10 TV Sitcom Stars Who Couldn't Break The Movies
8. Kris Marshall
It can be hard to imagine for someone who didn’t live in Britain circa 2005 - 2010, but for a while, Kris Marshall was simply inescapable.
The lanky drifter from oft-derided sitcom My Family was a breakout star on the rise, and was awarded a plum comic relief part in 2003’s Love, Actually for his troubles. As Colin, the amorous Englishman abroad, he offered a lightness of touch to compliment some of the film’s darker turns.
The problem for Marshall’s nascent career was that he seemed stuck in the wacky best mate role. He continued to pop up in comedies like the perfectly decent Death At A Funeral, and the much less decent A Few Best Men, but despite being one of the bigger names on the cast list, he was never given the chance to go further.
He had a whirl at some more serious fare, like the Al Pacino adaptation of The Merchant Of Venice, and Sudanese war dud The Four Feathers, but his cards were marked: he wasn’t a serious actor, he was the gangly goofball off the telly. Those BT adverts didn’t help either.