If you haven’t seen Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg’s love letters to the Greatest Generation, Band of Brothers and The Pacific, ignore all other recommended series, stop whatever you are doing, and locate them. Now. They represent 20 of the best hours of television of the 21st century (especially Band of Brothers), and they are entertaining, intense, heartbreaking, and important.
On Friday, HBO confirmed that it would be making a third World Wart II mini-series with Hanks and Spielberg, which will explore the aerial wars through the eyes of enlisted men of the Eighth Air Force — known as the men of the Mighty Eighth. I cannot tell you how excited that makes me.
The only problem, however, many of us had with both Band of Brothers and especially The Pacific was that it was so difficult to tell the actors apart: White, twenty-something men with buzzcuts are hard to tell apart. It’s ironic, now, since so many of the people who were introduced to a wider audience in those mini-series are now recognizably famous. Band of Brothers was kind of like the Dazed and Confused of the television world: A breeding ground for future movie and television stars. Let’s take a look back at 13 actors who gained their first notable, widespread exposure through Band of Brothers and The Pacific.
1. James Badge Dale (The Pacific) — He later showed up as the lead in AMC’s “Rubicon,” in The Grey and Flight, and has been cast in The Lone Ranger and Iron Man 3.
2. Joseph Mazzello (The Pacific) — Now we know him as Billy St. Cyr, the creepy evangelical tent preacher in this season of Justified, and he’s also to star as Mouse in G.I. Joe: Retaliation.
3. Ashton Holmes (The Pacific) — He’s now that little sh*t, Tyler, in Revenge
4. Jacob PittsThe Pacific) — Also another cast member on Justified, Pitts plays U.S. Marshall Tim Gutterson.
5. Jon Bernthal (The Pacific) — Like most on this list, he’d been around some before, but it wasn’t until after The Pacific that he picked up a recognizable role as Shane in The Walking Dead and he’s also set to play the lead in Frank Darabount’s new series, L.A. Noir.
6. Damian Lewis (Band of Brothers — We now know him from Homeland, of course, but he was also in the brilliant but short-lived Life.
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Mrs Scorpio is going to shit her pants when I tell her that the Fasspenis and Tom Hardy were in the same show. I had no idea Hardy was in this show.
It’s like your punching Miguel Alvarez in the face.
Seriously! A lot of these actors had appeared before BoB, but that one pushes it a bit too far.
I was deeply offended by the lack of Oz mention.
/shanks Dustin in the library
glad i’m not the only one who noticed that.
Six full seasons on Oz… But “introduced” by Band of Brothers 6 years later.
BoB was also where first saw a young actor by the name of David Schwimmer. Prior to BoB he had been on some show about him and his friends , but it wasn’t until he starred as Capt. Sobel that people really began to show interest. Since then his career has taken off like a rocket.
It was like being nailed to the gym floor, reading that. Made even worse by the fact that he was one of the best characters on the show.
I co-sign on all of this. He is forever Miguel Alvarez to me. 14 year old me loved me some OZ.
Joseph Mazzello was also the kid in Jurassic Park.
Yes, I was going to make this very point.
This very point indeed, sir.
Right?! How is he more famous for Band of Brothers and Justified than Jurassic Park?
Don’t forget Radio Flyer.
Fun fact: Mazzello in Radio Flyer impressed Spielberg so much that the roles of Alex and Tim in the book were switched for the film, so that Mazzello could have the meatier role with more screen time.
Also, Simon Birch.
@Margaret C, not BoB for Mazzello, but Pacific. Same war, different craphole.
@Margaret C
Because Jurassic Park was ~1994 and what did you see this kid in between then and the Pacific?
I would argue that James McAvoy from Band of Brothers is more famous than Ashton Holmes or Joseph Mazzello.
[is.gd]
Kirk Acevedo was also one of the leads on Oz.
Simon Pegg, Neal McDonough and Stephen Graham have also all become much bigger since they appeared in Band of Brothers. Also Isabel Lucas showed up in The Pacific (and in several of my wet dreams, I might add).
You beat me to mentioning Simon Pegg. I know he was only in it for a second or two but I didn’t realize it was him until after seeing Shaun of the Dead and rewatching BoB.
And Marc Warren (Danny Blue from Hustle and loads of other things)
Nice to see some Band of Brothers love on Warming Glow. It always seems to be a show that gets keft off of actors resumes mentioned here. It breaks my heart everytime it happens.
Gonorrhea 4 Life!
God, you just had to bring up ‘Life’. I had just successfully blocked out the travesty of it’s cancellation. You guys are assholes.
What, no love for Malarky and Donnie Whalberg?
the dad on Gossip Girl was the badass dude that scared the shit out of everyone for murdering all those German prisoners during D-Day.
