actors to check out
by emmalieblakemore | created - 05 Nov 2016 | updated - 08 Jul 2019 | Publicactors who might be worth checking their work out. For both studying acting and just out of interest.
1. Robby Benson
Actor | Beauty and the Beast
Robby Benson is an American writer, director, composer, lyricist, actor, professor of film, filmmaker and novelist. He began his career in the theater, (Oliver, The King and I); on Broadway (co-starring in Zelda, The Rothschilds and Joseph Papp's The Pirates of Penzance, where he met and fell in ...
2. Kimberly J. Brown
Actress | Bringing Down the House
Kimberly Brown began acting in commercials for the Ford Agency at the age of five. She appeared in her first Broadway show at age seven and made history by being in three Broadway shows by the age of nine: "Four Baboons Adoring the Sun", "Les Miserables" and "Showboat". She earned a Daytime Emmy ...
Marnie from Halloweentown and the biker chick from big bad wolf.
3. Annabelle Lanyon
Actress | Legend
Annabelle Lanyon was born on October 4, 1960 in Greenwich, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Legend (1985), Burlesque Fairytales (2009) and Werewolves of the Third Reich (2017).
4. Rusty Goffe
Actor | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2
Rusty Goffe was born on October 30, 1948 in Herne Bay, Kent, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011), Flash Gordon (1980) and Fred Claus (2007). He is married to Sarah. They have two children.
5. Jack Haley
Actor | The Wizard of Oz
Jack Haley was a movie and vaudeville actor who is always remembered as the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz (1939). The Tin Man role was originally was going to Buddy Ebsen, but due to allergic reaction from the aluminum powder makeup, Ebsen was taken out of the casting and Haley replaced him. To avoid...
The Tin Man.
6. Dave Willis
Writer | Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Dave Willis is an American writer, voice actor, and producer. A native of Texas, he got his start at Cartoon Network's Williams Street in 1995, where he would gain a writing jobs on Space Ghost Coast to Coast (1993) and its spin-off series Cartoon Planet (1995). Alongside fellow SGC2C writer Matt ...
Carl and Meatwad! Also the creator of a lot of the adult swim shows I'm a huge fan of.
7. Sam J. Jones
Actor | Flash Gordon
Actor Sam J. Jones was born in Chicago, Illinois but grew up in Sacramento, California. He was educated at Mira Loma High School in Sacramento and went on to serve as a United States Marine. Jones made his screen debut in Blake Edwards' comedy film 10 (1979). In 1980, he was cast in the iconic role...
8. Fiona Dourif
Actress | Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
Fiona Dourif is an American actress and producer. She began her career as a segment producer for documentaries on The History Channel and TLC. Her first acting role was HBO's Deadwood. She went on to appear in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master, Gus Van ...
Brad Douriff's daughter.
9. Hervé Villechaize
Actor | The Man with the Golden Gun
Hervé Villechaize was born in Montauban, France on April 23, 1943. He stopped growing very early and his father (who was a surgeon) tried to find a cure by visiting several doctors and hospitals. But there was none, so Hervé had to live with his small height and also with undersized lungs. He ...
10. James Cagney
Actor | Angels with Dirty Faces
One of Hollywood's preeminent male stars of all time, James Cagney was also an accomplished dancer and easily played light comedy. James Francis Cagney was born on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City, to Carolyn (Nelson) and James Francis Cagney, Sr., who was a bartender and amateur ...
Of course I've known who he ws since I was 6.
11. Roddy McDowall
Actor | Fright Night
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall was born in Herne Hill, London, to Winifriede Lucinda (Corcoran), an Irish-born aspiring actress, and Thomas Andrew McDowall, a merchant seaman of Scottish descent. Roddy was enrolled in elocution courses at age five and by ten had appeared in his first film, ...
