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When an actor with a popular role in the past has a resurgence doing something else.
Similar to Hey, It's That Guy!, only this is when someone was famous before, and not just a character actor.
Named for The Simpsons' Troy McClure, who used to be a character actor, and then did educational films, infomercials, etc. He would introduce himself with "Hi, I'm Troy McClure! You might remember me from such films as Aliens Steal Cable! and The Adjectival Superhero." ( The names of the two films were usually relevant to what he was in at the moment.)
Examples:
- Mark Hamill. After spending years known only as Luke Skywalker, he then got a career in voice acting, particularly as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series. As well as the Hobgoblin from Spider-Man: The Animated Series and the Evil Dad role in Avatar The Last Airbender. When he appeared in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the film actually stops and puts "Hey kids! It's Mark Hamill! (Applause)" onscreen.
- Johnny Yong Bosch, a.k.a. Adam Park, former Black Ranger and Green Zeo Ranger...current anime voice actor, his breakout role being Vash the Stampede from Trigun. Other roles include a chivalrous Soul Reaper, and another hero that's, uh... not so much.
- Olivia, (Raven-Symoné) from The Cosby Show as Monique from Kim Possible.
- Chrissy, (Ashley Johnson) from Growing Pains as Terra from Teen Titans.
- Charles Emerson Winchester, (David Ogden Stiers) from M*A*S*H, Governor Radcliffe and Wiggins in Pocahontas, as Jumba on Lilo & Stitch, Lane's father in Better Off Dead, and as Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast.
- Robbie Rist, the original Cousin Oliver on The Brady Bunch, now provides the voice of Choji Akamichi from Naruto.
- John Travolta used to be "that guy from Saturday Night Fever". Then he was "that guy from Pulp Fiction". And then "that L. Ron Hubbard fanboy who inflicted Battlefield Earth on us". Now he may be known as "that guy in a fat suit and drag in the 2007 version of Hairspray".
- Becky from Roseanne as Elliot from Scrubs. No, not that Becky*
Alicia "Lecy" Goransen , the other one* Sarah Chalke .
- Up until the mid-90s Noel Edmonds was a celebrity Saturday night entertainment show presenter, before which he was a successful DJ. He dropped out of the limelight for several years before reemerging in 2005 as the host of the British version of the game show Deal or No Deal. Similarly, Howie Mandel was a popular prop comic who played Dr. Fiscus on St. Elsewhere, then voiced the title character on Bobby's World. After years of obscurity he resurfaced as host of the US edition of Deal or No Deal.
- And of course, who can forget William Shatner? First Star Trek: The Original Series, then TJ Hooker, and currently Denny Crane in Boston Legal.
- Christopher Lee played Dracula in a series of horror movies in his younger days. More recently, he's played villains in summer blockbusters such as the Star Wars prequels and The Lord of the Rings. And a major character in Kingdom Hearts II. Going back a bit further, to the mid-70s, Lee was also Scaramanga in The Man With the Golden Gun. He also did some spoken lines for the band Rhapsody of Fire. In fact, Sir Lee holds the Guinness Record for the highest number of film acting roles ever... but 95% of people know him from this handful of roles.
- Elijah Wood was a famous child actor known as the other Macaulay Culkin (they even co-starred in The Good Son) years before being cast as Frodo.
- Richard Dean Anderson as MacGyver, then a decade later starred Stargate SG-1. Extra confusion/amusement in the Spanish dub: Luis Porcar as Jack O'Neill and Gregory House.
- Scott Bakula as Samuel Beckett on early-nineties Quantum Leap, then as Captain Archer on early-to-mid 2000s Star Trek: Enterprise. (In between, he did some voice acting and a couple of sports movies.)
- Dean Stockwell, who was a child star in the 40's and 50's before (eventually) co-starring in Quantum Leap as Al, and then appearing in the Battlestar Galactica reboot as Cavil.
