Actors who you're surprised aren't more famous

Yep, and IMHO, most of them were better looking when they had the bit part.

Case in point: Geena Davis in "Fletch" looked like a beautiful girl-next-door. Then Hollywood got to her.

I prefer cute over beautiful, because cute doesn't wash off at night before you go to bed.

 

Geena Davis in Tootsie was the real heart-stopper.

 

Oh, and, conversely, how many had important, jaw-dropping roles, and turned into nobody. The only other thing I EVER saw Michelle Johnson in was an HBO Twilight Zone-type series episode where she played the seductive young wife of a lumberjack who ended up getting hacked with an ax in retribution for her infidelity. Talk about typecast, to some degree, but whatever the hell happened to her?

 

Nice call on Gretchen Mol. She was amazing in the Bettie Page biopic. Ridiculously talented and hot and for the most part, she's unknown by Hollywood standards.

Sarah Polley is another one. I know she's had success as a director, but after she was in "Go" which is one of my favorite underrated movies, I thought she was going to be a huge star.

Claire Danes is another one who seems to have fallen off the map a bit.

 

I was always suprised Danes never made it. My So-Called Life was my favorite show ever. You would've thought she'd get a lot more indie work.

 

I believe Claire Danes falls in the category of early stars who pursued academic careers outside of Hollywood, which may have compromised whatever "stardom" they might have pursued. She dabbled in some early movie bullshit projects off the slipstream of her "My So Called Life" popularity, like "Brokedown Palace," or whatever it was called, then retreated from the limelight.

Again, longtime on-screen "stardom" isn't something potential Hollywood careerists necessarily want or need. I believe there's plenty of alternate ways to bank on your early stardom to make a lasting career that doesn't involve chasing that elusive "stardom." It's like an anaconda feeding on a deer for however long it takes.

 

The HBO show was Tales from the Crypt.

Not sure why she didn't get that much acting work. She was married to Matt Williams for a little over three years. Has only one acting credit on her resume since they got married in 1999 even though they divorced in '02.

 

Actually, Gabrielle Anwar has been playing an assassin/love interest on Burn Notice since 2007, but I see your point.

 

The baseball Matt Williams? (not that there's any other Matt Williams that I can think of)

Oh, and to correct, it was a chainsaw, not an ax, if I believe

 

That would be correct. She looked a hell of a lot better in "Blame it on Rio" than she did years later, when she cot way too thin, as I recall. I knew a guy who went to high school with her -- the movie came out her senior year. Apparently it was a big hit on campus.

Williams then married a weekend weather chick from a Phoenix TV station.

 

Wait, the movie came out her senior year of WHAT school?

 

High school. She actually graduated a semester early so she was gone when it came out, but it came out in 1984, and she graduated in '84.

She was 18 when it was shot.