Sunday, January 22, 2006

Before fame and fortune

Other than my friends Josh and Amy, I am probably one of the few people on earth who reads TV and movie credits. I often find myself watching something on cable I've seen before and now notice earlier work of an actor I didn't recognize when I saw it the first time. There are many film/TV stars today that had humble beginnings, and here are a few examples:

Clive Owen (yes, for the 3rd time, he’s gorgeous)
Mr. Owen appeared in PBS’s “Mystery!” in a mini-series called “Second Sight”. This only caught my attention after first seeing him in “Croupier” a few months earlier. He plays DCI Ross Tanner, a man slowly going blind, yet still has to attend to his crime-solving duties.

Russell Crowe
Before he won his Best Actor Oscar from his role in “Gladiator”, he appeared in TV and films in Australia. Two of those films are “Romper Stomper” and “The Sum of Me”. In his “Romper Stomper” role, he portrays an angry skinhead and in “The Sum of Me”, he is a gay man whose father helps Mr. Crowe’s character find Mr. Right.

Sandra Oh
Most of us know her from “Sideways” as Stephanie and as Dr. Cristina Yang in ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy”. Check her out in a little-known Canadian film called “Double Happiness”. Like many of us 2nd generation Western raised Asians, she lives a life torn between family obligation and maintaining her own identity.

(All references courtesy of imdb.com)

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