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Favorite "Before They Were Famous" Appearance

A handful from 'The Six Million Dollar Man'...
John Vernon (Dean Wormer from Animal House, in the second episode of the series, 'The Solid Gold Kidnapping'.
Eric Braeden, pre-Victor Newman of The Young and the Restless, in the following ep, 'Wine, Women and War'.
Randall Carver (John on Taxi ) in 'Survival of the Fittest'.
Mike Farrell, pre-'MASH', in 'Burning Bright'.
Adam Rich and Dana Plato in 'A Bionic Christmas Carol'.
 
Since this thread is still active, I will drop a multi-generational example.

The Main Ingredient, early 1970s R&B group, had a lead singer by the name of Cuba Gooding, Sr. His son, Cuba Gooding, Jr., would be the one who made the name famous.
 
firepoint525 said:
Since this thread is still active, I will drop a multi-generational example.

The Main Ingredient, early 1970s R&B group, had a lead singer by the name of Cuba Gooding, Sr. His son, Cuba Gooding, Jr., would be the one who made the name famous.
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A good group. Their big Top 40 hits in the early 70s were "Just Don't Want to Be Lonely," a good cover of the Four Seasons "Workin My Way Back to You." , and Everybody Plays the Fool.

If you listen to Cuba Gooding (Sr) talk on the front of "Lonely," you'll note that he and his son (the actor) sound very much alike.

Sorry to wander off topic...
 
Hate to bring up a 7-year-old thread, but today on Antenna TV, a barely recognizable Jean Stapleton was featured in the 3/11/1962 episode of Dennis the Menace as the Wilsons' housekeeper. She was made up to be like a frumpy/nasty character that Margaret Hamilton would have played 20 years earlier.
 
Richard Dryfus guested on Bewitched once.
And a couple from Hogans Heroes,, William Christopher played a prisoner a couple of times, Gavin McLeod played a few different Nazi generals, and Bernard Fox played Col. Crittenden in a few episodes.
 
sack said:
And a couple from Hogans Heroes,, William Christopher played a prisoner a couple of times, Gavin McLeod played a few different Nazi generals, and Bernard Fox played Col. Crittenden in a few episodes.
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one more from Hogans Heroes - Richard Dawson - he was Newkirk on Hogan's Heroes - and we know that his career took off after that - in a mostly different direction (except for his role in "The Running Man" with Ah-nold....)
 
This may have been mentioned previously - Jack Nicholson, before his fame, with one line of dialogue in a final season (color) episode of The Andy Griffith Show. He played a man wrongfully accused of stealing a TV set (IIRC), and Sheriff Taylor testifies at his trial to correct this miscarriage of justice. I believe the show's final season was 67-68. Of course, Nicholson's fame began a year later in 1969 in a stand-out role in the film Easy Rider.
 
Naked City and Route 66 had countless early appearances, with NC's location shooting in NYC offering plenty of actors their shots, such as Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford (playing a neo-Nazi!), Gene Hackman, Alan Alda and Robert Duvall. Route 66 had all of those--except Hoffman.

In an early episode of George C. Scott's "East Side, West Side," (also shot in NYC), Alda appeared as a john in the first episode, while Carroll O'Coonor plays a very Archie Bunker-type father who wants his daughter's (his little goil) boyfriend prosecuted for statutory rape the following week. Cicely Tyson played Scott's secretary until she got written out halfway through the only season--reportedly because CBS didn't like it.

A Hazel episode had Dick Sargent playing the nephew of George Baxter's boss--who wants to get married...to a woman. It also had a Jamie Farr and James Doohan (Scotty from Star Trek) appearance. The one-season revamp (in 1965-66) had a teenage Ann Jillian as a recurring character.

Highway Patrol had Joe Flynn and Robert Conrad in early roles. I didn't notice Flynn at first because he was trying to play a tough guy (in the standard issue leather jacket) and didn't have his usual horn-rimmed glasses. However, that nasal voice was a dead giveaway.

Teri Garr and Rob Reiner appeared on Batman. Reiner also played a hippie on Gomer Pyle.

Manson family victim/actress Sharon Tate appeared on the Beverly Hillbillies. Fellow victim, hairdresser Jay Sebring, had a cameo in a Batman episode--because he did producer William Dozier's hair.

One of Charles Bronson's last TV show appearances was as a federal agent who stumbles across Richard KImble during the final season of The Fugitive.

Mike Farrell played an agent on The Monkees

Adam West plays a cold-blooded killer who tries to frame the Carwrights in a 1961 episode of Bonanza. The following year, Gena Rowlands played a prostitute who Hoss wants to marry.
 
BD Sullivan said:
Naked City and Route 66 had countless early appearances, with NC's location shooting in NYC offering plenty of actors their shots, such as Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford (playing a neo-Nazi!), Gene Hackman, Alan Alda and Robert Duvall. Route 66 had all of those--except Hoffman.

Gena Rowlands played a prostitute who Hoss wants to marry.
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Robert Duvall was a very prolific TV actor in the '50s and through the '60s. I believe his first big theatrical film role was as Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird ('62), but he continued to work in TV until The Godfather ('72).

I saw an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents a couple of years ago, with Gena Rowlands. I'd forgotten how beautiful she was.
 
Here's an oldie I just stepped into a few days ago:

"Two Fisted Law" (1932) starring Tim McCoy. John Wayne and Walter Brennan had bit parts (practically no dialog) in this movie but someone got hold of it and changed the titles to feature both Wayne and Brennan. Wayne's character was basically a stand-in - he said or did absolutely nothing. I can't even remember what Brennan's part was but it was a bit more substantial than Wayne's. Tim McCoy (one of the more popular cowboy actors from early talkies through the 40's) was obviously the original featured actor but was virtually dropped off the title cast list.

It's worth watching if for nothing more than seeing Wayne's start in the Westerns.
 
One of Duvall's later TV roles was as a Wild, Wild West Megalomaniac-of-the-Week, which Ted Knight also played.

Gavin McLeod played a hipster actor (wearing a rug) on The Munsters.

Ed Asner's roles varied, though he was usually seen as a heavy.

I had mentioned Alan Alda on Route 66--roughly a decade before he became Hawkeye Pierce, he played a doctor trying to stop an epidemic from developing.
 
AntennaTV is airing a Season 6 (1981) episode of Alice as I write this, featuring a not-yet-famous Jay Leno and already-jumped-the-shark Ron "Horshack" Palillo as bikers. Bizarre episode, and the pairing of Leno and Palillo is even more bizarre.
 
"Gidget" featured Bonnie Franklin and Barbara Hershey in occasional roles as Gidget's friends. Richard Dreyfus had an entire episode built around Gidget's attempts to make him a cool kid.
"The Patty Duke Show" features early roles for James Brolin (guy Patty has a crush on) and Jean Stapleton (running a raffle). Kathy Garver of "Family Affair" fame also is one of Patty's friends in a few episodes.
 
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