I was depressed seeing Capt. Speirs play such a wiener on Gossip Girl.
My wife started watching GG and I recognized that dude by his voice. Forgot what he looked like, but the voice was familiar. And he is Mr. wet blanket in GG. Hard to believe he was a rocker.
I didn’t even make the connection until someone brought it up. I still hate him for ruining Cpt. Speirs for me
It actually improved my nights. Just stand naked in front of the TV and shout Speirs quotes until your wife/significant other goes to her parents’ for the week.
Hey now, The Black Donnellys was great, it’s biggest problem was it had to deal with the network censors. Put that on FX and we’d probably be talking right now about how sad we are that it’s about to end a very successful five year run.
WORD.
True. The mere fact that we got to see a body being crammed into an oil barrel with the use of a sledgehammer on network TV was a feat in and of itself. That was a good show. Also, Olivia Wilde was on that show.
Damn, I’ve watched Band of Brothers a number of times and I never realized all these big names were a part of it. Good stuff. Don’t forget Jimmy Fallon’s random appearance right before the Battle of the Bulge.
I always HATED that cameo. Took me right out of the best miniseries of all time. Granted this was before his late night show when all I knew about Fallon was that he was the dude who couldn’t keep a straight face during any of this scenes on SNL
I was always amused how many people from Band of Brothers appeared in Justified.
Rick Gomez as Luz
Richard Speight, Jr. as Skip
Frank John Hughes as Guarniere
Neal McDonough as Buck
I first met McDonough in the criminally underrated “Ravenous”.
that’s because Graham Yost worked on BoB
Ravenous was da bomb
Rick Gomez will always be Endless Mike Hellstrom from “Pete and Pete”
Just how Joseph Mazzello will always be Timmy from Jurassic Park to me.
But I will never be able to get over the resemblance that Rick Gomez has to Sam Rockwell. I spent half the season of Band of Brothers wondering if it was him.
“Pete Wrigley! You tasted the dark side!” Seeing Endless Mike in BoB was one of the hooks that got me to watch it. Turns out, it still is the single greatest mini-series I’ve seen.
Was just about to post this, glad someone beat me to it.
I fell behind on Justified by two seasons (I know, I know) and have rewatched the whole thing in the last two weeks. Didn’t realize how much Band of Brothers crossover there was, was wondering where the hell I recognized the district attorney from yesterday. Kirk Acevedo you handsome little devil.
Wait I meant Rick Gomez. God I’m racist
”
HBO confirmed that it would be making a third World Wart II mini-series with Hanks and Spielberg, which will explore the aerial wars through the eyes of enlisted men of the Eighth Air Force — known as the men of the Mighty Eighth. I cannot tell you how excited that makes me.”
Oh. My. God.
This news is to me like a free bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label is to a raging alcoholic.
Permission to FREAK OUT!!
Holy shit, really?! That will be amazing.
Great idea for an article. I love watching Band of Brothers and seeing all these famous faces before they hit it big.
So it’s bad that I got suuuuuuuuper bored with Band of Brothers when it was on TV? Granted, I was like, 12.
Yes, it is.
watch it now. It’s amazing.
I also really liked Limp Bizkit at the time. Perhaps I was not in the right frame of mind to truly appreciate it.
Just when I thought your comment couldn’t get any worse. I bet you loved Entourage though.
Nah, by the time that came out I knew how to hate the right things.
Like Arrested Development. Snooooooooooze.
You sonafabitch.
Was Jimmy Fallon already famous by the time Band of Brothers aired? Because I watched it about a year ago and damn near lost my mind when I saw him (he drives the ammo truck in episode 6, I think)
He had already been in SNL by then so I would say yes.
Well, not ‘famous’ but known from SNL primarily.
I remember when it originally aired and getting a good chuckle that “the guy from SNL” showed up in Band of Brothers.
Colin Hanks doesn’t count? He was in BOB a year before he starred in “Orange County.”
And thanks for reminding me that “Life” was canceled too soon. Damian Lewis was great it in it and Sarah Shahi is hot.
Damian Lewis was excellent in the Forsyte Saga remake (for the Masterpiece Theater crowd).
What about Jon Seda? He was in The Pacific, and has a recurring role on Treme.
He was awesome on Homicide.
You forgot Stephen Graham…he’s now Capone on Boardwalk (not to mention Pubic Enemies, This is England, Pirates of Carribean), had two episodes as Sgt Ranney on BoB
Snatch came out before Band of Brothers though.
Andrew Scott (Sherlock’s Moriarty) was in an episode as “Cowboy” Hall. He might be stretching “famous” though.
The minute I saw Kirk Acevedo and “Oz” not mentioned together I knew the shitstorm was on. Well deserved shit storm at that.
