The Cast of the Film Trilogy and Their Previous Roles

[Radaghast]

This thread is just out of fun and curiosity; I'm wondering in which movies, TV shows (or even just trailers or TV ads) the forum users have first seen the actors in the movies. The silly idea just popped into my head after seeing Witness (one of my favorite movies, incidentally) yesterday, the first movie in which I first saw Viggo Mortensen (it also happens to be his first big screen credit). I have no love for these movies, but I find screen credits to be a fun topic, and I remember some of the actors from my childhood and adolescence. So, anyway, without further ado, here's my list (in more or less chronological order):

• John Rhys-Davis: Shogun (1980); TV series. I remember his character ('Vasco Rodrigues') saying something about "oranges from Goa" (which I remember because I was born in Goa, so that stuck in my brain). I don't remember when I first saw Raiders of the Lost Ark but it was in the mid 80s on cable, or maybe regular TV.
• Brad Dourif: One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). Saw this in middle school in 1984 after our class was assigned to read the book.
• Viggo Mortensen: Witness (1985); in the movie theater. It's not a very prominent role, and I'm not sure he even has any lines (at least not ones you can hear).
• Sean Astin: The Goonies (1985); theater.
• Sean Bean: Stormy Monday (1988); cable. Also stars Melanie Griffith, Sting and Tommy Lee Jones. I also remember him from Patriot Games (1992).
• Elijah Wood: Avalon (1990); cable. This is his first major role that I saw him in; I remember being impressed by his performance. I suppose I would have seen his cameo in Back to the Future Part II (which I also saw on cable) since that movie came out the year previous but I don't remember it.
• Ian McKellen: The Shadow (1994), though I didn't know who he was at the time; saw this one in the theater (and regretted it). I'm also wondering if I saw him in a stage production of Macbeth in 1979 that I think aired on PBS, but I'm not at all sure (I have a vague memory of Macduff holding up Macbeth's head but I don't remember if it was from the 1979 production or not). I remember the TV ads in 1998 for Apt Pupil (which I never saw) and Gods and Monsters (not sure if I saw this before or after). I also saw X-Men in the theater in 2000. (Incidentally, Alec Baldwin's Shadow makeup makes him look like one of his brothers, not sure which one)
• Hugo Weaving: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994); cable. Also stars Terence Stamp and Guy Pearce.
• Ian Holm: The Fifth Element (1997) in the theater. I would have seen him in the TV miniseries Jesus of Nazareth in 1977 and the 1990 adaptation of Hamlet, (both directed by Franco Zeffirelli, incidentally) but I don't remember seeing him in either of those. I did see some of JoN more recently, which is why I know he was in that. There's also Brazil (1985), but I don't know if I saw that before or after.
• Bernard Hill: The Bounty (1984), starring Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson. I don't remember when I saw this on cable (though it was before 2001) and I only realized the character was Bernard Hill at some later point.
• Liv Tyler: Armageddon (1998). I never watched this in full; saw bits and pieces on cable (I guess I would have seen the awful videos for the awful Aerosmith song on MTV too, but it seems I wiped it from my memory; the video, not the song, unfortunately 🤢).
• Cate Blanchett: Elizabeth (1998). Didn't see this till a good while after the LoR films (iirc), but I remember the TV ads in 1998. I also remember the ads for The Talented Mr. Ripley and Pushing Tin in 1999; haven't seen either movie.
• Martin Csokas: Broken English (1996). I don't remember when I saw this movie on cable, but I think it was before 2001. I'm guess '98 or '99.
• Christopher Lee: Probably saw him in a lot of movies (caught glimpses of his Dracula movies, perhaps), a face that I couldn't put a name to (kind of like Pam Grier) but the first film I remember seeing him in is A Feast at Midnight (1994) on cable. I don't think I watched the whole thing and I don't remember when I saw it. I would have seen him in Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1989), Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow (1999) but I don't remember him from either of those. He was also in the TV miniseries Shaka Zulu (1986) which I saw but remember very little of it.

The film trilogy was my introduction to the other actors: Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, etc.

