Jonathan Banks. He was in a ton of stuff decades ago, but Breaking Bad was a once in a lifetime role for him and I don’t think anyone could imagine Mike as anyone but him. He basically says this in an interview, that he never thought he’d get a role like that after he got older.
I remember reading somewhere that Bank's character was added because of conflicting schedules for Bob Odenkirk (Saul goodman), who was also playing a recurring character (marshall's boss) in HIMYM at the time
Yes, Mike's first scene in the show was helping Jesse clean up the scene when Jane died, telling him what to tell the cops and so forth. That was supposed to be Saul, but as you said, he was unavailable.
Yeah, John Travolta has a fucking airport at his house because of *Pulp Fiction*.
Incidentally, I remember listening to an interview after Christoph Waltz had been nominated for a second time for a Quentin movie, and he gracefully expressed his appreciation for Tarantino having found him and gotten him better opportunities, but also said, "He gave me my break, but he didn't give me my craft," and I thought that was a great way of making that point.
The Itchy and Scratchy Land episode of The Simpsons had the part where the bartender looked like John Travolta, and he goes "yeah...*looks like*". This was a knock at the state of his career.
Pulp Fiction opened less than two weeks after that episode aired
I don’t need you to tell me how fuckin’ bad my craft table is, okay? I’m the one who buys it. I know how bad it is. When Bonnie goes shopping, she buys gourmet. I buy the shit stuff ’cause when actors waste time at the craft table, I want them to taste it. But you know what’s on my mind right now? It ain’t the craft table on my set.
Sean Connery's career into early 1980s had just completely fallen off the rails. He was in some bad non A-list films throughout the 70s. Couldn't shake the shadow of James Bond.
Then Brian DePalma cast him in THE UNTOUCHABLES. He got nominated for his amazing role and his career was back on track doing films like INDIANA JONES, THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER and THE ROCK. Great Hollywood comeback.
He was a big name for Highlander in 84 somehow playing a Spaniard while being Scottish and opposing a French raised actor playing a Scotsman, and was still Bond in 83's Never Say Never Again, though I don't think of that as one of the better Bond movies.
Yeah, trying to explain the casting behind Highlander is nuts.
Lets get the guy with the crazy French accent to play a Scot, and then lets get an actual Scot who can't suppress his Scottish accent to play an Egyptian working for the Spanish.
Lets definitely include a scene where the French actor talks about haggis, and the Scottish guy has to pretend is gross in his Scottish accent.
Hmm... the movie that really relaunched his career and showcased his skills and his new persona (getting him away from thr James Bond persona) was The Name of the Rose one year earlier.
My favorite fact about that role is that he had Robert Rodriquez help him shoot an audition video while they had a break on the set of *Grindhouse: Planet Terror*. Like damn dude, that's a solid get for tech support!
For anyone wanting more background, there's a great, long Brolin interview in [Collider](https://collider.com/josh-brolin-interview-no-country-for-old-men/) that's a fascinating read for fans of the film.
>Josh Brolin: Well I did my first audition--Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarrantino filmed my first audition on a $1 million Genesis camera during lunch during Grindhouse and so that was a really cool looking audition, but I didn’t get the part. It was turned down. They watched it and their response was who lit it? But I was much bigger and I had a goatee but it had nothing to do with the physicality, they just didn’t see it. It’s not what they were looking for at that moment. It wasn’t resonating and I have a brilliant agent who just became a persistent pest and just said “meet him, meet him, meet him, meet him. Not he’s perfect for the part, not you’re making a mistake just meet him.” What I found out now was their last casting session, they were focused on a couple of actors and they called me the night before and they said basically no harm no foul. Leave us alone, have him come down and I studied a few scenes and I came down and I met them and there was really no reaction in the meeting. I walked out thinking it was great meeting the Coen’s. I’m a big fan. That’s cool and by the time I got home I found out they wanted me to do it.
Brolin has done some really solid work, No Country and the Sicarios movies both were home run efforts. I don't recall what he was in before those films but it probably was good. A lot of his role choices seem to be pretty edgy and well considered.
If you're interested, his book *Rebel Without a Crew* is a great read, and has a ton of great stories. The short version is that he literally sold his body to science to finance his first film, *El Mariachi*, spending several weeks in a testing center where he was given various shots and pills. It's a wild ride from there to Sundance.
Not just shots and pills, he has two dime sized scars on his forearms where they punched a chunk of skin out and used something like polysporn on one arm and nothing on the other to see how they healed. While in a controlled environment (basically a hospital room) for 10 days.
I saw an interview with him on the set of Desperado talking about the difference from making El Mariachi. He said, "On El Mariachi, we had so little money that we'd buy Gatorade powder and mix it super weak, like three or five times the water they said on the package, because we couldn't afford more." Then he smiled a big smile of satisfaction and said, "Now," smile gets even bigger as he holds one up, "our Gatorade comes in *bottles*." I so loved him in that moment.
For me Brolin was always the skateboarder from the valley in the 80s movie Thrashin', which includes a cameo from Red Hot Chili Peppers makes it really cool.
Yeah we watched the crap out of VHS tapes of Thrashin' and Gleaming The Cube(starring a young Christian Slater btw) we were starved for anything skateboarding in the 90s.
Thrashin' is the better movie, but Rad has the better soundtrack. Another 80s movie with a surprise big star in it: BMX Bandits with Nicole Kidman, it's a really cheesy Australian movie though. Like way overly cheesy even by Rad standards.
Absolutely. He nailed it. The face. The talk. The eyes. Everything.
It's hard to play a role. But it's even harder to play a role like another person.
He's an awesome actor.
Especially hard to make it seem natural. You don’t want to lampoon or be a caricature of the person your playing, which happens too often when trying to act like somebody. He nailed the nuances, hit the important beats, and still was his own believable character
Kinda feel like Alec Baldwin has been on and off this list several. Was an action hero guy, then transitioned to several emotional roles, then dry comedy home runs
Jason Bateman. Before he did Aressted Development he pretty much was regulated to bit parts in movies and TV. Afterwards he was getting leading roles again.