12. Ezra Miller
Actor | The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Ezra Matthew Miller was born in Wyckoff, New Jersey, to Marta (Koch), a modern dancer, and Robert S. Miller, who has worked at Workman Publishing and as former senior V.P. for Hyperion Books. Ezra has two older sisters and is of Ashkenazi Jewish (father) and German-Dutch (mother) ancestry. Ezra has...
13. Kenneth Anger
Director | Fireworks
Kenneth Anger grew up in Hollywood and started out as a child actor, but his interest in filmmaking was evident at an early age: he made his first film, Who Has Been Rocking My Dreamboat (1941) , at age 14.
Anger developed into one of the pioneers of the American underground film movement. His ...
You know damn well who he is!
14. Melinda Clarke
Actress | Spawn
Melinda Clarke was born on April 24, 1969 in Dana Point, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Spawn (1997), The O.C. (2003) and Nikita (2010). She has been married to Adam Farmer since September 12, 2015. She was previously married to Ernie Mirich.
15. Max von Sydow
Actor | Flash Gordon
Max von Sydow was born Carl Adolf von Sydow on April 10, 1929 in Lund, Skåne, Sweden, to a middle-class family. He was the son of Baroness Maria Margareta (Rappe), a teacher, and Carl Wilhelm von Sydow, an ethnologist and folklore professor. His surname traces back to his partial German ancestry.
...
16. William Hickey
Actor | National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
Son of Edward & Nora Hickey. Best known as the ancient Mafia don in Prizzi's Honor (1985), Hickey had a long, distinguished career in film, television, and the stage. Began career as a child actor on the variety stage. Made Broadway debut as walk-on in George Bernard Shaw's "Saint Joan" (1951 ...
Mainly know him as the voice for Dr. Finkelstein, Night Gallery, and some other stuff I can't pinpoint.
17. Beatrice Manowski
Actress | Nekromantik
Beatrice Manowski was born on July 31, 1968 in Berlin, Germany. She is an actress and director, known for Nekromantik (1988), Wings of Desire (1987) and Drop Out - Nippelsuse schlägt zurück (1998).
18. Kim McGuire
Actress | Cry-Baby
Born in 1956 in New Orleans, LA, Kim McGuire was an actress, best known for playing Mona "Hatchet-Face" Malnorowski in John Waters' Cry-Baby (1990). Her other films include Disturbed (1990) and Acting on Impulse (1993). In 1997, after passing the State Bar exam, she began working as an attorney in ...
19. Madeline Kahn
Actress | Paper Moon
Madeline Kahn was born Madeline Gail Wolfson of Russian Jewish descent on September 29, 1942 in Boston, Massachusetts, to Freda Goldberg (later known as Paula Kahn), who was still in her teens, and Bernard B. Wolfson, a garment manufacturer. She began her acting career in high school and went on to...
I've seen her in almost all of Mel Brooks movies and hosting SNL.
20. Andrew Perez
Actor | The Old Man
Andrew Perez is an actor and writer, known for his work on the FX series The Old Man (2022), as well as the films My Scientology Movie (2015), Bastards y Diablos (2015), and My Dinner With Werner (2021). He was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area before moving to Chicago ...
Did a play about Kinski and pretty devoted about it.
21. Kieran Culkin
Actor | Succession
Kieran Kyle Culkin was born September 30, 1982 in New York City, New York. He is the son of Kit Culkin, a former stage and child actor, and Patricia Brentrup. He is the brother of Shane Culkin, Dakota Culkin, Macaulay Culkin, Quinn Culkin, Christian Culkin, and Rory Culkin. His mother, who is from ...
I only know him for being cousin Fuller in the Home alone movies, and or being Macaulay Culkin's brother.
22. Jerry Maren
Actor | House
Born to Italian emigrant parents, Emilio Marenghi and Raffaella Scanzillo, young Jerry took dancing lessons when he was young and aspired to be an actor. In November 1938, standing just 3' 4", he met up with the Oz-bound group of little people in New York and went by bus to California. There he was...
23. Agee
Actor | Midnight Sun
Agee is known for The Journey Home (2014), Alaska (1996) and Arctic Air (2012).