No Scott Grimes???? Probably more famous for his voice work on American Dad…. And what about Neal McDonough?? JUSTIFIED!
I forgot about Grimes.. Was shocked when I realized he was the voice of Steve Smith.
I liked this until the Black Donnellys was slandered, I miss that show. Other than that I found this interesting, I am a big fan of BoB and Pacific. Can’t wait for the air war series!
Wow, guess I need to watch BoB again, don’t remember some of these and it would be interesting to catch them again. Plus it’s just damn good watchin’.
Chase Edmunds!
I dont understand why WWI gets no action. Trench warfare!?! Hand to hand combat?!? Bayonets through the giblets?!! That’s a fuckin horror movie classic right there!!
Maybe it’s because most of WWI is the TV equivalent of being stuck on that farm in the second season of The Walking Dead.
Watch Blackadder Goes Forth. You’ll be entertained most of the time and still leave with a gut-punch.
Kirk Acevedo is probably better known from his role on OZ than Band of Brothers.
He could move next store to me, have our kids play together for the next 10 years, and give me a free car, and I would still call him Alvarez every time I see him.
“Hate tip,” ha. Jealousy!
What do you mean Short lived series like Vegas???
21 episode season isn’t so shabby, but no word on season 2 yet.
Have you heard something? Don’t play with my emotions, bro!
Dustin, Fassbender is a misspelling.
F. Assbender, please.
Band of Brothers was based off the book of the same name by Steven Ambrose. Ambrose also wrote The Wild Blue, which covers B-52 bombers during WWII. I wonder (and hope) if Ambrose or his book will also be a part of this latest project.
Let’s hope not as Ambrose was a notorious plagiarizer and not a very well-respected historian in general and this is coming from someone who’s sitting 8 feet from everything the guy ever wrote.
They had B-52s in WWII? No wonder we flattened all those German cities!
Ambrose has been dead since 2002 so its kind of unlikely that he will be part of this project, unless it is as Zombie Plagarist
Whoops, B-24′s, not 52′s.
JTRO, you clearly know more about the subject than I (and Preston’s comment only proves that). What I was getting at with my original comment is that Band of Brothers was superior to The Pacific, and if Ambrose relationship to BoB is even a sliver of a reason as to why it was superior, I’ll take it.
Michael Cudlitz was a hockey player on the varsity team in Might Ducks 3. Yeah. Bull Randleman had a slapshot.
I rewatched BoB and The Pacific about a year ago and was surprised at how many faces I recognized. But no mention of Anna Torv on The Pacific? Totally missed some google hits there guys. And also, Damien Lewis is incredible in BoB, not to mention the character, Captain Winters was a pretty amazing man himself. Check out his wiki sometime.
Oh yes Anna Torv…
What about Danny Wahlberg? And wasn’t James McAvoy in the last King of Scotland, which was a huge film
New Kids on the Block, son.
The Black Donnellys was a great show that didn’t even get a full season to gain viewership. Also, I’ll always know him as Alvarez from OZ.
Masters of the Air is one hell of a book. Required reading if you’re interested in WWII. I think they’re going to have to use some memoirs to create a cast of characters, though, because Miller’s book doesn’t follow one group of men.
I think this series might end up surprising people who might think the guys in planes had it easy. There’s stories in that book that are every bit as horrifying as stuff in BoB or The Pacific.
That’s one of many great books on the subject.
Great article and even better news, but….
James Badge Dale was Jack’s sidekick on season 2 of 24.
season 3.
Agent Charlie Brown.
Wow the fact that I didn’t realize Prof X and Magneto both played on BoB tells me a rewatch of BoB is long overdue…
Isnt Gutterson on Justified, that scheming kid from EuroTrip? The one that ends up actually hooking up with a just barely legal at the time Michelle Trachtenburg? Yea, Gutterson has done OK for himself.
Great timing. I’m literally in the middle of BoB marathon as we speak. Great, great show… and it’s cool as hell to see all these guys showing up seemingly at random. I just saw Simon Pegg a few minutes ago, and I had to do a double take. Awesome.
Jacob Pitts: also in Euro Trip (god, why do i know that? Scotty didn’t know).
This may have just inspired a re-watching of the entire BOB series. Hello couch, goodbye weekend.
Even hundy. Just ‘cuz
YES more crucial TV to catch up on… i’ve just started both The Soprano’s and The West Wing, next up is Band of Brothers. Why haven’t i seen any of these yet? When they aired i was convinced all TV was crap and stuck strictly to cinema, not knowing both are one and the same now.
Did they guys forget about Matthew Settle? He played Rufus Humphrey on Gossip girl for 5 seasons.
No Ron Livingston?