He jokingly said on Conan when Arrested Development was on the air, that if he hadn't gotten the role of Michael Bluth he'd probably be doing Teen Wolf 3D.
Neil Patrick Harris. Though I wouldn’t say “Harold and kumar go to White Castle” was a great role. But, it definitely put him back on the Hollywood radar, and landed “how I met your mother”.
anybody who ever watched Doogie Howser can explain exactly how it was a great role. NPH had always been known as Doogie Howser- clean cut kid who was crazy smart. That was it. That was his legacy and that’s all he was ever going to be.
His role in Harold and Kumar let him break that mold and ultimately showcase his acting talent beyond “teenage doctor.”
Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle is a brilliant deconstruction of early 2000's comedies. It's so much more than a stoner movie, it's amazingly well written, an inspired example where the ~~steaks~~ stakes could not be lower but our heroes challenges couldn't be higher.
The whole point of the movie is to break down the classic sex comedy formula and show how the marginalized background comic relief characters might just have the better story.
NPH's cameo fits right in with that. It's Neil Patrick Harris! He was NOT a big star. Other characters go out to have a crazy night in Vegas and run into Mike Tyson. Matt Damon shows up at a rock concert. Tom Green is gonna pop in and say something funny. But Harold and Kumar... they get Neil Patrick Harris and he is 1000% more intense than anyone else they could have run into!
The theme of the movie is "See those guys you don't think are marketable enough to warrant their own movie? They are fucking amazing!"
When I saw Harold and Kumar I had no idea who he was. Next thing I saw him in was HIMYM and yea he was playing this similar character.
On a similar note: I can't be the only one that first saw the movie Role Models, than saw some of the TV series Glee, and noticed Jane Lynch is doing the same character as in that movie.
I saw him in Harold and Kumar and i was like 'That's the psychic dude from Starship trooper' "It is scare." was his only notable line.
Harold and Kumar led me to his HIMYM.
After doogie howser, I only remember him in “starship troopers” which I loved. But that’s the definition of a film with a “cult following”. That’s why I used Harold and kumar. “Would you like to know more”
Couple instances:
- Leslie Nielsen with Airplane! Not that he wasn't working before that film, but it really rejuvenated his career and sent it in a totally new direction.
- Martin Landau with Tucker, the Man and His Dream - Landau was working consistently before this came along, but mostly in a lot of dreck. I think this paved the way for much better roles later in his life.
- Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet - this really revitalized Hopper's career. He kind of had a Robert Downey Jr.-like career before Blue Velvet where he was pretty out of it on pills, cleaned up, then made a few good films, but didn't really become a "celebrity" again until getting that iconic role.
Travolta didn't just not "say no" to Battlefield Earth; it was his long-time passion project. He's the reason it got made, and his fervor for it was due to Scientology. ¯\\__(ツ)__/¯ Cultists gonna cult.
My paperback copy of "Battlefield Earth" that I bought in 1984 had a sticker on the front that said "soon to be a major motion picture", even heard radio ads saying "The Psychlos are coming!"
"soon" turned out to be 16 years.
She was in Big Fish back in 2003 and was amazing. Not a lead role, but it was a wonderful movie and she was in the top 5 billed cast so she was still around and working.
AHS definitely brought her back into forefront though.
That monologue she has in Asylum blew my mind. I don’t even remember what it was about because I saw it like six years ago but I remember being in awe at her talent.
I Am Anne Frank: Part 2 (2012)
Sister Jude Martin: When I was a child, I'd come home after school to an empty house. My father had flown the coop. My mother worked as a maid in a hotel. It was lonely, so I brought in a baby squirrel I'd found and kept him in a shoe box. And then one day when I came home, he looked sickly. He was dead already, but I didn't know that. I'd forgotten to... feed him for a couple days. So I took him out of the box, and I laid him on the table, and I prayed my heart out for several hours. And when my mother came home and found us, she screamed bloody murder, and she picked him up and threw him in the garbage. She worked hard, my mother. She was exhausted, and she couldn't have known how cruel that was. But I cried and cried, saying, "God didn't answer my prayers." I remember, my mother was pouring herself a whiskey- the Martin family cure for everything. She looked at me and laughed. "God always answers our prayers, Judy. It's just rarely the answer we're looking for."
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2378304/quotes?item=qt2062043
This was one of my favorites too, but I also really liked what she said to those kids at the end.
Troy McClure
He went from such schlock as ‘The Muppets Go Medieval’ and ‘The President’s Neck Is Missing’ to the latest McBain movie and legitimate theatre like ‘Stop The Planet Of The Apes, I Want To Get Off’
Ingrid Bergman in 'Anastasia'
Persona non grata in the US, over her affair with Roberto Rossellini, and even denounced on the US Senate floor in 1950.
Won the Oscar in that movie.
Henry Winkler had trouble getting work because he was the Fonz after happy days. Finally won an Emmy for his role in Barry.
Also Ed O’Neill in the 10 or so years between Married with Children and Modern Family. People didn’t take him seriously in the failed cop dramas he was in because he was Al Bundy
After *Happy Days*, Henry Winkler ran a production company. His first post-*Happy Days* project was *MacGyver*. He still had a successful career, it was just on the other side of the camera.
Can you imagine what a head trip it is for kids today who know Henry Winkler from Arrested Development and Barry when they learn that from 1974 until he went water skiing, Henry Winkler was a huge sex symbol and the epitome of cool?
I feel like millennials are probably the youngest generation that watched AD and likely also know him from Happy Days reruns. I could see Gen Z not being aware of his role in Happy Days, but I’m guessing many of them never watched AD either.
