Personality Crisis: Best Debut Performance from an Actor/Actress

Tougher than final performance--every time I check somebody, it turns out he/her had some small role before the one I thought was his/her debut. (E.g.: Sean Penn in Taps, before Fast Times.) Sometimes the technical debut doesn't get released until after the person's breakthrough role; when I checked Jon Voight, found out he had a film called Fearless Frank (directed by Phil Kaufman) that was made in '67 but not released until after Midnight Cowboy (on a double-bill with Madigan's Millions, an early Dustin Hoffman film). So for "debut," I'm going strictly by the order on IMDB's filmography page (and again eliminating TV work). Foreign actors of course eligible--we love foreign actors. Thread title because I don't know what my favorite first-album/first-song is by a band. That's one of them.

Even James Dean gets his first listing for something other than what I assumed: "Doggie" (uncredited) in Fixed Bayonets.

A few:

Montgomery Clift - The Search
Richard Widmark - Kiss of Death
Burt Lancaster - The Killers

Shirley Maclaine - The Trouble With Harry

Widmark's great.

May qualify--three shorts and one film where he narrated before his first real role.

http://cdn.timesofisrael.com/uploads/2013/10/large_citizen_kane_blu-ray_7-300x300.jpg

Famous kid performances will probably be the debut as often as not, but I checked Jean-Pierre Léaud, and he did something called King on Horseback a year before The 400 Blows.

Bruno S. - The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (stretching the definition of actor here a bit maybe)

I think Heavenly Creatures was the debut movie for both of its main actors, Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey, who are both pretty impressive in it.

tim robbins - shawshank redemption

Eh? No way is that Robbins' first movie... Wasn't he in Top Gun?

John Cazale, The Godfather--he's the default for these kinds of questions. Splendor in the Grass was Beatty's first...I'd have to see it again. Thought of Hepburn and Roman Holiday, but not even close--six films before that, including a couple that are well known.

Ed Norton, Primal Fear. Terrible movie, mindblowing performance.

Disappointed to find that Fassbender was in 300 (which I've never seen) before Hunger.

Tim Robbins' first credited film roll is in Toy Soldiers, a full decade before Shawshank; and his first decent sized roles were in Howard the Duck (!) and Bull Durham, both well before Shawshank.

Tim Roth - Made In Britain

Good list here with some no-brainers incl Dourif in Cuckoo's Nest, Portman in Leon and Emily Watson in Breaking the Waves.

http://www.hitfix.com/galleries/the-lists-in-contentions-top-10-debut-performances-of-all-time#1

I was going to say Tom Cruise in Taps, but imdb has another 1981 film he was in called 'Endless Love' that appears first.

Ha, I hadn't noticed Taps had already been mentioned at the top of the thread when I posted that.

was tim robbins in top gun

Dude, he was Bob Roberts, his greatest role, before Shawshank!

Barbra Streisand's first film role was Funny Girl

martin sheen - apocalypse now

christopher lee, lord of the rings

are you sure darragh? his performance in that was overrated imho

u must not have seen the extended version?

Margi Clarke is great in Letter to Brezhnev.

idk soref if she's not better than christopher lee in LOTR (EV) then it seems kinda redundant to post that?

I don't think I've seen LOTR.

Jason Schwartzman in Rushmore. All downhill from there

Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins

Joseph Cotten and Agnes Moorehead, Citizen Kane

Julie Harris, The Member of the Wedding
Jo Van Fleet, East of Eden
Montgomery Clift, Red River (shot before The Search)
Marlon Brando, The Men
Jean Seberg, Saint Joan

Dustin Hoffman only has one listing before The Graduate, in The Tiger Makes Out, and it doesn't look like a particularly big role.

Sandrine Bonnaire, À Nos Amours

Gene Hackman's first credited film role is 5 minutes in Lilith, and he steals the movie

also, Film Comment runs these kinds of lists in every issue, and u ppl are driving me crazy cuz I can't find one for this or last performance.

