Actors you know from television who first appeared in movies.

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October 13, 2019, 10:21 AM

ZSMICHAEL

Actors you know from television who first appeared in movies.

I was watching the Seventh Victim, a film from 1943 that featured Hugh Beaumont, the kindly father in Leave it to Beaver. In the film he plays a shady attorney.

Broderick Crawford was really a tough guy before he starred in Highway Patrol. Raymond Burr was the heavy in many film noirs. Perry Mason and later Ironsides....

Name some of yours....

October 13, 2019, 10:47 AM

erj_pilot

The first that comes to mind is Jean Louisa Kelly. She first appeared in "Uncle Buck" and "Mr. Holland's Opus", two rather good movies I saw. I was rather surprised, then, when I saw her cast as the principal in "Yes, Dear", a TV comedy. She had done other TV before, but that was the first time I saw her on TV and said "HEY! That's the girl from Uncle Buck!!"

She kinda has the "Giada" look going on...

"If you’re a leader, you lead the way. Not just on the easy ones; you take the tough ones too…” – MAJ Richard D. Winters (1918-2011), E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne

"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil... Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw and as dry grass sinks down in the flames, so their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel." - Isaiah 5:20,24

October 13, 2019, 01:28 PM

YooperSigs

Fred MacMurray. He was Walter Neff in the film noir classic Double Indemnity.
He then morphed into Steven Douglas who had My Three Sons.
He was big in Westerns, too.
And Walter Brennan with The Real McCoys and Guns of Will Sonnet.

October 13, 2019, 01:46 PM

oddball

Lucille Ball
Andy Griffith
Kiefer Suftherland
James Gandolfini (and most of the cast from the Sopranos)
Carroll O'Connor

_{"I’m not going to read Time Magazine, I’m not going to read Newsweek, I’m not going to read any of these magazines; I mean, because they have too much to lose by printing the truth"- Bob Dylan, 1965}

October 13, 2019, 05:51 PM

LS1 GTO

My first thought was Will Smith and the second John Travolta.

Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

"If dogs don't go to Heaven, I want to go where they go" Will Rogers

The definition of the words we used, carry a meaning of their own...

October 14, 2019, 09:58 AM

Blackmore

quote:
Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
My first thought was Will Smith and the second John Travolta.

I thought it was the other way around with those two TV-> Movies.

October 15, 2019, 11:51 AM

radioman

Winona Ryder, if you consider Netflix shows to be TV.

October 15, 2019, 01:49 PM

Orguss

Terry Crews (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

"I'm yet another resource-consuming kid in an overpopulated planet raised to an alarming extent by Hollywood and Madison Avenue, poised with my cynical and alienated peers to take over the world when you're old and weak!" - Calvin, "Calvin & Hobbes"

October 15, 2019, 01:50 PM

PowerSurge

Dennis Franz

October 15, 2019, 02:18 PM

Pyker

James Arness

October 15, 2019, 03:10 PM

PASig

Christopher Eccleston

Was British Army Major Henry West in 28 Days Later

Then was The Ninth Doctor in Doctor Who

October 15, 2019, 03:39 PM

ZSMICHAEL

Robert Young later as Father Knows Best and Marcus Welby, MD.

Robert Stack in numerous movies, then Elliot Ness in The Untouchables.

October 15, 2019, 08:39 PM

TwoRivers

Edgar Buchanan did westerns before playing Uncle Joe in Petticoat Junction, among others with Hooverville in them.

DeForrest Kelly did a few westerns before playing Dr. “Bones” McCoy on Star Trek

James Best also did western movies before his role on T.V as Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane on Dukes of Hazzard.

Gary Burgoff was the first to come to mind and probably the easiest. He played “Radar” O’Reilly on both the movie MASH (first) and then the T.V. version of MASH.

October 15, 2019, 10:07 PM

ZSMICHAEL

Harry Morgan before MASH, and Dragnet was a movie staple in lots of roles.

Jack Webb, a favorite, was in the DI, a must see movie before Joe Friday in Dragnet.

October 16, 2019, 11:37 AM

radioman

Wait, did anyone mention Bill Murray?

October 16, 2019, 02:42 PM

LS1 GTO

quote:
Originally posted by Blackmore:
quote:
Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
My first thought was Will Smith and the second John Travolta.

I thought it was the other way around with those two TV-> Movies.

You are correct - I misread the question.

October 16, 2019, 09:34 PM

ZSMICHAEL

William Bendix in Life of Riley played a tough guy in THE BIG STEAL along with Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer.

October 17, 2019, 08:18 AM

Orguss

quote:
Originally posted by radioman:
Wait, did anyone mention Bill Murray?

Wouldn't his stint at Saturday Night Live count as television before he moved into movies?

October 17, 2019, 08:45 AM

radioman

quote:
Originally posted by Orguss:
quote:
Originally posted by radioman:
Wait, did anyone mention Bill Murray?

Wouldn't his stint at Saturday Night Live count as television before he moved into movies?

I first knew him from Caddyshack. I had to look up whether this movie came before his appearance on SNL. Turns out SNL came first, which I should have known.

I also had to look up John Belushi to see if Animal House came before SNL. Turns out, SNL was first there too.

So at least for these guys, TV was first.

November 23, 2019, 08:28 PM

motor59

quote:
Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

Jack Webb, a favorite, was in the DI, a must see movie before Joe Friday in Dragnet.

Not to pick nits, but the Joe Friday character debuted on TV in 1951, and during its run Jack Webb portrayed Friday in more than 275 episodes.

However, Webb was in a number of film noir and dramatic offerings in the late 40's/early fifties, including Sunset Boulevard, He Walked by Night, and Halls of Montezuma. So, you are correct.