Lana Turner really wasn't discovered at Schwab's drugstore, but Rob Brown was plucked from high-school obscurity to star in the movie "Finding Forrester." He more than holds his own opposite three Oscar winners: Sean Connery, F. Murray Abraham and Anna Paquin.
Brown is an actor to watch and just the latest in a line of unknowns who've made impressive film debuts. He got us thinking about people with no acting experience -- Paquin herself, the dynamic dancer in "Billy Elliot," the real-life survivor of "The Killing Fields" who appeared in the movie of the same name -- who earned acclaim and, sometimes, Oscars.
For purposes of list-making, we've eliminated people who had previous acting experience before their big break. However, we allowed a few who had done modeling or excelled in sports or a field such as dance onto the roster.
That means we've scratched some performers who seemed like naturals.
Lauren Bacall, for instance, acted on the New York stage before "To Have and Have Not" made her a smoldering star and, ultimately, Mrs. Humphrey Bogart. Vic Morrow toiled in summer stock but was memorable as a juvenile delinquent in his film debut, "The Blackboard Jungle." Kathleen Turner appeared on the TV soap "The Doctors" and did some theater before making one of the all-time sexiest film debuts in "Body Heat." Whoopi Goldberg had appeared in her one-woman show on Broadway before she played Celie in "The Color Purple."
Edward Norton had come to the attention of Edward Albee, whose plays were being done by Signature Theatre Co. in New York, when he auditioned for "Primal Fear." He was chosen from 2,100 actors for the role of the accused murderer who hails from rural Kentucky. Critics haven't quit looking for superlatives since the day that courtroom thriller came out.
"The Empire of the Sun" considered 4,000 boys before settling on Christian Bale, who had never done a feature film before but had some TV credits. Since then, he has played everyone from Jesus of Nazareth to "American Psycho."
And 11-year-old Ian Michael Smith did a tremendous turn in the title role of "Simon Birch," released in 1998. He has Morquio Syndrome, which causes dwarfism and made him physically suitable for the role. His spunk and spirit made him emotionally perfect.
So, with those caveats and a reminder that space is limited, here are 25 performers who burst memorably upon the scene:
Rob Brown, "Finding Forrester" (2000): Never underestimate the value of a handbill or the universal need to meet expenses. "One afternoon, I saw a flier in my school saying that Hollywood producers were looking for a 16-year-old black male who could play basketball to act opposite Sean Connery in a new movie. I thought, hey, I kind of fit the bill." Did he ever. Needing money to pay his cell phone tab, he figured he would audition and maybe score a gig as an extra. As soon as he read for the role, director Gus Van Sant knew he had found his co-star. And when he auditioned opposite Connery, the deal was done.
Jamie Bell, "Billy Elliot" (2000): He had studied dance in his native England since he was 6. Now, at the ripe old age of 14, Jamie Bell is a movie star whom some are touting for Oscar consideration for his performance as the title character in "Billy Elliot." Billy's dad is a rough-and-tumble striking coal miner who wants the boy to learn boxing, but the lad discovers his real talent is unleashed in tap shoes and ballet slippers. Billy's frustrations boil over into his dancing, and Bell supplies the fire as he taps through the town until it appears he'll shake the whole place down. He's back in school now, but the movies beckon.
Michelle Rodriguez, "Girlfight" (2000): This 22-year-old native of Texas moved with her family to the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico before settling in New Jersey. She had been nothing more than a film extra when she auditioned for Karyn Kusama's drama about a girl growing up in the projects who decides to channel her rage by becoming a boxer.
Rodriguez delivered a searing performance and the movie took the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Rodriguez was named Best Breakout Female Performer by the National Board of Review. She has three movies in the works this year, including the film adaptation of the video game "Resident Evil."
Chris Klein, "Election" (1999): He looks a bit like a hunky Keanu Reeves, tall and solidly built but with that same quizzical face. He was a student at a Nebraska high school with nothing more than class plays to his credit when he literally ran into director Alexander Payne, who was scouting locations for "Election," a satire about a teacher (Matthew Broderick) trying to prevent a relentless student (Reese Witherspoon) from being elected class president. Klein plays a naive football player who gets drafted to run against her. He did well enough to score roles in "American Pie," "Here on Earth" and the forthcoming remake of "Rollerball."
Victoire Thivisol, "Ponette" (1996): This may be the most amazing debut performance of all, although some dispute whether it qualifies as acting or child abuse. Victoire was 4 years old when she played the title character in this heartbreaking French film about a little girl pining for her mother, who was killed in an auto accident. Nothing can dissuade the girl from her belief that her mother will return. Victoire runs the gamut of emotions, leading some critics to insist that a 4-year-old could not do so absent some form of coercion. Some of us prefer to credit a sensitive director (Jacques Doillon) and the wonderful naturalism of children.
Natasha Henstridge, "Species" (1995): The best thing about this hokey monster flick was Henstridge running around in her birthday suit as an alien who is driven to have sex and reproduce. She's every drooling male's dream, except for when she turns into a bug-eyed beast and impales them with her claws. Oh, well, the movie did well enough to spawn a sequel, and Henstridge has been traveling in more respectable movie territory of late -- as mobster Bruce Willis' wife in "The Whole Nine Yards" and as an unwitting femme fatale of sorts in "Bounce."
