Fan quiz: Can you match these famous TV actors to their lesser-known early roles?

These actors were in parts big and small before they landed the role that made them famous.

 

Thanks to MeTV fan Christopher Seeley from Killeen, Texas, for submitting this quiz idea! Do you have a great idea for a quiz? Share it with us!

Some actors are most famous for their very first onscreen role while others work for years playing small parts before landing the gig that makes them a household name.

Here are 12 well-known actors from classic television shows. Can you guess which roles each person played before the one for which they're most remembered?

  1. Before starring in Adam-12, Martin Milner was a regular on what show?
  2. Before he played the title role in Gilligan’s Island, Bob Denver was in over a hundred episodes of which sitcom?
  3. Before she led The Donna Reed Show, Donna Reed starred in which classic Christmas movie?
  4. Before playing Grandma Walton, Ellen Corby had a small role in which Alfred Hitchcock thriller?
  5. Before her own iconic sketch show, Carol Burnett was part of the regular cast of which comedy show?
  6. Before David Hasselhoff became fearless crime fighter Michael Knight and teamed up with the super car named K.I.T.T., what daytime soap opera did he appear on?
  7. Before leading his fellow prisoners at Stalag 13 as Colonel Robert E. Hogan in Hogan’s Heroes, what other hit series was Bob Crane a regular on?
  8. Before he played wisecracking yet dedicated Army surgeon Hawkeye Pierce on M*A*S*H, Alan Alda starred in which 1971 horror film?
  9. Before Nichelle Nichols’s groundbreaking role of Lt. Nyota Uhura in Star Trek, what Gene Roddenberry/Lee Erwin penned television episode did she appear?
  10. Before Lynda Carter’s iconic role as the Amazonian Super heroine Wonder Woman, what crime drama did she appear in?
  11. Before George Reeves became the “Man of Steel” fighting crime and saving Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen as Superman, he played one of a pair of twins in what period drama set during the Civil War?
  12. Before Jeffery Hunter starred as the original Star Trek’s Captain Christopher Pike, what classic western did he star in with the legendary John Wayne?

Fan quiz: Can you match these famous TV actors to their lesser-known early roles?

Your Result...

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57 Comments

GregLemieux 50 months ago
9/12. Not a bad score, as some of these were pretty obscure.
Lillyrose 51 months ago
7 out of 12. George Reeves was also on one of the funniest "I Love Lucy" episodes: "Lucy and Superman."
MarthaWashington 51 months ago
The ones I missed, I never heard of....and I'm OLD
UTZAAKE 51 months ago
6/12.
8. From the correct answer.
savoycheer 51 months ago
6/12, pitiful. Nakia, never heard of it.
frenchman71 51 months ago
Didn't do too well...8/12. My bad!
Geronimo 51 months ago
You smoked that quiz, great job!
Mawalts 51 months ago
11/12. Never heard of Nakia. It must have been a real doozy
CarolKelley Mawalts 51 months ago
I've never heard of it either, but I did watch Ironside, Cannon and Mannix and knew she was not a regular on those programs.
ThomasPotter CarolKelley 11 months ago
it never said she was a regular, only that she 'appeared' in it.
RobertM 51 months ago
I think this quiz also should've mentioned a pre-"Mission Impossible" Martin Landau in the "Twilight Zone" episode "Mr. Denton on Doomsday".
WordsmithWorks 51 months ago
I won't even post my score I bombed so badly. Quite the humbling experience.
Maybe the healing will begin once you try sanctimony and silly native superstition.
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