- Micky Dolenz became popular in the 1950's as a child actor under the pseudonym Mickey Braddock. He starred in the TV series Circus Boy as the lead character, Corky. Only until mid-1960's was Dolenz launched into superstardom as one of the members of The Monkees.
- Murdock (Dwight Schultz) from The A-Team in various video game and animation roles, most notably Harman Smith in Killer7.
- Of the four kid leads in Stand by Me, only Jerry O'Connell didn't have any other major roles as a child actor. He made up for it as an adult. Wil Wheaton is an odder example, becoming a target of nerd scorn on Star Trek: The Next Generation before his comeback in the aughties as a target of nerd admiration.
- In the dub of Digimon Savers, Steve Blum did not reprise his role as Gallantmon...instead, the Royal Knight's voice actor was Brad Sherwood!
- Marcia Wallace was, at one point, sufficiently well-known from her role on The Bob Newhart Show in the '70s to be the subject of a Taxi episode (in which she guested as herself) later in that decade, as well as an appearance as her Bob Newhart character on Murphy Brown. Later on, of course, she became the voice of Mrs. Krabappel on The Simpsons.
- Jackie Earle Haley was best known as Kelly Leak in the original 1970s Bad News Bears, and there's a 13-year gap on his IMDB page, 1993-2006. Now, he's Rorschach, Freddy Krueger, and Guerrero.
- Walter Koenig (a.k.a. Chekov from Star Trek) appearing as Psi Cop Alfred Bester on Babylon 5.
- Alyssa Milano, who first became famous playing Tony Danza's daughter' on Who's The Boss?, then did a couple of seasons on Melrose Place before logging eight years on Charmed.
- Neil Patrick Harris first became a household name playing Doogie Howser, M.D. and went into theater for a while before resurfacing as a Jerkass version of himself in the Harold & Kumar movies, a regular role as Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother, and the titular character of Joss Whedon's supervillain musical Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
- In the The Sixties and The Seventies, Jerry Orbach was a famous Broadway star. He was in the inaugural cast of The Fantasticks, he was the first Billy Flynn in Chicago, and he even got a few movie roles. Fast forward thirty years, and what is he best known for? Lennie Briscoe on Law & Order. If anyone even knows he could sing, they probably know it because they saw him as Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast.
- Bruce Boxleitner was originally best known for Scarecrow And Mrs. King, but is better-remembered now for the role of Captain Sheridan on Babylon 5, or as TRON.
- Robert Patrick, a.k.a. the T-1000, as Agent John Doggett in the late seasons of The X-Files.
- Amanda Tapping, who played fan favorite character Samantha Carter on Stargate SG-1 for over a decade, has had another sci-fi hit with Sanctuary.
- Ben Browder is known for two famous sci-fi roles: John Crichton on Farscape, and Cameron Mitchell on Stargate SG-1. He acted opposite Claudia Black (Aeryn Sun and Vala mal Doran, respectively) on both series; naturally Lampshade Hanging ensued on the latter about the former.
- Ashley Tisdale won fame in the mid-2000s for starring as candy counter girl Maddie Fitzpatrick on the Disney Channel's The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. She later starred as Sharpay Evans in the High School Musical series and the made-for-DVD film, "Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure". Many younger Disney Channel watchers might better know her as Candace Flynn in Phineas and Ferb, while older TV watchers might know her from her role as Savannah Monroe in Hellcats.
- Mark Harmon has come back for more stardom at least twice. People who watched Chicago Hope may remember him from his role in St. Elsewhere. Now, of course, both of those shows are road markers for fans of NCIS.
- Keir Dullea appeared as Devon, the protagoinist of the much maligned 70s TV series The Starlost. Get rid of the 70s mustache he wore in the series, you'll recognize him as Dave Bowman from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- James Doohan is best known as Scotty from Star Trek. But he got a chance to play The Captain for a change in 1979's Jason Of Star Command.
- Apart from a role in season five of Las Vegas, Tom Selleck has mostly been doing TV movies since Magnum, P.I. wrapped in 1988. Then in 2010 he was cast as Police Commissioner Frank Reagan in Blue Bloods.
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