I got this article from Entertainment Weekly (www.ew.com) I've seen some of the characters before they starred on Heroes such as Milo Ventimiglia in Gilmore Girls and Leonard Roberts in Buffy (I watched these shows during college...guilty as charged). But I'm very much surprised to see some of the actors in their early, if not very first movies or tv shows. The last character's pic was my favorite!(this blog is composed at 5am of December 8 after I finished watching season 2 of Heroes...
and I'm still wide awake...
this blog is a product of my insomnia,
I think I really need to take meds na talaga...argh!)Matthew John Armstrong’s Heroes character Ted Sprague may be a radiation machine, but can Armstrong save you 15 percent or more on car insurance? Apparently not. ''For the record, I am not the GEICO caveman,'' he told EW in January. But he did have a recurring role on American Dreams, and more recently he made a guest appearance on House (pictured here) as an HIV patient. At one point in the episode, he accidentally coughs HIV-positive blood onto Dr. Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), causing her to flip out, get high off his drugs, and seduce Dr. Chase (Jesse Spencer)! With a few more cameos, Armstrong might have a shot at becoming one of TV's most contagious characters. (the actors who played Lincoln and Veronica from Prison Break
also were guess stars on House)
Before investigating superpowers a Horn-Rimmed Glasses/Mr. Bennet on Heroes, Jack Coleman's Steven Carrington (pictured at left, with John Forsythe) investigated his sexuality on Dynasty. The Carrington character was one of the first gay men portrayed on television — though he had to go through two wives to figure it out! Coleman has transferred that knack for ambiguity to the infamous Horn-Rimmed Glasses character, whose motives and allegiances are a constant source of uncertainty for fans of the show.
Even before Hayden Panattiere became indestructible cheerleader Claire Bennet, she was no stranger to fighting off ailments (or bad guys). Lizzie Spaulding, Panattiere's character on the popular soap opera Guiding Light, battled a dragon in a dream state while in the hospital, waking up to announce that she had been cured of leukemia. Another part of Lizzie's shocking back story? When she was 6, she shot and killed a man after seeing him threaten her mother with a gun.
(she also starred in the movies Raising Helen,The Ice Princess
and also as a cheer leader in Bring it On 2)
As Peter Petrelli on Heroes, Milo Ventimiglia has the ability to mimic the extraordinary strengths of his counterparts, unlike his Gilmore Girls character Jess Mariano who, by all accounts, lacked superpowers. Unless, of course, we're counting mind games. Or the ability to make millions of teen girls swoon. When bad-boy Jess got to Stars Hollow, he didn't just steal Rory's heart — he later dated co-star Alexis Bledel in real life. Though he's infamous in some circles, he remains a favorite Rory ex — living on in fan sites dedicated to the memories of Rory and Jess' heated relationship.
(Milo's on Fergie's Big Girls Don't Cry MTV)
Micah Sanders (Noah Gray-Cabey) is Heroes' resident child prodigy, who infuriated his grandfather when he took apart the laptop his grandfather gave him as a gift and began rebuilding it. The 11-year-old actor didn't need to do much research for the role — he portrayed the adorably precocious Franklin Aloyisious Mumford (pictured) on sitcom My Wife and Kids. Perhaps even more impressive, Gray-Cabey was a classically trained pianist by the age of three and was once featured as a real-life whiz kid on Ripley's Believe it or Not.
(He also starred in M.Night Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water, and as Shawn Beglighter in Grey’s Anatomy Season 2 Episode 28 “What Have I Done To Deserve This?”)
Much like her character Niki/Jessica Sanders, who splits her time between webcam-stripping and assassin work, Ali Larter has had a slightly schizophrenic onscreen career. Before Heroes, she had a job as a hot co-ed in movies like Legally Blonde and Varsity Blues. She began flirting with danger in Final Destination, when her character Clear Rivers (pictured here) escaped death on Flight 180, only to watch her friends perish in various unlikely circumstances. What Rivers lacked in superhuman strength she made up for with an uncanny understanding of her destiny, though even that couldn't save her when she blew up in a hospital in Final Destination 2. Clear Rivers fans need not despair, however. With a role in Resident Evil: Extinction (slated for release in September), it appears that Larter's back to her old ways of eluding the afterlife while flaunting her assets.
Ex-con D.L. Hawkins (Leonard Roberts), who has the ability to phase through solid objects on Heroes, has rubbed shoulders with superheroes in Smallville and vampires in Buffy during his television career. But for all the Nick Cannon fans out there (you know who you are!), Roberts will always be remembered as the no-nonsense percussion leader who butted heads with the young jack-of-all-trades in 2002's Drumline (pictured here). You can't ''phase'' your way out of that one, Leonard!
Gabriel Gray (Zachary Quinto) is Heroes' suspected serial killer, Sylar, but as Adam Kaufman on 24, Quinto spent his days fighting to stop death at the hands of terrorists. After Adam's sister died from a virus he and the rest of the Counter Terrorism Unit had been trying to track, Quinto was absent from the show in a disappearance almost as mysterious as Sylar's identity.
Greg Grunberg was always willing to lend an ear to his friends as the innovative Sean Blumberg on Felicity (pictured). Or dole out advice to his coworkers/friends as witty agent Eric Weiss on Alias. So it's only fitting that Grunberg's Heroes character Matt Parkman is a good listener. No, a really good listener: He can hear the thoughts of people around him. Too bad, Sean Blumberg can't help him invent something to stop the feedback. And those pesky headaches....
(the last two characters Hiro and Nathan Petrelli...be awed with their early career looks! hehehe)
Playing Hiro Nakamura on Heroes has been a breakout role for Masi Oka, who previously had a few small appearances in comedies like Scrubs (pictured) and The Sarah Silverman Show. But before he became the comic-book-obsessed Nakamura, Oka helped make behind-the-scenes magic happen as a visual effects specialist on blockbusters like Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, the Star Wars trilogy, and, perhaps most fittingly, the Marvel-inspired Hulk. Whether he ''does his own special effects'' for Heroes in the same way that Jet Li ''does his own stunts'' is unclear. Probably not, but his Heroes character is a computer whiz with a knack for manipulating the space-time continuum. Art imitates life...unless that ''art'' is Terminator 3, another of Oka's special effects credits.
You've seen Nathan Petrelli (Adrian Pasdar) high in the sky on Heroes, but Pasdar has had an acting career full of pretty minor roles, including small parts in Carlito's Way and Desperate Housewives. (Sadly, Pasdar's terrific 1996 Fox drama, Profit, was cancelled after eight shows.) The problem seems obvious: He peaked way too early by taking his first movie role as Chipper in Top Gun (pictured here) where, like his Heroes character, he had the ability to fly — just not by his own power.
(His picture here is soooo cute! He perfected the Olsen twin's famous pout.
And how he gaze at Tom Cruise creeps me out! *shiver* =P)
