15 Actors You completely Forgot Started as Comedy Stars
The actors that we know and love make a decent living keeping a straight face. The really good ones make us forget we are in a cinema watching a thriller, a drama or an action movie. But it is easy to forget that many of our thespian heroes started out making us laugh.
Here then are 15 actors you completely forgot started as comedy stars.
Michael Keaton is known recently for such parts as Ray Kroc, the man who made the "Big Mac big and McDonald’s "even bigger, in the "Founder" (2016), and as a hard-nosed journalist in "Spotlight" (2015). He also starred as the slightly dark "Batman "(1989) and the unnerving psychotic in "Pacific Heights" (1990). But funny enough his big break was alongside Henry Winkler as the hilarious, motor mouth Bill Blazejowski in "Night Shift" (1982). He showed his comedy credentials more famously in "Beetlejuice" (1988).
2. Eric Bana
"I love being at home, being with friends and family. I'm of European stock, brought up in Australia. I'm a passionate guy. I just love life."Eric Bana
No doubt best-known starring in dramatic roles in "Hulk" (2003), "Troy" (2004) and "Munich" (2005), but it easy to forget that he started out in comedy. Growing up in Melbourne, Australia, he was already making his school friends laugh with his comedic impressions of teachers. He began his career as a standup comedian while working as a barman in Melbourne.
3. Dudley Moore
Moore co-owned, with producer Tony Bill, a fashionable restaurant in Venice, California (1980s–2000), named 72 Market Street Oyster Bar and Grill. He played the piano whenever he was there.
He made a generation of young men green with jealousy when he starred alongside the ravishing Bo Derek in 10 (1979), but Dudley Moore got his first big break for this small man in the satirical “Beyond the Fringe” with comedy legends Peter Cook and Alan Bennett.
In most of his routines, Baron Cohen's characters interact with unsuspecting people, docu style, who do not realize they are being set up for comic situations and self-revealing ridicule.
If you saw him in the very bloody "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (2007) or "Hugo" (2011), you might forget that Sacha Baron Cohen started out first and foremost as a comedian. He was advised in the Cambridge University Amateur Dramatic Club by his mentor to get in touch with his “inner idiot”. He took this advice serious making his debut as the spoof interviewer Ali G on "The Eleven O’Clock Show" (1998).
5. Kevin Spacey
"Success is like death. The more successful you become, the higher the houses in the hills get and the higher the fences get."Kevin Spacey
He is a star of stage and screen and probably best known of late in the series "House of Cards". He has taken on serious roles in such hits "Pay It Forward" (2000), "Seven" (1995) and "L.A. Confidential" (1997). But how can we forget his comical parts starting out; he played the leading role of comedy-drama "Swimming With Sharks" (1994) reminding us he has funny bones too.
6. Simon Pegg
He married his long-time girlfriend Maureen McCann, a music industry publicist, on 23 July 2005 in Glasgow.
He has played action roles in "Star Trek" (2009), "Mission: Impossible III" (2006) and "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" (2011). It might be easy to forget that Simon Pegg is one serious comedian. He began his career as a stand-up comedian in the early 1990s. He co-wrote and starred in the sitcom "Spaced" (1999), and has gone onto to make such comedy classics as "Shaun of the Dead"(2004) and "Hot Fuzz "(2007).
As of spring 2017, Foxx serves as host and executive producer of the new Fox game show "Beat Shazam".
He may be known for more serious parts such as Ray Charles in "Ray "(2004), as the taxi-driver in "Collateral" (2004) and "Django" (2012), but remarkably Jamie’s entry into comedy was the result of a girlfriend dare to do open mike at the Comedy Club in 1989. He has never looked back since.
8. Tina Fey
"Do your thing and don't care if they like it."Tina Fey
After memorably playing Sarah Palin on "Saturday Night Live", who could ever forget that Sarah Palin started out in comedy? In 1995, SNL came to Adam McKay wondering if he knew of any up and coming comedy writers. He recommended Fey and she duly sent them six sketches. The rest they say is history!
9. Eddie Izzard
"If you've never seen an elephant ski, you've never been on acid."Eddie Izzard
It is hard to believe that Eddie Izzard, star of the movies "Shadow of the Vampire "(2000) and "Ocean’s Twelve" (2004), started out in comedy. He began as a street performer and did small comedy venues before making his break through at the London Palladium. He made his name as a cross-dressing stand-up comedian. One of his more memorable sketches is his “Darth Vader in the Canteen” routine.
10. Stephen Fry
"I am a lover of truth, a worshipper of freedom, a celebrant at the altar of language and purity and tolerance."Stephen Fry
Stephen Fry has had a successful career both on stage and screen. He made his name in comedy in "Black-Adder II" (1986) and "Jeeves and Wooster"(1990). He shows his quick wit in his ever popular hit tv series QI.
11. Billy Connolly
"Marriage is a wonderful invention: then again, so is a bicycle repair kit."Billy Connolly
He has starred in a number of straight faced acting roles of late, but he is most known for his comedy genius. It is hard to believe that Billy started out as a banjo player in a band called Humblebums. His jokey interludes soon became more of the act till he became a full-time comedian.
12. Steve Carrell
"Nothing to me feels as good as laughing incredibly hard."Steve Carell
Steve, ever a master of improvisational comedy, started out by teaching how to do it. He later acted alongside Stephen Colbert in the "Second City" troupe. He has gone onto to make great comedy gold by starring in "Bruce Almighty" (2003) and "Evan Almighty" (2007).
13. Billy Crystal
"Women need a reason to have sex. Men just need a place."Billy Crystal
Despite being hit by personal tragedy with the loss of his father the year before, Billy started out as a stand-up comedian at the young age of 16. In the early 1970s, he started his own improv group and opened for singers such as Barry Manilow. His big break was starring as the gay character Jodie Dallas in 1977. He is best known for his reaction to Meg Ryan’s memorable scene in "When Harry Met Sally" (1989).
14. Emma Thompson
"Its unfortunate and I really wish I wouldn't have to say this, but I really like human beings who have suffered. They're kinder."Emma Thompson
It is hard to believe that Emma Thompson, the star of such hits as "Sense and Sensibility" (1995) and "Howards End" (1992), began in comedy. Yet her first break in television was starring in a comedy sketch show, "Alfresco", with fellow comedians Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.
15. Tracey Ullman
"As I get older, I just prefer to knit."Tracey Ullman
She played the therapist in "Ally McBeal". You may remember her for her pop songs in the 1980s, but Tracey Ullman started out writing comedy sketches for BBC, notably "A Kick Up the Eighties" and "Three of a Kind".