What I'm trying to say is that there are actors or actresses in some movies we didn't pay much attention to, but when they start appearing in another movie we watch, there's this sense of familiarity that we have seen them before, but just can't seem to remember which movie.
Well, digging up the connection is one of fun things to do after watching a movie.
Radha Mitchell
(Bottom) Silent Hill (2006) ... Rose Da Silva
(Top) Pitch Black (2000) ... Carolyn Fry
Pitch Black is the first episode of the Chronicles of Riddick made famous by Vin Diesel. For me, it's a great sci-fi movie which seems to be missed out by many. Radha Mitchell played Carolyn, the leader of a surviving team of space passengers on an alien planet. Her portrayal of a strong leader, despite being put to the tasks rather harshly, as well as her surprising death at the end of the movie were hard to forget. When I watched (re-watched) Silent Hill not long ago, the sense of familiarity mentioned at the beginning made me went to search for information on her acting career, and, Bingo!
Laurie Holden
(Bottom) Silent Hill (2006) ... Cybil Bennett
(Top) The X Files (1996) ... Marita Covarrubias
Alongside Radha Mitchell in Silent Hill is Lauren Holden, who played a highway policewoman, eventually ends up in the same dreadful ghost town. Very tough looking, and sexy too ^o^. Quite different from her role as Marita Covarrubias in the X-Files. Marita only appears in Season 4, after the death of X, the second source of classified information to Fox Mulder's investigation. However, Marita plays a two-headed-snake in the series, where she would help out Mulder, and report to his
nemesis, the Cigarette Smoking Man all his progress.
Kate Beckinsale
(Bottom) Underworld (2003 & 2006) ... Selene
(Top) Van Helsing (2004) ... Anna Valerious
Kate Beckinsale won't have come into today's discussion because it's obvious she is the leading character for the two Underworld movies. Many people would remember her performance in Van Helsing as well, as Anna Valerious who helps Van Helsing in destroying Dracula. However, I feel really funny at the point that she keeps getting vampire and werewolf movies for the last few years. She must have sent them to extinction! Whether she is fighting as a side-kick in Van Helsing, as with a side-kick in Underowrld, she really rocks. Personally, I like her in Underworld better because of her tight leather outfit ^o^
Liam Neeson
(Top Left) Kingdom of Heaven (2005) ... Godfrey
(Top Right) Batman Begins (2005) ... Henri Ducard
(Bottom) The Chronicles of Narnia (2005) ... Aslan
Liam Neeson always plays the very wise but kind-of sad characters in movies featuring him. In Kingdom of Heaven, he played Godfrey, father of Balian (Orlando Bloom) who taught him how to fight, and how to be a good knight but eventually died from a crossbow strike; in Batman Begins, he plays Henri Ducard, the mentor of Bruce Wayne before he became batman, too bad for him, he eventually becomes Batman's enemy; in Narnia, he is the voice actor for Aslan, and the scene where he was captured by the White Witch must have made many children cried. Not to mention he is also Qui-Gon Jin in Star Wars I: The Phantom Menace, the mentor of both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. As one of the master Jedi, he is the only one who has a dialogue, but didn't last a single episode!
Except for Narnia in all these four movies I watched, Liam Neeson's character never live to see the end!
Stellan Skarsgard
(Inserted) Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) ... Father Merrin
King Arthur (2004) ... Cerdic
For these two movies, Skarsgard's characters are on both extreme ends: in Exorcist: The Beginning, he plays Father Merrin, the hero who defeated the devil, and established a legend for that character in the subsequent movies (which are made long, long time ago instead); in King Arthur, he plays Cerdic, the super notorious leader of the Saxon invaders who was killed by Arthur in the final duel.
