From Film Star To Film Extra ....

[julian_craster]

Carole Gray, who reached the heights of stardom opposite Sir Cliff in The Young Ones ('No one for me but Nicky'...) was reduced to a bit role in Oh ! What Lovely War .....

[Gerald Lovell]

Guy Middleton, a familiar face in many 50s British films, had (I think) one scene in an episode of DOCTOR WHO "The Highlanders" in 1967.

[philly]

American film star in British films, William Sylvester . He had a brief "blink and you'll miss him" non speaking role in "You Only Live Twice"

[Dandy Forsdyke]

What about Kathleen Harrison? Loads of films and TV including the "Huggetts" and then playing 'Elderly Lady' in her last film, The London Connection.

[CaptainWaggett]

What about Kathleen Harrison? Loads of films and TV including the "Huggetts" and then playing 'Elderly Lady' in her last film, The London Connection.

She wasn't exactly reduced to extra-dom though. She was well into her 80s and had played a major role in Our Mutual Friend a couple of years earlier. Maybe she wanted to work with a chum or just see a bit of studio life again.

[m35541]

Despite being an alcoholic Dennis Price seemed to be permanently on screen throughout the 1960's and first half of the 1970s. OK, he ended up doing Jess Franco flicks but then so did the likes of Jack Palance and Christopher Lee. The trick is to say around long enough and appear in a few cult movies so that the likes of Tim Burton will rediscover you and pay you massive Hollywood salaries to fund your retirement (a la Michael Gough). Price wasn't really doing anything that Palance, Lee and Joan Collins weren't doing at the time. Unfortunately, Price didn't last long enough to make the re-discovery. However, most of his cameos in the trashy movies he appeared in are pretty entertaining - Horror Hospital for example.

[Johned]

Anthony Steele had a walk on part as a British army officer in "Anzio" about the WW2 Italian campaign; I was most surprised at the time I saw it and being at one time our biggest box office star; he had no dialogue as I recall.

[batman]

Anthony Steele had a walk on part as a British army officer in "Anzio" about the WW2 Italian campaign; I was most surprised at the time I saw it and being at one time our biggest box office star; he had no dialogue as I recall.

Steel's part in Anzio was cut. He also suffered a similar fate in Massacre in Rome, where his role was reduced to him standing about looking at Richard Burton. He later appeared in featured roles in several awful British films of the 70s and appeared many times in episodic TV series such as The Professionals, Return of The Saint and Crossroads.

[cassidy]

He deserved to be credited for his role of Educated Ernest who turned down the chance of being the crooks delegate to Scotland Yard as he was busy "transfering" some Van Goghs.

Dennis Price was reduced to some awful roles at the end of his career, but I was surprised to see him in the Peter Sellers film The Wrong Arm of the Law (1962). If memory serves he was uncredited and only had a line or two of dialogue, maybe his part was largely cut....

[melade]

Despite being an alcoholic Dennis Price seemed to be permanently on screen throughout the 1960's and first half of the 1970s. OK, he ended up doing Jess Franco flicks but then so did the likes of Jack Palance and Christopher Lee. The trick is to say around long enough and appear in a few cult movies so that the likes of Tim Burton will rediscover you and pay you massive Hollywood salaries to fund your retirement (a la Michael Gough). Price wasn't really doing anything that Palance, Lee and Joan Collins weren't doing at the time. Unfortunately, Price didn't last long enough to make the re-discovery. However, most of his cameos in the trashy movies he appeared in are pretty entertaining - Horror Hospital for example.

That's it, Horror Hospital! When I saw Dennis Price mentioned on this thread I immediately tried to remember the film I was surprised to see him in. I thought for a second that it might have been one of the Adventures Of... or Confessions Of... films but you've saved me a trip to Can You Name This Film.

[didi-5]

Steel's part in Anzio was cut. He also suffered a similar fate in Massacre in Rome, where his role was reduced to him standing about looking at Richard Burton. He later appeared in featured roles in several awful British films of the 70s and appeared many times in episodic TV series such as The Professionals, Return of The Saint and Crossroads.

Steel's career low has to be The Story of O.

[batman]

Steel's career low has to be The Story of O.

I've always reckoned Hardcore to be his worst film, closely followed by The World Is Full Of Married Men.

[didi-5]

Hardcore = Fiona? Oh yes I agree!!! A career low for everyone involved.

[CaptainWaggett]

Guy Middleton, a familiar face in many 50s British films, had (I think) one scene in an episode of DOCTOR WHO "The Highlanders" in 1967.

I wonder what happened to his career - it seemed to collapse quite suddenly and he never really did the whole ITC guest star thing that you might have expected

[cassidy]

More than a few Western early stars suffered a similar fate. One name that comes to mind is Bob Steele who in his latter career usually turned up as a gunman who never made the final reel. On the other hand Lee Van Cleef in his first film was one of the four gunmen after Gary Cooper in High Noon who was credited and was involved throughout the film but never spoke a line.

[batman]

More than a few Western early stars suffered a similar fate. One name that comes to mind is Bob Steele who in his latter career usually turned up as a gunman who never made the final reel. On the other hand Lee Van Cleef in his first film was one of the four gunmen after Gary Cooper in High Noon who was credited and was involved throughout the film but never spoke a line.

There's a story about Bob Steele in a book I once read about Audie Murphy. Steele had a tiny part in a Murphy film but apparently still believed he was a big star. The books says he was very autocratic with all the other supporting actors and kept trying to ingratiate himself with Murphy, who was more interested in playing cards with the crew. He overstepped the mark when he started complaining about the way scenes were being set up and said more than once ''if this was one of my pictures etc etc....''. He was fired!