Their first films

Making it big in the movies is the dream that impels thousands of hopefuls to try to become stars—but, only a few succeed. How did they get their first, big break?

A survey of stars’ careers instructively reveals that first big-screen appearances don’t always or even often result in stardom! It sometimes takes several attempts before a starlet gets the vehicle that makes viewers warm up to him in a special way.

Consider Bruce Willis: In the early 1980s, he already had the looks and charisma (and hair) needed for stardom, but the movies he managed to appear in didn’t give him a chance to get his unique stellar moxie going. In his debut film appearance, “The First Deadly Sin,” all he did was enter a diner. In “The Verdict,” he was just a man in a courtroom. In “A Guru Comes” (1985), he was a mere, nameless extra.

In all three films, his name didn’t even appear in the credits! It’s a good thing that Willis finally clicked with televiewers in the hit detective series, “Moonlighting,” where he lit up the screen with Cybill Shepherd.

That got movie producers interested enough to offer him his first really substantial movie role in “Blind Date” in 1987, opposite Kim Basinger. —It took Willis seven long years to finally make it as a film star! Other hopefuls will just have to be as patient—and tenacious!

In Jennifer Aniston’s case, it also took a TV series, “Friends,” for her to make it to the movies. Never mind that it was in a silly horror flick, “Slasher”—it got her stellar billing, enabling her to go on to much better films.

A horror flick was also Johnny Depp’s ticket to eventual film stardom. In 1984, he played one of Freddy Krueger’s victims in “A Nightmare On Elm Street.” That was a full 30 years ago—and look where Johnny is now!

Depp’s case is instructive in another key way: While most starlets dream of making it as romantic leading men, he opted for edgier and even weirder roles. As his stellar success in “Edward Scissorhands” and the “Pirates of the Caribbean” films have clearly proven, that too can be a way to get to—the very top!

As for the Golden (now more Olden) Boy of US films, George Clooney, he was goodlooking enough to make it as a romantic lead, but he actually started his film career in horror flicks—in “Predator” and “Return to Horror High!” Although he registered strongly as a hunky charmer on the medical TV drama series, “ER,” his breakthrough film role came only a decade later, in “From Dusk Till Dawn.”

To his credit, Clooney has gone way beyond being a screen hunk, and has excelled not only as an actor, but also as a director. Even better, his influence has expanded to include environmental, political and humanitarian pursuits—making him a star in many other unexpected ways, and in every sense of the word!