Holy crap! That was...

Just had one of my favorite kind of moments. It's Friday, and my attention's flagging, so I was just goofing around on the 'net and was checking out the cast of "Castle" on imdb.com. Hadn't before. Clicked on Nathan Fillion, was surprised to find out he's Canadian, his parents (mom is "Cookie," btw - ha!) are English teachers. Then... BAM.

It says there that he was in "Saving Private Ryan." Having just watched the movie last week, that surprised me because I don't remember seeing him. Looked it up, and he was the wrong James Ryan, the from Minnesota who cried because he thought his two younger brothers, still in elementary school, had died. Holy crap. Didn't realize that was him.

Anyway, that's one of my favorite kind of moments: When you realize a new favorite actor/actress was part of a movie you've seen dozens of times, but never noticed.

Had one last week, too. I love the BBC series "Foyle's War," didn't know until last week that Emily Blunt ("The Devil Wears Prada" and "Dan In Real Life") had been in one. Went back and, sure enough, there she was.

I just dig things like that, like finding out that Simon Pegg was unnoticed in "Band of Brothers" or Tim Robbins was Maverick's RIO at the end of "Top Gun." Anyone else have a similar surprise?

 

Dana Carvey is listed in the credits for "Halloween II."
I think he was either an ambulance driver in the movie for a split second, or played Ben Tramer -- who was smashed by a police car and turned into a charred corpse about 10 seconds after he appeared. Can't remember which. First time I noticed that was sometime in the 1990s, not long after he left SNL. Thought it was funny.

Was also watching a really bad movie on cable last week called "Maniac Cop 2". The credits roll, and both Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi had small parts. They must've owed a favor to the director or something.

 

I was blown away the first time I heard Kevin Costner was in The Big Chill. As the corpse.

 

He was convincing.

 

Dana Carvey is also in "This is Spinal Tap" as a mime waiter.

Steve Buscemi is the waiter dressed like Buddy Holly in "Pulp Fiction."

 

Billy Crystal was great as his boss in Spinal Tap. "Come on, don't talk back. Mime is money."

 

I saw Seth Gilliam (Carver from The Wire) on an episode of The Cosby Show the other day. He played the boyfriend of Cousin Pam.

 

Neither Bruce Campbell nor Sam Raimi were in a position to turn down work in 1990.

 

Trent Reznor is in Light of Day which starred Michael J. Fox and Joan Jett.

Jane Krakowski was the babysitter at the beginning of Fatal Attraction.

Paul Giamatti is the guy making out with a girl in a restaurant in Singles.

Jon Favreau played Eric the Clown in an episode of Seinfeld.

 

This pretty much proves my point that I love anything Steve Buscemi is in.

I know that this name won't ring any bells, Danielle Harris, but she's one of the main characters in the new Rob Zombie series of Halloween movies.

I thought I'd seen her before and I couldn't believe it when I IMDB'd her and she played Molly Tilden, the girl that kept trying to nail David on Rosanne (Big Bang Theory fans rejoice!). She weighed like 50 pounds on Rosanne but she's super cute now.


Reading further down her page, she was also the little girl on Halloween V that turned out to be a killer at the end. Maybe that's why Zombie picked her, because she had a connection to the earlier movies.

 

David Caruso has a couple of great horrible early wait-was-that-him roles. The dorky cop in First Blood who's a little nicer to Rambo in the station than others, and the idiot who nearly drowns in Officer and a Gentelman.

 

Seinfeld has a ton of these moments, IIRC Michael Chiklis was on a couple episodes.