Because animal actors are amazing too!
24. Thora Birch
Actress | Ghost World
For some people, oatmeal starts the day off right - for Thora Birch, it launched a healthy career in front of the camera. It's hard to believe that the actress, who slunk into stardom with her turn as the disillusioned daughter in American Beauty (1999), is even related to the apple-cheeked blonde ...
Enith from Ghost world and the daughter in American Beauty.
25. John Leguizamo
Actor | Moulin Rouge!
Fast-talking and feisty-looking John Leguizamo has continued to impress movie audiences with his versatility: he can play sensitive and naïve young men, such as Johnny in Hangin' with the Homeboys (1991); cold-blooded killers like Benny Blanco in Carlito's Way (1993); a heroic Army Green Beret, ...
this guy is fucking awesome!
26. Javier Botet
Actor | It
Javier Botet was born on July 30, 1977 in Ciudad Real, Spain. He is an actor and writer, known for It (2017), Amigo (2019) and The Mummy (2017).
Is a lot like Doug Jones
27. Weng Weng
Actor | For Y'ur Height Only
The 1981 Manila International Film Festival was designed by First Lady Imelda Marcos as an elaborate showcase of Filipino culture. To everyone's horror, the only film that sold to the world was a midget spy film - a miniature mockery of Western pop iconography, and a joyously naïve celebration of ...
28. Kathleen Turner
Actress | Romancing the Stone
Kathleen Turner was born June 19, 1954 in Springfield, Missouri, to Patsy (Magee) and Allen Richard Turner, a U.S. Foreign Service officer. She graduated from American School in London in 1972. After the death of her father, the Turner family moved back to the United States where Kathleen later ...
I need to actually see the stuff she was in when she was young.
29. Debi Mazar
Actress | Empire Records
Deborah Anne Mazar Corcos (born August 13, 1964) is an American actress and television personality, known for playing sharp-tongued women. She began her career with supporting roles in Goodfellas (1990), Little Man Tate (1991) and Singles (1992), followed by lead roles on the legal drama series ...
I mainly know her as Spice from Batman forever and one of the main gals in Goodfellas.
30. Pam Grier
Actress | Jackie Brown
Pam Grier was born in Winston-Salem, NC, one of four children of Gwendolyn Sylvia (Samuels), a nurse, and Clarence Ransom Grier Jr., an Air Force mechanic. Pam has been a major African-American star from the early 1970s. Her career started in 1971, when Roger Corman of New World Pictures launched ...
She's even from Winston Salem, she's such a badass!
31. Simone Simon
Actress | Cat People
Diminutive, fiery-tempered Simone Simon was born in France, but spent much of her early childhood in Madagascar, where her father managed a graphite mine. Her schooling was somewhat unsettled, her family moving from city to city (Berlin, Budapest, Turin) before finally establishing themselves in ...
Batshit insane Mexican actress
32. Erin Brown
Actress | The Lord of the G-Strings: The Femaleship of the String
Erin Brown (born October 16, 1979 in Illinois, USA) is an actress, model, and film director. Her "trademark" appearance is her pronounced "naturalness" or lack of affectation, both in acting style and appearance.
She began her career making films for the underground filmmakers Factory 2000, then ...
a B horror/porn actress
33. Efren Ramirez
Actor | Mad Families
Efren Ramirez has been working as a professional actor for many years. Initially, his career consisted of guest star appearances on television, as he appeared in diverse roles on "E.R.", "AMERICAN DAD", "JUDGING AMY", "THE DISTRICT", "MAD TV", and "SCRUBS."
However, it was his memorable portrayal of...
Pedro
34. Mikhail Baryshnikov
Actor | The Turning Point
Boyishly cute, diminutive and strong as a bull, but as graceful as any gazelle or swan, Mikhail Baryshnikov is a household name even to non-balletomanes. Widely considered to be one of the greatest and biggest names in dance.
