Name actors and actresses who started off in TV and moved on to achieve movie success. For example, Bruce Willis from TV's Moonlighting, Johnny Depp from 21 Jump Street, Tom Hanks from Bosom Buddies, etc. Comediens and musicians do not qualify (e.g., Adam Sandler, Will Smith, etc.) because it's possible their movie career was helped by their success in this other category.

They must have at least been a main character in some TV series before moving on to movie stardom. So Brad Pitt's 2 appearances on Growing Pains would not count as being "in TV". Movie success would constitute having a minimum of 3, non-serial movies that were well-received by the public. In other words, a "successful" movie. For this reason, a Jennifer Aniston or a Sarah Michelle Gellar might not make the list, even though they have been in several movies. However, feel free to argue for your choices.

We reserve the right to reject anyone you can think of based on random judgements and lack of familiarity with either the person or their body of work.

I've already started you off with three. Now you may begin.

jackie gleason
george burns
dick van dyke

more recently...
michael j. fox
courtney cox
george clooney

patrick stewart
(i'd also say william shatner, but i think his only movie successes were the star trek series, and you said non-serial movies.)

robin williams (whom one could argue falls in the comedian category since he also did standup aside from mork&mindy)

ron howard (who was in tv first prior to achieving movie success, but his success was of the directorial kind)

Leonardo Dicaprio was series regular in the last season of Growing Pains.

I would argue that Sarah Michelle Gellar counts. She was in I still know what you did last summer, cruel intentions, and some recent horror movie which was successful.

i forgot about patrick stewart. we had previously discarded him because he first spent 27 years in theater before getting on board with the star trek franchise. like comedy and music, having a serious theater background disqualifies the candidate.

i think we're going to stick with acting success as opposed to directorial success at this juncture.

i thought cruel intentions was a big flop. that, and her crab movie. the horror movie you're thinking of, i believe, is The Grudge.

From IMDB.com

Budget
$11,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend
$13,020,565 (USA) (3/7/99)
Gross
$38,201,895 (USA) (8/1/99)

And, yes, it was the Grudge.

I wouldn't consider Courtney Cox as having any sort of real movie career. Has she been in anything other than the Scream movies?

Does Steve Carell (Daily Show->the Office-> 40 Year Old Virgin, Little Miss Sunshine) count, or does he fall into the comedian category?

Bruce Lee? Kato on the Green Hornet -> Bruce Lee in the movies.

Was John Travolta on Welcome Back Kotter before or after his movies?

Denzel Washington was apparently on St. Elsewhere before he had any real hit movies.

Morgan Freeman was apparently on the Electric Company before his movie career took off!

now there's half an hour I'll never get back.

Katie Holmes has had roles in many (>3) profitable movies not including Batman Begins.

if courtney cox and katie holmes are making the cut, i'm going to have to up the requirements before the olsen twins make the list.

You don't like the results, so you decide to change to parameters?

She made it clear that she would do that in the initial post.

You're right. Sorry. I forgot that she reserved such a right.

I'm curious what the specific aim is then, if there is one.

And, just for Rod, 'meh.'

if sarah michelle gellar makes it then so should jennifer love hewitt, but don't make me decide who's worse. i can't handle the trauma.

oh does stephen fry count?

Can I include soaps actors? I know plenty...for example Meg Ryan and Demi Moore both had their starts on soaps.

Also wasn't Meg Ryan on Charles in Charge.

jennifer love hewitt was in garfield. i'm not sure that can be forgiven.

stephen fry seems to be one of those who bounces back and forth between movie and tv so he wouldn't count. we would only want people who made the definite switch from one to the other.

looks like meg ryan was only on 2 episodes of as the world turns and 2 episodes of charles in charge. hardly a tv career so she doesn't count either.

demi moore also on general hospital for "unknown episodes" which doesn't sound like she was a regular and established character.

soap actors can count if they are on that soap for a good run - several years - because the actors on them seem to flux alot. one actress could be hired for a year to play a character and replaced the very next year because she wasn't popular with the fans. that isn't going to count as a tv career.

what about ryan gosling? from young hercules to SAG award nominee.

thought of some more during a boring meeting at work...so it looked like i was taking notes.

danny de vito and chistopher lloyd (both from taxi)
kirstie alley (was a success in movies as far as "accepted by the public". actual success is questionable tho)
gillian anderson and david duchovny (movie success is questionable)
alan alda (i think mash came before any of his "successful" movies)
sarah jessica parker (wasn't she in the ferris bueller's day off tv show?)
elisha cuthbert (who could fall into that jennifer love hewitt category)
ashley judd
lucy lui (was in ally mcbeal before movies)
hank azaria (might be one of those multi-crossover people since he's never truly made an entire shift to movies)
michael keaton

sarah jessica parker was in square pegs.

jennifer aniston was the sister in the ferris bueller tv show.

Both Devito and Lloyd were in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975, 3 years before Taxi.

right you are. for some reason i somehow thought that "1978" occured before "1975". dyslexia my on it blame i.

You were probably thinking "B.C.". It's a common mistake.

pierce brosnan and roger moore!!

Aha! I've got 4 that none of you would have thought of. Here are the actors by their real names!

Dwayne Johnson in Doom. Also known as "The Rock".

Glen Jacobs in See no Evil. Also known as "Kane".

John Cena in The Marine. Apparently he's not worthy of an alias.

Bill Goldberg of various movies, but most notably "The Longest Yard".

You didn't specify that they had to be good movies.

wrestlers, like comediens and musicians and stage actors don't count either. also, i reject them on principle.

i would have listed the scorpion king as the rock's movie.

Sure, hindsight is 20/20, but you left them off the list initially. You're loophole is my ticket in. but just to prove I'm not a one trick pony, here's a few more names for your list.

You guys mention Katie Holmes, but forgot to throw in James Van Der Beek (Clive Barker's "The Plaugue"), Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain) and Joshua Jackson (Cursed, Racing Stripes).

You also don't mention if it counts when a TV show becomes a movie, so I'll throw in Dana Snyder, Dave Willis, Carey Means, C. Martin Croker, Matt Maiellaro and lets not forget Chris Ward, aka M.C. Chris from the new "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon movie for film theaters".

And, yes, that is the real title.

Then there's this little known guy in a little known movie from 1977. The movie was called "Grand Theft Auto" (yes before the video game) and the actor was Ron Howard. And Happy Days doesn't count as a comedy because its just not funny.

On that note you can throw in Henry Winkler and Pat Morita, who's best movie (in my opinion anyway) was King Cobra.

And in closing, did you know that Pat Morita was on 5 episodes of Baywatch? Now that you've all got the image of Pat Morita in a bathing suit running at a camera in slow motion, I'll leave you with your thoughts.

read the fine print. i reserve the right to reject anyone and i don't even need a reason.