Top 10 Big Screen Performances by Small Screen Actors

Article by Todd Plucknett

Posted - 11/21/10

This topic is something that I have been thinking about for quite a while. I have always been interested in movies starring actors who take time out of their television series to make a film. Normally, they wind up giving great performances in solid films, oftentimes being smaller, character-driven films. So, I decided to do a countdown of the 10 best performances by television actors.

Now, this has a fair amount of subjectivity to it. I am going to define a small screen actor as one who is most known for a television role. So, even though there are some people who cannot think of Anna Paquin without thinking of Sookie Stackhouse, I always think of Rogue. George Clooney in ER, Bruce Willis in Moonlighting, Woody Harrelson in Cheers, Will Smith in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. All of these are iconic roles, but these actors have made the most noise on the big screen, in my opinion at least. People may think the same thing about Jennifer Aniston or Helen Hunt, but they will always be Rachel Green and the girl from Mad About You in my eyes.

So, my list has a wide range of actors. I am going to limit this to the last 25 years of film performances, simply because I know almost nothing about pre-1980s television. Here is what I came up with…

Others receiving votes

Jennifer Aniston – The Good Girl (2002)

Patricia Arquette – True Romance (1993)

John Goodman – Barton Fink (1991)

Dennis Haysbert – Far from Heaven (2002)

Lisa Kudrow – The Opposite of Sex (1998)

Robert Sean Leonard – Dead Poets Society (1989)

Damian Lewis – Keane (2005)

Wentworth Miller – The Human Stain (2003)

Mary-Louise Parker – Grand Canyon (1991)

Kyra Sedgwick – The Woodsman (2004)