Actors-turned-Directors & Vice Versa

[toddpolt]

Actor-turned-Director:

Clint Eastwood - Probably the best example, or at least the most recent. American male acting icon, Dirty Harry, The Man With No Name, the world is jealous that we produced such an awesome guy.

Yet he's gotten more awards and industry acclaim as a director, and he's pretty good/great. Won Two Oscars for directing (Unforgiven & Million Dollar Baby, deserved the first one) and his other directorial credits are solid: High Plains Drifter, Bird, Sudden Impact, Play Misty for Me, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Pale Rider, Letters from Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers, White Hunter Black Heart, A Perfect World, Gran Torino, etc.

Jon Favreau - Yeah yeah he scripted SWINGERS which he also starred, but consider how for many years he was an actor (like in The Replacements) before he became a director star on his own merit with Elf and Iron Man.

Director-turned-Actor

John Huston - If I'm right, his first acting credit was his own directed classic The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. But he became a good hired actor in his own right. Terrific as John Hayes in The Wind & The Lion.

[The Summer of Muskrat XVII]

Ron Howard is a pretty big one. Rob Reiner as well

[G✇JI☈A]

Eli Roth: Director of the Hostel movies recently acted in Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds.

Spike Jonze: OK he directed music video long before acting in Three Kings. But he did not really start directing feature films until after Three Kings.

[Dr. T is an alien]

Bill Paxton is not only a great character actor, but his work as a director is pretty good too.

[Deleted]

Ben Affleck would also be a good choice (Gone Baby Gone)

[Deleted]

Actor to Director:
Robert Redford

Director to Actor:
Quentin Tarantino acted in some movies.

[Maidpool w/ Cleaning Action]

Nick Cassavetes went from being the psycho, murdering, gang leader in The Wraith to the director of The Notebook. It makes me laugh every time I watch The Wraith and just think of Packard having a romantic soul.

[toddpolt]

Peter Berg - Acted in several 80s/90s movies from Shocker to Fire in the Sky. Then became a director and shot the dark comedy Very Bad Things, the political actioneer The Kingdom, the goofball actioneer The Rundown, the popular (and later hit TV show) Friday Night Lights*, and the pretty lousy Hancock.

*=His cousin wrote the source book, believe it or not.

[YellowJacketY2J]

Kevin Smith could count as being director to actor. Though he still directs, he does act in quite a few of his movies and has appeared in movies that he didn't make (such as Catch & Release and Fanboys).

[The Lach is very tired]

Harold Ramis - Starred in the Ghostbusters movies, Stripes & has had other minor but memorable roles. Directed Groundhog Day, the Analyze movies with Billy Crystal, Caddyshack & has also done work in TV like episodes of The Office.

[Threadkiller [Classic]]

As the self-appointed Oscar Whore of the WC, I might as well jump into the fray with a random factoid/observation.

For a long time, Martin Scorcese's curse was to lose the Oscar to Actors-turned-Directors (Marty is a decent example of the inverse, as he's lent his acting talents to a variety of projects, such as Shark Tale). Before he finally won for "The Departed," he was on track to becoming one of the most nominated directors to never win an Oscar. And the majority of his losses came to actors-turned-directors:

(This list is only for the occasions when he lost to an actor-turned director. He's been nominated and lost a lot more often than is even fair by any reasonable governing body)

1980: Nominated for "Raging Bull." Lost to Robert Redford for "Ordinary People."
1990: Nominated for "Goodfellas." Lost to Kevin Costner for "Dances With Wolves."
2002: Nominated for "Gangs of New York." Lost to Roman Polanski for "The Pianist." *
2004: Nominated for "The Aviator." Lost to Clint Eastwood for "Million Dollar Baby."

* - Polanski was far more prolific an actor overseas than in the states, but he has starred in an abundance of both English-language and American films such as Repulsion, Blood for Dracula, the classic Chinatown, and even Rush Hour 3.

Moreover, Scorsese lost Best Director in 1988 for "Last Temptation of the Christ" to Barry Levinson for "Rain Man." Levinson went on to appear as a semi-frequent actor after the win, showing up in films like Quiz Show (directed by actor-turned-director Robert Redford), Jimmy Hollywood, and Bee Movie.

Anyway, to keep from rambling, two of my favorite actors-turned-directors are...

Warren Beatty (Bulworth, Reds, Dick Tracy, Heaven Can Wait) and Mel Gibson (Braveheart, The Passion of the Christ, Apocalypto). All bold efforts which I enjoyed immensely.

As far as directors-turned-actors, I can't really think of any. But Drew Barrymore recently made her directorial debut in Whip It, so there's another for the actors-turned-directors list. Oh, and one more, even though, by all accounts, she was a terrible actress: Sofia Coppola.

Yeah, she couldn't act, but both of her directorial efforts (Lost In Translation, Marie Antoinette) have been outstanding.

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Director David Cronenberg ("The Fly", "A History of Violence") has acted in a few movies. I remember him from Clive Barker's "Nightbreed".

[Dr. Mantis Toboggan]

Both Jason Alexander(Seinfeld) and Jonathan Frakes(Star Trek:TNG) have directed episodes of their respective shows.Actually, Frakes does more directorial work than acting these days too.

I was gonna say Larry David,but I don't think he ever directed episodes of Seinfeld.

[JDviant]

Sydney Pollack was an actor first, then a director not long after, and both in the AWESOME Tootsie

[Grendel]

I concur on the Clint Eastwood one. Especially since he had a screen test in Hollywood as a young 18 year old, and the casting director told him that he wouldn't make it in Hollywood because he squinted and didn't enunciate when he spoke.

I don't know if that's just an urban legend, but I like it.

[Deleted]

i'm surprised Rob Reiner hasn't been mentioned yet

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Dec 8, 2009 1:39:57 GMT -5 @awataurne said:

i'm surprised Rob Reiner hasn't been mentioned yet

He was... second post in.

The other name I came up with was Terry Gilliam. He started out as an animator before Monty Python, then went into directing after they split.

[Sir Woodrow]

Dec 8, 2009 0:05:20 GMT -5 El Pollo Guerrera said:

Director David Cronenberg ("The Fly", "A History of Violence") has acted in a few movies. I remember him from Clive Barker's "Nightbreed".

And he was also in Jason X I think

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Steve Buscemi. He broke in acting in movies, but has directed off and on starting in '96 with Tree's Lounge. None of his directorial movies as overly well known (I've seen his first two and own Tree's Lounge), but he has directed episodes of Homocide:LotS, The Sopranos, Oz and an episode of 30 Rock.

[YellowJacketY2J]

David Schwimmer (Ross from Friends). He's directed numerous episodes of Friends, directed Run Fatboy Run and is set to direct Trust, which is coming out in 2011.

Before directing, he's starred in Friends, Band of Brothers, The Pallbearer, Madagascar, Wolf, The Big Nothing, NYPD Blue (he was Josh "4B" Goldstein on four episodes), Kissing a Fool, Six Days Seven Nights, Apt Pupil, etc.