MTF MTF
It’s hard to believe looking at this still, but one of these underwhelming guys would become one of the most respected, influential, and feared players in the entertainment industry. The guy in the white sweatshirt with his foot up on the bench is future billionaire David Geffen in his first and last film role in 1961′s THE EXPLOSIVE GENERATION . Soon afterwards he took a job at the William Morris Agency, and went on to managing music artists, founding Asylum Records, creating Geffen Records and Geffen Films, and creating DreamWorks SKG with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
FAIL-SAFE is a 1964 film directed by Sidney Lumet, based on the 1962 novel Fail-Safe written by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler. It portrays a fictional account of a Cold War nuclear crisis. Dom DeLuise (in his second film appearance) is a nervous enlisted airman ordered to give the Russians technical details on how to shoot down an American plane carrying Nuclear warheads heading for Moscow.
Future actor/ Oscar-winning songwriter Paul Williams in his first movie role as 12 year old-child genius Gunther Fry in THE LOVED ONE (1965), although at the time, Williams was really 23.
He is best known for popular songs performed by a number of groups in the 70′s including Three Dog Night’s “An Old Fashioned Love Song”, Helen Reddy’s “You and Me Against the World”, and The Carpenters’ “We’ve Only Just Begun”
Long before he played Doctor Adam Bricker on THE LOVE BOAT, Bernie Kopell played a newspaper advice columnist’s assistant in THE LOVED ONE (1965). And who can forget Kopell as Siegfried in the GET SMART NBC-TV series (1965-1969)
In THE GRADUATE (1967), Mike Farrell has a few seconds of screentime as a bellhop at the hotel. Farrell is best remembered for his role as Captain B.J. Hunnicutt on the television series M*A*S*H (1975–83)
In one of his earliest screen appearances, an uncredited Richard Dreyfuss is a Boarding House Resident in THE GRADUATE (1967), delivering the line “Shall I get the cops? I’ll get the cops.”
Although he was also in 1967′s THE GRADUATE, Richard Dreyfuss’ movie debut (albeit uncredited) was in 1967′s VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, as Assistant Stage Manager.
In 1968′s THE PRODUCERS, Renee Taylor, the future on-screen mother of Ray Romano on EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, plays ‘Springtime For Hitler’s Eva Braun opposite ‘lieb’ Adolph Hitler (Dick Shawn).
Also from THE PRODUCERS (1968), future Oscar winner William Hickey (for PRIZZI’S HONOR) has a tiny role as a barfly enjoying the alcoholic largesse of producers Bialystock and Bloom (Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel).
WILD IN THE STREETS (1968) - Richard Pryor in one of his first movie roles (although unbilled) as ‘anthropologist and Troopers drummer Stanley X’.
In 1968′s ROSEMARY’S BABY, a very young Charles Grodin (in his second movie role) sporting a creepy moustache as OB/GYN Dr. C.C. Hill.
This is a very young Bob Balaban in 1969′s MIDNIGHT COWBOY, in his film debut as a nervous movie theater customer. Today, he’s better known for his roles in Christopher Guest’s films WAITING FOR GUFFMAN, BEST IN SHOW, A MIGHTY WIND, and FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION.
A pre-Monty Python John Cleese as Mr. Dugdale, director in Sotheby’s, in the 1969 Peter Sellers/Ringo Starr Black Comedy THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN. Filmed months before FLYING CIRCUS, this film premiered just two months after the show’s premiere on BBC Television.Cleese and his long-time writing partner Graham Chapman contributed to the film’s script and both appeared in separate scenes.
THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN was based on a Terry Southern novel of the same name. The story line has Sellers character Sir Guy Grand and his adopted son, Ringo’s Youngman Grand have people do anything requested of them, no matter how unpleasant or humiliating, so long as they are offered enough money.
A pre-Monty Python Graham Chapman as a uncredited Oxford crewman, in the 1969 Peter Sellers/Ringo Starr Black Comedy THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN. Filmed months before FLYING CIRCUS, this film premiered just two months after the show’s premiere on BBC Television.Chapman and his long-time writing partner John Cleese contributed to the film’s script and both appeared in separate scenes.