In every industry, when talking about someone who made it to the top, it’s oftentimes mentioned where they got their start. Some have skyrocketed in a very fast-paced fashion; others ease their way up to the top through due diligence. For example, in 1980, Tom Hanks made his first big screen appearance in a minor role in the slasher movie He Knows Your Alone. Who would have thought where he would be by decades end? As for the actors on this list, they got their start on the small screen. No, not on television shows. They appeared during the commercial break in the ad space.
Starring in commercials is a good foot in the door for actors and actresses alike. You get to be seen in national ads, and casting directors can spot you. It looks good on a resume that you’re staying busy between those bad indie movies you have to do. So if you’re a struggling actor at the moment, hang in there and just remember that these twenty big-name stars got their big break in commercials.
20 Orlando Jones
Orlando Jones is one of the most well-known actors to make it out of major commercials. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, he hit the big screen in small roles in films like Office Space and then got lead and supporting roles in films like Double Take, The Replacements, and Drumline. Over the last decade, he has popped up in shows like Sleepy Hollow and American Gods.
Make 7Up Yours!
What put Jones on in the late 1990s was him being the face of the soda brand 7Up. At the time, the lime-flavored can of pop rivaled brands like Sprite and Mountain Dew. He famously uttered the words, ‘Make 7up Yours’ and created a big misunderstanding within the world of the TV ad, and suddenly a star was born.
19 Sharon Stone
Sharon Stone has wowed us in ways we never expected to be wowed in movies. Her roles in films like Total Recall, Basic Instinct, and her Oscar-nominated performance in Casino. Yeah, maybe she should not have taken on that role as the villain in Catwoman, but sometimes a paycheck is a paycheck. Little did we know, she got her start on the small screen.
Back to Her Roots
Recently, Sharon Stone has returned to her roots as an actress. She is now the face of Lens Crafters in many promotional ads and content these last few years. However, Stone got her big break in the early 1980s before leaping into movies. She worked in commercials for Diet Sprite soda; she did many shampoo ads; and one that definitely helped her catch the eye of movie casting directors was her work for the brand of perfume, ‘Charlie’, in 1983.
18 Bruce Willis
Bruce Willis stepped away from acting back in 2022, as his health has unfortunately begun to decline. We miss seeing Bruce on the big screen. His work in films like the Die Hard franchise, The Fifth Element, and Looper will go down as some of the best action movies of all time.
Wine Coolers!
Before Die Hard and his show Moonlighting, Bruce Willis was singing in commercials and having a blast doing so. Wine coolers were kind of the best back in the 1980s; ask any of your baby boomer parents. Willis found himself at the forefront, looking like he was having a blast while drinking one. His charisma and charm are on full display in commercials. No wonder he became a movie star; Seagram’s Wine spotted it a mile away. Don’t forget to drink responsibly.
17 Mila Kunis
Mila Kunis got her big break playing Jackie on That ’70s Show. As the 2000s went on, she would star in comedies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Ted, and voicing Meg Griffin in Family Guy. She even picked up an Oscar nomination for her role in Black Swan back in 2011. Mila Kunis has had a career that has now spanned close to three decades, for reasons related to how she got her start in Hollywood.
Telephone Tammy
Mila Kunis has never really stopped doing commercials. Especially in the last few years as she and her husband, Ashton Kutcher, have settled down. As an adult, she has appeared in ads for Jim Bean and Cheetos. But in the 1990s, she was in a lot of commercials for girls playing dolls, like the utterly terrifying Telephone Tammy. If you think of the 1990s presented to young girls in ads, Mila Kunis kind of fits the aesthetic well. She also did TV spots for Lisa Frank and Glitter Hair Barbie. See her Telephone Tammy commercial below.
16 Tobey Maguire
Tobey Maguire has shown a lot of range in his acting over the years, as he has shed his superhero persona (even though we loved seeing him in Spider-Man: No Way Home). The actor, who was a neighborhood-friendly Spider-Man in the 2000s, has also given us dramatic roles in Cider House Rules and Brothers. Maguire’s acting credits go deep, and so does his career of being on camera.
