My Cart - As they get more and more famous, many television actors often migrate to movies. But it’s only relatively recently that film stars have realised that TV has come a long way since the days of wobbly sets and stilted acting. Here are some of the biggest stars to hit the small screen.
Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson – True Detective
These two are two of the biggest names in Hollywood. But where Harrelson is a TV veteran, making his name in American sit-com Cheers, Oscar winner McConaughey has been pretty much on the big screen since his cinematic debut in Richard Linklater’s teen comedy Dazed and Confused. In their critically acclaimed HBO show True Detective, the pair play homicide detectives hunting a serial killer over the course of seventeen years.
Tim Roth – Lie to Me
British-born Tim Roth is a serious actor. Just check out his filmography. He’s starred in classics like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. And in 2009 he took the role of Dr. Cal Lightman in Lie to Me. Roth took home a well-deserved People’s Choice Award for Favourite TV Crime Fighter for playing the investigative psychologist who can read body language the way you or I read a book.
Kevin Spacey – House of Cards
Ian Richardson is a tough act to follow. In this remake of the classic British drama, Kevin Spacey plays Democratic politician Frank Underwood. He’s an amoral sociopath who uses everyone around him, likening himself to a shark swimming just below the surface of the water ready to attack. And you can just tell Spacey relishes every line he delivers. He’s joined by another film star Robin Wright as his at once sympathetic and scheming wife.
Timothy Dalton – Penny Dreadful
In the 1980s we knew him as Bond, James Bond. Now he’s known as Sir Malcolm Murray, a hardened explorer going up against vampires, demons and witches in Victorian London. Alongside the handsome Shakespearean actor, the show also features a stellar movie star line-up including Rory Kinnear and the devilishly beautiful Eva Green. If you fancy the lighter side of Dalton though, don’t forget to check out his role in Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright’s awesomely hysterical Hot Fuzz.
Ian McKellen – Coronation Street
In 2000 he played comic book super-villain Magneto. Between 2001 and 2003 he became the worldy-wise wizard Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. And in 2005 actor of stage and screen Ian McKellen walked the cobbled streets of Weatherfield in British soap Coronation Street as Mel Hutchwright. It was, according to the film star, a lifelong ambition. His character, a dodgy novelist, took the members of the Weatherfield book club for a ride until mild-mannered Ken Barlow – a man who has never, and will never, be as cool as Gandalf – discovered his true identity as a con-man.
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