TV actors that successfully transitioned to movies?

[numberthirty]

John Goodman (Roseanne)

Surprised we all missed this one.

Honestly, Goodman is kind of a tough one.

Go back, and take a look at the coach in Revenge Of The Nerds. He was also in The Big Easy and Raising Arizona before Roseanne.

The guy was just hustling.

[Jim Kelly]

The first movie I remember seeing John Goodman in was TRUE STORIES--which owing to the documentary style of the movie, I wasn't even sure he was a real actor. But then he was in several movies after that. Seeing him cast in an ongoing sitcom, I was surprised that he would take the role, given his movie career was going strong.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Bruce Willis (Moonlighting)

Great example! To bad Willis never returned to the small screen starring in another comedy-drama Loved David and Maddy's interactions on Moonlighting...

The story of Moonlighting(1)-not just a day job part 1

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

The story of Moonlighting(1)-not just a day job part 2

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

The story of Moonlighting(2)-not just a day job part 1

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

The story of Moonlighting(2)-not just a day job part 2

[Güicho]

*Cue humorless CBGuy compelled to "explain" why these obviously don't count.

[bob fett]

Lawrence Fishburne was on the Pee Wee Herman show as Cowboy Curtis.

[RockyHorror]

Chevy Chase Steve Martin Martin Short Eddie Murphy Dan Ackroyd John Belushi Jim Belushi prolly more along these lines

[DrNewGod]

Dick Van Dyke
Sally Field
Burt Reynolds
...

These examples are particularly interesting to me, because they all came along in an era where most people from TV never got a shot at Cinema. TV, in those days, is where you went when your Film career petered out.

[Cyke]

I just realized, Colm Meaney qualifies. He went from bit player on TNG to starring in an indie hit in the mid 90s, and though he still alternates between TV and film, he's one of Ireland's more esteemed movie actors.

These examples are particularly interesting to me, because they all came along in an era where most people from TV never got a shot at Cinema. TV, in those days, is where you went when your Film career petered out.

TV history is weird. It was certainly the case in the 70s and 80s (and likely some of the 90s) where that was true. In the 50s and early 60s, it was almost the opposite because television was still fresh -- so someone like Robert Stack could go from successful movie career to TV and then back to movies. I feel like it's analogous these days to A-list movie stars being on streaming shows, rather than network television, because streaming still has the prestige of being innovative -- I'd also be interested to see if that shine wears off in a few years like it did for TV.

The 00s to today certainly ring of movie stars reviving or furthering their careers through TV, though. The West Wing greatly boosted Martin Sheen (who didn't need help in the first place, but nonetheless greatly increased his profile) and Rob Lowe (who needed that W).

But I suppose these days the case could be made that the the most consistent actors are the ones who can switch back and forth between TV and movies often, because at least then there's some semblance of job security and being in demand, with the division between the two getting more blurred and being less discriminatory as time goes on. I hope the cliques between movie actors and TV actors are wiped away soon.

[MyriVerse]

Tommy Lee Jones went from Lonesome Dove and soaps to blockbuster movies.
Catherine Zeta Jones
Mel Gibson

[DrNewGod]

...TV history is weird. It was certainly the case in the 70s and 80s (and likely some of the 90s) where that was true. In the 50s and early 60s, it was almost the opposite because television was still fresh -- so someone like Robert Stack could go from successful movie career to TV and then back to movies. I feel like it's analogous these days to A-list movie stars being on streaming shows, rather than network television, because streaming still has the prestige of being innovative -- I'd also be interested to see if that shine wears off in a few years like it did for TV.

The 00s to today certainly ring of movie stars reviving or furthering their careers through TV, though. The West Wing greatly boosted Martin Sheen (who didn't need help in the first place, but nonetheless greatly increased his profile) and Rob Lowe (who needed that W).

But I suppose these days the case could be made that the the most consistent actors are the ones who can switch back and forth between TV and movies often, because at least then there's some semblance of job security and being in demand, with the division between the two getting more blurred and being less discriminatory as time goes on. I hope the cliques between movie actors and TV actors are wiped away soon.

The 50s, yes, but the 1960s were when the separation really began. I haven't made a careful study of it, but it seems to me the walls between TV and Cinema went up as the Hollywood Studio System eroded.

It was also the era in which theater chains were forced to sell off movie studios (or vice versa) in the US on the grounds of monopolistic competition. That seems to have created a divide between New York (home of the theater chains and the broadcast networks) and Hollywood (home of the cinema studios).

[Mace Dolex]

Billy Crystal (Soap, SNL)

[Jim Kelly]

Definitely for me, in the 1960s, if I saw a Hollywood movie star was now doing a T.V. show, I assumed that something had gone very wrong in his life. Whereas, if the star of a T.V. show left to do movies, that meant he or she was in the big time now. It was like weekly T.V. shows were proper jobs--regular work you had to do every week to pay the bills. But making movies wasn't a job--it was like being on vacation for the rest of your life (or however long you could sustain it).

Also, if a big name actor did a walk on for a sitcom, the audience would erupt in amazement--such a miracle they had never seen, a god has come down from the heavens to walk among us. Which let you know this was no ordinary actor on a T.V. show--this was a movie star!