Who did you see in an early stage role before they became famous on screen?
18/11/2020
The Guardian has published this great collection of photos of famous actors in early stage roles. It's one of the things I love about theatre, watching young actors cut their teeth in small stage roles, blossom into bigger roles and then go on to have success on screen.
Although there is a part of me that does get frustrated when they gather a large fan base which makes it difficult to get tickets to see them when they do return to the stage.
So who did you see on stage before they were famous?
Probably my best haul was the first Hamlet I saw.
I was a student in Liverpool studying English and we went on a trip to Theatr Clwyd in Mold to see Hamlet.
This was the early 90s and it wasn't until relatively recently when I found the programme, I realised that playing the minor roles were none other than Toby Jones, Rhys Ifans and Jack Davenport.
There are a few others. I saw Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston in a few things on stage before they became big stars and I saw Colin Morgan's stage debut straight out of drama school.
Similarly, with Josh O'Connor who is now playing Prince Charles in The Crown, I saw all his early stage performances from the Southwark Playhouse to the RSC and Donmar.
And of course Andrew Scott. He was a bit of a theatre fans' fav long before played Moriarty in the BBC's Sherlock. I was so please when he got that role.
Tell me in the comments who you saw on stage before they were screen famous.