From Film Star To Film Extra ....

[Dandy Forsdyke]

It's always sad (in a fascinating kind of way) to read the credits on an actor's IMDB to see a well known actor, or even one-time film star, go on to minor supporting roles and extra work ('Man in shop', 'Woman at bus stop', etc). A real 'didn't they used to be ... ?' moment.

Are there any interesting examples of this, not counting star cameos?

[CaptainWaggett]

Lots of silent stars I would imagine. Here's a couple

Flora Finch

Florence Lawrence

[Dandy Forsdyke]

Thanks for that, but I was thinking of some quite well-known faces or names.

[Steve Crook]

Sadly I have to nominate Kathleen Byron. After a storming performance in Black Narcissus she did have a problem with everyone wanting to cast her as another crazy nun. She also admitted to being "difficult" for a while and getting a bit of a bad reputation.

She didn't quite manage the "woman at bus stop" level of extra-dom in films but she had quite a few very minor parts like "Colonel's Wife" in One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing and "Old Mrs Ryan" in Saving Private Ryan. She was also in some quite dire productions like Wolfshead: The Leg End of Robin Hood

She did get cast as just "Woman" in a 1967 episode of The Wednesday Play called The Playground

Steve

[CaptainWaggett]

Thanks for that, but I was thinking of some quite well-known faces or names.

What's your definition of well-known? Both the people I mentioned were huge stars in their day (far more famous than Kathleen Byron ) even if they're not remembered now by any but film buffs (Penfold will certainly know them...). I could mention Louise Brooks who is clearly very famous now and who did end her career as an extra but who was never actually a star .

[wadsy]

james m.png

James Murray who was a massive hit in "The Crowd" in 1928 was reduced to playing an extra in "San Francisco" in 1936.

He tragically died the same year!

[Mark O]

Gloria Holden maybe, she went from being Dracula's daughter to woman at garden party, her eyes are very hypnotising I must say.

[Gerald Lovell]

As the Captain says, like many silent stars, Gowland Gibson, the lead in Erich Von Stroheim's epic Greed in 1924, had a large C.V. after that, but usually for uncredited extra work.

[Gerald Lovell]

Terence Brook was quite famous as "The Man with a Strand" (cigarette), and got featured roles in films and television for a while, but ended up as an uncredited extra.

[CaptainWaggett]

Cyril McLaglen (brother of Victor) had quite a few leading silent roles (notably in Asquith's Underground) but was doing uncredited stuff in quota quickies like The Secret of the Loch (with Gib Gowland and a frilly iguana) by 1934.

[Brief Encounter]

Christine Norden was launched as a big star in the late '40s, and starred in several films. Her last appearance in TV's Inspector Morse involved no speaking and her dying in the second scene. What a comedown!

[Moor Larkin]

Christine Norden was launched as a big star in the late '40s, and starred in several films. Her last appearance in TV's Inspector Morse involved no speaking and her dying in the second scene. What a comedown!

Much the same seemed to happen to Sylvia Syms in some recent Britmovie I watched, starring an equally old Michael Caine. His star remained high. I think many British movie stars from the Fifties ended up scrabbling around on TV, trying to find a new career balance for themselves.

Merle Oberon did a TV show made by the new British commercial TV companies in 1956 and although it was said to be the most popular show in England by the American press, it promptly disappeared without trace over there, and she [almost] never worked again. Other stars such as Googie Withers waited a while and then found a vehicle that made her a star to a generation that had barely heard of her before then.

I think some actors didn't really care, so long as they worked. Eric Pohlmann was a co-star with Patrick McGoohan in the 1958 Rank African location extravaganza "Nor the Moon by Night", then by 1960 he was playing a pastry cook and then an innkeeper in episodes of Danger Man on the telly.

[batman]

Dwight Frye ... he was Renfield in Lugosi's Dracula, Fritz and Karl in the first two of Karloff's Frankensteinfilms and Wilma Cook in the 1931 version of The Maltese Falcon . He ended up uncredited in numerous films and was billed as 'villager' in the third Karloff Frankenstein film. Frye (who was a star on Broadway in the 20s) couldn't cope with this career decline and it took it's toll on his health. He died from a heart attack aged 44 just days after being give the title role in Henry King's film Wilson. Alexander Knox took over the role.

[Brief Encounter]

Other stars such as Googie Withers waited a while and then found a vehicle that made her a star to a generation that had barely heard of her before then.

Margaret Lockwood and Phyllis Calvert had similar. Before Jessie Matthews became Mrs Dale, she accepted a small part very low down the cast list in an ITV Play of the Week, which is odd considering what a huge film star she'd been.

[wadey]

I glanced at a Morse the other day and a prison warder with one line was a big star at one time, will do some research and get back to you with a name, it's the episode with Keith Allen as the escaped rapist and I once spotted Jennifer Moss, who has died (Lucille Hewitt in Coronation Street) in a Hetty Wainthrop for a few seconds, she was one of the highest paid actresses on TV in the 60s

[wadey]

The Day of the Devil (1993) is the episode but the prison officer is not on the cast list

[GRAEME]

The delicious Julia Foster, reduced to playing that "calm down, dear" lady driver in Michael Winner's insurance ad!

I know she probably did it as a favour to him, but really...

[Harbottle]

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....

[CaptainWaggett]

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....

IIRC from the Roger Lewis biography of Sellers, Dennis was pretty much permanently under the influence of the demon drink round about then. Maybe it was a favour or he was just hanging around on set? Round about the same time he only had one scene in the Cool Mikado (in which he performs the not-too-arduous task of stealing the film)

[GRAEME]

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....

He is excellent in it though! Tiny part but a fully fleshed out characterisation. Sloshed or not - he was a pro!