Actor Film Debuts
 

We recently did a discussion about Death Wish and noted that Jeff Goldblum made his film debut as a thug aka Freak#1 in the movie.
What are some other examples of now well-known actors making their film debuts as small characters, odd parts, or even in B-movies?

Here is a couple off the top of the head.
Michael Jai White – Toxic Avenger 2
Jennifer Aniston-Leprechaun
Johnny Depp – Nightmare on Elm Street

Jake Gyllenhaal - City Slickers (as Billy Crystal's character's son)

Re: Actor Film Debuts
 

Audrey Hepburn - as a 'cigarette girl' in Lavender Hill Mob.



https://www.studiocanalstore.co.uk/p...37407.jpg.webp

Hilary Swank - as one of the 'mean girl' types in the original movie Buffy the Vampire Slayer


https://i.imgur.com/xkNyBqo.jpg

i don't know how many times I've watched City Slickers but every time I watch I find myself saying "OMG, that's Jake Gyllenhaal playing his son!"

This future Oscar winner got off to a pretty spectacular start:

Geena Davis made her film debut with an impressive all-star cast in Tootsie (1982)

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/T0K8T3/dus...982-T0K8T3.jpg

Kurt Russell made an inauspicious film debut with the one and only Elvis Presley in It Happened at the World's Fair;


https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1e/7e...fab7dde756.jpg


https://i.pinimg.com/originals/11/c2...c072bc05aa.jpg

Fifteen years after the release of this film, Russell would play Elvis in a TV movie, a performance that would earn Russell an Emmy nomination.

Re: Actor Film Debuts
 

Ahh good one!

Re: Actor Film Debuts
 

Wow never seen this one. Nice!!

Oprah made an impressive film debut in Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple, earning an Oscar nomination for her film debut.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/5v5JjUZpAPk/maxresdefault.jpg

Two time Oscar winner Jane Fonda barely made a blip on the radar playing a bubbly high school student in a 1960 comedy called Tall Story:

https://images.fineartamerica.com/im...ver-screen.jpg

Helen Hunt made her big screen debut at the age of thirteen playing George Segal's daughter in the 1977 thriller Rollercoaster.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioMMQawXq4g

Goldie Hawn made her film debut, billed in the closing credits as "Giggly Dancer" in the 1968 Disney musical The One and Only Genuine Original Family Band. She had one line in the film and it was on the set of this film where she met her future life partner, Kurt Russell.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/21/f1...9b88d77d17.jpg

Liza Minnelli made her film debut at the tender age of three in the arms of mother Judy Garland and Van Johnson in the final scene of the 1949 musical In the Good Old Summertime

https://jojud265nia2bj9sy4ah9b61-wpe...rtime_film.jpg

Fred Astaire made an inauspicious film debut dancing with Joan Crawford in a single musical number in a 1933 film called Dancing Lady

https://crystalkalyana.files.wordpre...pg?w=731&h=549

Richard Dreyfuss made a forgettable two-part film debut...he was in one scene in the 1967 potboiler Valley of the Dolls...his line was "Five minutes, Miss O'Hara"

https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/i...?itok=cwP_e5Q_


He also had one line in the 1967 Best Picture nominee The Graduate...his line was "I'll call the cops...should I call the cops?"

https://www.aveleyman.com/Gallery/20...906-7565-0.jpg


A mere decade later, Dreyfuss would win the 1977 Oscar for Outstanding Lead Actor for The Goodbye Girl

There is a school of thought that Steve Martin's film debut was in The Jerk, but it was actually in the very forgettable Sergent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/_tMJ.../700480193.jpg

Re: Actor Film Debuts
 

Tom Hanks' debut was a horror movie :D


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_Knows_You%27re_Alone

Nice,great find there!

Believe it or not, that's future Oscar winner Kevin Costner as a drunken frat boy in his film debut in the 1983 Ron Howard comedy Night Shift:


https://i.pinimg.com/600x315/02/6f/0...15e41110c5.jpg

Judging by this picture I can think of a couple other things that are impressive about Miss Davis...:randy:

Re: Actor Film Debuts
 

Cheekbones?

Alfred Molina in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws8btF36O1Q

Lorna Luft, younger daughter of the legendary Judy Garland, made her film debut in the dreadful Grease 2:


https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7f/09...b3364cd120.jpg

The 1964 melodrama Lilith marked the rather unremarkable film debut of Gene Hackman, but it did begin his lifelong personal and professional relationship with Warren Beatty:

https://previews.agefotostock.com/pr...v-10359367.jpg

https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/...pg&x=510&y=147


Oscar winner Laura Dern made her film debut acting with mom Diane Ladd in Alice doesn't Live Here Anymore

https://1630revellodrive.files.wordp...-close-up.jpeg


After two years of working in television, Oscar winner Robert Duvall caught a break appearing in the finale of the 1962 classic To Kill a Mockingbird

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/CMAJP1/lee...tos-CMAJP1.jpg


Lee Remick made an eye opening film debut playing a bubbly cheerleader in 1957's A Face in the Crowd

Re: Actor Film Debuts
 

Dolph Lundgren made his film debut in A View to a Kill as a Russian bodyguard named Venz. This was before his iconic role as Ivan Drago in Rocky IV

Scott Adkins made his film debut in a Jackie Chan film, The Accidental Spy, as one of the villain's bodyguards.

Vincent D'Onofrio made his film debut in the Troma film The First Turn On!
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ab/0b...6971a77aa6.jpg


Mariska Hargitay appeared in the first installment of the Ghoulies franchise in her film debut.


Sylvester Stallone's 1st film was a softcore adult film called A Party at Kitty and Stud's House in 1970. It was re-named Italian Stallion in 1976 after the megasuccess of Rocky


Marisa Tomei has a blink and you'll miss it appearance in the first Toxic Avenger alongside veteran villain actor Patrick Kilpatrick, who played villain Leroy who gets his "just desserts" in the restaurant fight scene.

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/P2KTAP/ori...bum-P2KTAP.jpg


The late Pater Fonda made a rather inauspicious film debut opposite Sandra Dee in Tammy and the Doctor