Before They Were Famous in the Nineties (and now), in the Eighties They Were..., Actors First Names Beginning with A

This is a list of actors from the little and big screen, and the small roles they had before their big break. I'm not looking for what a particular actor did outside of acting, I'm looking more for bit roles and TV commercials. I think you could just write down waiter for almost any actor if you really wanted to if that were the case.

This page currently edited by: IndyGent. Past editor: Banasy



Actors beginning with: [Index] [A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z] [misc]
A.J. Langer
Played the oldest daughter of Dabney Coleman in the awful short-lived series "Drexel's Class".
A.J. McLean
A.J. was on the Nickelodeon TV show "Guts".
Adam Horovitz
Played the lead role of Tim 'Chino' Doolan in the 1989 movie "Lost Angels" with Donald Sutherland.
Adam Sandler
Adam Sandler played a drug pusher in an "ABC After-School Special". It was a minor role, but his only serious one until "Punch Drunk Love".
Adam Sandler
One of Theo's friend on "The Cosby Show", after the Cockroach years. Famous for uttering a Jewish(Yiddish) word in an episode.
Adam Sandler
He had a recurring role on "The Cosby Show" as one of Theo's friends. Sometime around that, he went to college and his roommate has a guy named Tim Herlihy.,
Adam Sandler
Besides his work on MTV, he was in an alleged comedy called "Going Overboard". It never made the theaters.
Adam Sandler
Played various roles on the MTV game show "Remote Control".
AJ McLean
AJ Mclean was on Nickolodean's " Hi, Honey, I'm Home."
AJ McLean
AJ made his first appearance on Star Search as a teen vocalist.
Al Pacino
Played the main charcter in the 1983 film "Scarface".
Alan Beckwith
Was 'Brother Roy' in UFOria - 1981
Alan Rickman
Played the evil terrorist Hans Gruber in the 1988 film "Die Hard"
Alanis Morissette
Starred on Nickelodeon's show, "You Can't Do That on Television" as a wise-cracking young pre-teen.
Alanis Morrisette
She was on a show called "You Can't Do That on Television" on Nickelodeon in the 80s.
Alanis Morrisette
Was one of the revolving door of kids on "You Can't Do That On Television".
Alec Baldwin
Played Billy Aldrich in the daytime soap "The Doctors", then played wife-beater Joshua Rush in the nighttime soap opera "Knots Landing".
Alfonso Ribeiro
Danced in a Michael Jackson Pepsi commercial (1983) & was Ricky Stratton's (Rick Schroder) friend on Silver Spoons (1982).
Alfonso Ribeiro
Played Alfonso Spears on "Silver Spoons",
Alyson Hannigan
In "My Stepmother is An Alien" she plays Dan Akroyd's daughter, her boyfriend is Seth Green
Alyssa Milano
Schwartzeneggar's (Col Matrix) daughter (Jenny) in Commando (1985), along with the TV series "Who's the Boss?"
alyssa milano
She was in movie called "Old Enough", playing the younger sister.
Alyssa Milano
She was on "Who's The Boss?" as Samantha, Tony Danza's daughter.
Amanda Bearse
Before "Married with Children", she played Amy in the movie "Fright Night".
Amanda Bynes
Appeared on the comedy series "All That".
Amanda Donahoe
She was the lady Adam Ant robs in his video "Stand and Deliver". They were dating at the time. She also later appeared as the star of "Lair of the White Worm".
Amy Grant
She sang the theme song for the show "Sister Kate." She was also a gospel singer.,
Amy Grant
She sang a duet with Peter Cetera on the song "Next Time I Fall."
Amy Jo Johnson
Played Kimberly Ann Hart The Pink Ranger on the children's TV series Mighty Morphine Power Rangers
Andie McDowell
