The Ultimate "Career Launching" Movie

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by RayS, Jul 16, 2017.

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  1. Jay_Z

    Jay_Z Forum Resident

    Both of them are going to be remembered for Luke and Leia. They were not "launched" to greater things. Yes, I know they did other work. It's like saying Batman '66 launched Adam West. Happy Days launched Henry Winkler. Fonzie is going on the tombstone. Yes, I know he has continued to act.

    Star Wars did launch Harrison Ford. He got bigger roles in a lot of other movies. Ditto American Graffiti and Richard Dreyfus. Graffiti probably helped Ron Howard and Cindy Williams get their TV shows. Helped Suzanne Somers. Paul LeMat to some extent. Don't know if anyone else was particularly launched by it.
     
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  2. mmars982

    mmars982 Forum Resident

    Location:
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    And Rebecca De Morney, no?
     
  3. Good call. It put a lot of actors and Richard Linklater on the map.
     
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  4. Standoffish

    Standoffish Smarter than a turkey

    Location:
    North Carolina
    Clueless:
    Alicia Silverstone
    Paul Rudd
    Brittany Murphy
    Donald Faison

    Empire Records:
    Renee Zellwegger
    Liv Tyler
    Robin Tunney
    Anthony LaPaglia
     
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  5. No way, it was Zellweger's three seconds in Dazed and Confused that put her on the map. :)
     
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  6. Veltri

    Veltri ♪♫♫♪♪♫♫♪

    Location:
    Canada
    Heathers - Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty.
     
  7. Veltri

    Veltri ♪♫♫♪♪♫♫♪

    Location:
    Canada
    I would say Dangerous Liaisons launched her career. At least that's when I took notice.
     
  8. Veltri

    Veltri ♪♫♫♪♪♫♫♪

    Location:
    Canada
    Mean Streets - Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, David Proval
     
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  9. JFS3

    JFS3 Senior Member

    Location:
    Hooterville
    Sixteen Candles helped launch not only the careers of Molly Ringwald, Michael Anthony Hall and John Cusack, but that of director John Hughes as well.
     
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  10. keef00

    keef00 Senior Member

    Mystic Pizza? Julia Roberts, Annabeth Gish, Lili Taylor and way down in the credits in his first movie role, Matt Damon.
     
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  11. On a similar front, Swingers launched Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau (who wrote the script), and to a lesser extent Ron Livingston.
     
  12. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Maybe - she definitely worked prior to "Pulp Fiction". I just think that's the one that gave her widespread exposure among the less cinephile among us! :D
     
  13. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Hasn't Damon's career been "launched" by like 20 movies in this thread? :laugh:
     
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  14. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
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    That's a much better "career-launching" pick than "Breakfast Club"! :righton:
     
  15. How would "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" fit into this thread.
    Some of the actors did work before this movie but they were not well known yet.
    After this movie they were well known and have moved onto greater careers.
    Matthew Broderick, Alan Ruck, Jeffery Jones, Charlie Sheen, Mia Sara, Kristy Swanson, Jennifer Grey, and of course Ben Stein set his tone, and delivery style in stone in this movie.
     
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  16. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Broderick was already pretty famous for "WarGames", and Jones had a well-known part in "Amadeus".

    You could make a good case for the others, though I'd argue "Platoon" had roughly 298 times the impact in "launching" Sheen's career! :)
     
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  17. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Okay, it's not a movie, but I still humbly submit "Freaks and Geeks".

    Careers launched:

    James Franco
    Linda Cardellini
    Seth Rogen
    Jason Segel
    John Francis Daley (not a great acting career but has done well as a writer)
    Martin Starr
    Paul Feig
    Judd Apatow
     
  18. fr in sc

    fr in sc Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hanahan, SC
    If I may go very old school, I nominate Winchester 73, which launched Shelley Winters and Rock Hudson (although Hudson had had some bit parts before, this was the first one where he had a screen credit and some significant screen time as the Indian chief).
     
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  19. Simon A

    Simon A Arrr!

    Although they had all appeared in many movies before this one, I'd say that The Maltese Falcon was the one that made Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet major movie stars (and to a lesser extent Elisha Cook Jr.) and gave John Huston his first major credit as a director.
     
  20. Simon A

    Simon A Arrr!

    Another one where the actors had appeared in other projects before but exploded as stars is Transpotting. Actors Ewan McGregor, Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle, Ewen Bremner, Kelly Macdonald and Kevin McKidd all built solid careers after this. Director Danny Boyle went on to create many more mindbogging films. Author Irvine Welsh's books certainly attracted more attention. The film also brought Iggy Pop's music to a whole new generation and gave it a revival of sorts.
     
  21. Simon A

    Simon A Arrr!

    Yet another one that brought an ensemble of superb actors to light was The Big Chill: Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Tom Berenger, JoBeth Williams, Mary Kay Place and Meg Tilly. It also gave screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan another remakable directing credit following Body Heat.
     
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