Ultimate 1990s Kid!
Judging by some of the ads Maguire was in, he seemed like the perfect fit for a 1990s commercial. He looked like every pre-teen boy in the 1990s. Check him out below in an ad for Twister Juice. Maguire would appear in many commercials as the decade went on, until the movie roles began to come in and launch him into the world of A-List actors.
15 Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Before starring in sitcoms like 3rd Rock from the Sun and then getting an ice skate to the face from Michael Myers in Halloween: H20, Joseph Gordon-Levitt blew up big as a kid actor in commercials. Gordon-Levitt has gone on to direct his own movies, manage his own website of interactive creatives, and co-star in the final chapter of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy in The Dark Knight Rises.
Father and Son and Pop-Tarts
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is undeniably one of the cutest kids to ever appear in a commercial. He starred in a memorable ad for Pop-Tarts that was a cool concept. It’s shot from the POV of a father rushing out the door, but his son (Levitt) is there to make sure he gets a quick breakfast on his way out the door. His charm is on full display in the commercial, and you definitely see the early workings of a star.
14 Amy Adams
Amy Adams has shown a lot of versatility throughout her career. Her range is all over the spectrum, from highly dramatic roles in Arrival, The Master, and to going all the way back to early in her career when she played a highly energetic cheerleader in the mockumentary Drop Dead Gorgeous.
Grease is the Word
However, a few years before one of her first notable film roles, Adams appeared in a commercial that parodied Grease for Commercial Federal Bank in Omaha, Nebraska, back in 1997. Also, look closely, and you may miss an eighteen-year-old Andrew Rannells. Rannells would go on to briefly play King George III on Broadway in Hamilton and also frequent the HBO show Girls.
13 Jeremy Renner
Before the MCU got hold of him to be Hawkeye, Jeremy Renner was actually an Oscar-nominated actor for Ben Affleck’s movie, The Town, and, a year prior, for The Hurt Locker. Before that, Renner was a pretty accomplished character actor. Remember his appearance in the 2003 action film S.W.A.T. as the bad guy? To go a step further, remember when he played Jeffrey Dahmer in an independent movie?
Long-Lasting Batteries
To go a step further than that, he appeared in many commercials for big brands in the 1990s. Renner popped up in numerous commercials, like Bud Light and Duracell. Being in Marvel films consists of working with a lot of CGI and green screens and reacting to stuff that’s not actually there. So check him out in this ad for Duracell, where he shows off the power of the long-lasting battery.
12 Courteney Cox
Courteney Cox has attached herself to some big movies with a lot of franchise power in them. As well as one of the most admired sitcoms of all time. Her career has lasted four decades now and has never really let up. From Friends to Ace Ventura: Pet Detective to playing Gale Weathers in the Scream franchise, It’s fun to look at her humble beginnings.
Dancing in the Dark
If you look close enough, Courteney Cox is an actress who was sprinkled throughout the 1980s; she just wasn’t the powerhouse actress we saw in the 1990s yet. She is famously known for being the girl who danced with Bruce Springsteen on stage for his music video for “Dancing in the Dark.” A few years later, Cox would appear in a big commercial for Tampax. It’s crazy to see her presence in the commercial, knowing that her hit show Friends is still almost a decade away from airing, but let us not forget about Master of the Universe in 1987.
11 Jennifer Lawrence
It almost feels like Jennifer Lawrence came out of nowhere. She appeared in the comedy hit of the summer this past year, No Hard Feelings, and since 2011, she’s been nominated for four Academy Awards, winning Best Actress for Silver Linings Playbook. She’s one of the most talented actresses alive, but like the saying goes, we all start somewhere.
Sweet 16 Spoiled Brat
Jennifer Lawrence’s career goes back to the early 2000s with MTV, actually. The two-time Oscar winner starred in a promo for the new season of My Super Sweet 16. Remember that show? The one where spoiled daughters of rich parents get a party thrown in their honor? Jennifer Lawrence, who was just doing an acting gig, fit the mold perfectly for the next season promo. Check it out below.
