did years before The Tonight Show. He's skinny as a rail, and looks like he's just started shaving.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

Bobby Fischer appeared on "Ive Got A Secret" as a preteen or barely teenage junior chess champ...There's also a clip floating around of Frank Zappa guesting on Steve Allen's syndicated early 60s late night talk show. His schtick was playing a bicycle.