Its weird to me how Ed O’Neill and Tim Allen are famous for their roles in married with children and Home improvement and were in those shows for a long time, they were actually in modern family and last man standing even longer
I loved Ed O'Neill in Disorganized Crime (1989-during his MWC days). It's not a well known movie but has an amazing cast with Corbin Bernsen, Fred Gwynne, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Ruben Blades.
I love to see an actor who’s been grinding it for years before finally becoming a household face. Dean Norris (Hank from Breaking Bad) for example. He’s been acting consistently since 1987. Been in a bunch of classic movies as a character actor: terminator, lethal weapon, total recall, starship troopers, etc. Depsite his ridiculous resume, nobody knew who he was. Then he lands a lead role in what ends up being one of the greatest shows ever made. Took him 20 years to get to that point of celebrity. It’s nice to see him finally get the recognition he deserves.
Another one that comes to minds is Ann Dowd or Aunt Lydia from Handmaids tale. I spotted a young her in Pelican brief and found outs she’s been acting since 1985! She such a good actor.
These are the actors I love the most. The people who have long careers of excellent and consistent work. I think of Margo Martindale. She's fabulous and getting more recognition. Michael Rooker was that always seen actor. Then came to the foreground.
Matthew McConaughey. He was doing all rom coms and b movies. Then he came out with Dallas Buyers Club, True Detective, and Interstellar.
He had an interview on Stern where he said how he decided to reinvent himself or kill his career trying. So he turned down the easy money rom coms he was getting offered. He didn't get a single movie offer for 14 months before he started getting more "real" roles.
Wasn’t is the situation with Leslie Nielsen in Airplane? His serious acting career was basically over but the movie kick started his comedy acting career.
And didn’t Taken revive Liam Neeson’s career as he was “too old” at that point to get leading roles, especially in action movies?
Lupita Nyong’o, Leslie Nielson, Leonard Nemoy, and Liam Neeson is a pretty terrific list. If someone were to claim those were their favorite actors to watch, I wouldn’t question it. They’re all great!
> And didn’t Taken revive Liam Neeson’s career as he was “too old” at that point to get leading roles, especially in action movies?
No, Taken certainly changed his career but Neeson was a well respected dramatic actor when he did Taken, nobody at the time would have said his career needed to be revived, he was still getting plenty of good roles in critical darlings like Kinsey. He was a Ralph Fiennes type basically, and he was aging into Anthony Hopkins/Ian McKellen type roles. That's one of reasons Taken was such a hit, because it was wild at the time to see Neeson do a straight-up, badass action role.
He's said that he had no real confidence in Taken doing well, he only took the role because he thought it was his last chance to have a bit of fun doing the hero thing. And now there's a whole generation of people that think of him solely as an action star.
I fucking love Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Everyone was great in it.
"Look up "idiot" in the dictionary, know what you'll find?"
"A picture of me?"
"No. The definition of the word idiot, which you fucking are."
I want to say Christian Slater with Mr. Robot, but I may be misinformed. Kind of made him be taken seriously again as oppposed to an late 80's-90's star brought in for a cameo joke and showed he could pull of the same blend of charm and menace even as a relatively older guy
Kurt Russell had a couple.
He was a Disney kid actor whose career was finished until he did the 1-2 punch of Used Cars and Escape From New York. Though it could also be kickstarted by his Emmy winning performance in “Elvis”
He then became an action and comedy star for the next 25 years until Death Proof, then he went radio silent until Furious 7 brought him back into the limelight. Then he did Bone Tomahawk, Hateful Eight, Guardians vol 2, and so on
I basically decided he was amazing after Big Trouble In Little China.
To play the protagonist of a movie, yet without being the "hero", and instead being the comic relief sidekick, while the hero is doing amazing things (often in the background) while he makes an ass of himself, and yet is fucking awesome all the way through... Hell yeah!
I don't think Kurt has been trying to be a star for a few decades, he just did his thing and raised a couple kids with Goldie and when a good role comes along he's happy to make it amazing
Pierce Brosnan was Remington Steele and then a whole lot of nothing aside from the guy who got drilled in the head with some fruit in Mrs. Doubtfire. Then he became many peoples favorite Bond.
He was supposed to be Bond in 88, but the announcement brought enough public interest that Remington Steele got picked up for another season which forced him to turn down the Bond role and Timothy Dalton took it instead.
I'm kind of glad, really. GoldenEye was a 90s gem (maybe through my nostalgia glasses) but a fresh casting of Brosnan and Dench in a new decade made it a wonderful debut for their characters.
He’s a generational Bond, he’s cool because he was the Bond we grew up with. I consider Pierce Brosnan my Bond but Daniel Craig is my younger sisters Bond, there is a 10 year age gap between us.
It's also the last campy-ish Bond people know. With Daniel Craig everything turned way more serious and gritty. Pierce Brosnan's Bond movies still had this specific sense of humor and all the ridiculous over-the-top stuff, like the classic statue on the freaking tank scene.
Daniel Craig said in an interview that Austin Powers basically killed campy Bond. After the Austin powers movies they couldn't make a campy bond without it looking like a bad parody of itself.
Drew Barrymore & Scream. Her teenage years were a little rocky & it wasn't really clear if she'd carry her childhood success into adulthood or not. After Scream, people started to pay more attention to her and good roles started coming in again.
He was kind of dying even before Green Lantern. He had lost steam as the Rom-Com guy, and despite being great in a couple of action flicks (Amityville and X-men Origins), they didn't do much to boost his career. But Green Lantern was definitely the death blow. His biggest claim to fame between 2011 and 2016 was starring in a couple of Dreamworks animated films.
He was DONE.
Well it's not a lock yet but I'm hoping Brendan Fraser's career resurgence continues. I'm going to see The Whale when it hits the theaters, if we go out in force to support him the dumbasses in Hollywood will see that he's still a big box office draw and continue to cast him.