10 Paul Rudd
Paul Rudd has made us laugh time and time again in comedies produced by Judd Apatow for the last decade and a half. From supporting roles in anything from Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall. To now being Ant-Man in the MCU. Rudd has shown us longevity, and boy does he know how to age gracefully.
Nintendo Power
Paul Rudd would star in a Nintendo commercial. It fits his vibe perfectly. A few years before he starred in Clueless and Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers, and long before the MCU was even a public concept, Rudd played a loner in a trench coat who roams into an empty drive-in theater and slams a game into the power slot of a Super Nintendo to play multiple games on the big screen. The ad feels like a big marketing push for the console. The commercial has aged gracefully, and so has its star.
9 Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway walked away with an Oscar for a role in one of the greatest adaptations of one of the greatest plays of all time, Les Misérables. Year in and year out, she wows us with one great performance after another. She can do dramas like Rachel Getting Married and comedies like The Hustle. Hence, the commercial she starred in as a teenager worked so well for her.
Real Estate Drama
Anne Hathaway was 14 years old when she did what seemed like it was about to be a dreamy, somber commercial for Better Homes and Garden, and it flips on a dime with a bit of comedy. There is no denying her talent; just look at her resume. She’s an Academy Award winner, but we all start somewhere. The ad is a bit on the cheesy side, but she delivers on making the product sell. It starts with two friends, maybe potentially teenage lovers, having to part ways because one is moving. The boy assures her that they will still have the summer, but there is a slight comical plot twist to it all.
8 Bryan Cranston
Bryan Cranston would have the role of a lifetime as Walter White in Breaking Bad. He is another example of longevity in the business. Cranston has worked on shows that range from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to Seinfeld, all the way up to playing a very relatable father on Malcolm in the Middle. But back before all of this, he was just another actor selling a product we all kind of giggled at.
1980s Preparation H Commercial
Get rid of your hemroids with Preparation H. It eases inflation around your…you know. Anyways, almost two and a half decades before Cranston would appear on Breaking Bad, he was in a commercial to help improve people’s situations in terms of being able to sit down. Jokes aside, we’re happy Cranston took the gig, because it led him to the next one, and then to the next, and look at the guy now.
7 John Travolta
John Travolta is an American icon, dancing his way into our hearts in Saturday Night Fever, putting us on edge in Blow Out, and going through his villain era in Face-Off and Broken Arrow (if you want to count Battlefield Earth, go ahead). Travolta, like many on this list, started as just another struggling actor who needed a gig, but it turns out that gig was for Uncle Sam.
Somewhere in John Travolta’s contract from the days of Grease and Saturday Night Fever, it must state that he has to dance in the project. As seen recently in the holiday Capital One Card TV spots, he plays Santa Claus and is strutting around because that’s what we like to see. John Travolta’s dancing is an American tradition that he has made a career out of. However, prior to the late 1970s, he was just another struggling actor looking to make a big break. Check him out in the link below, doing a commercial for the United States Army back in 1973.
6 Brad Pitt
By the mid-1990s, Brad Pitt had become America’s new IT boy in movies. He started in dark, gothic vampire films like Interview With a Vampire and dark thrillers like Se7en. He’s now an Oscar winner due to his role in Once Upon a Time in… Hollywood, and he’s still a piece of eye candy for all those who grew up watching him.
America’s Stud
Not too long before Brad Pitt shot to stardom in the early 1990s, he was just another shirtless actor with model-like looks that made many women turn heads when he walked past. Brad Pitt is an American icon and has become a standard for how men should carry themselves through life. Women want to be with him, and men want to be him, and that is on full display in the commercials we dug up in the early days of his career. Pitt played one member of a trio of shirtless hunks in a Pringles commercial and then showed off his sex appeal once more in an ad for Levis as he walked around without any pants on for half the ad.
5 Morgan Freeman
Speaking of Brad Pitt, his co-star in the film Se7en has been at the forefront of Hollywood. Morgan Freeman is an Oscar winner for Million Dollar Baby, Batman’s aid in all three films in The Dark Knight Trilogy, and, well, god in Bruce Almighty. There isn’t anything Morgan Freeman can’t do, really. He still acts in commercials to this day, but let’s talk about the early days of that part of his resume.
