Horror Stars?

Horror certainly has never had a lack of actors with which to use in its films. It has drawn everyone from no-name actors and actresses to really big-name actors and actresses. It has even turned many from the former into the latter. Amongst them all are some names that many people would never have expected to have seen involved with a horror movie. People who are critical of horror films often deride them as not worthy of their viewing times let alone the time of good and "regular" actors and actresses. This list would blow their mind.

Certainly the strangest names to be attached to horror movies have to be those of dance legends Fred Astaire and Grace Kelly (separately). Second runners up would be Cary Grant, and Leslie Neilson. Below is the list of people one might never have expected to have been in a horror film. Some are broken up into TV series, others movies and such, just to illustrate where they came from and how many came from the same places. Then there is a loose list of names in no particular order.

Early Start in Horror: John Travolta, Jack Nicholson, Johnny Depp, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kathy Bates, Billy Zane, Sissy Spacek, Keifer Sutherland, Natasha Henstridge, Drew Barrymore

Star Trek(s): William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Robert Picardo (Doctor on ST:Voyager), Amerin Shimmerin (Quark of DS9), Alice Krige (the borg Queen from STNG:First Contact and the finale of ST:Voyager), Scott Bakula

Cheers/Fraiser: Ted Danson, Shelley Long, Kelsey Grammer, Rhea Perlman, Bebe Neuwirth, George Wendt, John Ratzenberger (whom I might add was in Star Wars: A New Hope), Woody Harrelson, Kirstie Alley, David Hyde Pierce, Tom Skerrit

Ally McBeal: Portia DeRossi, Taye Diggs, Gregg Germann, Jane Krakowski, Peter MacNicol, James LeGros, Gil Bellows

Night Court: Harry Anderson, John Larroquette, Richard Moll

Star Wars: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Billy Dee Williams

West Wing: Martin Sheen, Robe Lowe

Happy Days: Henry Winkler, Heather O'Rourke

Party of Five: Neve Campbell, Jennifer Love Hewitt

Judging Amy: Amy Brenneman, Richard T. Jones (Bruce)

Dawson's Creek: Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson

Roseanne: Laurie Metcalf, John Goodman

Family Ties: Michael Gross, Michael J Fox (also directed for Tales from the Crypt)

Tales from the Crypt (Directed and Acted): Arnold Schwartzenneger, Tom Hanks, Bob Hoskins

Music: Brandy (Norwood), David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Blackie Lawless (Lucy Lawless's brother), Lisa Loeb, Cher, Jennifer Lopez

Random Names: Dee Wallace Stone, John Carradine, David Carradine, Craig T Nelson, Cristopher Walken, Sigourney Weaver, Richard Gere, Will Patton, Michael Ironside, Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, Julia Roberts, Pierce Brosnan, Jeff Fahey, Alec Baldwin, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jerry O'Connell, Richard Dreyfus, Gary Sinise, Molly Ringwald, Corin Nemec, Matt Frewar, Cristopher Lloyd (Back to the Future), George C. Scott, Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Ellen Burstyn, Max Von Sydow, Sam Neill, Laurence Fishburne, Donald Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, Ed Harris, Bette Davis, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Rebecca DeMornay, Steven Webber, Mario Van Peebles, Elliot Gould, Shelly Duvall, Scatman Crothers, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Dennis Miller, George Clooney, Cheech Marin, Robert Patrick (T1000), Jack Palance, Anne Heche, Denzel Washington, Bruce Willis, Wilford Brimley, Faye Dunaway, Clint Eastwood, Mia Farrow, Jane Fonda, Elliot Gould, Rosie O'Donnell (horror spoof really), Michael Douglas, Glen Close, Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Judd, John Ritter, Tom Cruise, Antonio Banderas, Kirsten Dunst, Bill Mahr, James Brolin, Liam Neeason, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bill Pullman, Paul Winfield, Kurt Russell, James Woods, Christopher Reeve, Roddy Piper, Erin Gray, Annette O'Toole, Peter O'Toole, Tim Reid, Bronson Pinchot, Jimmy Smits, Heather Locklear, Emilio Estevez, Tim Matheson, Linda Hamilton, Timothy Hutton, Michael Moriarty, Christian Slater, Gary Busey, Robert DeNiro, John Cleese, Keanu Reeves, Cuba Gooding Jr, Nicolas Cage, Susan Sarandon, Michelle Pfeiffer, Lucy Lawless, Linda Hunt, Brendan Fraser, Robin Williams, Nicole Kidman, Val Kilmer, Marlon Brando, John Lithgow, Dan Aykroyd, Ed Begley Jr, Meshac Taylor, Slim Pickens, Louise Fletcher, Heather Locklear, and no doubt many more.

(There are 180 names to these lists above.)

While they are names synonymous with horror it is only fair to mention such names as Bruce Campbell (Autolycus/Jack of All Trades), Ted Raimi (Joxer the Might/Pilot of the Seaquest DSV), and of course Robert Englund (the series V) as well. They have certainly done other things than horror and been just as successful.

© 2003 Robert G. Male

Mood: down.
Music: Primal Scream by Motely Crue and Trouble by Quiet Riot.

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