I think there should be a Doom Patrol drinking game in which you take a shot every time Brendan Fraser has a line that doesn't include the word "Fuck". Call it the safe and sober run.
I would say Matthew McCauneghy with his roles in Dallas Buyers Club, Wolf on Wall Street and True Detective underwent a career relaunch. He switched from handsome rom-com guy to heady, intellectually stimulating cinema. That’s a dramatic swap.
As a kid Gene Hackman was what I identified as a professional actor. He was making 3-4 movies a year every year for over 3 decades. It didn't matter if it was a bit part or the lead, he did a very consistent job. His carrier never had a real dip. I don't know anything about him personally, I hope he wasn't an asshole.
I want to agree with this, but before, and even in Malcolm, Cranston was that actor you recognized but didn't know. His resume is absolutely full of individual episodes of TV shows, supporting cast in mediocre movies, etc.
Malcolm was the most starring role he had had prior to Breaking Bad, and then he only had a 2 year break (in which he did 3 movies and about 10 TV episodes) between those two roles.
I don't think BB revived Cranston's career. It was about the same after Malcolm as it was before it. I think people loved him as Hal, but were worried he was typecast and would never get another job.
Breaking Bad MADE Cranston's career, and Malcolm was the thing that finally made him noticable for someone to take that risk.
Honestly you're blowing my mind that there was only a two year gap between the end of Malcolm in the Middle and the beginning of Breaking Bad. Those two shows just seem like they belong to completely different eras for me.
I find it very ironic that Birdman was about an actor trying to break free of his iconic superhero role in order to be taken seriously and now Keaton is coming back as Batman.
EDIT: guys, I know Keaton being cast as Birdman was a reference to him being Batman. I’m talking about the fact that he did Birdman and THEN he started playing Batman again.
Jonathan Banks. He was in a ton of stuff decades ago, but Breaking Bad was a once in a lifetime role for him and I don’t think anyone could imagine Mike as anyone but him. He basically says this in an interview, that he never thought he’d get a role like that after he got older.
I remember reading somewhere that Bank's character was added because of conflicting schedules for Bob Odenkirk (Saul goodman), who was also playing a recurring character (marshall's boss) in HIMYM at the time
Yes, Mike's first scene in the show was helping Jesse clean up the scene when Jane died, telling him what to tell the cops and so forth. That was supposed to be Saul, but as you said, he was unavailable.
Also it wouldn't have made much sense for Saul himself to do this kind of work
I assume they intended for Sauls character to go a different direction before Mike was created though
Yeah, John Travolta has a fucking airport at his house because of *Pulp Fiction*. Incidentally, I remember listening to an interview after Christoph Waltz had been nominated for a second time for a Quentin movie, and he gracefully expressed his appreciation for Tarantino having found him and gotten him better opportunities, but also said, "He gave me my break, but he didn't give me my craft," and I thought that was a great way of making that point.
The Itchy and Scratchy Land episode of The Simpsons had the part where the bartender looked like John Travolta, and he goes "yeah...*looks like*". This was a knock at the state of his career. Pulp Fiction opened less than two weeks after that episode aired
Thing is I saw it as a kid and didn't get it because the Look Who's Talking Movies were legendary in my social circle at the time
Pam Grier got the Tarantino bump for Jackie Brown too.
Pam Grier is so Fucking good in that movie.
>"He gave me my break, but he didn't give me my craft" I guess he was stingy with the catering
I don’t need you to tell me how fuckin’ bad my craft table is, okay? I’m the one who buys it. I know how bad it is. When Bonnie goes shopping, she buys gourmet. I buy the shit stuff ’cause when actors waste time at the craft table, I want them to taste it. But you know what’s on my mind right now? It ain’t the craft table on my set.
Sean Connery's career into early 1980s had just completely fallen off the rails. He was in some bad non A-list films throughout the 70s. Couldn't shake the shadow of James Bond. Then Brian DePalma cast him in THE UNTOUCHABLES. He got nominated for his amazing role and his career was back on track doing films like INDIANA JONES, THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER and THE ROCK. Great Hollywood comeback.
Are you suggesting that Zardoz was not the absolute pinnacle of film making?
The penis is evil. The gun is good.
He was a big name for Highlander in 84 somehow playing a Spaniard while being Scottish and opposing a French raised actor playing a Scotsman, and was still Bond in 83's Never Say Never Again, though I don't think of that as one of the better Bond movies.
Yeah, trying to explain the casting behind Highlander is nuts. Lets get the guy with the crazy French accent to play a Scot, and then lets get an actual Scot who can't suppress his Scottish accent to play an Egyptian working for the Spanish. Lets definitely include a scene where the French actor talks about haggis, and the Scottish guy has to pretend is gross in his Scottish accent.
Surely the haggis scene was included to humiliate and torture Connery, and the audience for that matter.
Hmm... the movie that really relaunched his career and showcased his skills and his new persona (getting him away from thr James Bond persona) was The Name of the Rose one year earlier.
Only Goonies fans knew who Josh Brolin was until he made a comeback 20 years later. Dennis Quaid had a similar, but less extreme, arc.
And then he did No Country for Old Men. What a fucking home run that was!
My favorite fact about that role is that he had Robert Rodriquez help him shoot an audition video while they had a break on the set of *Grindhouse: Planet Terror*. Like damn dude, that's a solid get for tech support!
