A Nightmare on Elm Street, Heavenly Creatures, Jungle Fever, Lawrence of Arabia, Live and Let Die, The Mask, The Outsiders, The Tall Guy, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Wedding Party, and Zulu.
(As you can see from the picture, the “…And Introducing” credit doesn’t always work out quite so well as it did for the actors introduced in the selected movies .)
Burt Likko
Pseudonymous Portlander. Pursuer of happiness. Bon vivant. Homebrewer. Atheist. Recovering Republican. Recovering Catholic. Recovering divorcé. Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Ordinary Times. Relapsed Lawyer, admitted to practice law (under his real name) in California and Oregon. There's a Twitter account at @burtlikko, but not used for posting on the general feed anymore. House Likko's Words: Scite Verum. Colite Iusticia. Vivere Con Gaudium.
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(I’m actually getting conflicting information about “Jungle Fever.” Questioning whether I should remove it from the list.)Report
They are all first movies for people who went on to win oscars.Report
Tuesday hint: this is not correct, but a damn good guess.
IMDB and AMPAS aren’t going to help you go further than this.Report
First movies for people who went on to be nominated for an oscar but never win one?Report
Well, if AMPAS won’t help us than we can rule out anything Oscar-related.
But just glancing through the list, “Heavenly Creatures” is out because Winslet finally won one, and I can think of no nominees from either “The Mask” or “Live and Let Die.”Report
Oh, Zulu links to the Wedding Party.Report
Sorry. Fixed it.Report
So much for my hope that I would be able to get at least a movie trivia question correct. I’m wondering if it has something to do with special effects.Report
First movies by people who later were on the cover of Vanity Fair.Report
Wednesday hint: There’s several other films out there that technically meet this qualification, but I picked these because as for these films, things actually worked out the way they were supposed to.Report
They all feature actors with no prior acting experience?Report
They all have actors who were relatively unknown beforehand, who went on to become major stars.Report
@aaron-david Yes, I think that must be it.Report
But why would I pick these unknown-and-later-successful actors as opposed to the universe of others available? Everyone was unknown at some point in their careers. Except Jodie Foster, who’s been famous since she was the Coppertone baby.
Sorry, you guys still haven’t hit on it.Report
Are we even close, or hopelessly off base?Report
You’re very much in the right to be thinking about these being the first (or at least very early) films for actors who have gone on to realize success and fame. And it’s not contingent upon subsequent awards — everything is found within the specific movies themselves.
Focus on Nightmare on Elm Street, Heavenly Creatures, Lawrence of Arabia, The Mask, and Zulu, which are IMO the most prominent instances of [the answer]. Although it was re-watching Live and Let Die recently that inspired me to do this question, it is less famous than those other five movies in this respect.Report
So maybe it will help my thinking to list the actors that (I think) are getting each film included on the list. For the ones Burt is drawing our attention to, those are (probably) Johnny Depp, Kate Winslett, Peter O’Toole, Cameron Diaz and Michael Caine. Are these all movies that star actors who had not previously been credited in a theatrical release? Actors who had not previously been credited, starred, and eventually won oscars?Report
Well, of those films (some of them I have seen), you have *SPOILERS* Depp (murdered by an undead serial killer in his dreams), Winslet (murderer), O’Toole (dies in a motorcycle accident), Diaz (survives, has a jazzy dance number) and Caine (haven’t seen it, no clue).
Live and Let Die focuses, I assume, on Jane Seymour (psychic, sleeps with James Bond, menaced by various thugs).Report
Judging by the inclusion of Live and Let Die, I’m going to go with first rolls by future stars who are still not as cool as Yaphet Kotto.Report
Three proofreading points:
1. Add “the ravishing” before “Jane Seymor”
2. Strike the first comma from the quoted section and replace with “until she,”
3. Add “…including the amazingly cool Yaphet Kotto, yesteryear’s Idris Elba.Report
“Here’s to Al Giardello, too badass to die.” (Though that was, alas, inaccurate.)Report
Lose their virginity?Report
They all have characters where the actor appears on screen after his or her character dies on-screen?Report
Briefly perusing, Winslet, Diaz and Seymour all play characters who survive to the end of the film.Report
I know that Johnny Depp didn’t actually plan to try out for his part in “Nightmare”–He got cast after driving a friend to the audition.
Are these all movies where a future star was cast by accident, as it were?Report
If that’s the case, where is Mad Max?Report
Thursday hint: you’ve really got to actually watch the movies in order to get the information you need. It drives me up the wall that IMDB doesn’t collect this information, because it seems like it wouldn’t be that hard for it to do so.Report
Wait, I need to watch the movies in the order you listed them, or in the order they were released?
(Just kidding, this has me stumped. I can get half way there on this [first films, famous] but the other half is killing me.)Report
Friday hint: This almost always appears in the opening credits, and almost never in closing credits. It only (but not always) appears in relation to an actor who has not had a significant role in a motion picture previously.Report
Movies that said “introducing” to refer to the starring actor in the title credits?Report
Sounds right to me.Report
There you go. This seems to be the one credit that IMDB does not track for some reason.Report
As in
?Report
What’s with the long hair on those beatniks?Report
Was the issue with JF who the “star” was?Report
Who was introduced i the various films?Report
My guesses are Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Wesley Snipes (never saw it), Peter O’Toole, Jane Seymour, Cameron Diaz, no clue, no clue, Robert Duvall, Robert DeNiro and Michael Caine.Report
Ah. I believe you could also include “The Princess Bride” in this list?Report
Robin Wright?Report
Indeed.Report