Tony Curran
(Top Left) The 13th Warrior (1999) ... Weath the Musician
(Top Right) Gladiator (2000) ... Assassin #1
(Bottom Left) Blade II (2002) ... Priest
(Bottom Center) The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) ... Rodney Skinner (The Invisible Man)
(Bottom Right) Underworld: Evolution (2006) .... Marcus Corvinus
Tony Curran has appeared in more different movies I watched than any other actors. However, his characters are hardly the noticeable ones until recent years, in my experience watching him of course. Starting with Antonio Banderas's The 13th Warrior, he played one of the Northman warriors, whom I only remember being the one laughing after been kicked off his horse by Antonio Banderas's one, and only had one line at the very end of the movie. Possibly the most boring of all the 13 men, but incredibly, he survived till the end! In Gladiator, he played the executioner sent to finish off Russell Crowe after the betrayal of the new Caesar. The plan didn't work out of course, Tony Curran was killed instead, ending his about 30 seconds’ appearance in that great movie, and he didn't even speak a word! In Blade II, he played Priest, the first member of an elite team wiping out vampires to be killed. Again, no line (or maybe nothing important to be remembered), just a hell lot of screaming before he's gone.
In LXG, his roles improved a bit, but as the invisible man? Gosh, how can you be noticeable when you have wear white make-up when there's no action, and vanish completely during stunt scenes. His biggest role for me was in Underworld: Evolution where he played Marcus, arguably the strongest vampire (but the ugliest one as well) who tries to kill Selene.
Although he suffered a gruesome death in the end (turn to mince meat by helicopter blades), at least he speaks more!
Paul Levesque
(Right) WWE: Triple H
(Left) Blade: Trinity (2004) ... Jarko Grimwood
I'm not sure if Paul Levesque's his real name, but I would definitely remember him as Triple H, one of the best wrestlers in WWE, formerly known as WWF. Unlike The Rock who moved from wrestling to Hollywood entirely, Triple H's involvement in the silver screen industry has only been in Blade III: Trinity where he played Jarko, one of the bodyguards of the vampires. His performance was quite impressive actually, being mean but funny in a way, and he got to show a wrestling style body-slam in one of the fighting scene with Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds), with effects some more!
Vladimir Kulich
(Right) The 13th Warrior (1999) ... Buliwyf/The 1st Warrior
(Left) The X Files - Dod Kalm (1995 TV Episode) ... Olafsson
I'm quite sure not many people would know Vladimir Kulich, unless they have watched The 13th Warrior like I did. Kulich played Buliwyf (pronounced as "Bull-Vie", the leader of the Northman warriors returning to their homeland to fight a rumored ancient evil. His performance in that movie was incredible, especially his booming voice, plus his body size which fit into the character of a Viking very well. Surprisingly, when I watched The X Files Season 2, I noticed one of the characters to be him. Then I found out that he was in The X Files much earlier than The 13th Warrior. However, Vladimir Kulich didn't really appear in many movies we commonly watch, most probably because of his profile as an North European, which limits his role in a way or so.
Bill Duke
(Right) X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) ... Bolivar Trask
(Left) Predator (1987) ... Mac
The one thing that made me connect Bill Duke between the two movies was his eyes. When he was talking to the President in X Men: The Last Stand, the way he looked at the President rang a bell in my head, and I tried to remember the last time I saw him. A small role as Bolivar Trask, but if you're a big fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger 20-year-old sci-fi Predator like me, you would definitely remember him as Mac-the-marine-dressed-up-in-suit in X-Men. He was bald in Predator; he is bald in X Men as well. :-D
Rubén Blades
(Bottom) The X Files - El Mundo Gira (1997 TV Episode) ... Conrad Lozano
(Top) Predator 2 (1990) (as Ruben Blades) ... Danny Archuleta
Just like Bill Duke, if you're not a big fan of Predator, you won't remember him either. Starred in Predator 2 as Detective Danny who accidentally stood in the way of the Predator and his prey, it is hard to connect him between the movie and the TV series because both characters have distinctive profiles. This time, the voice, or rather the Mexican essence of Ruben Blades rang the bell in my mind, and after checking, Bingo!
Ruben's quite an interesting person, actually because if you check on IMDB, you can see that he's now the Minister of Tourism for Panama! Wow!