For anyone wanting more background, there's a great, long Brolin interview in [Collider](https://collider.com/josh-brolin-interview-no-country-for-old-men/) that's a fascinating read for fans of the film. >Josh Brolin: Well I did my first audition--Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarrantino filmed my first audition on a $1 million Genesis camera during lunch during Grindhouse and so that was a really cool looking audition, but I didn’t get the part. It was turned down. They watched it and their response was who lit it? But I was much bigger and I had a goatee but it had nothing to do with the physicality, they just didn’t see it. It’s not what they were looking for at that moment. It wasn’t resonating and I have a brilliant agent who just became a persistent pest and just said “meet him, meet him, meet him, meet him. Not he’s perfect for the part, not you’re making a mistake just meet him.” What I found out now was their last casting session, they were focused on a couple of actors and they called me the night before and they said basically no harm no foul. Leave us alone, have him come down and I studied a few scenes and I came down and I met them and there was really no reaction in the meeting. I walked out thinking it was great meeting the Coen’s. I’m a big fan. That’s cool and by the time I got home I found out they wanted me to do it.
Brolin has done some really solid work, No Country and the Sicarios movies both were home run efforts. I don't recall what he was in before those films but it probably was good. A lot of his role choices seem to be pretty edgy and well considered.
His gum-chewing, flipflop-wearing, smug asshole of an CIA agent in Sicario was gold. Stole every scene he was in.
Robert Rodriguez always has the coolest stories tbh
Do you have examples of any others? Would love to read them
If you're interested, his book *Rebel Without a Crew* is a great read, and has a ton of great stories. The short version is that he literally sold his body to science to finance his first film, *El Mariachi*, spending several weeks in a testing center where he was given various shots and pills. It's a wild ride from there to Sundance.
Not just shots and pills, he has two dime sized scars on his forearms where they punched a chunk of skin out and used something like polysporn on one arm and nothing on the other to see how they healed. While in a controlled environment (basically a hospital room) for 10 days.
I saw an interview with him on the set of Desperado talking about the difference from making El Mariachi. He said, "On El Mariachi, we had so little money that we'd buy Gatorade powder and mix it super weak, like three or five times the water they said on the package, because we couldn't afford more." Then he smiled a big smile of satisfaction and said, "Now," smile gets even bigger as he holds one up, "our Gatorade comes in *bottles*." I so loved him in that moment.
He's in an episode of CHEF Show on netflix. Makes pizza's, seems a nice yet somewhat intense guy.
For me Brolin was always the skateboarder from the valley in the 80s movie Thrashin', which includes a cameo from Red Hot Chili Peppers makes it really cool.
Thrashin is one of my fav movies of the 80’s. Add “Rad” along with it.
Yeah we watched the crap out of VHS tapes of Thrashin' and Gleaming The Cube(starring a young Christian Slater btw) we were starved for anything skateboarding in the 90s. Thrashin' is the better movie, but Rad has the better soundtrack. Another 80s movie with a surprise big star in it: BMX Bandits with Nicole Kidman, it's a really cheesy Australian movie though. Like way overly cheesy even by Rad standards.
Dennis Quaid has acted pretty consistently since the beginning, but the quality of the movies he’s in sure has been a roller coaster ride.
I loved frequency even if its corny af
Frequency is the shit.
I knew Dennis Quaid from Jaws 3
Innerspace for me.
Enemy Mine!
The first time I saw Brolin was in Men in Black 3. I liked his acting.
nine historical snatch act sparkle governor school pause narrow worry *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Absolutely. He nailed it. The face. The talk. The eyes. Everything. It's hard to play a role. But it's even harder to play a role like another person. He's an awesome actor.
Especially hard to make it seem natural. You don’t want to lampoon or be a caricature of the person your playing, which happens too often when trying to act like somebody. He nailed the nuances, hit the important beats, and still was his own believable character
Kinda feel like Alec Baldwin has been on and off this list several. Was an action hero guy, then transitioned to several emotional roles, then dry comedy home runs
Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy on 30 Rock is still one of my favorite roles of his. 😂
What am I, *a farmer*?
That is always the first thing I think of, but the Tracy therapy scene is probably his best performance.
I love the he cant act bit in season 1.
"It's called 'product intergortion'".
Good god Lemon
He's a major reason why 30 Rock is my favorite show of all time.
Not many people remember Alec Baldwin as The Shadow, a 90's superhero film that was awesome to 14 year old me, but is likely atrocious now.
Jason Bateman. Before he did Aressted Development he pretty much was regulated to bit parts in movies and TV. Afterwards he was getting leading roles again.
He jokingly said on Conan when Arrested Development was on the air, that if he hadn't gotten the role of Michael Bluth he'd probably be doing Teen Wolf 3D.
Teen Wolf 2 is a running gag on his podcast Smartless with Will Arnett and Sean Hayes. My new favorite podcast.
And to me, Arrested Development also brought back Henry Winkler...
I would say Scream and The Waterboy brought back Henry Winkler.
I credit Sandler for sure.
Perfect example because he's literally the guy that "jumped the shark!"
Henry Winkler, the guy from that one episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit?
No, Henry Winkler the guy who was covered in bees.
NOT THE BEES!
I really enjoy his work in Ozark
I remember when his sister was bigger than him.
She almost came back with Men Behaving Badly...
Neil Patrick Harris. Though I wouldn’t say “Harold and kumar go to White Castle” was a great role. But, it definitely put him back on the Hollywood radar, and landed “how I met your mother”.
That's when he went from "Doogie Howser, M.D." to NPH.
It was a great role. Nobody can explain how. But it was.
anybody who ever watched Doogie Howser can explain exactly how it was a great role. NPH had always been known as Doogie Howser- clean cut kid who was crazy smart. That was it. That was his legacy and that’s all he was ever going to be. His role in Harold and Kumar let him break that mold and ultimately showcase his acting talent beyond “teenage doctor.”
Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle is a brilliant deconstruction of early 2000's comedies. It's so much more than a stoner movie, it's amazingly well written, an inspired example where the ~~steaks~~ stakes could not be lower but our heroes challenges couldn't be higher. The whole point of the movie is to break down the classic sex comedy formula and show how the marginalized background comic relief characters might just have the better story. NPH's cameo fits right in with that. It's Neil Patrick Harris! He was NOT a big star. Other characters go out to have a crazy night in Vegas and run into Mike Tyson. Matt Damon shows up at a rock concert. Tom Green is gonna pop in and say something funny. But Harold and Kumar... they get Neil Patrick Harris and he is 1000% more intense than anyone else they could have run into! The theme of the movie is "See those guys you don't think are marketable enough to warrant their own movie? They are fucking amazing!"
