When an Actor's Career Gets a 2nd Wind Due To A...*

[crimsoncing]

Role. I am not talking a career making role. I am talking when a actor has made a career out of playing a Villian or a hero and then switches places and the career gets a entire 2nd wind.

The tow that come to mind are:
Leslie Neilson who was known as a TV "heavy". He always played the bad guy on all those 60's detective shows.

Then along came Airplane and now he is know as a comedy actor. This 2nd wind has lasted longer than he villians days.

Nicholas Cage. He started out as creepy small roles, switched to romantic roles and now he is a ACTION HERO!!! When you look at the last 5 to 10 years he has changed course!!!! If you only knew how close he came to playing SUperman 10 years ago.

[phish]

william shatner?

[Walt]

Henry Fonda. Always the good guy until Once Upon A Time In The West made him a cold-blooded killer.

[hi_watt]

John Travolta. I just saw him in Look Who's Talking Too while channel surfing, and couldn't believe he'd be able to make a comeback with Pulp Fiction. Damn those talking baby movies.

[shokhead]

A lot of the actors got switched when tv came along and the 2nd career started in tv.

[tommy-thewho]

James Cromwell comes to mind. He plays Archie Bunker's neighbor in the 70's than he does Babe and his career explodes....

[JohnG]

I thought Robert Forster got a nice bump when "Jackie Brown" came out.

[BradF]

Dick Powell - best known at the time as the baby faced song and dance man in many a 1930's musical, caught a break when he was cast as Marlowe in the film noir classic Murder, My Sweet.

[pdenny]

That thread title needs a second wind! :D

Robert Forster?

[pencilchewer]

If you only knew how close he came to playing SUperman 10 years ago.

Apparently he still hasn't gotten over it; he named his kid after him. :laugh:

[The Wanderer]

Jack Elam - from vicious killer to Jim Garner's goofy clueless sidekick

[phish]

woody harrelson

[The Panda]

James Cromwell comes to mind. He plays Archie Bunker's neighbor in the 70's than he does Babe and his career explodes....
The he kills Spacey in cold blood..........

[Michael]

That thread title needs a second wind! :D

Robert Forster?

one of the best character actors out there! One of my favorites!
He appeared in many popular films througout his career.

[Director]

That thread title needs a second wind! :D



My head almost exploded trying to make out the thread title!

[darkmatter]

Actor Robert Powell here in the UK has been a regular in the TV series Casualty having had a busy film career 20 years or so prior to that

[music4life]

Ummm, Clint Eastwood anyone?
Goes from playing a TV cowboy, and spaghetti westerns, to Dirty Harry...

[Michael]

Ummm, Clint Eastwood anyone?
Goes from playing a TV cowboy, and spaghetti westerns, to Dirty Harry...

lest not forget director!

[JBStephens]

DeForest Kelley - from playing western "villains" so rotten that he would shoot a dog, to the gentlemanly (mostly) Dr. McCoy.

[darkmatter]

DeForest Kelley - from playing western "villains" so rotten that he would shoot a dog, to the gentlemanly (mostly) Dr. McCoy.

Excellent, darn as a trekker why didn't I think of that :righton:

Simon

[Michael]

That thread title needs a second wind! :D

Robert Forster?

here he is...

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001233/

[Chris R]

On of the more recent examples would be actor Jackie Earle Haley.

From IMdB bio (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0355097/bio) page.

Earned rave reviews in 2006 in an unanticipated comeback with his roles in All the King's Men (2006) and Little Children (2006). Having not done a movie since 1993 and moonlighting here and there as a commercial director, limousine driver, furniture refinisher, security officer and pizza deliverer in Texas, Haley happened to be "just remembered" for his earlier films by director Steven Zaillian for his role in "King's Men" and the ball started rolling.

Haley was outstanding as Ronnie McGorvey in Little Children. A well deserved Oscar nomination in the best supporting male category. Rent this film if you haven't seen it. Great performaces by Haley, Kate Winslet and the rest of the cast. Great direction by Todd Field.

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/4885/jackieearlehaleyho1.jpg

[Oatsdad]

James Cromwell comes to mind. He plays Archie Bunker's neighbor in the 70's than he does Babe and his career explodes....

But I wouldn't call that a "second wind" because Cromwell never really had a FIRST wind. Actually, I don't think his career "exploded", either. He played smallish character roles betore "Babe" and he played smallish character roles AFTER "Babe" - it's not like he all of a sudden became a lead actor.

Heck, has Cromwell EVER played the lead in a movie? He was second-billed to the pig in "Babe"!

[Oatsdad]

My pick off the top of my head: Jack Palance. He went from "D"-level crap to an Oscar after "City Slickers".

Travolta remains the best pick in this category, though - "Pulp Fiction" really staged a miracle comeback.

Pam Grier got the Tarantino boost in "Jackie Brown", but I'm not sure it really did much for her career... :shrug:

[-Alan]

William Conrad was a renowned radio actor and also performed in films in the 1940s and 1950s. He also did television voice-over work for cartoons and as a narrator in the 1960s. Some of his credits are as Marshall Matt Dillon on radio's Gunsmoke, radio work on Escape and Suspense, and as the narrator of the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.

His career received a second wind when he became a television star playing the title role of Cannon in the 1970s, then as star of Jake and the Fat Man from 1987-1992.