14 Actors Who Became Absolute Legends With Just One Movie

7. Paul Freeman - Dr. René Belloq (Raiders Of The Lost Ark)

The Indiana Jones series created some of the most iconic characters in 1980s cinema. The original trilogy's impact on popular culture is so vast that it's unavoidable to some extent that the actors involved would always be associated with their part in it. But some actors play to their typecasting more than others, and none more so than Paul Freeman. Freeman started out as a teacher and advertiser before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in the mid-1970s. His early film credits include The Long Good Friday and The Strange Case of the End of Civilisation As We Know It, starring John Cleese and Arthur Lowe. Steven Spielberg spotted him playing opposite Christopher Walken in The Dogs of War. He liked him so much he wanted him back for the sequel, before the script for Raiders was finalised and his character killed off. While he often plays second fiddle on Ron Lacey's character (more on him later), Belloq is still a very fine villain, bringing a great deal of charm and disdain to the scenes with Indy and a lot of humour to those with Marion. Freeman openly embraced the typecasting, and could have carved out the kind of niche in Hollywood that Alan Rickman would several years later. But this decision hurt him more than he realised, and before long his performances became overly similar. He deserved better on the basis of his big break, but subsequently milked it for much way long. What He Did Next: Freeman continued playing villains in Hollywood for the next two decades, including Professor Moriarty in Without A Clue and Ivan Ooze in the Power Rangers movie. After taking on Dennis Rodman in Double Team (which created the "frying the coke" meme), he returned to TV and the stage, appearing in Midsummer Murders, Waking the Dead and The Hollow Crown: Henry V.