 

[Deimos]

This thread is just out of fun and curiosity; I'm wondering in which movies, TV shows (or even just trailers or TV ads) the forum users have first seen the actors in the movies. The silly idea just popped into my head after seeing Witness (one of my favorite movies, incidentally) yesterday, the first movie in which I first saw Viggo Mortensen (it also happens to be his first big screen credit). I have no love for these movies, but I find screen credits to be a fun topic. So, anyway, without further ado, here's my list (in more or less chronological order):

• John Rhys-Davis: Shogun (1980); TV series. I remember his character ('Vasco Rodrigues') saying something about "oranges from Goa" (which I remember because I was born in Goa, so that stuck in my brain). I don't remember when I first saw The Raiders of the Lost Ark but it was in the mid 80s on TV, probably.
• Brad Dourif: One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). Saw this in middle school in 1984 after our class was assigned to read the book.
• Viggo Mortensen: Witness (1985); in the movie theater. It's not a very prominent role, and I'm not sure he even has any lines.
• Sean Astin: The Goonies (1985); theater.
• Sean Bean: Stormy Monday (1988); cable. Also stars Melanie Griffith, Sting and Tommy Lee Jones.
• Elijah Wood: Avalon (1990); cable. This is his first major role that I saw him in; I remember being impressed by his performance. I suppose I would have seen his cameo in Back to the Future Part II (which I also saw on cable) since that movie came out the year previous but I don't remember.
• Ian McKellen: The Shadow (1994), though I didn't know who he was at the time; saw this one in the theater (and regretted it). I'm also wondering if I saw him in a stage production of Macbeth in 1979 that I think aired on PBS, but I'm not at all sure (I have a vague memory of Macduff holding up Macbeth's head but I don't remember if it was from the 1979 production or not). I remember the TVads in 1998 for Apt Pupil (which I never saw) and Gods and Monsters (which I didn't see till later).
• Hugo Weaving: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994); cable. Also stars Terence Stamp and Guy Pearce.
• Ian Holm: The Fifth Element (1997). I would have seen him in the TV miniseries Jesus of Nazareth in 1977 and the 1990 adaptation of Hamlet, but I don't remember him in either of those.
• Bernard Hill: The Bounty (1984). I don't remember when I saw this on cable (though it was before 2001) and I only realized Bernard Hill was in this at some later point.
• Liv Tyler: Armageddon (1998). I never watched this in full; saw bits and pieces on cable (I guess I would have seen the awful videos for the awful Aerosmith song on MTV too, but it seems I wiped it from my memory; the video, not the song, unfortunately).
• Cate Blanchett: Elizabeth (1998). Didn't see this till a good while after the LoR films, but I remember the TV ads in 1998.
• Martin Csokas: Broken English (1996). I don't remember when I saw this movie on cable, but I think it was before 2001. I'm guess '98 or '99.
• Christopher Lee: Probably saw him in a lot of movies (caught glimpses of his Dracula movies, perhaps), but the first film I remember seeing him in is A Feast at Midnight (1994) no cable. I don't think I watched the whole thing and I don't remember when I saw it. I would have seen him in Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1989), Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow (1999) but I don't remember him from either of those. He was also in the TV miniseries Shaka Zulu (1986) which I saw but remember very little of it.

The film trilogy was my introduction the other actors: Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, etc.

OK... just off the top of my head... (I may add to this when I get to the bottom of my head...)
Ian McKellen was in the movie Cold Comfort Farm (1995, based on the Book of the same name)... pretty funny...also starred Kate Beckinsale, Stephen Fry, Rufus Sewell, Eileen Atkins, to name a few of the other stars. (Watch it when you get tthe chance for some great laughs).
I saw McKellen later in that Macbeth production on DVD or some other medium...maybe VHS.

Christopher Lee... haha ... too many Hammer movies to count.