After her embarassing role as Jane in the movie "Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan" (where her voice was dubbed by Glenn Close), she scored a major hit with "sex, lies, and videotapes" with James Spader, Peter Gallagher and James Spader. She was also in "Hudson Hawk" and "St. Elmo's Fire".
Andrew Dice Clay
I believe he was the guy who bullied Willis on Different Strokes.,
Andrew Dice Clay
He was billed as Andy Clay in the movie "Night Patrol", which co-starred with The Unknown Comic (Murray Langston), Pat Paulsen, Linda Blair, and Billy Barty.
Andrew Dice Clay
Bit part as a guy who's girl was hit on in "Private Resort".
Andrew Dice Clay
Doorman at bar in "Pretty In Pink" who checks ID's. He was also in "Casual Sex?" with Lea Thompson and in "Making the Grade" with Judd Nelson.
Andrew "Dice" Clay
On one of the last episodes of "M*A*S*H", Clay plays a drunk Marine who drives his jeep through a chicken coup in reverse.
Andrew Shue
Was one of the students of the bad guy's dojo in "The Karate Kid" (he can clearly be seen in the scene where Ralph Macchio fights Billy Zabka,
Andrew Shue
This Melrose Place actor appeared as one of the annoying frat boys in "Adventures in Babysitting"
Andrienne Barbeau
Appeared in "Creep Show"(the original) "Swamp Thing" (the original) and also appeared in "The Fog" and "Escape From New York" that were directed by her former husband John Carpenter.
Angela Bassett
Angela played a single mother who left her baby on "227" in 1989. And played Cuba Gooding, Jr.'s mother in "Boys in the Hood" in 1991.
Angela Lansburry
Played the original role of Mrs. Iselin in the thriller "The Manchurian Candidate" before playing the main charcter Jessica Flecter on "Murder, She Wrote".
Anne Heche
Anne Heche was Vicky/Marley on Another World.
Annette O' Toole
Appeared in the 1982 film "48 Hours".
Anthony Edwards
Wheaties soccer commercial
Anthony Edwards
Played Shirley Muldowney's son in "Heart Like a Wheel with Beau Bridges and Bonnie Bedelia.
Anthony Edwards
Goose in Top Gun!
Anthony Edwards
Was in a made-for-TV movie in 1983 called "High School USA", also starring Michael J. Fox, Nancy McKeon, Todd Bridges, and Dana Plato, as well as Crystal Bernard from "Wings" fame.
Anthony Edwards
Starred in the movie "Gotcha" with Linda Fiorentine about a college student, an older women, and the spies she works for.
Anthony Edwards
Was one of the two main nerds in the "Revenge of The Nerds" trilogy.
Anthony Edwards
Anthony Edwards was also in The Sure Thing with John Cusack. He played Lance, the old school friend in California that Gib was going to see to meet "the sure thing",
Anthony Edwards
How can you forget Goose in "Top Gun"?!
Anthony Edwards
Appeared in short-lived sitcom called "It Takes Two" (also with Helen Hunt),
Anthony Edwards
Fast Times at Ridgemont High in addition to Eric Stoltz, Edwards was his other stoner bud.He was also "Gilbert" on Revenge of the Nerds and he also starred in a really poor film called "Gotcha!"
Anthony Hopkins
aApeared in the 1980 film "The Elephant Man".
Anthony Michael Hall
Was the smart aleck friend from Weird Science. (He looks much different from his early days.)
Anthony Michael Hall
"Sixteen Candles" and "Breakfast Club" geek
Anthony Michael Hall
He was the little nerd in the classic 80s movie "The Breakfast Club".
Ashley Tisdale
Ashley Tisdale first started doing commercials for Kentucky Fried Checken and Tyco toys and appeared on a bit on "Saturday Night Live" in the mid 1990's. She also appeared on numerous guest spots on sitcoms like "The Hughleys" and "Malcolm In The Middle".
Avery Brooks
Was Hawk on "Spencer: For Hire".


Actors beginning with: [Index] [A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z] [misc]
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