Chloe Sevigny, "Kids" (1995): No nice little family-film debut for Sevigny. She played one of the girls deflowered by a smooth-talking teen in this unrated film threatened with an NC-17 designation. Her character pays a high price for a single sexual encounter; she tests positive for the AIDS virus. Proving she doesn't shy away from controversial material, she later played Lana, the young Nebraska woman who fell in love with Brandon Teena in "Boys Don't Cry." That earned her an Oscar nomination.
Natalie Portman, "The Professional" (1994): The actress who would become Queen Amidala in "The Phantom Menace" debuted in an appropriately titled film. She played a girl orphaned by a mob hit who adopts a hired killer as her surrogate father. She graduated to roles in films such as "Heat," "Beautiful Girls," "Anywhere But Here" and "Where the Heart Is." The poised young actress was discovered at a pizza parlor in New York by a Revlon representative who wanted her to be a model. She became an actress -- without a single acting lesson.
Brad Renfro, "The Client" (1994): Although his recent troubles with the law have overshadowed his acting ability, he was a real find in this adaptation of John Grisham's novel. Until this film, he was a regular kid, the product of a troubled marriage, raised in Knoxville by his paternal grandmother. He held his own against Susan Sarandon, especially in scenes requiring him to be edgy and nervy, and went on to appear in "The Cure," "Tom and Huck" and "Apt Pupil." Earlier this month, a Florida judge sentenced Renfro to two years' probation and ordered him to pay $4,200 for repairs on a yacht he tried to steal.
Anna Paquin, "The Piano" (1993): In 1994, this 11-year-old with no acting experience and authentic New Zealand accent was left nearly speechless the night she won the Academy Award. So were her fellow supporting actress nominees: Emma Thompson, Holly Hunter, Winona Ryder and Rosie Perez. Paquin had been chosen from 5,000 girls (including her older sister) who auditioned for the part of Hunter's daughter. Unlike some young performers who never lived up to their promise, she has shone in such movies as "Finding Forrester," "Almost Famous" and "The X-Men." And those were just in 2000.
Omar Epps, "Juice" (1992): A Brooklyn native and graduate of New York's High School for the Performing Arts, Epps made his film debut in "Juice" as Quincy or Q, a young man who wants to become a rap DJ. A story at the time said Epps was part of a cattle call for the four starring roles, another of which went to Tupac Shakur. Epps, who often is better than his material, went on to star in such movies as "Love & Basketball," "In Too Deep," "The Wood" and "The Mod Squad."
Jaye Davidson, "The Crying Game" (1992): Are you a boy or are you a girl? That was the question behind the celebrated secret of "The Crying Game," in which Steven Rea played an IRA soldier on the lam who falls for the beautiful girlfriend of a slain British soldier. She turned out to be a he, and Davidson -- who worked in the London fashion industry -- became an overnight sensation and an Oscar nominee. But Davidson appeared in only two more films, "Stargate" and "Catwalk." Still, no one who saw him in "The Crying Game" -- especially those who didn't realize he was a man until the movie revealed that fact -- will ever forget him.
Christina Ricci, "Mermaids" (1990): She was just 9 when she played Cher's daughter and Winona Ryder's sister in "Mermaids." Her intense looks and attitude later were put to good use in "The Addams Family," in which she was morbid Wednesday Addams, who liked to strap her brother into an electric chair. As she once said, "I never really felt like I played the cutesy kid." She graduated to more adult roles (and revealing wardrobes) in "The Ice Storm," "The Opposite of Sex" and "Sleepy Hollow."
Oprah Winfrey, "The Color Purple" (1985): This woman needs no introduction. But did, however, as an actress in Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Alice Walker's novel. Producer Quincy Jones reportedly spotted the Chicago talk-show host while cruising through the TV channels in a hotel room. Winfrey said she prayed for a way to get into the movie. Her acting career languished, but she's an empire unto herself.
Haing S. Ngor, "The Killing Fields" (1984): It was a former Pittsburgher, casting director Pat Golden, who discovered Ngor. She was attending the wedding of a Cambodian couple in Oxnard, Calif., when she spotted Ngor and persuaded him to tackle the role of Dith Pran, an aide to New York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg during the Vietnam War. Ngor's story was as harrowing as Pran's. After the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia, physician Ngor was arrested and tortured and his fiancee and family killed. The man who once ate centipedes, termites and grasshoppers to survive and said he was a "graduate of the Khmer Rouge School of Acting" won an Oscar. He continued to act and enjoy his newfound freedom until 1996, when he was shot to death outside his Los Angeles home.
Justin Henry, "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979): In December 1979, The New York Times wrote: "There is no way that Mr. [Dustin] Hoffman can avoid being upstaged when Billy, watching his father make a mess of French toast, says carefully, 'I don't like it folded.'" Justin played Billy, a 6-year-old suddenly in the sole custody of a father who didn't know how to make French toast or much of anything else. Justin became the youngest person nominated for an Academy Award; he lost the supporting statuette to Melvyn Douglas. He's appeared in a dozen TV or movie projects since, but none had the impact of his debut performance.