Sean Astin... the Goonies and also Rudy (1993)

Ian Holm ... Alien (1979)... Chariots of Fire (1981)

 

[Vorondil]

• Viggo Mortentsen - Hidalgo (2004)
• Christopher Lee - Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005)

 

[Deimos]

Oh yeah, I forgot Brad Dourif: One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975).
I was in the Navy when I saw it while assigned to a classified R&D site in the middle of ...(wait for it)... a desert.
That part as Billy Bibbit was his breakout role in film; prior to that he had prominent roles only on the stage.

 

[Radaghast]

A gallery to go with the OP.

 

[Radaghast]

Why, yes, I am bored 😁

 

[Olorgando]

Oh yeah, I forgot Brad Dourif: One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975).

Dourif was also in the fourth "Alien" film "Resurrection" of 1997 (the first four films, which I have in a DVD box, all starred Sigourney Weaver).
Hugo Weaving was Agent Smith in the "Matrix" trilogy, and Ian McKellen was Magneto in the first three "X-men" films; got all of these on DVD, too.

 

[Radaghast]

Oh, right, forgot The Matrix was before LoR, lol. And now that I think about it, there's an Australian movie Weaving did with Russell Crowe called Proof (1991) which I saw around '98-'99; he plays a blind photographer (no, I don't know how that works either).

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

Brad Dourif

He was also in "Beyond the Sea", a Season 1 episode of The X-Files.

 

[Radaghast]

He was also in "Beyond the Sea", a Season 1 episode of The X-Files.

Also the original voice of Chucky.

 

[Squint-eyed Southerner]

And in a little-seen film from 1979, John Huston's adaptation of the Flannery O'Connor story "Wise Blood".

One of my favorite scenes:

 

[Berzelmayr]

I mostley agree with the OP list, but the first time I saw Sean Bean was in Derek Jarman's movie about Caravaggio:

 

[Andromadus the Invictus]

Sir Christopher Lee, aka Saruman the Wise, has starred in over 200 movies, released at least 6 heavy metal albums, and wrote about 3 books in his lifetime.
Some of his more notable roles were Count Dracula in the hammer horror films, Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels, and Doctor Wilbur Wonka in the Johnny Depp version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
His music includes two albums told from the perspective of Charlemagne (King Charles the Great), one about Don Quixote, and three different Christmas albums.
Here's a song of his from one of the Christmas albums that I covered for my YouTube channel.

I haven't had a chance to read any of his books, so I can't tell you about those, but I have listened to his reading of Edgar Allan Poe's works, which was on another level.

Hope this helps!

 

[Vardarianna]

Brad Dourif - Piter Devries in the 1984 Dune movie!

 

[Radaghast]

Brad Dourif - Piter Devries in the 1984 Dune movie!

Saw this one recently.

 

[Deimos]

Another Brad Dourif role.... Deputy Sheriff in Mississippi Burning (1988) with Gene Hackman and also Michael Rooker (before he took to wearing blue grease paint😄)

 

[Vardarianna]

I know this is for when you first saw an actor that was in the LotR movies, and I first saw (and swooned) over Orlando Bloom as Legolas when I first saw the movies as a child, but I saw another movie with him not long after the movies, and that was in the movie Ned Kelly. He starred in it with Heath Ledger (RIP) as a member of the Kelly Gang in Australia.

 

[Deimos]

I know this is for when you first saw an actor that was in the LotR movies, and I first saw (and swooned) over Orlando Bloom as Legolas when I first saw the movies as a child, but I saw another movie with him not long after the movies, and that was in the movie Ned Kelly. He starred in it with Heath Ledger (RIP) as a member of the Kelly Gang in Australia.

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You know...it's really unfortunate but I can't see some of the LOTR actors in other roles without seeing them in their LOTR role.
That is, Bloom will always be Legolas to me.
That's bad because it's like my mind is typcasting; not fair to the actor, but then the mind has, well, a mind of its own 🙄

 

[Elwing_HalfElven]

You know...it's really unfortunate but I can't see some of the LOTR actors in other roles without seeing them in their LOTR role.
That is, Bloom will always be Legolas to me.

yeah same here...every time I watch Star Wars and see Count Dooku, I nudge whoever is next to me on the couch like, "hey that's Saruman. did you know that's Saruman?"