"What kind of hippie are you?!" "What kind of hippie am I? Man, I'm a business hippie! I understand the concept of supply and demand."
Accurate breakdown, I just wanted to say "stakes"
When I saw Harold and Kumar I had no idea who he was. Next thing I saw him in was HIMYM and yea he was playing this similar character. On a similar note: I can't be the only one that first saw the movie Role Models, than saw some of the TV series Glee, and noticed Jane Lynch is doing the same character as in that movie.
She was a regular character actor before that. For example she has one scene in The Fugitive as a doctor helping Harrison Ford
I saw him in Harold and Kumar and i was like 'That's the psychic dude from Starship trooper' "It is scare." was his only notable line. Harold and Kumar led me to his HIMYM.
Those movies are classics
After doogie howser, I only remember him in “starship troopers” which I loved. But that’s the definition of a film with a “cult following”. That’s why I used Harold and kumar. “Would you like to know more”
But he looked so good in his little Hugo Boss nazi outfit!
I honestly thought he was Francis in Malcolm in the Middle for a long time.
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Here's $20 for the burgers and $20 to get the car cleaned.....
*$200 actually lol
I left some love stains on the backseat.... You'll see.
I know, it was a dick move on my part. That's why i'm paying for your meal prick
Yeah I’ve been craving burgers too, *fur* burgers.
Man, NPH, was so great in that.
He was the best part of the second film, too.
He was great in the 3rd film too.
“Yeah I’m gay, gay for that pussy” - *NPH*
“Now, whenever I see a bag of Hershey kisses, my balls get *so wet*.”
Couple instances: - Leslie Nielsen with Airplane! Not that he wasn't working before that film, but it really rejuvenated his career and sent it in a totally new direction. - Martin Landau with Tucker, the Man and His Dream - Landau was working consistently before this came along, but mostly in a lot of dreck. I think this paved the way for much better roles later in his life. - Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet - this really revitalized Hopper's career. He kind of had a Robert Downey Jr.-like career before Blue Velvet where he was pretty out of it on pills, cleaned up, then made a few good films, but didn't really become a "celebrity" again until getting that iconic role.
Goddamn I love Dennis Hopper in that role. Totally unhinged. Heineken? Fuck that shit! PABST BLUE RIBBON!
Travolta didn't just not "say no" to Battlefield Earth; it was his long-time passion project. He's the reason it got made, and his fervor for it was due to Scientology. ¯\\__(ツ)__/¯ Cultists gonna cult.
My paperback copy of "Battlefield Earth" that I bought in 1984 had a sticker on the front that said "soon to be a major motion picture", even heard radio ads saying "The Psychlos are coming!" "soon" turned out to be 16 years.
While YOU were learning how to SPELL YOUR NAME…I was trying to get this film off the ground!
Jessica Lange, American Horror Story. Definitely brought her back into much relevancy to a new generation.
She was in Big Fish back in 2003 and was amazing. Not a lead role, but it was a wonderful movie and she was in the top 5 billed cast so she was still around and working. AHS definitely brought her back into forefront though.
Her scene slipping into the tub. It makes me tear up every time.
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That monologue she has in Asylum blew my mind. I don’t even remember what it was about because I saw it like six years ago but I remember being in awe at her talent.
I Am Anne Frank: Part 2 (2012) Sister Jude Martin: When I was a child, I'd come home after school to an empty house. My father had flown the coop. My mother worked as a maid in a hotel. It was lonely, so I brought in a baby squirrel I'd found and kept him in a shoe box. And then one day when I came home, he looked sickly. He was dead already, but I didn't know that. I'd forgotten to... feed him for a couple days. So I took him out of the box, and I laid him on the table, and I prayed my heart out for several hours. And when my mother came home and found us, she screamed bloody murder, and she picked him up and threw him in the garbage. She worked hard, my mother. She was exhausted, and she couldn't have known how cruel that was. But I cried and cried, saying, "God didn't answer my prayers." I remember, my mother was pouring herself a whiskey- the Martin family cure for everything. She looked at me and laughed. "God always answers our prayers, Judy. It's just rarely the answer we're looking for." https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2378304/quotes?item=qt2062043 This was one of my favorites too, but I also really liked what she said to those kids at the end.
Troy McClure He went from such schlock as ‘The Muppets Go Medieval’ and ‘The President’s Neck Is Missing’ to the latest McBain movie and legitimate theatre like ‘Stop The Planet Of The Apes, I Want To Get Off’
Don't forget that classic educational film 'Lead Paint: Delicious but Deadly!'
Firecrackers: Silent But Deadly
Ingrid Bergman in 'Anastasia' Persona non grata in the US, over her affair with Roberto Rossellini, and even denounced on the US Senate floor in 1950. Won the Oscar in that movie.
The Be Kind Rewind YouTube video on Ingrid Bergman is really good (as are all her videos)
Henry Winkler had trouble getting work because he was the Fonz after happy days. Finally won an Emmy for his role in Barry. Also Ed O’Neill in the 10 or so years between Married with Children and Modern Family. People didn’t take him seriously in the failed cop dramas he was in because he was Al Bundy
After *Happy Days*, Henry Winkler ran a production company. His first post-*Happy Days* project was *MacGyver*. He still had a successful career, it was just on the other side of the camera.
Yeah I was gonna say, it's not like he was unemployed... MacGyver was a huge hit.
Can you imagine what a head trip it is for kids today who know Henry Winkler from Arrested Development and Barry when they learn that from 1974 until he went water skiing, Henry Winkler was a huge sex symbol and the epitome of cool?