Looks like Mockingbird is Duvall's first performance, preceded only by TV work an "unconfirmed" part in Somebody Up There Likes Me.

Paul Le Mat in American Graffiti--excellent.

Cathy Moriarty in Raging Bull; also the "What's a mook?" guy in Mean Streets.

I had thought Joan of Arc was Falconetti's only film performance, but IMDB lists 2 earlier (inconsequential?) appearances.

I just want to give a nod to Richard E. Grant as Withnail

I love the "what's a mook?" guy, never saw him in anything else though.

research says it's a dude named Lenny scaletta, and it's his only imdb credit. I thought it was a great tiny comic role!

Andy Griffith, A Face in the Crowd.

I was sort of kidding about Lenny Scaletta. He's great, but I figured he had a rather brief career. Anyway, he now goes into both threads: best debut, best final performance. He is to acting what Charles Laughton is to directing.

Don't mean to fixate on Lenny, but not a single online image that I can find. Only this:

http://31.media.tumblr.com/0a319749707de6702576381494511cc3/tumblr_mkyrdsB9R81qay9wgo1_500.jpg

Not on the level with some of the other performances mentioned, but Goldie Hawn won an Oscar for her first substantial film role in Cactus Flower. (She had had a bit part in previous film as a "giggling dancer" according to wiki).

Of course, so did Streisand for Funny Girl.

I just want to give a nod to Richard E. Grant as Withnail

― Sir Lord Baltimora (Myonga Vön Bontee), Tuesday, November 12, 2013 3:48 PM (47 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Vivian MacKerrell, 'the real Withnail', was pretty good in Ghost Story, which I think actually belongs in the sister thread to this, as he had about two actings credits to his name and he died after that one.

Which makes me think of another potential spin-off thread - best sole performance, for actors with only one credit to their name. The champion is obviously: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1856457/reference

Somehow while musing on that I missed the Lenny Scaletta conversation upthread. I still say Sellors wins.

Haha love that clem. yeah I generally appreciate those guys who pop up in one thing, give a memorable performance, and never do anything else.

Child performances do seem like they'd be the place to go to for this category. Pernilla Allwin and Bertil Guve in Fanny and Alexander were the first to come to mind (though the latter did have an "uncredited" role in a TV short the year before that film). Was going to nominate Max Records in Where the Wild Things Are, but apparently he did The Brothers Bloom first (never saw). And though not quite a *child* performance, Mariel Hemingway just misses it for Manhattan as well thanks to something called Lipstick.

I'll think of more later.

so we're just listing every debut perf ever now

bye

We need a special phrase along the lines of "jumping the shark" for that moment when Morbius bails on a thread. It's almost like a badge of honour.

what no love for Jodie Foster in this thread?

Timothy Hutton

(xpost) I've never seen Napoleon and Samantha.

Scott Baio was never better than as the title role in "Bugsy Malone". Also love the dude who played Fat Sam (John Cassissi - also his debut and only film role)

Was The Artist Uggie's first movie?

His earliest roles were in commercials and minor roles in the films What's Up Scarlett, Wassup Rockers (2005), and Mr. Fix It (2006) alongside David Boreanaz.[1][2] His first named role, and big break, was as "Queenie" in the romantic drama Water for Elephants, alongside actors Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon.[1][3]

Was going to suggest Keiko, but he was in a 1990 film called Keiko en peligro prior to Free Willy.

Shelly Duvall in Brewster McCloud.

re: Keiko, thread of value on other board: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1430748/board/nest/43716699?ref_=nm_bd_1

think Heavenly Creatures was the debut movie for both of its main actors, Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey, who are both pretty impressive in it.

― Tuomas

Definitely my favourite Winslet performance, she usually annoys me a bit.

they are both amazing in that, def great debuts

Great film all round.

http://myoldadz.com/images/johnsweet19440626.jpg

I cheated on this one, shouldn't have overlooked it (in the running for my favourite): Eva Marie Saint in On the Waterfront.