Mikhail Baryshnikov, "The Turning Point" (1977): This celebrated dancer made the leap to movies in a custom-made role: self-absorbed ballet star. He landed on his toes with grace, agility and an Oscar nomination. Although he typically has appeared in movies with dance themes, such as "White Nights" opposite Gregory Hines, he proved that stage presence translates to screen charisma. He was off the big screen for most of the '90s, devoting his energy to his pet modern dance company, the White Oak Dance Project, which recently came to Pittsburgh.
Jessica Lange, "King Kong" (1976): The splash Lange made in her film debut, a remake of the legendary thriller about a giant ape, nearly washed away her career before it started. Producer Dino De Laurentiis' campy, big-budget production, starring Charles Grodin and Jeff Bridges, was viewed by many as a desecration of a film classic. Novice actress Lange, who had been a model, took much of the guff after being cast in the Fay Wray role. Three years passed before her next film, "All That Jazz," but she took acting lessons in the interim. By 1983, she won the first of her two Oscars for a supporting role in "Tootsie." If at first you don't succeed ...
Tatum O'Neal, "Paper Moon" (1973): This Depression-era yarn, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, teamed Ryan O'Neal with his 10-year-old daughter, Tatum. He plays a con man who sells Bibles to widows. She's an orphan who hooks up with him and becomes part of the scam. Tatum was so good in the role that she became the youngest performer ever to win an Oscar, taking the supporting-actress prize. She scored again in 1976 in "The Bad News Bears," but her career began foundering in her teen-age years with films like "Little Darling." She married tennis star John McEnroe in 1986 and divorced him in 1994 after having three children.
Cybill Shepherd, "The Last Picture Show" (1971): Bogdanovich, again, was the Svengali who cast young model Shepherd as the sexy high-school tease in his memorable drama about a dying Texas town in the 1950s. Her brash performance and youthful blond beauty made her an instant star. Her second film, "The Heartbreak Kid," also was good. But Bogdanovich steered her into major-league bombs like "Daisy Miller" and "At Long Last Love," ruining his career and nearly hers. She made her comeback in the '80s TV series "Moonlighting" opposite Bruce Willis in his first major role, and has scored mostly on the small screen since.
Marisa Berenson, "Death in Venice" (1971): A high-fashion model with high-society bloodlines -- she is the granddaughter of Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli -- Berenson got her first acting role at age 25 in Luchino Visconti's "Death in Venice." But she wasn't the most beautiful creature in the movie, despite her obvious pulchritude. That honor was reserved for Bjorn Andresen, the Swedish teen-ager who was the object of Dirk Bogarde's affections in this rumination on death, art and love, based on the novel by Thomas Mann. Berenson went on to appear in "Cabaret," "Barry Lyndon" and "S.O.B.," but has been little seen on film in this country of late.
Jim Brown, "Rio Conchos" (1964): Many football fans still regard Jim Brown as the greatest player ever, 35 years after the bruising runner left the Cleveland Browns at the height of his career to become an actor. In "Rio Conchos," he played one of four men trying to prevent a former Confederate soldier from running guns to the Apaches. He did well enough to land a part as one of "The Dirty Dozen," which became an action classic. He did his share of '70s blaxploitation movies, but turned much of his attention to helping troubled youths. His most recent role was in Oliver Stone's football movie "Any Given Sunday," where he played an assistant coach.
Elvis Presley, "Love Me Tender" (1956): The king of rock 'n' roll had just entered the building, careerwise, when he made his first movie. Set during the Civil War, it was retitled after one of his songs to take advantage of his phenomenal popularity. His character stayed home while his brother went out to fight, and he ended up marrying his brother's girl, played by Debra Paget. Elvis made more than 30 films in all. Most were little more than excuses for him to sing his hits. But Presley's charisma was as evident on screen as it was on stage. It had to be, considering the quality (or lack thereof) of his films.
Leslie Caron, "An American in Paris" (1951): Caron was a 20-year-old ballerina when Gene Kelly discovered her and cast her in his musical classic "An American in Paris." The gamine-like beauty went on to become a star in "Lili" (for which she received an Oscar nomination), "Gigi," "Daddy Long Legs" and the drama "The L-Shaped Room," which netted her a second Oscar nomination. Today, at age 69, she still shows up in the occasional film, including the current "Chocolat" and the recent TV movie "The Last of the Blonde Bombshells."
Harold Russell, "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946): A D-Day explosion at an Army training camp took away his hands and, temporarily, his hopes. But Russell learned to use prosthetic, articulated hooks, made a Signal Corps film about his rehabilitation and caught the attention of producer Samuel Goldwyn. He cast him alongside Dana Andrews and Fredric March in this Oscar-winning movie about World War II vets trying to readjust to civilian life. His turn as a sailor who lost both hands in a torpedo explosion and worries his high-school sweetheart will reject him brought him two Academy Awards. One was for Best Supporting Actor, the other for "bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans."