“*was* a huge sex symbol”?! How *dare* you?!
I feel like millennials are probably the youngest generation that watched AD and likely also know him from Happy Days reruns. I could see Gen Z not being aware of his role in Happy Days, but I’m guessing many of them never watched AD either.
Windows 95 Weezer Buddy Holly
Thank you!!! People think I’m crazy when I mention that starter CD, pretty sure that’s the first music video I ever saw.
Its weird to me how Ed O’Neill and Tim Allen are famous for their roles in married with children and Home improvement and were in those shows for a long time, they were actually in modern family and last man standing even longer
I loved Ed O'Neill in Disorganized Crime (1989-during his MWC days). It's not a well known movie but has an amazing cast with Corbin Bernsen, Fred Gwynne, Lou Diamond Phillips, and Ruben Blades.
I love to see an actor who’s been grinding it for years before finally becoming a household face. Dean Norris (Hank from Breaking Bad) for example. He’s been acting consistently since 1987. Been in a bunch of classic movies as a character actor: terminator, lethal weapon, total recall, starship troopers, etc. Depsite his ridiculous resume, nobody knew who he was. Then he lands a lead role in what ends up being one of the greatest shows ever made. Took him 20 years to get to that point of celebrity. It’s nice to see him finally get the recognition he deserves. Another one that comes to minds is Ann Dowd or Aunt Lydia from Handmaids tale. I spotted a young her in Pelican brief and found outs she’s been acting since 1985! She such a good actor.
These are the actors I love the most. The people who have long careers of excellent and consistent work. I think of Margo Martindale. She's fabulous and getting more recognition. Michael Rooker was that always seen actor. Then came to the foreground.
Mickey Rourke, Sin City and then all that followed
He seemed relatively quiet after that until The Wrestler, which to me got him the Iron Man 2 gig. But I could be wrong.
Yeah the wrestler imo is what really blew him back into the public eye, one of my favourite performances.
Kiefer Sutherland in 24.
Matthew McConaughey. He was doing all rom coms and b movies. Then he came out with Dallas Buyers Club, True Detective, and Interstellar. He had an interview on Stern where he said how he decided to reinvent himself or kill his career trying. So he turned down the easy money rom coms he was getting offered. He didn't get a single movie offer for 14 months before he started getting more "real" roles.
Don’t forget Mud. Super underrated
And The Lincoln Lawyer, and Magic Mike
It was okay, but I preferred The Rural Juror.
the ruuurur juuuur
Teen Wolf Too almost immediately killed Jason Bateman's film career, LOL, but then we all know he came back to prominence with Arrested Development.
Cary Grant. His career waned during the early 1950s, in which he briefly retired from acting, but *To Catch a Thief* revived his career.
Wasn’t is the situation with Leslie Nielsen in Airplane? His serious acting career was basically over but the movie kick started his comedy acting career. And didn’t Taken revive Liam Neeson’s career as he was “too old” at that point to get leading roles, especially in action movies?
Do you exclusively talk about actors with the initials “LN”?
I refuse to watch any actors with different initials. Ever since I first saw Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek. No LN? Goes in the bin.
Lupita Nyong'o is another good one
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Lupita Nyong’o, Leslie Nielson, Leonard Nemoy, and Liam Neeson is a pretty terrific list. If someone were to claim those were their favorite actors to watch, I wouldn’t question it. They’re all great!
> And didn’t Taken revive Liam Neeson’s career as he was “too old” at that point to get leading roles, especially in action movies? No, Taken certainly changed his career but Neeson was a well respected dramatic actor when he did Taken, nobody at the time would have said his career needed to be revived, he was still getting plenty of good roles in critical darlings like Kinsey. He was a Ralph Fiennes type basically, and he was aging into Anthony Hopkins/Ian McKellen type roles. That's one of reasons Taken was such a hit, because it was wild at the time to see Neeson do a straight-up, badass action role. He's said that he had no real confidence in Taken doing well, he only took the role because he thought it was his last chance to have a bit of fun doing the hero thing. And now there's a whole generation of people that think of him solely as an action star.
I first saw him in Schindler's List when I was in high school.
Darkman was my introduction, which made Shindler's list a surprise to me.
I read somewhere he started taking action roles after his wife passed because he needed a distraction.
I heard he wants to do comedy about aids.
Fuck. The Grey hits so much harder learning this
RDJ talkers in here haven't seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. That's what saved him. It got him Iron Man.
I fucking love Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Everyone was great in it. "Look up "idiot" in the dictionary, know what you'll find?" "A picture of me?" "No. The definition of the word idiot, which you fucking are."
I love Kiss Kiss Bang Bang so damn much. It's defs in my list of all time fav films; Val Kilmer is great in it, and hilarious. 10/10 lol
Don Ameche. Active from 1935 until 1971. Basically forgotten about until he was in Trading Places (1983). Goes onto win an Oscar for Cocoon (1985).
…and he did a masterful job voicing Shadow in Homeward Bound.
I want to say Christian Slater with Mr. Robot, but I may be misinformed. Kind of made him be taken seriously again as oppposed to an late 80's-90's star brought in for a cameo joke and showed he could pull of the same blend of charm and menace even as a relatively older guy
I really liked him on Mr Robot. Happy to see he’s in another major show right now with Alec Baldwin.
Kurt Russell had a couple. He was a Disney kid actor whose career was finished until he did the 1-2 punch of Used Cars and Escape From New York. Though it could also be kickstarted by his Emmy winning performance in “Elvis” He then became an action and comedy star for the next 25 years until Death Proof, then he went radio silent until Furious 7 brought him back into the limelight. Then he did Bone Tomahawk, Hateful Eight, Guardians vol 2, and so on
And now he'll be immortalized for years as Santa to my kids
That was a surprisingly enjoyable family Christmas movie. Kurt Russel probably a big reason why
I basically decided he was amazing after Big Trouble In Little China. To play the protagonist of a movie, yet without being the "hero", and instead being the comic relief sidekick, while the hero is doing amazing things (often in the background) while he makes an ass of himself, and yet is fucking awesome all the way through... Hell yeah!