Mikhail began his ballet studies in his native Riga, Latvia. He was ...
One of the most famous Russian male ballet dancers in the last century.
35. Michael Wincott
Actor | Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Widely respected among peers for his fearless commitment, Michael Anthony Claudio Wincott was born to an English father and Italian mother in Scarborough, a working class suburb of Toronto. His career began fortuitously in 1976 at the CBC, cast by Deidre Bowen, Clare Walker and director Mike Newell...
The villain from the Crow, Ed Gein in Hitchcock, and another character I can't remember from a longtime ago.
36. Henry Brandon
Actor | The Searchers
German-born Henry Brandon was a character actor in American films, most often seen in villainous roles. His parents emigrated to the US shortly after his birth. His early interest in acting led him to study at the acclaimed Pasadena Community Playhouse. He landed the lead villain role in the Stan ...
So far have only seen him as Barnaby which spiked my interest in his work. So far know he was a character actor spanning 60 years and primarily was cast as playing minorities, though he was German.
37. Oliver Hardy
Actor | Saps at Sea
Although his parents were never in show business, as a young boy Oliver Hardy was a gifted singer and, by age eight, was performing with minstrel shows. In 1910 he ran a movie theatre, which he preferred to studying law. In 1913 he became a comedy actor with the Lubin Company in Florida and began ...
You know who they are. How is it possible I only just watched my first movie of their's!?
38. Stan Laurel
Actor | Saps at Sea
Stan Laurel came from a theatrical family, his father was an actor and theatre manager, and he made his stage debut at the age of 16 at Pickard's Museum, Glasgow. He traveled with Fred Karno's vaudeville company to the United States in 1910 and again in 1913. While with that company he was Charles ...
39. Daniel Day-Lewis
Actor | There Will Be Blood
Born in London, England, Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is the second child of Cecil Day-Lewis, Poet Laureate of the U.K., and his second wife, actress Jill Balcon. His maternal grandfather was Sir Michael Balcon, an important figure in the history of British cinema and head of the famous Ealing ...
Big time method actor.
40. Veronica Carlson
Actress | The Horror of Frankenstein
Striking, pale-complexioned, blonde English actress Veronica Carlson was known as the female lead of several late 1960s Hammer horror films, including the hapless Maria being terrorized by fanged Christopher Lee in Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968), brutalized by the evil Peter Cushing in ...
Hammer actress. The really sexy chick in Dracula has risen from the grave I wanna be like.
41. Bob Hoskins
Actor | The Long Good Friday
Bob Hoskins was described by the director John Mackenzie as "an actor from the British tradition but with an almost American approach, an instinctive approach to acting and knowing how to work with the camera". He was born on October 26, 1942, in Bury St. Edmund's, Suffolk, where his mother was ...
I immediately know him for Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Brazil, etc. and just now managed to finally connect the dots that he was Smee in Hook! Mum was bummed when she found out he passed away.
42. Caroline Munro
Actress | The Spy Who Loved Me
Leggy, brunette-maned pin-up actress Caroline Munro was born in Windsor, Berkshire, England, and lived in Rottingdean near Brighton where she attended a Roman Catholic convent school. By chance, her mother and a photographer entered her picture in a "Face of the Year" competition for the British ...
Been really liking her so far and considering her as a female actor role model.
43. Ornella Muti
Actress | Flash Gordon
Ornella Muti was born on March 9, 1955 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She is an actress, known for Flash Gordon (1980), Oscar (1991) and The Most Beautiful Wife (1970). She was previously married to Federico Fachinetti and Alessio Orano.
Princess Aura, in Love and Money with Klaus Kinski, and noticed her in The Heart is Deceitful as the crazy religious grandmother.
44. Tommy Davidson
Actor | In Living Color
Davidson started his career as a stand-up comedian in Washington DC, earning an ardent following with sheer hard work in various comedy clubs. As one of the cutting-edge, young stand-ups, he was spotted by major concert promoters, who booked him as the opening act for A-list touring acts, including ...
