10 Early Film Roles For Famous Actors You Totally Forgot
3. David Hyde Pierce - Bright Lights, Big City
David Hyde Pierce won all the Emmys after John Larroquette stopped taking them for Night Court, after he took on the role of pompous radio psychiatrist Frasier Crane's (Kelsey Grammer) brother, Niles. Equally self-important and snobby, Pierce brought some actual humanity to the role, a feat especially hard to pull off when you're playing to a laugh track.
In reality, however, Pierce is quite humble, refusing credit for voicing Abe Sapien in Hellboy, claiming it belonged to Doug Jones.
But before and even as he was sipping particular sherry with his fictitious brother, he was taking small supporting roles in films like Nixon (as John Dean, no less), Sleepless in Seattle and Wolf.
There are few actors who didn't, at some point in their days of early auditions, have to tend bar. Surely Pierce was no exception, and he certainly got to do it onscreen.
When Michael J. Fox was desperate to break out of typecasting following the success of Back to the Future, he took on the uncharacteristic role of Jamie Conway - the coke-addled '80s NYC yuppie in the adaptation of Jay McInerney's novel. It's certainly a departure for Fox, and he carries it with aplomb.
Pierce is the bartender at a fashion show who refuses Fox service. He received his SAG card for the one line, "Sorry, the bar is closed."