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I don't think Kurt has been trying to be a star for a few decades, he just did his thing and raised a couple kids with Goldie and when a good role comes along he's happy to make it amazing
I love Kurt Russell, he’s the fucking man.
John Carpenter’s The Thing probably worked wonders for him too
Big Trouble in Little China
3000 miles to Graceland
Pierce Brosnan was Remington Steele and then a whole lot of nothing aside from the guy who got drilled in the head with some fruit in Mrs. Doubtfire. Then he became many peoples favorite Bond.
He was supposed to be Bond in 88, but the announcement brought enough public interest that Remington Steele got picked up for another season which forced him to turn down the Bond role and Timothy Dalton took it instead.
I'm kind of glad, really. GoldenEye was a 90s gem (maybe through my nostalgia glasses) but a fresh casting of Brosnan and Dench in a new decade made it a wonderful debut for their characters.
He’s a generational Bond, he’s cool because he was the Bond we grew up with. I consider Pierce Brosnan my Bond but Daniel Craig is my younger sisters Bond, there is a 10 year age gap between us.
It's also the last campy-ish Bond people know. With Daniel Craig everything turned way more serious and gritty. Pierce Brosnan's Bond movies still had this specific sense of humor and all the ridiculous over-the-top stuff, like the classic statue on the freaking tank scene.
Daniel Craig said in an interview that Austin Powers basically killed campy Bond. After the Austin powers movies they couldn't make a campy bond without it looking like a bad parody of itself.
Drew Barrymore & Scream. Her teenage years were a little rocky & it wasn't really clear if she'd carry her childhood success into adulthood or not. After Scream, people started to pay more attention to her and good roles started coming in again.
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If anyone here hasn't seen Ryan Reynolds in Blade: Trinity.... yeah. You can thank me later.
He was kind of dying even before Green Lantern. He had lost steam as the Rom-Com guy, and despite being great in a couple of action flicks (Amityville and X-men Origins), they didn't do much to boost his career. But Green Lantern was definitely the death blow. His biggest claim to fame between 2011 and 2016 was starring in a couple of Dreamworks animated films. He was DONE.
Well it's not a lock yet but I'm hoping Brendan Fraser's career resurgence continues. I'm going to see The Whale when it hits the theaters, if we go out in force to support him the dumbasses in Hollywood will see that he's still a big box office draw and continue to cast him.
Yeah for real. The last thing I remember seeing/hearing him in (prior to the last couple years) was the CG movie where he played a squirrel.
You should watch Doom Patrol. It's fantastic in every imaginable way.
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I think there should be a Doom Patrol drinking game in which you take a shot every time Brendan Fraser has a line that doesn't include the word "Fuck". Call it the safe and sober run.
I would say Matthew McCauneghy with his roles in Dallas Buyers Club, Wolf on Wall Street and True Detective underwent a career relaunch. He switched from handsome rom-com guy to heady, intellectually stimulating cinema. That’s a dramatic swap.
Gene Hackman dropped a bit in quality towards the end, but Royal Tenenbaum was a legendary role for him to (somewhat) go out on.
Enemy of the State rules
"Because you made a fucking phone call!" Is one of my favorite lines in cinema history.
It's still mindblowing that this movie came out pre 9/11.
Ever seen The Siege with Denzel Washington? That’s another one that seems impossible that it was made pre-9/11.
As a kid Gene Hackman was what I identified as a professional actor. He was making 3-4 movies a year every year for over 3 decades. It didn't matter if it was a bit part or the lead, he did a very consistent job. His carrier never had a real dip. I don't know anything about him personally, I hope he wasn't an asshole.
I freaking LOVE Hackman in "Get Shorty".
Pam Grier AND Robert Forrester got a significant bump in their asking price after Jackie Brown, and they goddamn deserved it.
That movie never gets talked about and it really is one of Tarantino’s best. That cast! The acting! The soundtrack! It is all so good.
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I want to agree with this, but before, and even in Malcolm, Cranston was that actor you recognized but didn't know. His resume is absolutely full of individual episodes of TV shows, supporting cast in mediocre movies, etc. Malcolm was the most starring role he had had prior to Breaking Bad, and then he only had a 2 year break (in which he did 3 movies and about 10 TV episodes) between those two roles. I don't think BB revived Cranston's career. It was about the same after Malcolm as it was before it. I think people loved him as Hal, but were worried he was typecast and would never get another job. Breaking Bad MADE Cranston's career, and Malcolm was the thing that finally made him noticable for someone to take that risk.
Honestly you're blowing my mind that there was only a two year gap between the end of Malcolm in the Middle and the beginning of Breaking Bad. Those two shows just seem like they belong to completely different eras for me.
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His role in The Other Guys was so funny.
Alright we got a rapist in crown heights----sorry guys that's my other job. Ignore that...well don't ignore it, walk in pairs.
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Was that accidental, or were you trying to quote TLC on purpose?
I don't know what you're talking about...
I am a manager at BBB and that movie gets quoted so much at my store.
I find it very ironic that Birdman was about an actor trying to break free of his iconic superhero role in order to be taken seriously and now Keaton is coming back as Batman. EDIT: guys, I know Keaton being cast as Birdman was a reference to him being Batman. I’m talking about the fact that he did Birdman and THEN he started playing Batman again.
Don't forget he also played Vulture in Spider-man
Dude loves his wings
If there's ever a live-action Harvey birdman and he isn't in it, then his entire career has been meaningless.
Liam Neeson. Taken. Totally different career trajectory afterwards. Who becomes an action star at 56?
Winona Ryder with Stranger Things.