Celebrity Headshots From Before They Were Famous

Sandra Bullock made her screen acting debut in 1987 in a movie called The Hangman, but it wasn't until 1992 when she was spotted in the charming rom com Love Potion No. 9, and in 1993 in a memorable role in Demolition Man that she started to gain real attention. She became a household name after 1994's action flick, Speed.

Before she made her way to the United States, Kidman started acting in Australian films. She skyrocketed to fame in Hollywood in 1990 in the movie Days of Thunder, with her future husband Tom Cruise.

You know her now as the wisecracking Karen on the hit sitcom Will & Grace, but she started acting in the early 1980s. She had a series of small parts in movies like Once Bitten and guest spots on TV shows before landing a recurring role on The Ellen Burstyn Show.

Tom Cruise started acting in the 1980s, and slid into our lives wearing a button-down shirt and socks in Risky Business. He sealed his movie star gig as Maverick in Top Gun.

Before he became the Terminator, and way before becoming the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger laid claim to the bodybuilding title of Mr. Olympia by showing off his enormous muscles.

Rita Moreno stole everyone's heart as Anita in West Side Story, but the young actress had been in show business for 11 years by then. After winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, her career was catapulted into a decades long career that led to roles in the 9 To 5 TV series, Sesame Street, and most recently on Jane The Virgin and Netflix's One Day At A Time.

Before she had political dreams, Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon had her heart set on the big screen. Nixon began her acting career in the after-school special scene and it wasn't until 20 years later in 1998 that she landed her role as Miranda Hobbs, our favorite badass lawyer.

The Spanish sensation was known abroad before hitting it big in the states with Vicki Christina Barcelona. You may have remembered her starring alongside Johnny Depp in Blow or with Tom Cruise in Vanilla Sky in the early 2000s. Nowadays, Cruz has taken on bigger roles and collaborated with husband Javier Bardem.

Meryl now has an impressive 21 Oscar nominations, but back in 1976 she was just getting started. It was her 1979 role in Kramer vs Kramer that really put her on everyone's radar. Streep continued to wow us as she swapped from TV to the silver screen effortlessly. Four decades later, people can rank their top five Streep films at the drop of a hat.

Winona Ryder was born in Minnesota and moved with her parents to California when she was seven years old. The actress didn't get her first role in a major feature film until she was 15, when she appeared in Lucas in 1986.

Although it was his role as Gob Bluth in Arrested Development that launched Will's career, the Canadian actor had several guest roles on popular shows like The Sopranos and Sex and the City before his big break.

After attending SUNY Purchase, Stanley Tucci headed to Broadway and landed roles in major films like Prizzi’s Honor. Tucci received his first nomination for an Academy Award in 2010 for his chilling role in The Lovely Bones, but had been a household name long before then.

Macaulay Culkin shot his first film, Rocket Gibraltar, at the age of 8. The next year he gained comedic acclaim in Uncle Buck, and then, of course, Home Alone happened, which made him one of the biggest stars of the '90s.

Kerry Washington first started acting as a teenager in Manhattan, working with a theater group that used improv to tackle social issues. In 2001, Washington caught the world's attention in Save the Last Dance. Thanks to her award-winning performance on Scandal, the actress landed a spot on Forbes' 2018 list of the highest paid actresses in TV.

Even though she had minor roles in Horse Whisperer and Remember the Titans, Kate Bosworth didn't get her big break until Blue Crush in 2002, when the Los Angeles native was 19 years old. How does Bosworth feel about film's sequel buzz? "I would love to do it, I really would," she said on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen. "That movie is still such an important part of my life and it really gave me a career in many ways."

Before audiences saw Joan Allen debut in films like Compromising Positions or Manhunter (made within a year of each other), the actress built a solid career on the stage, winning a Tony for Best Actress for her role in Burn This in 1988.

Frances McDormand garnered a lot of attention for her first major role in the 1984 film Blood Simple. But she gained much more than just an award-winning career from the film—McDormand and her husband of 35 years met on the set and married that same year.

After graduating from Yale University in 1991, the Maryland-born actor found success with his first film, Primal Fear, in 1996 for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.

Chris Noth has had a successful television career for almost 40 years, playing notable characters on hit shows like Sex and the City and The Good Wife. But his first big role was in the '90s as Detective Mike Logan on Law and Order.

Andre Braugher began his career with a part in the 1989 film Glory, but his breakout role—for which he won an Emmy—was as Frank Pembleton on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1990.

When a then-19-year-old Alexis auditioned for Gilmore Girls, she had no prior experience on screen. Despite her inexperience, there was something about her that made Warner Bros. cast her as one half of the Gilmore duo. "She just jumped off the screen, you know. Those blue eyes," casting director Julie Mossberg described in an interview with Vanity Fair.

After earning a spot in the National Youth Music Theatre, due to a grant from the Prince's Trust, Idris Elba worked in various odd jobs in his home city of London while auditioning. The actor's first TV role was for the soap opera Family Affairs in 1997. He later became more prominent thanks to his part on HBO's The Wire.

Her daughters, Rainey and Margaret Qualley, may be some of Hollywood’s newest stars (Margaret made her on-screen debut in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood this year), but not too long ago it was Andie Macdowell who was rising up in the industry. Macdowell landed her first role in the 1984 film Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes.

Allison Williams may be the daughter of newscaster Brian Williams, but she still had to pay her dues in Hollywood. After growing up in Connecticut and working with an improv troupe at Yale University, Williams was cast in her breakout role as Marnie Michaels in HBO's Girls in 2010.

The actress found success in her home country of Australia with roles like For Love Alone and Flirting (which she costarred in with her best friend Nicole Kidman) in the late '80s. The actress moved to Los Angeles in 1993, but didn't attain her movie star status until her role in Mulholland Drive in 2001.

Sam Rockwell began acting in high school in 1989 when he shot his first film, an indie project called Clownhouse. It wasn't until 1994 that the actor returned to film—in the meantime, he was picking up minor roles in television and commercials—with a role in The Search for One-eye Jimmy.

A graduate from the Tisch School of the Arts, Philip Seymour Hoffman made his first film debut in Triple Bogey on a Par Five Hole in 1991. The turning point in his career was when he starred in Boogie Nights in 1997.

Robert Downey Jr.'s first film was Pound, a film written and directed by his father, when he was 5 years old in 1970. He went on to be one of the biggest actors and heartthrobs of the '80s and became a cast member of Saturday Night Live.

The Brooklyn-born actress got her first role on camera on the soap opera As the World Turns. After, Tomei went on to star in off-Broadway plays, sitcoms, and small films. It wasn't until the actress appeared in the 1992 comedy My Cousin Vinny that her true star power was recognized and she won the 1993 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Born in Connecticut, Mol moved to New York as a teenager to attend the The American Musical and Dramatic Academy. Her first role was in the Spike Lee film, Girl 6, in 1996. She followed it up with small roles in major pictures but didn't rise to prominence until HBO's Boardwalk Empire in 2010.