10 Actors Reinvented By TV

Glenn Close

They say there aren’t enough lead roles forwomen of a certain age in Hollywood.

Close found that TV is a different story, following up a stand-out turn in TheShield with an Emmy-winning role as ruthless lawyer Patty Hewes in Damages.

Martin Sheen

When The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin expressed his desire for a “Martin Sheen-type” for his President, he was pleasantly surprised when he realised he could get Martin Sheen.

It worked out for Sheen, too: winning aGolden Globe and bagging a role in The Departed .

Steve Carell

Carell was hardly on the scrap heap after 2005’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin, but it’s telling that the same year saw him take on the Gervais role in the US version of The Office and make it his own.

Sadly his Hollywood quality has subsequently dipped.

Alec Baldwin

Fast becoming a Hollywood bit-part player, Baldwin could have assumed his leading-man time was behind him.

Yet having met 30 Rock creator Tina Fey in one of his Saturday Night Live stints, alarger-than-life role on the small screen put him back on track as network suit Jack Donaghy.

Anna Paquin

After winning an Oscar for The Piano aged just 11, Paquin has always chosen her roles carefully, only going mainstream as Rogue in X-Men .

Hollywood would have been happy to keep Paquin in her box, but her role in HBO’s True Blood has given her critical respect again.

Keifer Sutherland

Think of Sutherland and you think of someone coming to waterboard you while breaking your toes.

Sutherland is Jack Bauer – which is a far cry from the years before he starred in 24, where he was Joey in The Last Days Of Frankie The Fly and Ross Sylibus in Armitage 3: Polly Matrix.

William Shatner

OK, we know began his career in TV. But Shatner was going nowhere fast following his big-screen Kirk roles.

It took TV to free him from typecast, with a scene-stealing role as attorney Denny Crane in Boston Legal bagging him three Emmys and a Golden Globe.

Charlie Sheen

Here’s a tip Charlie: when all you do is parodies (two Hot Shots, two Scary Movies), it’s gonna be hard to be considered for the next PT Anderson.

So a move to TV sitcom with Spin City and Two And A Half Men has been perfect, netting him a Golden Globe in the process.

Patricia Arquette

Proof again that actresses increasingly need to flee to TV for the meaty roles… Arquette had been quite the rising star in cinema after True Romance , but a period ofdoing not a lot saw the switch to TV and anaward-winning role in Medium.

Kenneth Branagh

Talented character actor? Yup, and for film, that means bit-parts.

Shakespearian leads aside, the Brit thesp has certainly had his share ( Wild Wild West, Valkyrie, Harry Potter …).

But it took recent detective series Wallander to let him do thelot again. It cleaned up at the Baftas, too.