Freeman’s Iconic Voice
The commercial is hard to decipher in terms of faces due to the wear and tear of the visuals. This was produced in the 1970s, but the second a young Morgan Freeman comes on screen, you know it is him due to that iconic voice. Freeman starred in a Listerine commercial back in the 1970s. Noticing a trend here with the names on this list? Longevity: these actors have been in the game for a while now, even before they were discovered. It’s crazy to think this commercial was almost two decades before he became the star we know him as today.
4 Steve Carell
Steve Carell is the epitome of what makes him both a great comedic actor and a great dramatic actor. Getting his start at a place like The Daily Show only propelled him into lead roles on The Office, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Crazy Stupid Love. He would also wow us with his dramatic efforts in movies like Beautiful Boy and Foxcatcher. Steve Carell is the gift that keeps on giving to us movie lovers.
Future Regional Manager
Browns Chicken, a Chicago-based fast food chain, once had actor Steve Carell as the face of the company for a brief moment as he starred in an ad for their product. Carell fits the bill for the role in the TV spot. He seemed like he was a regional manager of sorts for the company at the time. He would oddly go on to play one of the most successful regional managers of all time later on in life. Although Steve Carell has gone on to great success, it must be mentioned that Browns Chicken has been plagued by a tragedy of sorts.
3 Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore comes from a lineage of actors. Her father was a famous actor, and even her great aunt and uncle were as well. Do you remember mean old Mr. Potter in It’s a Wonderful Life? That’s her great-uncle, Lionel Barrymore. Barrymore was a child actor not long after she learned how to form sentences. She starred in films like E.T. and Firestarter in the 1980s. She would hit a wall in the 1990s, but dust herself off and kept going with a notable role in Scream and move into the new millennium, playing roles in 50 First Dates, Donnie Darko, and Charlie’s Angels.
Sweet Little Drew
2023 got a little rough for Drew Barrymore during the writer’s strike. So to kick off 2024, let’s take a look back at all the childhood acting skills she had, even prior to 1982’s E.T. As mentioned above, she started out real young in Hollywood; it was at times costly for her, but for anyone who grew up in the late 1970s, you’ll remember this ad for Pillsbury where she played a little girl who just wanted some cookies.
2 Ben Affleck
Ben Affleck is oftentimes criticized in the press for something that really does no harm to anyone if you really think about it. He’s one of the best living directors, with films like Argo and Air under his belt. He’s suited up as Batman before in The Snyderverse and played underrated dramatic roles like The Way Back. What a career for Ben, and here’s a look at it at its earliest stages.
Affleck in a Burger King Ad
Long before Ben Affleck starred alongside his good buddy Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting, he was doing his own thing in the commercials for Burger King. Affleck plays what would come off as a DoorDash driver trying to get a date in today’s world in the commercial. Burger King had many celebrities get their start in their ads. Meg Ryan appeared in one in the early 1980s, and Seth Green later on as well. But Affleck remains the most memorable, it seems. One can only imagine if this was revisited when deciding on having him come in to do Dunkin’ Donuts commercials.
1 Leonardo DiCaprio
Quite honestly, Leonardo DiCaprio may be the most successful child actor of all time. He has rarely been lumped into any scandals; he puts his money where his mouth is, and he finally got that damn Oscar back in 2016 for The Revenant. The list of great roles is incredibly long; his collaborations with Martin Scorsese are still strong to this day, with films like The Wolf of Wall Street and Killers of the Flower Moon. He never let the heartthrob image take over the work he’s put in.
The Greatest Child Actor of All Time
DiCaprio had some recurring roles in family sitcoms, and how can we forget about Critters 3? Even in the years prior to Titanic, he did commercials for Suzuki, but back in the early 1990s and late 1980s, he was everywhere. From Kraft Mac and Cheese to Bubble Yum. Let it be known to all those child actors out there just showing up for commercials and not even having a line in them. Keep going; you could have a great life in this industry. Leo sure has done well for himself.