45. David Warner
Actor | Titanic
Distinguished character actor David Hattersley Warner was born on July 29, 1941 in Manchester, England, to Ada Doreen (Hattersley) and Herbert Simon Warner. He was born out of wedlock and raised by each of his parents, eventually settling with his itinerant father and stepmother. He only saw his ...
Well known for playing a lot of romantic or villainous characters in vast medias.
46. Adrienne Shelly
Actress | Waitress
The late Adrienne Shelly was born in Queens, New York, to Elaine Langbaum and Sheldon Levine. After graduating Jericho High School in Jericho, New York, she enrolled at Boston University and majored in film production. She dropped out after her junior year and moved to Manhattan, where she made a ...
So far recognize her from Teresa's tattoo. The poor beauty was murdered.
47. Julie Brown
Actress | Medusa: Dare to Be Truthful
Julie Brown is an American actress, comedian, screen/television writer, singer-songwriter, and director. After moving away from her hometown of Van Nuys (aka "The Valley"), Julie began her career as a comedian in the clubs of San Francisco. After returning to Los Angeles, she immediately started ...
I liked her in Shakes the Clown, and she worked with MTV
48. Wilhelm von Homburg
Actor | In the Mouth of Madness
Wilhelm Von Homburg (A.K.A. Norbert Grupe) was born in Berlin, Germany. He started out his career as a wrestler during the fifties in Germany where he earned his fame. He also toured the States. Homburg's stage name was Prinz Wilhelm Von Homburg. In the early sixties, he shifted from wrestling to ...
Vigo in ghostbusters 2, and the writer's father in In the Mouth of Madness.
49. Margaux Hemingway
Actress | Killer Fish
Born in Portland, Oregon, she grew up in on a farm in Ketchum, Idaho. But dad was Jack Hemingway, son of the Nobel prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway and, with that heritage, fame was almost foreordained. By the time she was 21, after the lead in the rape melodrama Lipstick (1976), she had a ...
She and I have some frighteningly similar things in common including being from Portland, and that I need to beware of as an aquapisces.
50. Kate O'Mara
Actress | Doctor Who
Kate O'Mara was born Frances Meredith Carroll on August 10, 1939 in Leicester, Leicestershire, England. A hard-looking brunette with high cheekbones, Kate was the daughter of actress Hazel Bainbridge and John Carroll and prodded into performing as a child. Educated at the Aida Foster School, she ...
51. Susan Tyrrell
Actress | Cry-Baby
A bizarre, gloriously one-of-a-kind Hollywood gypsy and self-affirmed outcast, San Francisco-born actress Susan Tyrrell (born Susan Jillian Creamer) was a teenager when she made her stage debut in "Time Out for Ginger" in 1962. A product of the entertainment industry, her father was a top agent at ...
Or as I know her better as Sue Sue, which John Waters nicknamed her. You know, Ramona Richie in Crybaby who kept introducing herself to people on the set by telling them she had the P***y of a 10 year old, including John's mother.
52. Joe Spinell
Actor | Taxi Driver
Joseph J. Spagnuolo was born on October 28, 1936 in Manhattan, New York City at his family's apartment on 2nd Avenue. Spinell was a tough guy on and off the screen all his life. During his teen years, while still in high school, he acted in various plays on the New York stage, on and off Broadway, ...
53. Andrey Kharitonov
Director | Zazda strasti
Andrey Kharitonov was born on July 25, 1959 in Kiev, USSR. He was an actor and director, known for Zazda strasti (1991), The Invisible Man (1985) and Romanovy: Ventsenosnaya semya (2000). He was married to Olga Smiryagina. He died on June 23, 2019 in Moscow, Russia.
54. Deep Roy
Actor | Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Deep Roy was born on January 26, 1949 in Nairobi, Kenya. He is an actor and producer, known for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and The NeverEnding Story (1984).
Before working with Tim Burton he was doing sci fi and fantasy movies since the 70's.
Tell Your Friends